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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #8109  by Steve 1972
 03 Jul 2020, 11:23
I have done three unites this year Jazz and all where successful..i sprayed the top bars with Airwick 6 in 1 and then placed news paper on the top bars and also sprayed the news paper.. i also sprayed the top bars of the hive i was uniting to the one below and left them to it..my thinking was that two proven methods for uniting used together is only going to go in my favour of a successfully united colony.. :D
 #8115  by nealh
 03 Jul 2020, 22:09
Checked on a colony that I moved over from nuc, nuc was a swarm (clipped Q) from a very productive gentle mannered one. I had made up the 5 frame nuc with 6 combs of starter strip with horizontal 25lb(bs) monofilament line, four frames so far under way with uniform worker comb being produced and some already having nectar stores added. Colony was ripe for producing nice comb another colony started off as expected with producing worker comb on two frames given but about two thirds down decided brood was better for the nectar.
 #8125  by Japey Edge
 05 Jul 2020, 13:11
I did want to try the air freshener method but we didn't have any and were tight for time. I am also learning that out-apiaries are no fun compared to garden apiaries - I forget things a lot. Like this time, I forgot the poly block insert for the brood box so there's cardboard in a glove stuffed in the aperture of the Abelo brood box on one hive. I also learned I used a frame feeder as a space-saver for brood frames as I didn't have any available - completely forgot about that. Since I've been neglecting my apiary notes of late, this caught me out. I have noted it now.

So in my out-apiary I am now down to two full hives on double brood, one with 3 supers, the other with 2. Also I have a nuc there that has raised a daughter from a buckfast queen and she's mated. They were incredibly calm. I'm half looking forward to seeing how her colony acts when they're all definitely hers.

At the home apiary I have one full hive currently uniting over newspaper. Unfortunately I saw and killed 3 wasps yesterday. Heavily smoked any corpse left behind in case that let off an attractant to other wasps. I have a tunnel entrance floor on this currently uniting hive and have put two wasp traps up also. Will wasp terrors affect likelihood of successful uniting? Both colonies are of GM buckfast heritage and the nuc has a Becky's Bees Buckfast in there now.

And finally - I fed some honey back to the bees in the maisies nuc feeder. What was left had set into a kind of soft patty. I scraped it out and put it on the top bars of the upper box during uniting. I figured it would be distracting for the bees and that anything that dripped on to the newspaper could only contribute to the unite. I would like to know other people's thoughts on this if possible. :-)
 #8127  by Steve 1972
 05 Jul 2020, 13:46
I thought your floors where under floor entrances Jazz,,the tunnel floors are the ones that i made and wasps have a terrible time trying to get into any hive with my home made tunnel entrances..them underfloor entrances are ok but i do not rate them as a good wasp deterrent as the wasps can sneak in at the corners..
 #8128  by Japey Edge
 05 Jul 2020, 18:08
Steve 1972 wrote:
05 Jul 2020, 13:46
I thought your floors where under floor entrances Jazz,,the tunnel floors are the ones that i made and wasps have a terrible time trying to get into any hive with my home made tunnel entrances..them underfloor entrances are ok but i do not rate them as a good wasp deterrent as the wasps can sneak in at the corners..
Ah yes under floor entrances. Hopefully they'll be better than the Abelo floors.
If not, I can fashion some sort of tunnel insert I'm sure.
 #8139  by NigelP
 07 Jul 2020, 18:51
Oh man....badgers, now moles. Thought my hives were looking a bit crooked after replacing hive stands after badger pulled stand over.....damn mole undermined stand... Went to "correct" things and double brood and 4 supers went to ground. Smashed 2 supers, bees were not amused to say the least. I can now say with authority that even Ozarmour bee suits are not totally bee proof when they are determined enough.
The only good thing was mole popped up for reasons best known only to itself and is now RIP.
God knows if queen's survived the fall...will have to wait on that one.
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