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  1. jd101k2000

    Bumble bee vs honey bee colony

    If you ever have people asking the difference between a honey bee colony and a bumblebee colony, here is a useful video. Ignore the audio. The chap is talking about nematodes. https://youtu.be/m91PsvXZbO4
  2. jd101k2000

    The end of the world... is nigh

    Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but I clicked on the calendar link. Apparently time stopped at the end of 2015... either the end of the world came and went without me noticing (which might explain Brexit and Trump)... or there needs to be a mini update to the forum. Sorry to put it in...
  3. jd101k2000

    Which type of hive is best... a historical perspective

    I just read this extract of a letter from the preface of an 1864 bee keeping book that has just arrived through the power of the inter-web. In view of many of the discussions on here, it made me smile: In this work I have purposely left out all notice of a variety of hives as ingenious as they...
  4. jd101k2000

    If it looks like a flow...

    I am just starting this thread to see if other people are having a similar experience. One of my colonies has been behaving as if it is the middle of summer. Constant traffic and queuing at the door. (Admittedly, the entrance was still reduced.) Over the last week, I have had varroa inspection...
  5. jd101k2000

    Bees waving stingers around

    Just opened up some hives to put some fondant in. Hive was only open for a minute on each hive. Bees were in a similar posture to when they expose their Nasonov gland, but were exposing their stinger and waving it around. I am guessing that this is a defensive response to having their home...
  6. jd101k2000

    Chinese honey is now special honey

    I was in the local branch of a cheap supermarket. Name begins with A. Normally their honey is under £2 per lb jar (EC and non EC honey). Today I spotted that they were selling Chinese honey as special honey (for use in Asian cuisine, i.e. as bakers honey). (Not even a special region of the vast...
  7. jd101k2000

    Disaster - wheel barrow tipped over during harvest

    Just been harvesting some honey. Had three supers on a wheel barrow. Wheel barrow gave way. (Yes, I know three national supers weighs about 90lb when full, but this is/was a fairly sturdy wheel barrow.) Two wooden supers (with castellations) - fine. P@ynes poly super - four bits - whole super...
  8. jd101k2000

    When not to sell a nucleus

    This year, like more than one or two of you, I have a surplus of bees. You know it has gone from: 'The bees seem to be taking up a lot of time' through 'Doesn't this seem to be costing a lot of money' to 'If I see another swarm, it's ant powder for the lot of them' So, I have started selling...
  9. jd101k2000

    Bald brood (not from wax moth)

    I have a swarm from a fortnight ago. There is now brood in all stages (on foundation that they drew themselves). There is clearly a fair bit of bald brood (10 to 15%). So, after a bit of thinking - must have been a prime swarm (as BIAS already), so the queen is the mother of the workers...
  10. jd101k2000

    Dark bees or black bees

    I am used to my bees being dark... Dark brown with dark grey stripes (See my avatar). One of my newly mated queens is producing black workers. (In the past, with a late queen, I did get shiny black bees. This one seems to be producing healthy black bees.) Does this mean that she has more AMM...
  11. jd101k2000

    Swarm split connundrum

    I had a call from a friend. A swarm had got into a knot hole in the cladding on her double-walled shed/office. Normally, I would not tackle a swarm that has 'got in', but this was for a friend. Took off some of the cladding, smoked the bees a lot. (Makeshift bit of hosepipe on the end of the...
  12. jd101k2000

    Two 14 x 12 poly nucs for sale (SW Wales)

    Two nucs, full of bees for sale. They are housed in 6 frame, 14 x 12 poly nucs. They are from 3 frame A/S made in April. Both of them headed by queens that were mated this year and marked green. They have not been clipped. Mother queen produces bees that are quiet on the comb, hard working...
  13. jd101k2000

    What have you learned in your first year?

    Just completed my first year of bee keeping and I was thinking about how much 'stuff' I have learned from the bees that I wish I had known earlier. I am sure that a lot of this stuff will become second nature. Before it does, I thought it would be useful to share it. I was wondering if people...
  14. jd101k2000

    Queen marking - does it really require 3 hands.?

    Today was a good day - spotted the unmarked queens in every hive I looked in! I thought I would mark them. Then the problem: 1) On the first one, got out my queen plunger. Realised that I needed to be particularly dextrous to operate the plunger with one hand, while holding the frame. Three...
  15. jd101k2000

    Things the books have wrong

    I have been bee keeping for just over a year now. I am still a noob, but seem to be finding lots of stuff that the books don't exactly have wrong, but it's not entirely true either. In other words a rule of thumb rather than an article of faith. Here is my provisional list so far: 1) Bees don't...
  16. jd101k2000

    Noob question about robbing

    I have been very careful to avoid spilling syrup and honey in the apiary to avoid robbing. My understanding of one of the causes of robbing is that the bees use the 'circle dance' for short distances rather than the 'figure of eight dance' they use for long distance. The circle dance just...
  17. jd101k2000

    Holiday cover

    I'm shortly away on a business trip. I am reasonably confident that my charges' swarming impulses are under control. While I am away, my partner will keep an eye out... But is not a bee keeper yet. Is anyone near cross hands/llandybie who could be an emergency contact? I have put out a...
  18. jd101k2000

    Queens seem to take a long time to hatch.

    Yesterday I hived a swarm headed by two virgin queens. I know that there were two because I heard them both piping in the swarm. They had come from a queenless split that I made 12 days earlier. That covered three 14x12 frames in a poly brood bode. Today I checked the queenless split as there...
  19. jd101k2000

    Easy Smoker Lighting

    Seem to have found a REALLY easy way to light a smoker. Ensure metal trivet is in the bottom of the smoker. Corrugated cardboard about 2-3 inches deep either coiled or shredded. Blow torch until well alight. Lots of puffing to make sure it is alight. Then a handful of pet bedding - wood...
  20. jd101k2000

    Q- Nucleus has pollen coming in

    I have a nucleus into which I put a sealed queen cell 9 days ago. By my calculations it should have hatched yesterday, possibly the day before. The queen from the 'mother' colony was definitely not in there, as she is definitely in another hive. Today I saw workers bringing in pollen. There...
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