Recent content by emoclewbee

None at mine. No reports of swarms in my local vicinity and even in the county I have only heard of 3 swarms. All my hives were pleasant today, no swarm cells found Calm before the storm I think

Past the point of saving MasMassive. Shake out the bees and put the frames somewhere safe until you need them.

14-17C forecast for the week here.

Every Sycamore I walked past I could hear a decent buzz from. Spotted a few bees on them. Hopefully I will see some green pollen coming in. Also I saw a couple bees on the apple blooms. Some later ones are only just opening but most apples been flowering for over a week.

Many commercially available queens are grafted into queenless cell builders, so it is the emergency response that is responsible for generating these queen cells

Apples well and truly out here in Cork. Haven't seen any bees on them this year though

The question states routinely.

After a discussion with some beek friends I am curious, during inspections do people routinely remove empty Queen Cups or do people leave them in?

One hive headed by a late mated 2023 queen, has not been doing well and is down to a frame and a half of brood. 3 unsealed queen queens all found on one side of the full frame. Not if they are trying to supercede but decided to do an AS. I was hoping to requeen from better stock but will see how...

I reared my queens in 2 batches last year. All the May Queens came out of winter booming. The batches from June were all a bit of a failure to be honest. After 2 not mating and combining another in August. I was left with 2 "late" queens going into winter. One died over winter, I suspect a queen...

Time to consider disease I think. If no obvious signs of anything on inspection, I would do a OA vape, or you could do a wash to check for mites. What miticide did your friend use?

Sorry I misread. Still I suspect jenkinsbrymair is correct. I know some people don't like collecting swarms. I think it is worth a go, might as well leave out a bait hive. You can always treat or requeen as needed

It doesn't necessarily mean it is the same family line of bees. It could swarm out one year or die off and then a new swarm moves into the abandoned hive next year. Certainly a free living hive which has survived this long probably has some varroa resistant traits but that isn't necessarily what...

The breeds I keep are not worth fattening imo

My grandmother showed me a way to divine for hens when I was younger. I tried it last year to show it to my toddler aged cousins. Got 11 hens, 1 cock out of 15 eggs. I am certain it was just total luck, but for fun decided to do it again this year. If it works again maybe I will consider...