Requeening

[Erichalfbee]

In my field, yes but I'm full of admiration for you vets having to master the anatomy of mammals, birds and reptiles et al.......

Yes but only for your finals then you can forget most of it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

the last shower started as the chickens were ready to be locked in, within minutes the drains backed up so the back yard was a lake so was the home apiary, I got a soaking just running out to clear the drain and shut the henhouse pophole

I was vaping a hive. Got soaked. Five minutes later the sun was out and the paths were steaming.

 

[Sutty]

Sounds like you system needs power flushing - surprising how much debris can affect the flow, and then fitting with valves you can adjust once then leave - and turn off at the other end if you want.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Sounds like you system needs power flushing - surprising how much debris can affect the flow, and then fitting with valves you can adjust once then leave

all the radiators have valves, still has to be rebalanced every year and the system has had more than one good flush since all the radiators were removed and washed out when I converted from oil to a gas combi boiler. Had to bleed one rad this year and the water came out clean.
By next week it will have settled down again and will behave normally until the next summer rest. It's a big house with a lot of pipework from 1" down to 1/2"

 

[Darryl]

the last shower started as the chickens were ready to be locked in, within minutes the drains backed up so the back yard was a lake so was the home apiary, I got a soaking just running out to clear the drain and shut the henhouse pophole

Glorious day yesterday. Overnight frost so temp down to 2.4c. Good job I put Kingspan under the roofs yesterday!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Good job I put Kingspan under the roofs yesterday!

Mine stays in all year

 

[elainemary]

Hi all, in short I have 3 colonies all with plenty of bees and winter feed, however one is queenless with no eggs or brood at any stage.Due to work commitments I have been unable to inspect for over a month, there are no queen cells so I am assuming that the Queen has unfortunately died. My question is, is it too late to introduce a new queen? normally I would unite with another colony but as all 3 have lots of workers I didn't want to do this if my queenless hive can be saved. All 3 hives are on national brood box with a super above full of stores with no excluder. Any advice much appreciated
Thank you

Hi Freda be very careful coming to the wrong conclusion…When I did my last inspections (for some colonies was mid oct on a warm mild day) there was only small amounts of sealed brood in my colonies. By now there will be very little or none (I’m in West Yorkshire). If your bees are dark & locally adapted & in cooler climes, it’s common to be broodless by Nov. David Evans of the Apiarist blog, starts to vape his colonies at the end of this month (further north than me) as he reckons there’s the highest chance in his area of being broodless

I’d consider their behaviour - did they show signs of being queenless (more defensive than expected, more running around, more of a ‘roar’ when opened etc) . Also trying to find testbframes at this time of year is too disruptive IMHO and I doubt if I would find one in my colonies right now (unless a very late
mated young queen)

I would leave them to it personally, you could do a lot more harm than good - know you just want to help and do the right thing.

Edit - you’re in East Yorkshire, so I’d leave alone

Second Edit! The Apiarist writes on this very subject in this week’s blog. He advises colonies can be broodless from mid Oct to end of the year before the queen starts laying again in the new year
https://theapiarist.org/broodless/

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Good job I put Kingspan under the roofs yesterday!

Mine stays in all year

it's permanently glued inside the roof

 

[Sutty]

I recently made up a couple of new roofs for my wooden hives. Left the battens out, and inserted a piece of kingspan. It was a 45cm wide board so glued in with a bit of self-expanding foam.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I recently made up a couple of new roofs for my wooden hives. Left the battens out

I don't think I've ever used those battens - they serve no structural purpose and are just there to keep the ventilation mob happy. Handy for ripping down to make crownboard rims though - and a myriad of other uses

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Cor blimey! I'm glad I chose medicine as a career - the pipe work and its maintenance in my field was a doddle compared with the complexities facing a heating engineer described above.

Each to his/her own. However I used to tell a medical friend his machines were (mostly) self repairing and if not I could replace parts more easily.