BBKA Forum

What does the airwick do?
Would lemongrass oil do the trick- it's brilliant in bait hives.

It disrupts their sense of "smell". By the time they regain it they are all best pals.
Lemon grass should work, it may even work better.

So by that rational could it be used in an unlit smoker during inspection?

Same as Nigel with no ill effects to the bees..when i was younger i used to chase flies around the house and much to my Mothers anger and a few thick ears for the waste of air freshener to kill flies that never worked..i would cover them in it but they still got going again..i now use a cut elastic band with a knot in the end to twang guts everywhere.... ..
air freshener does not have Tetramethrin/Permethrin or any kind of bendicarb in its ingredients so the flies and bees are totally safe..

Alfred wrote: ↑

24 Jun 2020, 19:01

So by that rational could it be used in an unlit smoker during inspection?

I would say yes as the bees go down the same as with a water spray or smoke but smoke and water costs very little..

Yesterday I stuck a new queen in a nuc with a push-in cage. Will check on Sunday/Monday and then release, leave for a week or so, then unite with a queenless hive I have.

Then that last hive will be moving to new apiary.

I also turned over the wax cappings in a rapid feeder for the second time.. The bees are getting creative with comb before they get the honey out!

Might have to try the solar wax melter again today. It has design flaws but today seems hot enough.

Alfred wrote: ↑

24 Jun 2020, 19:01

So by that rational could it be used in an unlit smoker during inspection?

Possibly, but why the desire to rto do the same with something a bit different? Air fresheners work and are cheap. I know Mick unites after giving both halves a really heavy smoking, which I'm assuming does the same as the air freshener.

Queen spotting is not working well for me at the moment. I have 2 problem hives that I moved to bleed off fliers and reduce numbers of bees, which worked fine. Can I find the queens, can I buggery.
So final straw shook all bees into a brood box with 2 frames, placed a queen excluder on top and put the beeless frames of brood above. At least tomorrow I know where the queens have to be......but to err on caution they will be removed from apiary before checking for them. And air freshener unite the brood boxes to two docile hives nearby.

That's happens to us all Nigel. I have a similar colony that I've just bled off all the flying bees because I couldn't find the queen.

I've been checking poly nucs for mated queens, they're going well.

Reassuring to hear that Chris. I know a few "experts" who never fail to find the queen it's unreal.....literally.