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Thanks folks, yes, QEs still in place, no varroa control done; last inspection in September suggested there was a fair amount to extract from the supers - but assuming they survive winter- is it worth trying to remove/harvest the supers in Feb/early march (weather permitting)? I can't remove the...

For various reasons relating to my work and building work at home I was unable to extract honey from my supers (and prepare hives for Winter) this September/October. I am expecting there will be plenty left in spring - any advice on when I should remove the remaining honey and prepare the hives...

Yes - I meant unite, all the other hives do already have colonies/brood in - though none of them are 'huge'. I could probably get the wild comb fixed into some Langstroth super frames. I'm not good at spotting queens though if that matters

My wife managed to collect and house a swarm about 8 weeks ago (while I was away) into an old cardboard archive box which has continued to sit in the middle of the lawn with a plastic tablecloth over it. Clearly lots of comb etc in there now (but I can't really inspect it). I've got three other...

Very briefly - I have two Apimaye hives which have removable debris trays - cleaned and replaced on 14th March - checked both and estimated mite drop of about 7/day/hive after 14 days. Treated 1 hive with Hiveclean (i forgot to do the other) and cleaned the trays - next day 1 tray had about 70...

The Apimaye hive has worked well for me so far - the built in feeders are clever but i do tend to crush some bees putting the feeders/lid in place

It looks like laying workers to me from the spotty pattern then - I must have lost/damaged the queens in some way when I collected the swarms. Oh well.

I seem to have either laying worker(s) or a drone laying queen in both of two swarms collected earlier this year (I started last year). Will they recover themselves from this (make a new queen or whatever) - or do i need to do something?

Get digital photos of the comb and zoom in on the piccies; it's easier to see than by eye - though obviously takes longer

Two swarms collected this year; one about 5 weeks ago and one last week; both within about 50m of my hive; I suspect one of them might have been mine; but hey; three colonies now! Only downside - more expense on hives.

Well I'm quite new to all this but so far the bees seem happy. The clip together frames are easy to use; the debris tray is easy to clean and check without disturbing the hive; the clips holding together are easy and handles make it easy to lift, the feeders are clever - though syrup seems to be...

It seems to have worked - almost zero varroa at the moment too. But I think they are going to swarm.

I don't think the original hive has swarmed just because there are still an immense number of bees in there - but no I did not see the queen (have not seen her since last June!). The collected swarm look physically different too; more yellowy stripes. It was great fun collecting it.

I have one hive which was pretty near full of bees last week; on Wednesday I collected my first swarm from house next door (and got them into my spare hive); looked in original hive yesterday to find that my collected swarm had definitely NOT come from my first hive AND that there were quite a...

Because when I got the bees they were on national Frames and in a Langstroth hive there was lots of space for wild comb to glue everything together - and they did - so inspections were tricky. Much easier now.

Mould in the hive? This is a picture from the bottom of my Apimaye hive - I did a shook swarm a fortnight back, had a look today and found what looks like mould on one part of the tray - among the usual pollen, bees legs, bits of wax etc. The queen obviously survived as there is fresh larvae in...

My Apimaye hive came with plastic frames - I'm a newbie in May 2013 - but they're very quick to assemble with unwired foundation. I did not get much honey last year so left all the frames in over winter - so I can't tell you how they come apart or clean up in the dishwasher at 60C. But I hope to...

As a new beekeeper I bought an Apimaye hive last year - the bees seem happy enough - certainly full of bees this pm. I can review it from my 'newbie' perspective if anybody wishes; I don't think it's perfect but my wife did not want some 'tatty old wooden boxes that have knocked together by some...

I bought two this year - one as a spare - and my single colony seems to be happy. The one thing that does annoy me is that once I have replaced the built in feeders there are always bees on the top of them - which have to leave before the roof can finally go on - as they can not get back down...