I think it's too early to say that I got more honey from this colony; yes they did OK but it might be just because it was the bee. A sister queen has done very well in a double National without swarming. A third sister in the MB hive produced swarm cells very early on and has finished up giving me next to nothing.

I have moved the bees from the MB hive. They fitted into a 8 frame plywood nuc. As they were being robbed I have a 1" wide entrance in it. Another issue with the MB hives is that it doesn't have an entrance reducer apart from a full-width piece of plastic, so unless you hack it about, (and some beekeepers can't do that sort of thing) you can't reduce the entrance.


Copyright of photo's. I did question that - apparently most other on-line sites such as Flickr do something similar but they don't tell you. I am mindful that if I had a really amazing picture, I would post elsewhere first. Gavin, are you teasing the BBKA by showing the picture?

The gallery doesn't really work (no change there then!) as pictures have to be approved before they go live so you can't upload and post in one go. I understand the concerns about security but as they are uploaded by BBKA members I don't see the problem; there must be a secure way of uploading. So it's a gallery that doesn't allow you to post straight-away so doesn't work for the forum and the BBKA are relying on a few Forum members to fill it. Hmmm.