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Here's my apiary on an allotment, posts fixed with metal spikes, the horizontal timber came from 3m pallets that I get through my business, and scaffold netting. Most of it has been re-used, I originally had the bees on a different plot at the allotment, but kept getting moaned at for not...

Thanks that's just the advice I needed.

How long do mentors mentor individuals for, roughly? Weeks? Months? Years? I know it depends on the individual, everybody learns at a different rate, but I'd be interested to hear what some of the more experienced mentors have to say.

The guy who owns the woods where I keep my bees is going to spray within 50ft of my bees with asulam, to kill the bracken. From what I've googled it is either mildly toxic or not toxic to bees. Should I just find out when he is spraying and block them in as a precaution? All day or just a few...

I'm sure you are all waiting in suspense, to hear the latest instalment of this swarmy swarm, so here it is. Checked them today and there is now a few patches of worker brood, quite a small brood pattern, but worker brood. There also loads of young, very blonde drones!

This is the first year I've had a hive in my garden and I live in a lime tree lined avenue. How long do you think it'll be before these are flowering?

So, nearly 3 weeks on from leaving the biggest queens cells, I now have dense patches of drone brood and a few patches of eggs, nothing in between. I'll give it a week to see if the eggs develop into drone or worker, before taking any action. I am hoping to find a newly mated queen in a another...

http://www.urbanbees.co.uk/maps/ This is where I found my latest out apiary

They can tease you for weeks, ever increasing numbers of scouts, then nothing or they wait till you've gone away for a week and fill your bait hive with wild comb, but it's worth the wait when they arrive and your garden goes very dark and buzzy and all your neighbours run for cover and you get...

I always use a national size mdf box with 3 of the oldest muckiest brood frames inside, and a couple of drops of lemongrass at the entrance. I have a couple of these which usually attract 2-3 swarms a year.

I'm not sure about food in the bait box, would it encourage robbing behaviour? I did hear somewhere about making a concoction from a deceased queen, mushed up in vodka, I think. The queen pheromone acts as lure.

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=13118&stc=1&d=1464335199

Here's a couple of wired frames which had starter strips which they are drawing out nicely. Or not!

They look like they could've come from the same colony.

What about giving them a frame of brood with eggs?

I left 3 whoppers.

Thanks Jenkinsbrynmair, that makes sense, I'll go and ditch a few of the smaller ones.

I caught another swarm in a bait hive on 16th May, a week after the other swarm at the same location. I'm now wondering if this swarm came from the 9th May swarm.

I fed after 10 days, but they haven't taken much.

I thought if there are sealed queen cells, the queen has already gone. They have only been in the hive for 15days, and there is very little brood. They started out with a mixture of drawn comb and starter strips which they are drawing out nicely.