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Ive made a honey warming cabinet, bought an STC1000 and have my 25b bucket of crystallised honey ready to turn into soft set What temperature should I heat it to and for how long to turn it into runny honey so I can add the seed Thanks

Had a nice strong colony of carnolians going into winter. Had approx 40lb of stores in brood box and super, much of this was ivy. Opened them up for a few seconds in late Dec and trickled OA, they were quite active when I had them open. Hefted them every couple of weeks and still quite heavy...

I have a brood and two supers which are full of stores and the bees are still very active. The striped back they arrive with tells me that they are on Him Balsan and the ivy bushes near the hive are full of activity. I took a super off and brought it home and have put the other under the brood...

I was intending to over-winter on a national brood box only and had the set up bb/cb/empty bb/cb/almost empty super (a couple of frames of uncapped stores last week) with the intention that they would empty the super of stores and move them down into the hive. I then planned to feed for winter...

There seems to be a mixture of opinions but I am unsure whether some are urban myths I appreciate that Apiguard taints stores and makes them unfit for human consumption indefinitely, but could anyone tell me, from an informed position, whether Apiguard also taints the wax and wood of the super...

I bought a new Carnolian queen and introduced her into a small nuc of bees on 29 May 2014. She started laying and a good brood pattern was established. On 24 June 2014 there was a severe varroa infestation in a neighbouring hive and a natural daily drop of 2 over 7 days from this colony, as...

How many frames do you have in your supers? In my National supers I have always worked with SN1 frames with wide spacers on alternate frames, this setup gives 11 frames per box. When all frames have been drawn out I put wide spacers on all frames which reduces the number to 9 per box. I was...

I'm currently running on brood and a half and one colony in particular have outgrown it. Both the brood box and the half are now full. The half is underneath and has a lot of capped brood, some stores and some pollen. The brood box over is mainly bias and also has some capped stores. To make...

I've recently moved a colony into a beautiful woodland setting. They are surrounded by a variety of plants in bloom including foxgloves, nettles, elderflower, bramble and the last of the chestnut. I have just been offered another site in amongst some beans which will shortly be coming into...

I've taken three phone calls in the last 18 hours about bumble bees swarms I spend time talking with the caller and generally they are keen to help the bees just 'not in their back yard' I try to explain that bumble bees are much less likely to sting than a honey bee or wasp and try to encourage...

I bought a suit from BJ Sherriff’s last year and was so impressed with it I order a second for my spare last week. I added another item to the order and the suit arrived as expected but the other item was wrong. I got in touch with the company and Angela Sherriff mailed me back straight away...

For personal commitments I have been unable to open my bees for 19 days although I did manage to glance into the super last week (30 Apr). My set up from top down is Roof, CB, Super, Q excluder, brood box, super, floor. There are 5 frames of untouched foundation in the top super, eight brood...

I want to buy some poly dummy boards but I can't find a supplier. Yes, of course I could make one up out of Celotex or Knauf board but time is short this month. Does any one know of a reputable seller Thanks

My two colonies were fed well in the autumn but possibly due to the mild winter both still are quite heavy when hefted. On the opportunities I have had to inspect the weather has been down to 11 degrees and so I have not been willing to carry out a proper inspection. I can see down through the...

Two healthy brood boxes have gone through the winter. The boxes are still reasonably heavy when hefting – obviously some stores/syrup still in there. I was away for the last couple of weeks so left them with an eke and a block of candy. Better they have some and don’t use it than need it and not...

Went to check on my girls on Sunday. Somewhat surprised to find them upside down. I can only assume that the table acted like a sail and when the winds blew over they went. They weren't like that in late December and as the only high winds since I last saw them then was about 10 days ago...

I am planning to apply some oxalic acid shortly. I don't have a large mite drop but will do it as a preventative measure. I appreciate that there is a difference in cost between dribbling and vapourising but I can afford to spend a few bob and will come nowhere near the vet and livery bills for...

I have a wasp nest in the void of my flat roof extension at home. My neighbour has young children and is (very!) keen that the wasps are killed and the nest destroyed Unfortunately although I can see the blighters going in up under the soffit boards I cannot see and have no access to the nest...