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Brilliant - thanks both for the quick answers ! Lesson learned !

I had grafts (all from same hive) taken and sealed in three hives (65% average from grafts taken). After being capped a few days (day 10) I put hair-roller cages on them and moved all the QCs from 2 of the 3 hives to my incubator set up. I was hedging my bets in case the incubator failed and so...

Interesting. Is this classic VSH, whereby bees remove infested brood, or is it suppressed mite reproduction (SMR), whereby some factor suppresses the ability of mites to reproduce ?

Just a small thing but FERA Science Ltd is not a DEFRA agency anymore. Sold off. It's a private concern part-owned by Capita and a small part by DEFRA. It's not cost effective for labs to offer the testing you want, especially at Universities. The rest will charge a pretty penny as you found...

Syrups cheaper than honey !

excellent - cheers for the advice.

I have two supers of heather honey on thin comb. I intend to sell some as cut comb in those small tubs. The supers are currently stored in a warmish area and I an not intending to sell for a month or so. Can I cut it now and store or should I cut just before selling ? Best way to store ? Cheers !

Yellow rattle is a great little plant. Bumble bees love it and it seeds readily and parasitizing grass. I have planted verges all around our area with seeds and after a year you can really see the difference as if cuts back the grass. Then plant other wild stuff - poppies, corn flowers, ox eye...

I did a demaree last evening following the fleet beekeepers method online. Think it went pretty wrong ! I did it this way due to the MB poly langs I have and their annoying lip. Firstly prepared a brood box with some drawn and some fresh foundation as well as a frame of solid stores. Then found...

What do our france-dwelling forum members think of this ? Vita must think the hornets are going to be arriving UK side soon. http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/apishield-asian-hornet-trap-video/

I use ashridge as well. Really helpful and 12 month guarantee on trees / hedges. I had a cherry that died last year, probably due to the long winter and wind, and they replaced no probs.

Bumbles are excellent at buzz pollinating blueberries. Seem to recall honeybees are inefficient pollinators ? * quick google revealed this interesting site about US blueberries in Maine. http://umaine.edu/blueberries/factsheets/bees/629-honey-bees-and-blueberry-pollination/

Is there any evidence that the behaviour of the jetstream at this time of year will lead to a wetter or conversely drier summer ? Or is that beyond the current forecasting models ?

What material can it print (I have no idea about 3d printers!). Is there one that can do high insulatory material because I would just print poly hives.

Absolutely but we had terrible temps from October all through winter and the last snowfall in May. Never saw them once between end of Oct and February - not that I was out 24h watching - wait till I get that webcam set up ;)

Thanks for the comments guys. Finman you are basically describing the exact situation. Late afternoon / evening foraging, cold spell and a bit of wind with the hive in shadow. I had the entrance down to about 3 bee spaces using those wbc entrance reducers. Cheers GG

Well funny you should say that as after I wrote that post I went out to collect some of them to look at the pollen. None there. I cant imagine they all underwent a lazarus effect but maybe.....I suspect a hedgehog.

Had a wee look round the front of the hives after work today and noticed a handful of dead bees with pollen baskets full on the ground in front. I'm only in my second year and last winter they were all tucked up by now so was curious about their fate. It was a sunny and clear day up here...

Or a queen right raising colony producing grafted queens for mating apideas / kielers and then any Q- issues post-MAQs can be solved by popping in a home grown and selected mated Queen :)

I feed my bees sugar. Its fine and gets bees through winter. However: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/04/26/1303884110.abstract Its more about pollen than honey so the title is a bit misleading.