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I've made some stands by putting the hollow heavy blocks down on sand to help level, then a 2' sq. slab on top. The hive strap then goes under the slab between the blocks and around the poly hive. That setup would give aerated blocks some protection from the elements, although the slabs are...

Humour now lost in the edit! I suggest the colony was lost before wax moth took over. As for the honey, eat it yourself, don't sell it.

I remembered too late that you're not supposed to put plastic foundation in a solar wax melter. I think these may be suitable for encouraging free style comb drawing. Only consolation is I didn't like the plastic foundation much anyway.

I've just lost an hour of my life catching up on this thread. Can mine be the last word????

It's also a lot easier to lower a nuc box slowly to give the suicidal ones a chance. A kind of progressive squeeze and release.

I made a couple from 2 x 1 and had an annoying 10mm to make up. Otherwise great. Ply seems a good choice as long as the edges are protected from the elements.

Open feed hole?

Queen replacement is an absolute minefield on its own. There has to be very clear reason and/or calculated benefit to make it worth the manipulation/risk. As jeff33 said, there's a lot to learn before you can make those kind of decisions with confidence. As for my own bees, I'm very much a "if...

I haven't posted for a long time. Not because of any fear of being ridiculed but having got a few years under my belt now I have fewer questions and so much gets answered just by reading others posts. I have used the search feature on many occasions, it's not perfect but it can't be bad as I...

I carry a fine mist water spray that I sometimes use instead of smoke, but it also seems to encourage followers to go home when it starts "raining". Seems kinder than clapping, but I've done that too!

Took an over wintered nuc up to a site near builth wells this morning. It warmed up so much in the afternoon I decided to go back and move them into their hive straight away. Glad I did as the nuc was rammed with bees and I won't be able to go back for a couple of weeks.

Sadly the art of identifying things by taste is becoming a lost art to the modern human. I recommend licking anything apart from electrical appliances to enhance your life

Maybe the water is why I get less problems with slugs in my abelo hives compared to the Payne's polyhives?

Nice try, but no chance! "organic" has a specific and accepted meaning other than the scientific definition. I'm more surprised that the confusion for the source of organic fertiliser is allowed. The wrath of people who jump through all the hoops to produce the defined truly organic products...

Having spent most of the miserable spring fixing problems I'm mostly just glad I've got healthy colonies going into winter. Three produced a total surplus of 30lb. Last year I had 130lb from just two productive colonies.There's always next year!

Thinking about it, nobody had ever suggested to me that having a suitable queen container in your pocket is a good idea, I came to that conclusion by having to do lots of things where you want to know where the queen is. Something that should be in the "handy items" list for beginners I reckon...

Still a super short of a harvest here! Maybe we're going to get something in the next month, but I've never had much after the end of July here before.bee-smillie

It doesn't take much to get their flight path over peoples heads, so I would start with one panel where you think is best and see what happens. Try and avoid something that could blow down and hit the hive though. I've used the green wind-break netting around mine. Doesn't look too bad and if it...

None of them are actually bad, if you have a favourite supplier and they have a good deal, go for it. The issue of compatibility with wooden floors and roofs is not such a big deal as the poly is cheap in comparison. I'm heading towards having enough poly for the over-wintering colonies and...