Search results

I am considering doing a Shook Swarm on my hives next spring as I seem to remember reading somewhere that this reduces the chance they will swarm later in the year. Has anyone noticed if this is true? I don't mind the potential to get less honey as I am getting plenty for my needs. I like the...

I performed an AS to, hopefully, stop a colony from swarming. I would like to reunite them as soon as possible so I get more honey, but I don't want to do it too soon so they start to think about swarming again. Any advice on a good amount of time to wait? Cheers!

One of my hives lost it's queen and built a load of supersedure cells. I went through today and removed them all (I hope). I did spot the cell in the image which looks fat enough to be a queen cell but it lacked a top. Does this look like a cell that a queen has emerged from? One other...

Is it possible to just use vaporized oxalic acid as your varroa treatment and not bother with others like thymol? For example do the usual christmas treatment with oxalic but also do the fall treatment with 3 doses of vaporized oxalic rather then thymol. I am wondering as I got a lot of very...

I have pre-ordered a new queen that will be coming in about two weeks, however I have found that I need to treat my hive for varroa. My inspection on the 7th of March showed that the hive was building up well with about 3 or 4 jumbo langstroth frames of bees (not sure how densely packed as I...

I've just done a 24 hour sticky board check and found 21 mites, I also did a hive inspection so that might have knocked some more off then usual. The colony has something like 50,000 to 60,000 bees. That seems like a level that indicates the hive needs treating. However the queen is still laying...

For most of the day the hive activity is fairly uniform with bees coming and going depending on the weather. However some days, for a period of time, a lot bees pour out of the hive and fly around. There are quite a few doing circles up and around the hive, which I think are new bees learning...

I have a hive in the back garden and am going to add another two hives to it next year. Since 3 hives is going to mean quite a lot of bees I would like to make them fly up over head height so the rest of the garden can be enjoyed by those who aren't as comfortable with bees as I am. My plan is...

I have installed a package of bees to a new hive with no drawn comb. The few times I have had to open it up I haven't used smoke as there would have been no honey stores for the bees to go and eat. The bees have also been extremely gentle and I haven't felt the need to pacify them. However I...

I've finished making up the frames and hive but there is a gap when I add all the frames to the hive. The inside of the hive is 37.5cm wide, the 10 frames total 35cm wide and the remaining gap is 2.5cm. Should there be a gap? If there should be one should I space the frames out to fill it...

I am wondering where I can buy powdered sugar that doesn't have anti caking agent or any ingredients other then sugar. Does anyone know where you can buy this? Cheers!

I am wondering if there is a greater chance of a colony accepting a new queen if she is introduced after a shook swarm. For example you could remove the old queen from a hive, wait a day or two and then perform a shook swarm into a fresh hive containing the new queen in a cage. The reason I am...

I am leaning towards getting a poly langstroth hive with a single jumbo for the brood. One of the reasons is that I like the idea of that single chamber holding all the supplies to get the bees through winter so I can safely steal all the honey in the medium bodies. Will that be enough for a...