Recent content by Aggravated

My colonies are exploding with bee's, and I am having trouble keeping up with the equipment I need, more supers, more frames, more brood boxes, more stands, more more more of everything. I am thinking of taking some of the honey now, then putting back the empty frames for the bee's to clean...

I know that it depends on the colony, and that disposable plastic/silicon gloves are better for bee hygiene, so what do most people use. If you are a leather glove user, do you have a preference, and do you sanitize the gloves after use, and what with. I would like to use the plastic option, but...

I would like to move my colony about 1100 meters from my garden to my allotment. If I block them in for a couple of days would this be enough to disorient them enough to stop them returning to my garden Aggravated

My bees are all tucked up for the winter now, I have added some Kingspan insulation on top of the crown board with a 2" hole, I have filled this with fondant. Do you think I need to check them or leave them be. I have "hefted" the hives and think they are in reasonable shape. I am away at Xmas...

Thank you for the pictures, mine are the same, I was a little worried at first as the weather is still a little cool, but I am now happier that the bees are conforming to the norm

Looking at the Varrox vaporizer on eba y, the power cord looks very thin, and if you need to preheat it before use, I would question its efficiency. I made my own one, using a glow plug from a diesel engine and getting a model engineering friend to machine up a small aluminium bowl.

The biggest problem to my mind regarding the Varroa is if it attacks the Queen, and she dies, then this will really stress the colony, particularly at the end of the season when making a new queen may not be feasible

I wonder if all of the work that has been carried out to help reduce the Varroa will help the bees get the upper hand, so speeding up the "evolution" process, the OMF must have made the biggest impact. I take the point that treating without the need is pointless and counter productive

There is also a suggestion from a friend of mine that too much insulation makes the bees less likely to huddle together, and can get through more stores, just a thought

I did this last year by putting a square of Kingspan board (50mm I think), with a hole in the middle above the crown board hole. I kept the piece I cut out, and when I needed to feed the bees, I removed the section, put in the feed, and placed the cut out on top.

I have put on 3 of these feeders with sugar solution in, but the bees have ignored it completely. One of the colonies is a Nuc, and I would have thought they would be sucking it down, the other two colonies have a reasonable store of honey, I still need to move the supers down to below the brood...

Quite agree

Had a quick look at the French go*gle site for hives, they can supply a full set up (minus bees) for 92 euro, about £78, something to think about on a day trip?

So am I right in thinking that the bigger brood box is better than the standard National one for the second year of a colony that started as a Nuc?

Can you expand a little, what sort of options are you suggesting