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Like most beekeeping, it's not determined by the calendar ... Winter bee rearing is a direct consequence of increased forager pheromone (less foraging, so more pheromone in the hive) and decreased brood pheromone (less forage coming in, so less brood rearing). Taken from this paper by...

Presumably it's too far for them to walk ... try putting it in the apiary.

Api-Bioxal or icing sugar? Whichever, it's terrible advice. Beginners should be taught how you can guarantee to keep your bees healthy and successfully overwinter them (hint - monitor and treat ... using an approved miticide and follow the instructions). Let them get their confidence this...

Chocolate raisins ... no mess

I use it at 1% ... I don't think there are formal recommendations (and there certainly aren't on the paperwork that it comes with). For clarity ... 1g in 100ml. It's DiPel

Last year - long, dry summer - lots at or around 14.5% This year - average year - everything extracted and tested yesterday was around 17.5% Same apiary etc. The other thing that was notable was that there was a higher proportion of uncapped honey this year. All passed the shake test and will...

I think 'epidemic' is a bit strong. About 230 cases globally, with about 180 in the UK if I remember correctly, over ~25 years. Epidemic implies widespread in a community and within a reasonably narrow timeframe. The interesting thing about vCJD is the relatively recent case in a Met/Val...

Prions are not "man made" ... and (from wikipedia) Oxalic acid is mainly manufactured by the oxidation of carbohydrates or glucose using nitric acid or air in the presence of vanadium pentoxide. Not cows There are lots of things derived from bovine sources, but OA isn't one of them. I'd be...

As Mellifera Crofter suggests, just use tongue depressors/lolly sticks ... and fit them in permanently with wood glue. Those plastic frames are interesting, I'd not seen them before.

I'd make the hose about 1" in diameter ... that should be interesting!

Why keep bees? Spend the money on hedgerows and wildflower meadows instead ... this will benefit all pollinators, not just honey bees. If you don't control swarming you are simply adding to the problem ... The swarmed hive product less honey The swarm either gets established somewhere it...

Check out the Schmidt Sting Pain Index and the 2014 paper by Michael Smith and marvel at the dedication of scientists.

Nice. I've been looking for a good source of scaffolding jacks having seen a similar design a year or so ago. For cross braces you can do this instead ... so only needing one strap for each couple of nucs.

That's not what any of the prevalence studies have demonstrated. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC535170/ 28% https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3407896/ 5% https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13592-016-0431-0 0.7% However, the last study demonstrated CBPV...

Welcome Buzzo ... Don't worry about them and don't bother counting them. If there's a pile 2 inches deep get concerned ... I'm not sure what you filled your hive with (a nuc or package?) but if you think about a hive in midsummer it contains ~40,000 bees. If births = deaths and the workers...

DN/SN5's ... built by someone else ;)

Generally freezing won't kill any viruses ... they're inert, with no metabolic activity to stop.

Nope ... theses are two different species belonging to the same genus (Sciurus).

I suspect they're red mason bee as suggested above. I've seen very similar in the same sort of location (when I lived in the Midlands) which were definitely red mason bee.

What evidence is there that some queens are immune? Not everyone has Ebola, but all are susceptible. Disease reflects a combination of susceptibility and exposure.