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One of my hives has had a broken brood frame in place since mid-Summer. The wax came away and the bees continued to use it and built all kinds of comb sticking it to the adjacent frame. I left it in situ as I didn't want to overly disturb the Summer activities especially egg laying as this is a...

Thanks all for the advice. The single Queen Cell is in the classic position at the bottom of a frame- so not sure about supersedure. The bees are "stringing together" quite a lot at the bottom of the frames which the bee inspector who had a look at my hive 10 days ago said was an indication...

After seeing plenty of play cups and having been away for 10 days I carried out an inspection on my single hive today and I finally had a large queen cell (sealed). Having been prepared for this I began my AS operation as per Dave Cushman. All was going well until it came to finding the Queen...

And here are the photos - hopefully!

A bit cool for an inspection at the moment although do need to get in there at some point over the weekend. Satisfied myself with taking a few shots of the girls bringing in the OSR pollen. Go girls!!!

A very timely thread posting enrico. I'm in Year 2 as well having nursed a varroa infested colony through the winter. No varroa to report so far (although I've learned my lesson from last year and will be keeping a close eye out this year). The girls are building up nicely - apart from...

Thanks chaps. The hive is of standard National config so no unstandard spaces. Looks like cutting off the wild comb and adding a super has bought me some time. I don't want to disturb them again until next scheduled inspection but will take on your advice and look to get them to expand onto...

I performed an inspection of my only hive yesterday and was please to find it building up nicely. Brood on 7 frames with various amounts of stores on these frames also plus a further 3 frames of stores. The main purpose of the inspection was to spot any swarm cells. Here lay the challenge. 3...

Ah - I see. Thank goodness as I have a stack of foundation in the garage that I was hoping to give a blast with the hairdryer before making up my supers this year. Was a bit over ambitious last season and bought too much!

Rather than trying to remember the condition of the hive (how many frames of stores, eggs, brood, drawn/undrawn foundation et.) I like to make a voice recording as I go through. For those with an i-phone (other phones are available ;o)) the Voice memo app is perfect. Tuck the phone in top pocket...

After all the worry of my late Varroa infestation it was blooming marvelous to see the girls out and about enjoying the rise in temperature. Took the opportunity to sneak on a take away container of home made fondant over the feeder hole of the crown board. Still hefting quite a weight but I'm...

Thanks for advice and support as always. I'll arrange with my club for an OA treatment in December/January and in the meantime I'll keep monitoring. At least it looks like my marathon counts of a couple of weeks back look like they are behind me. I was starting to count the little b***ers in...

For those of you who were following my Varroa trials and tribulations you may be interested in an update. As you may remember I looked to be having some success with a late treatment of Apiguard but with decreasing average temperatures I took some advice from this forum and added 2 Apistan...

Just checked out the test on the "Managing Varroa" document on Beebase - thanks people. Something to try next year for sure - I'm keen to get one step ahead of the mites next time - I've been feeling like I've been several steps behind them so far this year. Knowledge is power!!

Beltsville test? Is that something I could do? What does it involve?

Whoa - wait until you see the latest count!!! So, popped the second tray of Apiguard on - I know the temperatures now are not conducive to the use of this treatment but I may as well finish the job I started. With Skyhook's top tip I quickly whipped the crown board off, covered with 2 towels...

Ah, genius. Thanks Skyhook. Apistan will be going in tomorrow then. Going to give making my own fondant a go too. Poor girls deserve a treat!

So, as promised an update on the varroa count. This is how we left it.... Hive Clean Treatment (between 6 frames) on 17.10.2010. All subsequent counts are taken in the evening 24 hours apart unless otherwise stated: 18.10 40 19.10 50 20.10 42 21.10 41 22.10 44 1 tray Apiguard applied 23.10...

Thanks RAB. Slow I can deal with - I certainly won't be blaming them.