Recent content by lindsay s

Most of my hives are pretty docile apart from when the strimmer comes out. I didn’t bother with my foam strips early on Sunday morning and they all went berserk! Lesson learned, I will now do it in the evenings and the strips will be back in till I am finished the job.

“Don’t cast a cloot till May’s oot” in Orkney :)

I wouldn’t want to risk an established queen by uniting bees with just air freshener. If it was a new queen I still wouldn’t do it, even if I was pushed for time. I always use newspaper, what’s another day in the bigger picture.

I’ve bit the bullet and a BeePro suit from Sherriff’s is on its way. I will review it in a few weeks time.

I have a BBWear suit with a round veil that’s coming to its end after being patched a few times by my other half. The only downside with the round veil was that it was quite cumbersome when working in confined spaces removing wasp and bumblebee nests. A free service that I’ve now restricted to...

At the other end of the price range, does anyone out there have a Sherriff BeePro suit. My current suit is coming to the end of its life and I’m considering a BeePro because I would now like to have maximum protection and the cost isn’t an issue.

Update on the cutout we did on Wednesday evening. Unfortunately the queen and a lot of the sticky bees didn’t survive, it was a cold evening when they were added to the nuc. Not enough heat and bees to clean them all up. The surviving bees were united with another hive today. Not the result we...

Braula mites, we have them too! I had to search to see where Antipodes lives and it’s in Tasmania. Braula is common there.

Thanks. We scraped off the comb right back to the boards and Derek said that they will try to seal any gaps with expanding foam when the wall is repaired. But it’s a very old building and I think it would be hard to make it totally bee proof. It was a school and after it shut in the mid...

A cutout. Firstly a little back ground history. Last year a local beekeeper was made aware of bees that were seen entering and exiting a wall in one of our local council buildings. The entrance was just below the guttering on the 3rd floor and we now know that the bees had been had found a gap...

Same apiary in January and it was below freezing mid afternoon for over a week.

It was mild and sunny here on Friday afternoon, a balmy 14c. I inspected 5 hives in my sheltered apiary, high walls and a sun trap. 3 hives had 5 frames of bias and one had 4. The fifth hive had a failing queen with small patches of brood and one open charged queen cell. If it had been mid May I...

I’ve been overwintering bees in poly nucs for a few years now. I’ve had lots of queens that have only started to lay in late July or even early August and they had built up enough to make it through to the next spring. Autumn feeding yes and I give them some fondant if they are light the...

Because the majority of my hives are still Smiths I will be sticking with the shorter lugs. I got a joiner to make up the strips to the stop the frames moving on the side of the frame runners and they fit the supers as well. It’s a good idea that you have suggested but I would be worried about a...

I have had some 12 frame poly Abelo hives for 3 years now, after spending all my beekeeping years with Smith’s. I run the poly hives with 11 frames ( it gives me a bit more wiggle room ) and I am still comparing them with my Smith’s. Two things that I’m not keen on. 1 The rebates make it almost...