Search results

Thank you all for your time and your advice. I'll read up on all the links this evening. I also have inspection cloths which might help deter some opportunist activity, but generally it seems the second pass was the match that lit the fuse. And if they're still buzzing round my head half an...

Thanks Enrico. That's just what's happened. I even got zapped the next day!

Just seen your posts Enrico and Boston Bees - thank you! Two runs through the frames might have just tipped them over. Presumably that's enough for them to still be having a go at me, 20 yds away, half an hour later... We live and learn - and get stung!

Thank you for all your suggestions. I was looking for the queen because in this densely packed hive I had found three sealed queen cells. I hadn't been able to inspect the hive regularly due to the cold temp and wind where I live. The plan was to find the queen and move her with some stores and...

Hi, On a lovely warm day this week I went though a very busy hive to look for the queen. Couldn't find her so I slowly started to go through them again. By the second frame they became very agitated - bees pinging off me and my black Marigolds (can black gloves upset them?) and then the stings...

What I was trying to say before I pressed the wrong button was thanks. I've also tried to help the bees with a 2/3 fondant, 1/3 candypolline in each tub recently as a rather cold wind keeps on blowing and restricting their foraging, and they seem to like it. Is it ok to mix two types of 'food'...

Thanks jenkinsbrynmair. Recently I tried filling the tubs over the crown board hole with a 2/3 fondant and 1/3 I do, and sing to them too - which might be why they tried to burrow into my cuffs...

Thanks Courty. When I opened the hive up and had a good look, it was like they were using the brace comb as a ladder to get up into the upturned tub full of fondant!

Thanks Madasafish, perfect.

Thank you for all your advice Arfermo, Murox & Boston Bees. I'll have it all sorted out by next Autumn. I didn't know that PC Crown boards even existed! As regards laying the fondant on top of the frames - I use Apifonda, so would I just crate a hole in the bottom of the bag and lay that on the...

Murox, I have a quick question regarding putting the fondant directly on the frames. When you open up the hive to check how much is left and it's a cold day, how do they bees react? I'm rather new to all this and I thought I should leave them undisturbed throughout - hence the tubs of fondant on...

Thanks Arfermo - propolis was soft due to the heat but I took your advice and used a wallpaper scraper and it did the trick very nicely. I only have two hives and I found one looking a bit weak (found 3 bees with DWV so it might be a varroa issue?) and the other hive nice and strong but with...

Thanks Murox, and you were right, the propolis had softened so removing the crown board didn't sound like a starting gun going off! And they were all very calm, maybe helped by using inspection cloths? Once I'd had a good look at the bigger picture, on went the cloths and we proceeded from there...

Hi, The weather here in the south looks warm (20º) today so I thought I'd have a quick cursory first check to see if all is ok in my two hives. Does anyone have any tips as to how can I get the crown board to lift without it making a terrible cracking sound as a winter's worth of propolis gives...

Thank you. I don't want to impede any movement between the cluster and the food so I'll take it out. It will also give me a chance to see where the cluster currently is.

I'm not far from you - is it ok to remove the queen excluder when the weather is a little breezy and fresh like it is at the moment? I have set up my hives with a QX over the brood box, then a crown board with food over the holes in the board, but notice you strongly advise removing the excluder.

Great, I get it. Thank you all for your time, and Tommo, thanks for the info and pic. That's the weekend sorted...

Thanks Tommo, it's pretty blowy where I live and my hives are already on stands, but the idea of a 'skirt' sounds good - what are they made of?

Thanks very much for all your advice, and just to check I understand it correctly - I can either replace my current 'reduced entrance' bar (one inch anti robbing entrance) with a height reduced bar of 7mm instead, and don't fit mouse guards, or, I fit an adjustable entrance bar and add a...

Thanks for the advice. Presumably they can be used all year? Do you know if they can be bought at that 6mm height, the only ones I can find are 7mm? Thank you.