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Was horrified on Monday when I cleared the grass outside one of my hives and found a massive pile of dead bees. This hive have been great all year in terms of behaviour but have never really gathered too much honey or filled the second brood box. I’d seen a bit of DWV about 5 weeks ago but never...

Having missed most of my objectives for this year, but retained a sense of humour, I’m looking at my list again. I would like to try to get a super of ivy honey if possible. What is the best way to do this? I presume I need to keep a strong colony and make sure they don’t need feeding so as...

So I went beekeeping with my mentor today in his hives. He’d run out of kit when we found a brilliant hive had loads of capped cells. As I had them in the car I made up 3 mating nucs, as much as anything just to give it a go. 2 have capped QCs, 1 has a virgin who emerged during an inspection...

I was searching for my drawn super combs at the apiary. Turns out, after extracting 4 supers of OSR honey in May, I forgot to return them to the bees. Any left over honey in the comb is now like rock. Am I right to think that if I spray the combs with a little water the bees will clean out...

Thought it was simple lol. Hive swarmed early May, out of nowhere as were never that strong and never worked a super. Cell left, queen mates, immediately they made cells. Knock them down, they made more in rainy weather. I couldn’t go in for 10 days - they had swarmed by then. Not ideal, but...

With one thing and another I’ve had a really difficult season so far. My plans to increase to 12 hives were scuppered by my well documented allergy issue. Thankfully this is resolved, but the reduced inspection regime it has demanded up to now meant I’ve never quite gotten ahead of the bees...

I ordered a queen rearing kit in an online sale. Took it with me on my last inspection. I have s hive I THINK is queenless although I haven’t done a test frame. Decided I’d try sticking a few grafts in as nothing to lose. Expected success 0%! I was surprised by how hard it was to get the...

So, I’ve tried 3 Bailey changes on 3 strong hives. I’m chNging because I want to move from 14x12s to Nationals. However - none of them worked. Here’s what I did: 1) Placed brood box over existing box, then QE then the supers. 2) Checked weekly for signs that they were moving up. But -...

Hi everyone, Can I use a strong, queenless Nuc (would be 6 x 14x12) to raise queen cells? I need to remove some 14x12s after a Bailey change which has gone awry (back to Nationals) and thought I could use the frames with sealed brood to establish a queenless nuc. I don't need to raise many...

I’ve extracted just under 20kg of very gloopy honey, presumably involving a lot of OSR. It is so thick and starting to granulate that it was clogging the fine filter. I don’t have a warming cabinet - are there any safe ways to warm to buckets without one? The small ones would fit in the oven...

Inspected today and found one colony which has failed to thrive. Saw a few bees with DWV, which I had never seen before. There were also some works who appeared to have died while emerging, which was odd. The colony had 3 x Oxalic vapes in the autumn and one in January. Nonetheless, am I right...

So, I've been thinking of this for a few months and can't see why it wouldn't work. But if it did, surely everyone would do it, so... Is there any reason I couldn't add a supplemental heat source to the underneath of a solar wax melter? The melter is great but I fine that in the spring and...

Maybe a daft question. I’ve always had my bees on 14x12s. My mentor always uses brood and a half, regardless of colony size. Having just switched to standard nationals I am expecting to need to move a couple of hives to double brood. But... How do you decide a colony needs to go to double...

As I’m switching from 14x12s to nationals I find I’ve got a steady supply of old brood combs to deal with. I plan to melt them down and use the wax as I get a could profit on it. But... It isn’t yet solar extractor weather and I have too much for my slow cooker method. Is there a relatively...

I know Shook swarms are controversial. I’m converting my hives from 14x12 to nationals. I’ve started a Bailey change on one, but am wondering about a shook swarm on at least one, as much as an experiment as anything else. The colony I have in mind is very strong and will need a nuc taking...

I had a look at the bumblebee nest that was being displayed st BeeTradex - I was absolutely mesmerised by it! Like a chaotic honeybee nest. I could have watched for hours. Between that, the other forum pist about polytunnels and the books by Dave Houlson I’ve been wondering... How the heck do...

Damn and blast. Popped to the hives today to check them after the winds. All upright. A couple were low on fondant so I decided to top up those that were low. Very quick lift off the board and fondant on. All 6 alive, brilliant. Then, zap. Sting to the back of the head. Dead bee later found...

We have a woodpecker issue at the apiary. This year I have been using plastic garden netting/fencing which has proved to be effective. It is a pain to put on and off though, when checking fondant etc. I thought about making some wire cages that lift on and off, but I don’t really know where I...

So next year I would like to start a little bit of queen breeding. I'm going to attempt to do it using the Nicot cups because I accidentally got excited and bought a set online. I've read an eBook about the system which seems to make sense to me. We'll see what happens. What I'm wondering is...

Forecast on Friday is 10 degrees and sunny. I intend to add fondant to two light hives, so crown board will be off while I add fondant, eke etc. At the end of October one of those hives had an iffy Queen. On last inspection I found emergency cells, recently hatched but no eggs. I had hoped to...