todays news

[fatshark]

Frames and foundation both first quality from big T in this case ... except for the foundation that fitted which was Maisies and was so old it was probably cut to Imperial measurements.
I use second quality frames usually for foundationless ... out and out duds are rare and I don't have to worry about shonky grooves in the sidebars as there's no foundation to fit. If they're seconds it also doesn't hurt as much when I chuck 'em rather than going through the palaver of reclaiming the wax and rewiring them. Seconds and foundationless mean I'm willing to splurge on DN5's ... Luxury

Yet another season has started without me making my own starter strips during the winter ... shame on me. I need to build a tall thin wax melter of some sort.

Are those feral bee farmers intercepting your runner?

[The Drone Ranger]

Frames and foundation both first quality from big T in this case ... except for the foundation that fitted which was Maisies and was so old it was probably cut to Imperial measurements.
I use second quality frames usually for foundationless ... out and out duds are rare and I don't have to worry about shonky grooves in the sidebars as there's no foundation to fit. If they're seconds it also doesn't hurt as much when I chuck 'em rather than going through the palaver of reclaiming the wax and rewiring them. Seconds and foundationless mean I'm willing to splurge on DN5's ... Luxury

Yet another season has started without me making my own starter strips during the winter ... shame on me. I need to build a tall thin wax melter of some sort.

Are those feral bee farmers intercepting your runner?

its been a problem since the big collapse in the bee population
not enough pollinators farmers taking to crime now the crops are all failing
you surely havent missed that thread

your so money supermarket fatshark

[fatshark]

your so money supermarket fatshark

Absolutely ... which means finding a beesuit that fits this

faee4c0977d6cfff5eac69da4e4f20ea.jpg

is tricky.

[The Drone Ranger]

Lol!!

[fatshark]

Unconventionally and perhaps controversially bringing this thread back on topic ...

I went through three colonies in my shed today ... one of the full-sized colonies had two reasonable patches of sealed drone brood, perhaps 2+" across. Definitely not a DLQ as the rest of the 4-5 frames were pretty good quality worker brood, with at least one frame a slab of lovely brood with very few gaps. The other full-sized colony, which was if anything further developed, had no drone brood. The only difference is that the one with drone brood was on foundationless frames where the bees draw a mix of worker and drone cells 'as needed', but also repurpose them - or perhaps restructure would be a better word - if required.

I've got no experience with early season in Scotland but was surprised to see drone brood so early. I suspect that the cells were drone from last year and that it's been too cold for the bees to restructure them for the workers the colony should be raising ... another example of the Q not really being in charge of things, but simply acting as an egg laying machine?

External temperature about 11-12 C ... a balmy 18 C in the shed with the door open most of the time

[greengumbo]

Unconventionally and perhaps controversially bringing this thread back on topic ...

I went through three colonies in my shed today ... one of the full-sized colonies had two reasonable patches of sealed drone brood, perhaps 2+" across. Definitely not a DLQ as the rest of the 4-5 frames were pretty good quality worker brood, with at least one frame a slab of lovely brood with very few gaps. The other full-sized colony, which was if anything further developed, had no drone brood. The only difference is that the one with drone brood was on foundationless frames where the bees draw a mix of worker and drone cells 'as needed', but also repurpose them - or perhaps restructure would be a better word - if required.

I've got no experience with early season in Scotland but was surprised to see drone brood so early. I suspect that the cells were drone from last year and that it's been too cold for the bees to restructure them for the workers the colony should be raising ... another example of the Q not really being in charge of things, but simply acting as an egg laying machine?

External temperature about 11-12 C ... a balmy 18 C in the shed with the door open most of the time

Few patches of drone brood up here. Not quite 2+" but two colonies out of 16 had drone brood. Def marked mated queens in them. Told you it wasn't so bad up here !

[fatshark]

Look carefully GG ... that drone brood was laid up last year ... it's been frozen solid for the last 7 months
Good to hear you're back on your feet again.

[The Drone Ranger]

Unconventionally and perhaps controversially bringing this thread back on topic ...
)

there's a topic ?
Another hive bit the dust thats 2 hives 2 nucs and 8 out of 14 Keilers Kaput

[fatshark]

I didn't go.

But I did look through the "What's new" section of the Thorne's catalogue online.

The Good
Stainless steel runners - no more acetic acid destruction
Plastic QE with beespace one side
Rainbow Apidea-sized mating hive for £8ish (but perhaps not for overwintering)

The Bad
Eyewateringly expensive new floor system with about 35 modules and add-ons. Some combinations - this is a floor remember - cost £80-120

The Ugly
SHB traps
Dummy boards for £10, yes ... you read that correctly
Api-Bioxal 350g for £this page isn't wide enough

... and then I went and built some more frames

[gavin]

Rainbow Apidea-sized mating hive for £8ish (but perhaps not for overwintering)

Nice looking price and reasonable looking box. One difficulty might be that it looks exactly like a picnic cooler box so if you site them out in nice places passers by might be tempted to look in for pieces and cakes.