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Can anyone point me to a supplier of clear glass half size wine bottles (350 or 375 ml)? I have my first couple of batches in demijohns and will need to bottle them eventually. I don't expect to drink it in great quantities so half bottles would be best. Thanks, Paul

Does anyone out there have experience of observation hives. I am making a five frame observation hive that we be used to show bees to the public at an event at the end of July and have a couple of questions. It is in a flat configuration with the frames stacked vertically between two 10 mm thick...

Who would have guessed? http://www.kurzweilai.net/nanoparticles-loaded-with-bee-venom-kill-hiv Paul Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

What a 24 hours! Yesterday evening I went off to inspect my 5 colonies on two different sites. I have had little chance to visit them in the wet weather so I expected to find a few problems and there were indeed plenty! I ended up going to my out-apiary, a remote allotment site, at about 9pm...

I was contacted by a friend who works in a small cafe about a bee problem and I could do with some advice please. A colony of honey bees had taken up residence about 3m from their cafe door. The entrance was an air-brick about 3m above ground level. The landlord got help from a beekeeper after...

I just washed my beesuit in preparation for spring (Swienty suit from Modern Beekeeping - excellent suit btw) and noticed that the washing instructions have a little picture of an iron with 2 dots. Does anyone actually iron their bee suit? Paul

Can anyone give me a product code or precise description of Bako bakers' fondant please? The reason I ask is that I popped into our local bakers shop to ask them to order me some and they were not quite sure what I wanted. They use dozens of different kinds of fondant or icing. They do deal with...

An experienced beekeeper was testing his bees for nosema and kindly took me along on Friday to show me how to do it. He has been trialling a nosema treatment based on garlic that he got from some Czech friends of his. It seemed to work. All of the treated hives tested negative. The highly...

An experienced beekeeper I know showed me how to test for nosema on Friday. He brought along some samples of his own bees. These are some of the results. They do not really do justice to the microscope - they were take down the eyepiece with my mobile phone! Are they nosema apis or nosema...

I just made some fondant according to the recipe in the sticky post. Having finished I am not sure if it turned out right or not because I have no idea what it is supposed to be like. Mine is soft but crumbly and gritty to the taste. Not unlike Kendall mint cake though not so minty :) I imagined...

Just came across this aquarium heater for £22 including postage from China. http://www.virtualvillage.co.uk/aquarium-heater-and-thermostat-300w-50hz-003600-111.html Looks like it would be excellent for a DIY warming cabinet. It even has an LCD display! A bit more controlled than the...

I have read various discussions on this forum in the last year about where to source WRC for making hives. I have previously bought from Whitmore's Timber in Claybrooke Magna, Leicestershire but it is imported from Canada and they charge £30 per cubic foot + VAT. (Their 6" board is a tad narrow...

I have just returned from a holiday at a farm in Italy. The farmer is a commercial beekeeper and he kindly took me and my boys to help take the last of this year's honey and to apply Apivar Life to 45 hives. What surprised me was the none of the hives had any floor at all. The brood boxes just...

At my local B&Q Warehouse (Coventry) yesterday, I noticed they have put up a sign saying they no longer cut widths smaller than 200 mm. Too many beekeepers getting parts for supers? Paul

I just received this from the Leicestershire and rutland BKA: " Dear member I have been notified today that European Foul Brood has been discovered in Apiaries west of Hinckley to Market Bosworth along the Warwickshire - Leicestershire Border. Please ensure you are registered with Bee Base...

About 20 days ago I did an artificial swarm which did not go quite like the text books say in that most of the bees ended up in the split with the queen cell - they did not fly home. The AS with the queen on the original site continued to make QCs. 12 days ago the bee inspector visited. He...

During my recent artificial swarm operation, my 9-year old son, who is the right height for such things, peered into the hive entrance and reported a QC. He was right. They had built a bit of comb from the top of the entrance slot (the bottom of the brood box). If we had just inspected the...

It has been a very exciting month as a new beekeeper. The 5 frame nuc I obtained at the beginning of April exploded in the warm weather and soon ran out of drawn frame in the National brood box resulting in nectar and pollen in the middle of the frames and no room for the queen to lay. This was...

Can anyone point me to any resources (books, websites etc) that explain how to interpret the debris on the OMF board? How are you supposed to find varroa mites amongst all the other crap? I saw someone suggest floating them off in methylated spirits. Is that the way to do it? Thanks, Paul...