Recent content by MarkS

Thanks everyone - lots if common sense - really helps to have someone to talk to!

Thanks so much for your help i’m new to all of this

Ok my bad - poor english just keeping one full super which I was going to under brood. Wahts the difference between shallow and super please? Basic question do I move to winter formation nadir now?

Nadir? Was only going to put one full super back on under the brood box- but just feel it’s too early

Am in a fix - large colonies - honey taken off- but is it too early to close hives down for winter? Ie one leave one super back on, take off queen excluder snd put one super under brood. It feels too early and loads of bees- when do people start to close hives down for winter- it’s getting much...

Yes we have loads of balsam Ian no heather

Thanks a lot Eric and for the detail will definitely try this

Thanks Ian , I think I am learning the dynamic slowly - weather forage excepting -making splits to prevent swarming presents a clear trade off- last year I didn’t split but just added supers and ended up with my first - large - harvest but this all tells me in fact the season is in fact short…...

There seems to be plenty of forage Eric but the activity is minimal - maybe the heat

There seems to be plenty of forage Eric but the activity is minimal - maybe the heat?

If I take honey now will I get a second bite at the cherry in July/August??

Thanks guys somewhat confused by last year- as was so easy - so many variables but I am down south in Kent/ Sussex - made too many splits so have a few hives that were booming but are now subdued - basically have 2 hives full/ 3/2 supers but then 5 others struggling to make gain after split...

As a newbie could someone give me some idea if CV possible when the summer flow might end- end of July??

The apiary manager at the first association I joined showed me how to use one- very fast ,little to no mess and very little loss of wax and honey but you have to use a standard comb fork scraper blade to skim off the molten wax capings while using the gun leaving everything clean to extract...

My experience with hot air gun is that it works perfectly as long as you also scrape off after using hot air gun. As mentioned above little to no wax waste and a clean slab of honey with no sign of wax capings anywhere to stop honey flow. No brainier