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Early this year we were concerned that a few hives were on the brink of starvation and decided to do a little experiment. We made sugar bricks with: 5kg sugar 250ml water Tbl spoon honey Tbl spoon white or cider vinegar Basically used a paint mixer with a drill in a bucket, really easy. Let...

Thanks for all the advice, I'll try a different queen breeder next year.

So why are Buckfast so popular when you can’t breed F2 and F3 from them without defensive bees?

Who are MBC?

We’re thinking of trying one or two different queens. Strangely our worst colony this year was a purchased F1 Buckfast.

We’re talking to someone that lives about five miles away, we may keep two hives there and probably use a nicot system or graft from there.

Five new queens arrived today. Hopefully have calmer bees soon.

I've come to the conclusion that my own queens mate with drones with defensive genetics. Perhaps I'm doomed to having to purchase new queens instead of rearing my own. Each time I rear a queen or I have a supersedure I land up buying a queen to replace her because the offspring are too...

We were checking our split to replace our colony that became queenless during the winter. Looking good. 11 out of 12 colonies made it through so quite satisfied. And that got me wondering …. Those with only two/three colonies (in their small garden?), how do you manage swarming? Do you split...

I had a similar experience yesterday. Was gloveless until I got three stings on my hand at one colony and quickly put some gloves on.

What are the reasons for or against doing a late winter or early spring treatment of oxalic acid? (3 treatment 5 days apart) I was just thinking its been a reasonably mild winter (albeit soggy) and what are the chances that our queens haven't entirely stopped laying? Although I guess late Dec...

They have rights. I just wish they’d exercise their right to remain silent 🤣

Care to share some costs here. I’m wondering how much to pay myself 🤣

No 🤣

Haha now I’m none the wiser … I’ll have to casually ask him 🤣

Someone sent me a message recently and ended with this after saying we’ll meet up on Friday. “I won’t be wearing a red carnation in my buttonhole!” What on earth does he mean?

Ah that’s nice …. Thanks 🙂

Raw.

Basically kept applying the linseed/spirit mix until it’s thoroughly saturated. So far so good.

We’ve used it for all sorts of things including bee kit and other stuff. And yes we’ve had stuff out there for years. I have a small OSB board on my motorhome to replace a bit of old trim behind a front wheel and it really gets hammered. Been several years and I haven’t yet repainted (it’s shaded).