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Does anybody have an opinion on when is the best time to add a second super. I know that the first should probably be full and capped first, but what if I only have a super with foundation only, does this make any difference? I assume even though its undrawn, it would still go under the full...

2nd stupid question.... If I place frames from the origional hive into a nuc box, then introduce queen into that, won't the bees just return to their origional BB? Therefore nuc box needs to be put 3 miles away from BB? My garden is about 200m long, can I just move the nuc to the other end of...

ok, possibly daft question, but assuming I go for introducing the queen into a nuc, what is the best way of uniting with the rest of the colony after a while (pressumably after a week or two)? I know the newspaper method for uniting two brood boxes, but this assumes the boxes are the same size...

How long from putting a test frame with eggs in to them making queen cells?

I did an artificial swarm about 5 weeks ago, the old queen was seen 4 weeks ago but not since, no eggs either. I reunited both halves of the swarm at this point assuming a new queen would be raised and mated. This did not go to plan and I had the hive with no queen in for 4 weeks. I ordered a...

I am in a similiar position. How long can a strong colony remain queenless before it becomes a disaster? I have a queen on order but she may not arrive for another 2 weeks. Thanks.

I did an artificial swarm a few weeks back and all was well and good until last weekend. The queen swarmed from her new home about 7 days after putting her in her new brood box. Luckily the swarm landed on a bush about 20ft from the hive entrance, I managed to capture it and have put it into a...

I have a super that is full and capped at the moment and I want to extract from it. What will happen to the remaining honey in the uncapped super that probably contains OSR honey? Should all supers be taken off once the flowers fade and use the uncapped honey for something like mead? Then...

Maybe a stupid question, but how many supers did you have on?

I am in the process of completing an artificial swarm. The boxes have been seperated for 9 days now. There are two supers on at the moment, the top one has half-capped honey in, the lower one looks pretty full but none of it is capped. I am in an OSR area. Will it hurt the artificial swarm...

RAB, I understand the supercedure bit, but I thought that this took place later in the season? Immediately after doing an artificial swarm????? Polyhive, how can I have 'killed' the queen when there are eggs in there? It has been 6 days since doing the AS. The single swarm cell is in the other...

I did an artificial swarm last sunday as I found a queen cell in the colony last Saturday. All ok until inspection today when I found what very much looks like a supercedure cell in the 'new' brood box (the one with the old queen in with all new foundation under the two supers). I had a look...

The colour's not the problem - spotting the blinkin' queen in the first place to mark her is the problem!!! Needle in a haystack etc......

I was referring to removing the two frames in the super that had larva/capped brood on and replacing with two new undrawn super combs. Then all bees to be shook down into BB and replacing the queen excluder, knowing then that the super was empty of any bees.

I've just inspected my hive and have found capped brood in the super. Two weeks ago, I put a new super onto the BB without a queen excluder and left for a week. The super had undrawn new foundation in all frames. Inspected 7 days ago and quite a lot of the foundation had been drawn out and was...

I'm beginning to think that the feeding question is a bit like 'how long is a piece of string?' I know that everyone has an opinion, but at least there is a definitive answer to the string question - 'twice the length from the end to it's middle'

Thanks for the advice. I had another peek this afternoon, looking from the rear of the hive, the first frame had not been drawn out. The second frame had been drawn but with nothing on it, just a few wandering bees. Third frame was full of bees, no brood, plenty of uncapped honey. Fourth frame...

They're £1.99 for a reason! I had some of these last year, they're probably ok if used inside or ocassionally outside, however I used them to secure a cover over a boat that I had stored outside over winter. As soon as I touched the orange webbing strap it literally fell apart - the winter...

My bees have been out flying well over the last few days, bringing in plenty of pollen. I had a quick peek under the roof on Saturday and noticed bees on 7 frames. I didn't have a proper look inside so I'm not sure how much stores etc are in there. I decided to give them a feed anyway so...

Caustic soda = drain cleaner