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Finally got a dry and reasonably warm day to get Apivar strips out of my hives. Was nervous of causing too much disruption but hopefully I haven’t done anything too stupid. Bees were fairly active even in the brief time the hives were open.

On further looking the jars that I have managed to extract are holding air bubbles. There is some heather in the locality but didn’t think it was within range. Can it be spun out eventually?

Doesn’t seem to be crystallised, flavour would be quite strong, would this mean heather?

Morning all, After a tough summer managed to get a couple of supers from my hives. They thankfully look strong going into the winter. Just one question the honey in some of the frames is a very dark colour and very hard to spin out. What sort of honey is this?

Apologies for bringing this thread up again. I had to inspect the hive I split today (6 days since first knocked down queen cells) as the weather forecast is very bad for the next few days. I have left on open cell in the hive and knocked everything else down. Should I recheck the hive for any...

Thanks for all the reply’s. Just had a check of them there now and the grass at the entrance is loose enough that a bee can push its way out. Hopefully it’s okay. As a matter of interest do the bees reorientated if they are locked in for a number of hours?

Perfect, is it okay to leave the next inspection to day 8? Also and apologies for another question, but I blocked the entrance to the Nuc with grass. Will the bees remove this themselves in time?

Evening all, On my regular inspection today I noticed queen cells being formed in one of my hives. Nuc’d my queen with 2 frames of brood. However I was a bit stupid, panicked and ended up knocking down all of the queen cells in the original hive. My question is if it is okay to go back in to...

Thanks all, Plan is so tomorrow remove queen to Nuc. Then 5 days later recheck hive, leave original cell alone and knock down any that have been drawn in the meantime. I presume I can then leave the original queen alone for another week and hopefully put into a new hive at this stage...

Perfect, just to confirm will I knock down any emergency cells that are built? Also I presume will have to leave the queen less hive alone for a few weeks. Apologies my confusion is because the person I bounce issues off said the best thing to do would be leave the hive completely alone for a...

Okay sorry I was going to leave the hive completely alone until my next inspection rather than removing the queen. Is that the wrong thing to do?

Perfect I will leave all alone until my next inspection and see what the story is at that stage.

If I Nuc the queen should I leave the the capped cell as it is? If I leave all alone and check on my usual 7 day cycle would I be too late ?

No doesn’t seem to be patchy, however I would say eggs are probably not as plentiful as they were previously.

Evening all, quick question. On a recent inspection I noticed one large capped queen cell on the side of a frame. I also found the queen, eggs and larva. Would this be a typical supersedure? For the time being I have left the queen j the hive and was going to leave the hive alone for a few...

Thanks everyone, put me at ease. The queen that is not marked is very elusive. If I do see queen cells next inspection is a it a matter of keeping looking for her and getting her into a Nuc?

Evening all, Thanks for all of the advice so far that i have received. Two hives are on site and going well. Just one question and it may be case of me being over anxious. On my 7 day inspection today I did not see either of my queens, there was eggs, larva and brood in the hives. My issue...

Thanks for the responses. Yes in two travel boxes. They are also coming from over 3 miles away so the idea to transfer them straight into the hive is a good one

Yes i should have explained it better. They are 2 6 frame nucs so are from what i have been told are ready to be transferred to a full hive. If they orientate for example 6 hours on the new site is that sufficient?

Morning all, All going well will be collecting my nucs this weekend. Looking ahead the forecast is showing rain on and off at some stage all weekend. What are my options in terms of time length for the bees to orientate when transferring from Nuc to the hives? What would be the ideal...