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Thanks for that. The hive has been in Dad's garden for over a year, and I'm not sure when the bees moved in...sometime last summer. The "hive" is actually a Brood Box (national) and about 4 or 5 super, but completely "hollow" - i.e. no frames etc. I nderstand I can put a Brood Box on top, with...

I'm an inexperienced beekeeper who's recently moved house. With a lack of space to store my two empty hives, I put them in my fathers garden, but without any frames or foundation. It now appears that one of them has been thoroughly colonised in my absence! It's too cold to open it up now, but I...

?? Sorry - don't know what you mean?

I'm fairly inexperienced, and at the moment I only have one colony. Thanks in part to the lost weather, and in part to other commitments I haven't been through my colony in a few weeks - just sniffed around the entrance and peeked down through the glass quilt to gauge activity. Today I had a...

Have not used fondant before. Can you please explain the reason for the slashed cling film?

I've only had bees a couple of years, and in one of the two winters I managed to lose my only colony :( In the light of the cold winters we've had, I was contemplating putting the wooden crown board on top of the brood chamber, with a plastic tub of fondant over the hole, then an empty super...

Can you explain the purpose of the cling film please? I've heard suggestions that the fondant can be squiggled down directly between the frames, so presumably there's no problem with the bees having direct access to the fondant?

My hive has a perforated metal floor, but also the option of a slide-in metal tray for collecting varroa drop. Am I right in thinking that the only time I should have the slide-in tray is when I'm using the Apiguard, or does it have a role during winter in preventing draughts coming in through...

I'm a bit of a wuss about stings, so when I'm inspecting my hives I tend to get fully clobbered up. However I don't think twice about going up close and personal just to look at my hive and watch the activity around the entrance, or even lifting off the lid to inspect them through the glass...

Bees seem to have gone back in! Hopefully extra space is what they were after - and I was just being impatient!

There are no entrance blocks - the full entrance is only about 3"-4" inches wide though. Not sure what a OMF floor is?? Mine is a perforated metal thingy.

If fanning means what it sounds like, no. They seem to either be still or pottering about. THere are even several with pollen hanging around. Originally I thought it might just be a traffic jam waiting to get inside!

I'm in my second year of beekeeping, and have two colonies. Both of them have a thick "mat" of bees hanging on the outside of the hive - it's been like that for some days. They did it a bit last year, particularly early evening, but they're there all day now. I'm on National Hives, and although...