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  1. Dutchman

    Sulphur Discs from Thornes ? needed?

    I have succesfully used sulfur strips in a burner for clearing waxmoth for the past 30 years, I used to do it several times over the winter but now I just do it once and I put in something that I learned from a French commercial beekeeper friend: I put in tablets of real camphor, it is sold on...
  2. Dutchman

    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    I have the opposite , first sting ok but if I get a few over time my reaction gets worse and worse so now I always dres up well.
  3. Dutchman

    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    12 degrees here so I used the opportunity to put 2 oxalic sponges (Randy Oliver's recipe) on every hive. We had such a mild winter that there was no broodless period over the shortest day to do an oxalic acid dribble. So hopefully the sponges will gradually do the trick. All 13 hives strong and...
  4. Dutchman

    What's flowering as forage in your area

    Here in Northern Ireland there is plenty of nectar, lots of brambles left, rose bay willowherb has just started and lots of garden plants, hebe , mallow , lavatera in abundace in the gardens. But they only get half an hour at a time, then the next shower or thunderstorm drives them all inside so...
  5. Dutchman

    I need to learn how to be more efficient

    I am going on for 70 and still working full time but I have managed up to 24 colonies the past few summers. All on brood and a half commercials, I only spend an hour a week between April and July tipping the top box to check for queencells. I make splits from my fastest growing colonies in...
  6. Dutchman

    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    Just finished this years summer honey extraction, 230 kg from 10 hives, less than last year but with 80 kg of spring honey its not bad considering that we only had a couple of weeks of decent weather while there was a flow on this summer. Ordered 600 jars, enough to supply my outlets for the year.
  7. Dutchman

    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    I started pushing the bees down to go from brood and a half to a single (commercial) brood box which is plenty big for overwintering. The bees had done most of the work already and were back filling any newly vacated cells with nectar. Everything is filling up, some hives now have 7 supers all...
  8. Dutchman

    What's flowering as forage in your area

    Can't believe it, temperature nearly half of what it was earlier in the week, clouds and hazy sunshine and yet they are still piling it in. Privet! and rose-bay willow herb, I think.
  9. Dutchman

    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    Had a lovely weight lifting session checking my 12 production hives.We have hardly had any sun here since early June, all the best weather has passed us by. So 2 weeks ago some of them were so low on stores that I wondered about feeding them. There were plenty of bees so they had used up all...
  10. Dutchman

    No Queen excluder

    I keep my commercial hives on brood and a half and sometimes let them have the run of the whole hive. But a commercial brood box is plenty big for them to overwinter so towards the end of July when there is no more chance of swarming I push the bees down into the brood box and put on a queen...
  11. Dutchman

    How many hives hits the "sweet-spot"?

    Working full time as a minister I can only spend a couple of hours a week on inspections. I have 12-20 hives but most are on brood and a half and all I do is take the supers off and quickly lift a corner of the half brood to look for queen cells. If i have any doubts I check the middle comb in...
  12. Dutchman

    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    Checked all my hives, hardly a scrap of surplus, they eat what they collect, the only ones that were ok were the ones that were loaded a month ago, glad I took 80 kg of honey from them then or I would have nothing this year. Bramble and lime fully out and rosebay willowherb just beginning but...
  13. Dutchman

    Backfilling nector in BB

    I would check it for moisture content by shaking and if its dry enough take the super off, as long as you leave some stores in the broodbox. And you have to reduce the entrance and mayby dummy it down to fewer combs. Because two frames of bees will not manage to keep a full brood box (without...
  14. Dutchman

    Test Frame - Time out of hive

    Wrapped in warm towel is also a good way
  15. Dutchman

    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    Checked all 12 hives, first wanted to wait a few days till the weather improves but decided against it and was glad I did because 2 were preparing to swarm. All the hives I took honey from last month are fine, I left them plenty but those that had little yhen are now completely empty, if cold...
  16. Dutchman

    How long to leave a hive to re-queen itself?

    It always pays to be patient, I just found a nuc fully laid up with eggs but it was 7 weeks from the day I made the split, of the other 6 that I made on the same day 4 started laying 3 weeks ago and 2 started laying 2 weeks ago, so I had nearly given up.
  17. Dutchman

    Another show and tell poser

    Thank you for this thread, I just noticed a few of my colonies with the same problem a couple of days ago, I got a fright thinking about foulbrood, sackbrood, varroasis etc but none seem to fit the picture and then I realised it was a fresh outbreak of chalkbrood, caused by a break in the flow...
  18. Dutchman

    Honey Supers - bees capping or uncapping?

    I recently harvested about 9 supers full of combs looking like that, I was at first hesitant , wanting to wait till they had capped it all but I think its what happens if a flow comes to an end and they have a bit of a break with nothing coming in, they ripen whats there but wont cap the cells...
  19. Dutchman

    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    Checked the last of my 7 new nucs, it now also has a laying queen, 3 weeks later than the first, they all began on the same day. Patience pays off.
  20. Dutchman

    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    Extracted honey from 8 supers, only one or two combs were sealed, most of them were less than a quarter capped or not at all. But got 80 kg of honey, 16/17% , good start to the season, hope that's only the beginning.
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