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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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

I lost two colonies this winter, probably due to the bad weather. Most of the dead bees in the brood boxes had mould on them when I found them. There was both capped and uncapped honey on most frames, all honey appeared to be mould free. My question is how to best clean the inside of the brood...

I had a look at my hives 5 days ago and all seemed ok. A few wasps seen flying around, but probably no more than 4 or 5 at a time. The entrance block was in and the bees seemed to be doing ok. I have been away since then and came back to a bee masacre! There were loads of wasps flying around and...

Can anybody give me a simple answer and explain the differences to the bees of feeding them sugar syrup and fondant. Also when to feed and why the difference between the strength of sugar syrup. Thanks.

Do people keep their varoa floors (the plastic ones that go under the mesh) on the hives all the time or do they just sit there when you are actually counting mite drop? Does this depend on the time of year, ie off during summer and on during winter?

I know that this may be a little early in the year to worry about this but I am trying to think ahead to what I might need to do. I had a new nuc that I have hived in a National hive. They were expanding nicely when they decided to swarm. The colony that is left has a new laying queen and they...

I have a frame of foundation that has largely been drawn out on the brood side, but is untouched on the other. There are quite a few cells which have been drawn out but the base of the cell is missing, ie the bees have eaten it away. Is this normal or is it a problem? The missing bottoms are in...

I had a look through my nuc this afternoon and located the queen. There is a small bit of damage to her left wingtip. Is this a concern? She isn't laying yet, but I am worried that this damage could stop her from mating. How long should I leave it until I inspect the nuc again?

The title of the thread might sound odd.... Here's a picture taken from underneath one of my hives. I coulnd't quite understand why the bees weren't flying to their entrance last night and this morning I took a peek. The origional hive (this one) went queenless about 10 days ago. There were...

Does anybody wish to offer their services to a new beek? I would be grateful of help via the internet or perhaps on site if that suits you?

I have had my new nuc of bees installed for just over a month now. The new frames are being drawn out, there seems to be plenty of stores and I put a super on last week. Last weeks inspection found no queen, but plenty of capped and uncapped brood. I have just inspected today and have found no...

I have a put a super on 7 days ago. I have not put on a queen excluder as I have read that this discourages the bees from entering the super initially. I now have bees on the lower quarter of three frames, directly above the brood nest of the colony. The frames are undrawn. My question is how...

3 weeks ago I transferred a nuc into a BN hive. All seems to have settled down ok, I now have brood/stores on 6 frames but no super added yet. When should I remove the entrance block? At the moment it is in place but on it's limited setting. The bees aren't covering the entrance - unless it's a...