How can I find my old pictures?

[thedruggist]

Your wisdome is required again folks.

 

At my regular Sunday inspection the amount of brood has dramatically decreased. There were only three frames that had capped brood on, I saw NO larvae or eggs. Queen (Betty) was present and looked healthy judging by her speed of departure from vision!

 

I think I know what my options are - Re queen or put in some eggs from another hive ( except I only have this one hive!)

 

My question is - Is She just having a break (for whatever bee reason), will she start laying again, considering we're getting to the end of production and how long should I leave it before I take some action (and what action?)

 

Still the varroa drop rate has decreased!!!

 

Your wisdom as always is gratefully received.

 

Thanks

 

Tony

[Olly]

Umm - not sure I know enough to answer the question as to whether she is having a break - I didn't think queen bees ever took a rest! If you saw no larvae and no eggs, then she hasn't been laying for the last five days or so at least. How old is she?

 

My bees were queenless for at least a month this summer, as it took me a while to realise it and then took a bit longer to get a frame from another bee keeper; apart from being rather tetchy (I got several stings) they were not too bad-tempered, and went on bringing in pollen and honey throughout that time. Can you get a test comb from someone else in your area?

[Guest]

Are you treating for varroa?

 

RAB

[chickenanne]

Am I right in thinking that thymol-based treatments can make a quenn go temporarily off-lay? Could that be the issue?

[thedruggist]

Thanks for the replies.

 

No not treating for the varroa yet. Will be consulting nearby NBKA member to maybe cadge a frame and ask advice.

 

It couldn't be something to do with putting the supers on could it? I put them on about three weeks ago without the QE to encourage them up. The frames are just foundation.

 

Another thing I noticed the inspection before the last one was that Her laying pattern was getting erratic - a symptom of something????

 

Could it be wasps? I've noticed a lot about recently.... must put out the traps.

 

Anyway thanks for the advice so far, keep it coming please.

 

Is it me or are there too many damn variables in beekeeping - I always have more questions than answers!

 

Tony

[Olly]

I think there are never definite answers, a lot of it is educated guesswork! I doubt if it's the supers going on though. If her laying pattern was erratic, I wonder if she's just run out (of steam or eggs). Do you know how old she is?

[Guest]

Here is a definite answer.

 

If she has stopped laying for no good reason and more than several days ago, requeen now.

 

A frame of eggs will not help unless that queen is removed from the hive. You will likely lose this small(?) colony to wasps if you do not make the requeening an urgent 'must do' with a laying queen. You may lose it anyway. It rather depends on how many bees there are in there right now and there is not a hint of such useful information in your post.

 

My response is for a nuc sized colony, apparently with more than one super?

 

If it is a huge colony which had no laying space, my answer would be different, so I am guessing at the missing information. Brood on three fames? That is not too prescriptive either - could be not a lot or could be full frames on both sides!

 

If it a small colony, remove those supers! Why you would put on more than one is baffling Unless they are actually half-supers asin beehaus or Dartington. Still baffling, even then.

 

You would know if the problem was wasps - they would be inside the hive.

 

Too many variables you say? Queen present or not; laying or not; drone or worker brood; uncapped brood or not; increasing or decreasing; box near full or not; number of frames (of brood, stores and bees); laying pattern good or bad; disease free or not; not many others which are important here. Most information is alternatives, positive or negative, and several items preclude others.

 

You have a queen and she is not laying. You said yourself there are few alternatives. Beekeeping is not dificult as long as you carefully analyse the available data and act accordingly. The outcome might not be what you hope but that is livestock for you. What type of hive is this - A WBC or a Dartington? Makes one very big difference!

 

One small(?) hive, late July, no new brood for no good reason. I know what I would be doing.

 

RAB

[thedruggist]

Hi RAB

 

Direct as usual Sorry if all the info wasn't there so here it is (I'll do better next time).

