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  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #3108  by NigelP
 15 May 2019, 16:42
If they have "swarm fever" they will be off again.
I did a vertical pagden as queen was proving elusive (wanted to do Snelgrove II) .....Top box fine....
Bottom box with flying bees and queen and some fresh foundation, drawn and undrawn,....queen cells everywhere....
The queen is currently 75% local mongrel and has picked up their annual swarming genes.
 #3111  by Chrisbarlow
 15 May 2019, 21:28
Spike wrote:
15 May 2019, 20:11
Chrisbarlow wrote:
13 May 2019, 16:13
Showing a couple of new beekeepers how to inspect. That's been my day
Was it sucessful? What problems did you encounter?
Went fine Spike. Couple of nice beekeepers and a straight forward inspections on a few hives.
 #3121  by JohnB
 16 May 2019, 22:20
My first post on here. Inspected my two nucleus colonies which I recently transferred into full size hive. Lots more bees, brood in all stages pollen being brought in and foundation being drawn out. All in all, a happy new bee keeper. Looking out for signs of queen cells though as there seems to be lots of swarming going on.
 #3122  by thewoodgatherer
 16 May 2019, 22:52
Collect a swarm from behind my house in the school playing field today sucsessfuly, my wife phoned the school back to tell them job done and the kids could use it at luchtime again - the school secretary asked if we had got all the bees :roll:
 #3126  by Chrisbarlow
 17 May 2019, 10:08
JohnB wrote:
16 May 2019, 22:20
My first post on here. Inspected my two nucleus colonies which I recently transferred into full size hive. Lots more bees, brood in all stages pollen being brought in and foundation being drawn out. All in all, a happy new bee keeper. Looking out for signs of queen cells though as there seems to be lots of swarming going on.
Welcome to the forum and have a great season. Don't worry about swarming with nucs. Give em plenty of space to expand and it "should" be ok.
 #3138  by Chrisbarlow
 17 May 2019, 16:10
showed a mate how to graft , set up cell raiser nuc box and use a dameree for cell raising.
 #3147  by NigelP
 17 May 2019, 21:57
Broke my own rule and went and collected a swarm....damn friends who get swarms.
If I hadn't seen a marked queen I would have said it was a cast swarm....but hey that's the colony size of our local bees for you....and in nontraditional swarm behaviour I took a few stings around the ankle (typical of our local bee behaviour)....they had only been there 3 hours.....hey hum.
 #3160  by Alfred
 18 May 2019, 10:03
Code: Select all
https://ibb.co/Fb5GLHx 
Used up offcuts ,odds and ends,and a mesh from the Welsh show.
Made a floor and feeder board
Total cost £4
Repaired a hole in suit.The bees would have told me about it anyway....
 #3161  by NigelP
 18 May 2019, 10:13
Ohh the joys of the local bees in my area....
Left swarm overnight in nuc with no frames so this morning added frames and frame feeder....chased around the garden and up my trouser legs.... This is a swarm the size of a large grapefuit.....
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