Ahoy-hoy BEE-KEEPERS

[renewablejohn]

This is now getting rediculous. 9 swarms in 2 weeks on a quarter of an acre apple orchard.

[Countrypaul]

Beekeepers 'run out of equipment' as swarms rise: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-c ... e-65746081

Looks like it is not just round you

[renewablejohn]

Question for the bee experts on here. Has anyone had any joy with frames 90 degree to each other. Reason for asking is with all these swarms I have run out of National hives which I have now standadised on. I started out on MD hives but as I have got older there getting just to heavy. I have worked out if in a MD box I put in a MD frame at either side then my National Frames will fit cross ways between the two MD Frames. Will this work or should I just stick to dummy boards to reduce the internal dimentions.

[AE-NMidlands]

Question for the bee experts on here. Has anyone had any joy with frames 90 degree to each other. Reason for asking is with all these swarms I have run out of National hives which I have now standadised on. I started out on MD hives but as I have got older there getting just too heavy. I have worked out if in a MD box I put in a MD frame at either side then my National Frames will fit cross ways between the two MD Frames. Will this work or should I just stick to dummy boards to reduce the internal dimentions.

Looking for a bee thread to update I just found this... Sorry I missed it, maybe we were away. I recognise it's a bit late now, but I have put (ordinary BS) boxes above each other at right-angles as it was recommended somewhere (in one of my books?) for bees which insisted on putting brace-comb up between the frames of the super above. It does mean that they bring in extra propolis to seal the new tight space between the frame ends and the wide bit of the box above though.
The biggest thing is bee-space above and below the frames, I'm not familiar with MD boxes and can't imagine whether your idea would have left the frames propped up above where they need to be. How did it work? Any pics?

[nowty]

Swarm of bees outside Nowty Towers today.

A neighbour who knows a bee keeper is dealing with it.

[Fintray]

Bees and sunshine!

[nowty]

Bees and sunshine!

And our cactus is flowering, they only flower in very strong sun and last only a few days.

[AE-NMidlands]

Bees and sunshine!

I've still got the bees, but the sunshine has gone away! It's been a strange year, a friend In Gloucestershire says he and other people round the country are having a terrible year... Cheshire seems to be an island of plenty:

Jy2024.jpg (303.79 KiB) Viewed 739 times

It's crippling me lifting all the boxes off to do inspections, SWMBO is urging me to extract half of them soon so that I can avoid having to shift them every week, but I can't face doing that job twice!
(btw they are not all as tall as they look, nos. 2 and 8 are standing on brood boxes as substitute stands.)