 

Colony size is good, occupying all 11 frames which are 14 X 12 in a Beehaus (Dartington). One super on (two halves with a Beehaus) put there because colony seemed very strong and possibly needing space whilst I went on holiday and for the vaguest possibility of getting some honey.

 

Only seen one wasp possibly in hive when I opened it but there are a couple flying around but seem to be picking on the few (6 or so) dead bees around the hive. Wasp traps are out now.

 

The following info was in the post (I think, without rereading it)....

 

Queen present, unmarked, age unknown, she arrived with the nuc at end of May. Not seen any larvae therefore she's not laying. There is some capped drone brood no more than a coulpe of dozen and some capped worker brood - about 10 to 20 on each side of three frames. Laying pattern is erratic. Lots of stores on at least 4 frames - 2 frames 14 X 12 of solid honey (capped) the othe two are around 40% capped honey 40% pollen rest empy. other frames have a good top pattern of honey probably 20% and then loads of pollen (lots of black but also white, yellow and red) about 40% the rest has this scattered brood. Appart from a little varroa (very little now) they are disease free, flying well and very calm.

 

Tonight a local BKA member came round and had a look at the hive. His theory is that Betty (The Queen) may have (a) died or (b) swarmed and the Queen I saw was a new virgin Queen or a recently mated one and she'll get round to laying shortly.

 

I can see the locic in this but the Queen I saw looked exactly the same as the original. Anyway, we decided to wait and see for a while and if no laying starts soon I'll re-Queen or introduce some fresh eggs and kill this Queen off.

 

RAB thanks for any advice you have, direct or otherwise, I can learn a lot from you!

 

If anyone has anything to add please do. The more opinions the better!

 

Cheers

 

Tony

[Guest]

OK, direct as ever.

 

If she has been superceded and there is a virgin queen on the loose, you have missed the signs on two previous inspections (at least)? I do wonder what people check when doing an inspection.

 

I look for freshly hatched brood or eggs. That is enough to know the queen is there and laying within the last 3 days. Seeing the queen might be an advantage but I cannot understand how. She may be there but if not laying, she may as well not be there!

 

I look for any tell-tale signs of disease - brood or varroa related.

 

I look for space available - so is extra needed.

 

If during the swarming season I look for signs of swarming. If they are going to supercede, I generally let them get on with it.

 

Last week there would have been a large supercedure queen cell about to hatch or just emerged; the week before likewise. If virtually all brood has emerged from the frames she stopped laying over two weeks ago, well over.

 

Circa 100 capped brood is nothing - about 2 or 3 hours work for her under normal conditions (maybe a little more at this time of the season).

 

There will be an accelerated increase of honey stores. Same amount of nectar, but no brood to feed, for a couple of weeks makes one big difference to the stores deposited.

 

All queens have six legs (hopefully) and a longer tapered body than the workers. Because of that they can look remarkably similar (they would be mother and daughter, after all and she would not be a 'scrub' queen). If you purchased this nuc the queen should have been marked and should be less than a year old and you should have some details for her. If a freeby, things might be different but the age would have been known. It is important to know the approx age of the queen.

 

Did your local beek look for signs of an opened queen cell? It is not usually broken down immediately. He should have done, then he would not need to theorise regarding a swarm (and those swarm cells should not have been missed!), the most important reason for carrying out a weekly inspection, after all!

 

The hive is there to fill the brood box with frames if the colony is large. I often have 15 or 16 frames in my Dartingtons. They could be extracted, or they can come in handy for bolstering other colonies, if any are short of stores at the end of the season. If you do not intend to spin frames to extract, the larger frames are probably better to s"Ooops, word censored!"e back to the midrib, as long as they are 'stores frames' and not ex-brood frames.

 

Hope this helps for the future. You see, beekeeping is easy, really. This is all from my computer chair.

 

Regards, RAB

[thedruggist]

Hi RAB

 

Thanks for the reply. Have you considered anger management?

