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Hi Pargyle - with the current weather forecasts, I decided to act today as hives 1 and 2 were flying and collecting pollen from a large bed of crocuses, whereas the local forecasts are such that the next 10 days are going to be cold. The storm in other parts of the UK had little impact near...

Unfortunatly I had huge commitments in the autumn and I suspect that maybe I was a little careless in fitting the mouse block to this particular hive. The problem I now have is that the hive is empty with really no apparant reason apart from a very small area of one frame looking as if a mouse...

I wrote a query on this very topic 5 days earlier, and got good replies - I am tempted to say to the original poster here why didn't he look or do a search ! One thing that would be interesting to hear is how people move hives in these circumstances as they are heavy and pretty unobliging bits...

I think like all of us, our hearts go out to Bobba and his quandary - somewhat self generated though it may be. I'm pushing 80 - kept bees since my late teens, and certainly still doing so. Bobba's problem set me on the life memory path as we brought up 3 kids here with the bees 30m away at...

How much of a rsik is it for me to move 2 hives 20m or so over the next month? There's some garden renovations by a professional gardener to be done and circumstances occurred last year that ended up with 2 of my now 3 hives some 20m from what I regard as my apiary area. I did this once before...

Many thanks Mellifera; you have read my OP absolutely correctly. I've run into ignorant T*****s on this website before and it looks sadly as if it still attracting them. I've always correctly balanced the honey I take off with that left for adequate winter feeding. I'm sure there is enough...

Been keeping bees for 50 years and because I'm not going to be around for the next month, I got a couple of 2.5kg fondant packs to put on. But I've never done fondant before and I suddenly realised when I went off just now to put it on that I didn't know what I was doing !! I've seen that I...

Well, well, well - I've been keeping bees for 56 years on two separate sites and I've never had a bother with wind, nor ever thought about it. Interesting what you find out when you chat to other people. And you know what - I'll go away and come back in a month's time to find all hell let...

You must all live in pretty exposed situations then - and I take it that strapping down means down to the ground ? I'm in central Scotland and it got up to force 9 here recently but I never considered that a bee-keeping hazard. What I didn't say at the beginning of this thread is that I've...

<to replace the strap nice and tight> Ehh? - what strap ? And yes the crown board seal will be broken but the lid goes over the top of it.

Many thanks TTLTB - that was a very valuable pointer on hefting. I could have done something with empty lifts, etc., but all the info was there. Nett result was definitely positive in that I was up to 20kg plus on both hives, and running out of lifting puff. The odd lady or two came out to...

I've never used fondant before but it's been really too warm a winter for good over-wintering of bees and now I'm going to be away all March. So - I've read a couple of threads on fondant here, but would appreciate a comment or two on how much I need to apply. I'm in central Scotland with...

Took off 80 lbs from 2 hives last week; in terms of how cold it has been all summer in the east of Scotland I was astonished to find so much good capped honey. Even more astonished to find it is almost 100% lime. Rob

I've picked up this thread, and I hope it's not against etiquette to express my not dissimilar problem in some else's thread, which I judged was approaching closure Two hives, poorly managed this year due to other pressures, and last Thursday when I was away my son reported a swarm, which...

Thanks guys For the 'visible marker' I will find something large and white to screw above the entrances, and otherwise I'll just trundle each hive along sometime each warm morning - fortunately we seem to be getting good weather for the next week so that will help. Apart from the good weather...

My apologies for yet another query on this topic - searching back threads gives all too many hits to find what I'm after. I do have to move the two hives now - garden area change from vegetables to decorative(!). The move is ~20 metres and I have a concrete path to do it on and a pair of...

Thanks for that, Tim - it was as I vaguely remembered. I do have a top board in my inherited stocks that has openable slots - I do seem to remember that one of my old books recommended that the entrance for the top hive should be on a different face. What did throw me in your pdf document was...

Thanks guys - 'Demaree' is a term from somewhere in the dim and distant past; I think I know the principles but will have to do a googling, unless someone here wants to give a chapter and verse somewhere. If I dig deep enough I might even be able to find an old BK'ing book in the dusty archives...

I have two hives, one works well but has a queen that should be passed her sell by date next spring, and the other has a younger queen but she's lazy, or she produces lazy bees, as the brood area is never well filled and I get about half the yield of the good hive. How do I address this ? Both...

I've been away from this forum for some while so didn't pick up on this very interesting thread until this evening - even then, having read the first 10 pages I mistakenly hit 'Last' and was glad that I had done so when I saw it was 28 pages long ! My condolences to those who have had to go...