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Mixed year for me. At one new apiary in Gloucestershire, started with 2 nucs that have built up well and each have 1 full super to extract next week. Much better that I had expected. Also picked up a really nice, calm swarm which should hopefully overwinter well. At my other apiaries, some...

I can also recommend the Bees on a Budget hives. Extraordinary good value and, though the quality has declined slightly in the past couple of years, they are perfectly good. And they come with frames, foundation, queen excluder and a dummy board.

I have the Thornes budget extractor. It's pretty good for what it does, but I am on the point of upgrading now I have a couple more colonies. If that's all you can afford, I would recommend buying it and planning to upgrade in a couple of years. Or, seek out one to borrow.

We had a speaker at our branch meeting last week who says that if you unite two queenright colonies, the queen in the top box will tend to survive the experience. Therefore, if this is right, put your nicer queens on top and hope she/they take out the nasty ones.

Something similar to me - mine swarmed into a partly made bonfire about 5m away from their hive. I tried to knock them into a skep, but it didn't work and 30mins later they weren't there. However, in the mean time I had checked the hive, found two emerged Queen Cells and 1 sealed, left the...

I split by taking the top brood box (without Queen) away and put onto a new stand nearby. Then split the super (which was quite full) into two and mixed with empty frames. Original hive stayed on original location. The Queen cells were at the top of the frame and there were just two, so I...

Last week, I split a double brood hive that looked about to swarm or supersede into two colonies. The original seems fine, but the new one is a bit puzzling. I was planning to leave it well along for 2-3 weeks for the Queen Cell to hatch, mate and get going. However, I've been keeping an eye on...

Morrison's had 1kg bags on 2 for £1.50 last week. Not as cheap as some of the others on here, but better than buying it at full price!

Just had a thought - both Queen Cells were at the top of the frame. Does this mean they are more likely to be supersedure cells? If so, I probably want them to go ahead and replace them Queen. I presume they will just build more now I've removed the ones they had? Incidentally, today the...

I opened the hive tonight for what I thought would be a quick inspection (it's a little cool here still) to check for wax moth as I has spotted some droppings and a couple of larvae. I have a National, double brood with one Super so I wanted to check all looked well and was wondering when I'd be...

If you don't want to get depressed at the type pf person who may end up with one of these, I would steer clear of the comments. My personal favourite: "We have so many bees in our garden, it would be so lovely to give them a home! :)" Priceless!

Attached is a photo of some eggs in brace comb that I removed yesterday - any chance you could use it to describe what you're talking about? Simon

I did a quick check of mine yesterday while adding a super (I wanted to make sure they had plenty of space). Underneath a frame of nice worker brood, they had built some drone comb. I took some off to check for varroa (none) and the bee was fairly well developed - still white, but with...

I enjoyed the book - a little extremist in parts, but thought provoking and well researched.

There could be at least two reasons (except cost!) When you get bees, you'll often get them as a nucleus, which means they will be on frames with brood (eggs) and stores (honey). When you put them in their new hive, you need space, so if they provided 22 frames you'd have to take some out and...

I have been following this thread (and a similar one on Omlet's forum) with interest. I have bees and chickens. I have an eglu (which I think is great), but am considering a more 'traditional' coop when I expand my flock. Therefore, I think I am reasonably unbiased in this debate. I think Omlet...

I've heard that once or twice in my mini-nuc hive when I have inadvertantly reduced their entrance too small - once to nothing! The hive was knocked over and when I put it back together I made a mistake and blocked up the entrance. I checked them half an hour later (once they had calmed down)...

I bought their top package, mainly because it came with an extractor for not much extra - and a good bit cheaper than I could find anywhere else. I was a little dubious at the price, but I have to say, I am very pleased with it. I didn't really have any problems with building it, and the quality...