Recent content by Newbeeneil

I’ve tried with thicker gloves than nitriles but I really don’t enjoy the feeling. TBH I prefer without any gloves but my hands get too sticky with the amount of hives I inspect and using nitriles is better for disease control. I kept count today, 36 inspections, 11 stings.

Your reactions seem similar to mine. I expect a sting to my hands every 2-3 hives so if I inspect 30-40 hives in a day 15 stings would not be unusual.

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You wouldn’t cut a frozen frame. Defrost, cut it up and refreeze. The trouble with a hot wire is thst unless you pull the surfaces apart while using it they fuse togther again.

Nothing at most of my bait hives but I got 2 calls re swarms today. I missed a call at 11am but picked another swarm up out of an apple tree at 1800 today.

I'm envious of your space! I made a honey room in the corner of a barn it ended up at 7'x10' internally with the floor made from 8x2 T&G flooring sheets on 8x2s. The walls were the same boards on 2x1 battens and the ceiling was 1/2" OSB screwed to 3x2s. All internal surfaces were coated with...

Yes, I’m convinced that was the case.

I would say that it does but it would be an interesting test case prosecution.

I've probably been feeding them a Kilo of fondant a week since the start of April. I realised there was little forage and limited chance to get any available due to the weather so they were building up very fast and just l caught me out. 3 other colonies were almost dead when I opened them but I...

I like to think I’m a reasonably good beekeeper and can heft pretty well but this year I have had 6 or 7 very strong hives starve. I was feeding fondant which they were consuming rapidly. They hefted ok and I was very aware that I did not want to crowd the queen’s laying. When I inspected I...

I agree, Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) very common in the south.

They do a nice fluorescence green!

There were 13 at WSBKA auction and should have been another 3 but the beekeeper didn’t pull his finger out and couldn’t get a bee inspector to inspect his colonies in time. I booked mine in mid March!

I’ve seen several under the roofs of my hives, two in one yesterday.

Misty and murky in the wilds of Sussex this morning. But I don’t know a song about that!