Recent content by islayhawk

If there had been a supercedure and I too had a small unmated Queen would I not expect to see small capped drone brood.

Yeah still plenty bees had thought of combining. The problem I face by putting in the frame is that I only have sealed drone frames and by the time a new queen could be raised there might not be any fertile drones. So I had thought of combining - thoughts?

Did first check yesterday. First hive fine, bias, plenty of stores and pollen. However hive 2 was different. Plenty of stores and pollen - but no queen and no eggs or brood in any form.I noticed over past two weeks that the bees from this colony were hanging about on the alighting board more...

Does that mean clearing the supers of bees or uniting them also wth paper.

I have united hives in the past using the newspaper method. However - how is it done when both hives have supers.

Not sure. Field is amass with flowers. I would imagine he will graze it. Curious of value to bees.

A farmer close to me has a field sown with forage rape. The field is a mass of yellow flowers.I know about OSR- but is forage rape a flower beneficial to bees

Started a split using the snelgrove board on the 5th June. Following instructions for doors etc there was a Queen cell on the 17th June. On the 26th the cell is open but no sign of Queen. Bees seem quite docile. How long should it take before I start seeing eggs or start worrying.

Sounds like its easy access so possible the bag over method is the way foreward

My sister has discovered a wasps nest in her boiler house. She asked me for advice since I keep bees. Whats the best way to erradicate it.

Was looking to rearing Queens by using an apidea. However my plan was to use the apidea Queen laying grid then create a nuc and place the new larvae in a Queen rearing frame in the nuc. How long should I leave the nuc Queenless before putting in the new larvae and also how many cells should I...

Reading the Colonsay black bee website Mr Abraham states that the Black Bee on Colonsay is Apis MM the native British black bee. Nowhere does it mention a french connection. I would assume reading his description that they are as pure as the Cornish bees.

Well apart from the obvious geographic difference !!

I was lead to believe that the first reserve for the black bee was on the island of Colonsay off the west coadt of Scotland established a few years ago. So what is different about these bees

Had to replace my Queen a week ago with a mated Queen from a very reputable breeder. The colony has been taking down feed all week and bees still taking in pollen. Checked the hive today to check if Queen is working. Loads of stores but very very little brood and no eggs. Any brood would have...