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I have a few hives that need requeening via uniting with a nuc, and I was planning to do that in the next couple of weeks but suddenly realised that this will coincide with my Apiguard timings. Would you unite colonies that are in the middle of being treated with Apiguard, or wait till the...

That's very interesting - thank you. Will definitely look more into this.

Thank you! Yes, I realised afterwards that they were at the correct developmental stage for their age. Oh well, lesson learnt. I am trying again tomorrow with the JZBZ cups that I already have, but am going to look into getting ones that fit to cages for the next time - very good idea. I might...

I haven't really read up on the Ben Harden method yet - does it always involve splitting the BB with a dummy? And do your QCs generally get left intact until day 10 after grafting? Thanks

Thank you for your replies. I will try again at the weekend. This time I'll put a super of foundation above the top brood box, and also put the cups much closer together. Will let you know how it goes! Unfortunately I no longer have the entombed QCs so can't try cutting them out, but will bear...

I did my first attempt at grafting 10 days ago. At the end of day 5 after grafting, I had five well-attended, capped queen cells. Today, on day 10 after grafting, I went to my out-apiary and filled up the apideas with bees, then came to my back garden hives to get the grafting frame, and was...

Are you remembering to leave a gap directly below where the steam pipe goes in? It doesn't work so well if you don't do that.

Yes, that's an interesting idea. I collected a small swarm last September that I was sure must have been something like a starvation swarm or an "absconding from wasps" swarm.

That's an interesting thought, yes I think I might have read about that kind of thing 👍🏻

Or maybe a beekeeper collected the original swarm but somehow left the queen behind?

So, like the title says, a small swarm was flying around my apiary yesterday, finally settling nearby. They only had about 500 bees (barely covered half a frame) but was presumably a prime swarm because the queen was marked (red) and numbered*. *so not from my hives Wondering what your...

I did a Snelgrove vertical split swarm control, and reintroduced the queen last Friday (19th, so 6 days ago). Checked the bottom section yesterday and saw eggs, so she has been accepted. Haven't checked the top section this week, but presumably they are making EQCs. The bottom section has about...

Just to give one final update: I checked the nuc at the new location at about midday on the day after it was moved. Lots of foragers going out and in the entrance like normal ie. I don't think they've all returned to the old location, and I saw very few (if any) lost-looking bees at the old...

Thanks for all your replies. I drove the nuc over to the other site last night, and opened the entrance as soon as I'd put it in position. There are other hives here at the old location, so I'm hoping now that any returnees will beg their way into one of these. But so far this morning, I'm not...

So I have a double-height polynuc that I'll need to move to another apiary asap (assuming that it's not too tall for the car). The other apiary is 0.9 miles away as the crow/bee flies. This is how I was planning to do it: shut up the nuc in the evening, and strap it all together securely...