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Ok ​@@DraigwenHoney

It took the wind right out of my sail

I was gutted butt lol

What do you mean? I’ve never heard of anything like that

Autonomous sensory meridian response

Last time I tried it she escaped through the mesh

Give me an email at [email protected]

Thanks butty. I didn’t work this time but the principle is sound I think. I’ll try it again with harder wax next year maybe.

How do you do it

Typically in the uk we use posca pens

Which bit is harmful

The water or the pigment

The life blood of the world or the oxidised copper naturally all over the planet

That isn't harmful to the bee and is a common practice with beekeepers.

also honey bees arent the important bees.. so you're wrong and wrong. congrats.

And toes

Makes sense now you say it

You are correct

I think so too

Something had died on the farm somewhere and the feeder had a leak. They were around for a few days until I fixed the feeder.

This method looks cost effective and more likely to work kzbin.info/www/bejne/rH21k3aHaLGMnbssi=CvLFOcdH7bYTDzaE

It didn’t work this time but I think if the wax was harder I may have had more success. It was only a try out to see what would happen. Hopefully you have better results than I did. Are you grafting your carni B or a different queen?

That looks much better and just as cheap

@@DraigwenHoney Carni B was not laying last week but might try half from her and half from a queen I raised last year as her laying pattern, colony temperament etc are looking to be my best option

Nice one man. I’m slowly getting better at production

They are growing very slowly. I’m going to try and boost them soon as possible. If they try and make a new queen I will let them. How are your bees doing.

@@DraigwenHoney one colony potentially queen less or in the process of a virgin out on mating flights, one with chalk brood that's improved but laying pattern not great so more than likely requeening, two going well and a newly introduced carniolan queen last week in a nuc still to lay

Where did you get your queens? My main colony is on the brink of starvation but the bramble is about to bloom here in south wales. Is the hawthorn still on up with you?

I’ve had a frame feeder in with them but they didn’t take the feed. I’ve put a frame of honey in with them now.

Thanks

The ones you put the most effort into get the least views lol

I was going to move the splits to a different site. I was planning on doing small 2 frame splits and top them up with brood from the nuc that will be expanding rapidly soon. I’m turning it into a brood factory. What do you think?

@DraigwenHoney-sx9qu Just think about how much brood will need to be kept warm especially if the weather turns, so less stronger ones could be wiser than more weaker ones. Are you adding mated queens or letting them make their own? As thats another factor as they could be queenless for a while till she gets out and mated if raising their own

What would your approach be? My goal is to have ten hives and five nucs going into winter.

@DraigwenHoney-sx9qu like all things is not easy as I'm that far North in Aberdeen my season is shorter, plus I'm looking a quality over quantity as not interested in huge amounts of hives and equipment to store/maintain etc. So if you go walk away split it's going to take time and no guarantee the queen's gets mated or returns from a flight. Adding mated queens can speed things up but more costly especially if the bees don't take to her and kill her off. Not knowing your forage and any nectar gaps or the wasp situation later on is very difficult so weight up your options as sometimes slow and steady can pay better rewards.

@DraigwenHoney-sx9qu but don't let me talk you out of your plans if your confident it's the right thing for you.

A space cowboy

They were all in the bottom of the cells and there was capped worker brood

I’m finding it’s not as straight forward as I had imagined. Some unexpected downs and unexpected highs. I hope you have good weather and your new queen gets mated fully

The candy became hard

This was the exact issue

Thanks for commenting. I really didn’t expect them to try and make queen cells when there was a laying queen in the hive. I’ll try the dunking them in water trick to stop them flying away if I ever run into this issue again.

@DraigwenHoney-sx9qu she not seen as a laying queen till she gets out so they were not waiting plus her pheromones will not be as strong because she of this. goodluck