 

Anyway back to bees. A bit of background, although I maybe a new beek I regularly (every Sunday) attend the training apiary and ask when I don't know etc. then I inspect my bees. I have seen no evidence of swarming only a few play cups. Definately no used Queen cells. I do know what to look for - read the books and seen what to look for. I could always have missed one.....those damned short frames encourage all sorts of different shaped and lobed wild comb (should have done the false floor thing - hindsight is wonderful!)

 

I also know what to look for re eggs and brood (see above re training apiary). This was fine till a couple of weeks ago.... maybe I was a bit slow in realising laying had stopped - I am new to this (you have tha advantage of experience).

 

Space - She has loads. But as an aside I have never seen quite so much pollen collected as in my frames. Compared to the training apiary I've 10X as much easily. Like I said some frames are 40% pollen

 

Re the age of Betty (or Daughter) - the nuc came from Omlet. Queen was caged and unmarked and no information on the origin of the bees or the Queen was provided (or asked for). So I'm in the dark on this one. From the colour (yellow) and demenor calm, (no need to smoke) the impression is that they are Italian bees. I don't know where Omlet get their bees from - perhaps someone will be along to enlighten us. Maybe we should ask more questions before we buy (blooming hindsight again).

 

As for beekeeping is easy - it's like "Who wants to be a millionaire" it only easy if you know the answer. Now if I could just get inside your head.......

 

Your advice as always is welcome, keep it coming.

 

Tony

[Guest]

Next instalment coming...

 

No anger, just straight facts - but hopefully with something to make the reader think for themselves.

 

Yes, I started too, and made some mistakes - but one very soon learns to write down any simple interconnecting facts to work out a simple time-line, or connect together corroborating evidence, list options available, kit availability, possible movement restrictions for colonies, etc, etc. A sheet of paper and pen or pencil are usually enough to get started, but a word processor is a good option. Now it comes fairly easily and, in my case (with several hives), if I get a problem I can usually easily get round it, so no sweat (brood diseases not included here). I still sometimes get logistical problems regarding where I want, or need, my bees. One problem of having sites which are less than 2 km apart.

 

With facts wrapped up in swaddling clothing the average punter will likely completely miss the point. Never get the simple connections. I have no idea if you are average, above, or below - but we are not the only ones reading the thread, and an awful lot that do read it are possibly fairly clueless when it comes to working things through wrt keeping bees.

 

Repeating important points - means it might just get noticed that there is a connection (eg. inspections/queencells/eggs).

 

I note you say you would have noticed the lack of eggs some two weeks ago. Sorry, but 'no eggs' means stopped laying for at least 3 days - immediate alarm bell! Something that is 'not the normal'. One should not need the alarm bells ringing for weeks on end or the initial problem (if it is one) will likely become more acute (think here 'brood disease' per eg).

 

You only have the one hive? Not too many to go through, then? Not too many notes to take for future reference, if nothing else. You ought to have a standard report form for your inspection results - they are freely available from several sources - then you may have wondered why there was a space for the 'age of the queen'.

 

Simple reasons again - queens do not last forever. They need changing or will be changed (by supercedure), or the colony is likely to swarm early, or she becomes less productive in her older age, or drone laying may become evident.

 

You say 'I have seen no evidence of swarming', but seemed to have accepted, without question, your local beek's theorising.

 

Wrt the pollen - they are still collecting but no brood to feed! That is where the pollen is mostly needed, so it has gone into store instead. Simple. The same applies to nectar, if one thinks about it. The only difference is, we harvest the honey but not the pollen! The connection is simple again, nevertheless.

 

Hope this makes your beekeeping simpler. It pays to be methodical, especially with inspections (or why bother every 7 days!). It pays to be observant. It pays to keep it simple - bees are not that complicated when it comes to normal day-to-day operations. They all have a simple purpose in life and get on with it whenever possible.

 

Yes, beekeeping is simple. A series of interconnected simple facts or observations. Bit like a jigsaw puzzle - when all the pieces fit properly together you most likely have the correct solution. How to achieve that simple solution is sometimes more difficult.

 

End of today's lesson. