Recent content by greengumbo

Brilliant - thanks both for the quick answers ! Lesson learned !

I had grafts (all from same hive) taken and sealed in three hives (65% average from grafts taken). After being capped a few days (day 10) I put hair-roller cages on them and moved all the QCs from 2 of the 3 hives to my incubator set up. I was hedging my bets in case the incubator failed and so...

Interesting. Is this classic VSH, whereby bees remove infested brood, or is it suppressed mite reproduction (SMR), whereby some factor suppresses the ability of mites to reproduce ?

Just a small thing but FERA Science Ltd is not a DEFRA agency anymore. Sold off. It's a private concern part-owned by Capita and a small part by DEFRA. It's not cost effective for labs to offer the testing you want, especially at Universities. The rest will charge a pretty penny as you found...

Syrups cheaper than honey !

excellent - cheers for the advice.

I have two supers of heather honey on thin comb. I intend to sell some as cut comb in those small tubs. The supers are currently stored in a warmish area and I an not intending to sell for a month or so. Can I cut it now and store or should I cut just before selling ? Best way to store ? Cheers !

Yellow rattle is a great little plant. Bumble bees love it and it seeds readily and parasitizing grass. I have planted verges all around our area with seeds and after a year you can really see the difference as if cuts back the grass. Then plant other wild stuff - poppies, corn flowers, ox eye...

I did a demaree last evening following the fleet beekeepers method online. Think it went pretty wrong ! I did it this way due to the MB poly langs I have and their annoying lip. Firstly prepared a brood box with some drawn and some fresh foundation as well as a frame of solid stores. Then found...

What do our france-dwelling forum members think of this ? Vita must think the hornets are going to be arriving UK side soon. http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/apishield-asian-hornet-trap-video/

I use ashridge as well. Really helpful and 12 month guarantee on trees / hedges. I had a cherry that died last year, probably due to the long winter and wind, and they replaced no probs.

Bumbles are excellent at buzz pollinating blueberries. Seem to recall honeybees are inefficient pollinators ? * quick google revealed this interesting site about US blueberries in Maine. http://umaine.edu/blueberries/factsheets/bees/629-honey-bees-and-blueberry-pollination/

Is there any evidence that the behaviour of the jetstream at this time of year will lead to a wetter or conversely drier summer ? Or is that beyond the current forecasting models ?

What material can it print (I have no idea about 3d printers!). Is there one that can do high insulatory material because I would just print poly hives.

Absolutely but we had terrible temps from October all through winter and the last snowfall in May. Never saw them once between end of Oct and February - not that I was out 24h watching - wait till I get that webcam set up ;)