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I have in mind to try to go into next winter with a couple late splits in Nucs. I've two poly-nucs and a couple of wooden ones. If over-wintering a small colony in a poly-nuc, where do people keep the nucs? Presumably not out in the main apiary. And in terms of feeding, obviously I will aim to...

Inspected today. Two colonies with 6-7 frames of BIAS, lots of bees and lots of activity. The 3rd was full of bees and very active but had no brood and no eggs that I could see, but I did find the queen. Given the volume of bees it looks to me as if she had been laying until recently but, for...

I did a final inspection today with the purpose of 1) removing the Apivar strips and also 2) reducing the colonies to a single brood box each, if feasible. Part 1 was achieved and Part 2 was achieved on two of the four colonies. The other two had such full Upper BBs that I simply left them on...

This may seem a silly question, but are there any glues that should NOT be used in hives? I know that people like Thornes sell 'beehive glue' which I suspect is normal glue with a new label and a new price. I'm currently using EvoStik Polyurethane glue for some other stuff I'm doing and I wonder...

This is a serious question. From the perspective of the colony/species, what's the rationale behind Cast Swarm(s)? I get the rationale behind Prime swarms. A mated, mature queen heading off to start a new colony with a large retinue of workers, and laying as soon as the workers can draw new...

I had a colony that became Queenless on about the 15th September. It produced 9 EQCs which emerged on around the 3rd/4th of October. There were no drones or drone brood in that colony nor in any of my other 4 colonies and so I considered that the chance of the new queen mating successfully was...

I had two Q- colonies into each of which I introduced a frame of BIAS from another. One has raised 5 QCs. The other none at all. What should I do about the second one? Try again and hope that any queen has time to emerge, mate and start laying before winter? Or combine the remnants with another...

I've read different things in different places. So, what's the maximum temperature one can heat crystalised honey to in order to de-crystalise it, before one risks damaging its quality or rendering it not-honey?

I'd heard about this, but not seen it. However... Today I found the queen in a swarm I'd taken a couple of weeks back. I caught her as gently as I could between two fingers and marked her. Then I put her back on the frame and she just lay on her back, dead. I was horrified. I watched for a...

I've taken about 60kg of honey off so far this year and storage is becoming something of a challenge. I think that I'd prefer to store it creamed (semi-set) rather than hard. I'm comfortable with the creaming process but thus far I've only bulk-stored in kilner jars (which I'm running out of!)...

I've been running three colonies on Demarees. It seems to be working insofar as I've maintained most of the brood in the Upper Brood Box (UBB) leaving lots of space to lay in the LBB. So far I've seen no swarm cells in the LBB, just Supercedure cells and once some EQCs in the UBB. What I'm...

I've about 5 supers which are now more or less full and are starting to be capped (10-15% capped as at yesterday pm). I think it's mostly from OSR and dandelion. I'm guessing that I should get them off without further delay..?

In one of my colonies I have a puzzle. The queen was the result of a July supercedure last year. Her laing wasn't great and, to be honest, I was half-expecting the colony to succumb over the winter. But it hasn't and seems to be building up now, albeit more slowly than the others. What is...

I have a very defensive colony which is starting to annoy me now. Neighbours, walkers and importantly my wife keep getting stung. I'm reluctantly accepting that I'll need to re-queen them. Can anyone recommend a source of mated queens?

This may be a silly question and I suspect that the answer is 'don't worry, the bees will cope' but I did an inspection yesterday and found that two of my three colonies have 5 full frames of brood, lots of bees but very little in the way of stores. I'm guessing that they are making income now...

What should i do about frames of mouldy pollen? Will the bees clean them out or should I put new foundation in? I imagine it’s a trade-of between the value to the bees of the drawn comb vs the effort to clean them. My hives seem to have a lot more mould in this year than last. I’m wondering why.

I was reviewing my notes on last year's activity as I contemplate the first inspection of this year. I noticed that I had recorded something that puzzled me at the time and I wonder if I'm missing the explanation for it. I'd inspected the colony last year at around this time (23rd March), found...

Is there an idiot's guide to treating with Oxalic Acid anywhere on these pages? I've read of dribbling and vapourisation, and I've seen some bits and pieces elsewhere on the internet. But I'd be grateful for guidance as to how to do either. I treated my colonies with Apiguard in the Autumn but...

A friend of mine has a colony in my apiary that has died out through what I assess was Isolation Starvation. What remained of the cluster was all dead in one corner of an empty DN frame, including the poor queen. What surprised me (as a beginner helping him diagnose the loss) was the sheer...

I had a quick weigh/peek today into my three hives. To my surprise all three were at precisely the same weight as they had been when I last weighed them at the start of January, shortly after putting a slab of fondant onto each. All three colonies seem busy with plenty of flying bees and yellow...