Search results

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. MattC

    How do you Overwinter Your Bees

    Matchsticks, anyone? [dives for cover]
  2. MattC

    Queen stopped laying??????

    Interested to read these comments as inspected today and also have a hive with a queen, lots of polished cells, no queen cells - but no eggs and no unsealed brood. Haven't had a queen stop laying this early in the season before.... Hoping it's down to the cooler weather and lack of forage...
  3. MattC

    Do/did you tell the neighbours when the bees moved in?

    Well, in the end I moved a colony over without asking or telling the neighbours. It was a split that was fast outgrowing its nuc and needed to be rehoused in a full sized hive asap. I would have mentioned it to the neighbours in advance... but they happened to be away at the time. So decision...
  4. MattC

    Do/did you tell the neighbours when the bees moved in?

    Just moved to a house with largish garden and tucked away space at the back that looks very suitable for an apiary... Tall fences and only one set of adjoining neighbours close by. In a similar situation, would you: Ask them if ok to move the bees in? Inform them they are coming? Or say...
  5. MattC

    Tamper evident labels

    Ah, but what where would be the fun in that for the likes of you and Arfermo?? Thanks all. The great thing about this forum is the way you can float out a question and quickly get a variety of mostly useful replies, and often learn something in the process (hadn't come across the clear...
  6. MattC

    Tamper evident labels

    Which way should they go? Opinions please: 1. Should the tail run down the front of the jar with main label covering the end? 2. Should the tail go down the back (with or without a 'granulation' label covering the end)? 3. Should it go down the side of the jar, at 90 degrees to the main label...
  7. MattC

    Extracting honey that should have been cut comb

    Recently extracted about 20 unwired super frames with a radial extractor- only one broke up. Similar failure rate to wired frames... (though I was taking it slower)
  8. MattC

    Using starter strips - is it a recipe for disaster?

    Bumping this as about to extract and remembered that I've got several foundationless frames in the mix (combination of accident and design- was short on foundation and thought I'd give starter strips a try). I'll probably want to try cut comb with 1 or 2 of them, but will there be a problem with...
  9. MattC

    Can you use commercial supers on national brood boxs?

    Like the title says. I've heard of it being done the other way round, but given the big flow right now and shortage of hive parts from the main suppliers, would it work this way round?
  10. MattC

    June gap

    Things seem to have slowed up here in south London (couple of wet days last week may have made a difference though)
  11. MattC

    Red pollen

    Lots of bright red pollen today- any ideas what from? Challenging to find red marked queen amongst it all...
  12. MattC

    does bedrock affect honey yield

    Interesting question. Undelrying geology must partly determine soil composition and so type of plant cover- eg limestone or chalk close to surface would alkalinise soil- but so many other factors (soil depth, drainage patterns, rainfall, land use etc) not sure you could ever relate directly to...
  13. MattC

    How do you measure success?

    Success for a hobby beekeeper: honey at the end of the summer live bees at the end of the winter (also enjoyment, minimal stings) And a few years down the line- just maybe- breaking even financially...?
  14. MattC

    Beekeeping Job wanted

    Hi Santapan, You may not be aware that there's very little commercial beekeeping in the UK. Most of the people on this forum are hobby beekeepers. That said, there are a few commercial folk around, and believe 1 or 2 frequent this site from time to time- so you just might get lucky- but I...
  15. MattC

    Queen killing rival in a QC

    Should have taken a photo, but forgot- so will do my best to describe... Found my hive unexpectedly queenless a couple of days ago, with several capped QCs already present. REduced down to the two biggest looking, with intention of moving one into a nuc today, leaving just one for the hive to...
  16. MattC

    A window into Afghan beekeeping

    Thanks for this. Though I wonder if the opium producers might have an ulterior motive for 'switching' to beekeeping (pollination services and a bit of honey on the side...)
  17. MattC

    Hive inspections on double brood

    Thanks for the comments. What's the rationale for inspecting bottom box first? If you're trying to find the queen I'm thinking inspect top box first, if no sign of her than assume she's fled downstairs and you can place on the ground nearby without worrying she'll get squashed etc. Then go...
  18. MattC

    Hive inspections on double brood

    Any tips from old hands? Main differences/challenges I'm finding are more bees, more scope to squash bees, more boxes lying around on the ground, harder to find queen. So any advice greatly appreciated. (And yes, I realise changing hive type might be the longer term fix, but that doesn't help...
  19. MattC

    Who has the biggest hive

    not worthynot worthynot worthynot worthynot worthy
  20. MattC

    OSR supers post extraction

    Related question- what happens to uncapped and under-ripe OSR honey after the flow ends? Presumably less likely to granulate if water content still high and the bees will top up with non-OSR nectar?
Back
Top