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Thread: todays news

  1. #4051

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    Amitraz is what I planned to use as well. I also sublimate any broodless colonies (swarms, queenless colonies and all colonies in deep midwinter). I find the oxalic acid sublimation very effective at keeping mute numbers low


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  2. #4052

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    The weather really not helping us this past week, plus late in the season. There is nothing coming in and lots of unripe stores and grumpy bees looking to rob. And, disaster - cheapest sugar I can find is 55p per kilo.

  3. #4053
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    Quote Originally Posted by Feckless Drone View Post
    The weather really not helping us this past week, plus late in the season. There is nothing coming in and lots of unripe stores and grumpy bees looking to rob. And, disaster - cheapest sugar I can find is 55p per kilo.
    Farmfoods 50p per Kg and £2 off is you spend £25 - (voucher on internet)
    B&M 50p/Kg

  4. #4054

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    Quote Originally Posted by madasafish View Post
    Farmfoods 50p per Kg and £2 off is you spend £25 - (voucher on internet)
    B&M 50p/Kg
    Get your sugar/syrup/fondant bought early.
    There is a significant price rise coming down the pipe as the new contract rates kick in from autumn.

    The price had dropped to a non viable rate leading to sugar plant closures in Europe, now capacity and demand are more in balance and a world price rise on top too means that traded rates are £100 a tonne up on the same time last year (and still rising).

    Reliance on retailers and cash and carry warehouses running loss leaders might become a bit more chancy going forward.

  5. #4055
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    Booker allows BBKA members to get sugar from them. Not sure if similar applies in Scotland. Currently they are doing 50 kg for £22.

  6. #4056
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Has anyone else noticed that queenless (or queenright but poorly/un-mated and pretty-clearly substandard Q's) colonies don't appear to reject drones in the autumn? I've been through lots of colonies over the last couple of days and the two with iffy queens both had loads of drones. I don't think it's colony strength as I looked at weaker queenright colonies which had very few drones.

    I should add that the queens weren't drone layers!

  7. #4057
    Senior Member Adam's Avatar
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    The short answer is yes.

    Turning it around, I guess it's a way of identifying queens that might be ready to fail that we would not notice until too late - if you want to unite two colonies before winter, then you remove the queen that has lots of drones in her hive as she will be the duff one.

    Autumn is fast approaching - comparing where I live and Aberdeen as an example, Aberdeen has longer days than me - just - but is losing a minute a day more in daylight so the nights will be drawing in very noticeably and the bees responding accordingly... It's getting late for a colony to start a sucessful supercedure.

  8. #4058
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    I’m about to start extracting this years honey and here’s a photo of my set up for removing excess moisture from unsealed combs. Any combs less than 60% sealed that failed the shake test were placed in my airing cupboard with a dehumidifier. I left it on overnight and there was about 220ml of water in the container this morning. I’ve a refractor so I can check the moisture content. This works well for me and I’ve done it for many years. My other half likes the honey smell that lingers on in the cupboard for the next few days. Be careful and don’t overuse the dehumidifier, one night is usually enough. I once evaporated it down to 16% and the honey became very viscous and difficult to extract.
    Sorry I’ve not figured out how to rotate the photo from files!
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    Last edited by lindsay s; 29-08-2019 at 05:58 PM.

  9. #4059
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to tell whether the iffy queens were iffy or not as I did exactly what Adam suggested ... they're now MIA and the colonies are united with other strong boxes.

    Lyndsay ... does your humidifier just dry out the top layer of honey in the cell or the entire cell contents? I've always thought the bees moved the unripe nectar around to expose the bits that remained too 'wet'. Warmed honey (34C) at 16% (not heather mind you) extracts perfectly well ... but I bet you have heather honey.

  10. #4060
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    Quote Originally Posted by fatshark View Post

    Lyndsay ... does your humidifier just dry out the top layer of honey in the cell or the entire cell contents? I've always thought the bees moved the unripe nectar around to expose the bits that remained too 'wet'. Warmed honey (34C) at 16% (not heather mind you) extracts perfectly well ... but I bet you have heather honey.
    Hi Fatshark I’ve no idea. I usually break down a few cells to get a decent sample for the refractor so I assume all of that honey has been reduced to the same percentage. The dehumidifier in a small cupboard is maybe too efficient! Capped honey on the same comb can often give a different reading. I play with my honey refractor far too much. I once sampled sealed honey at 20% and I think it might have come from a large patch of borage that was grown nearby. Wouldn’t it be nice if the bees always capped at the magic 18%.
    My honey comes from two town and one rural apiary. The main source at the rural apiary is clover which is blended with my town honey. It never tastes the same two years running. I might get a few cells of heather honey but I don’t keep my bees near any major source.
    You’re right the warmed honey would have extracted perfectly. But my other half reclaimed the airing cupboard and due to my laziness I left it in the kitchen for a few days before I extracted it at about 18c. I have learned my lesson.

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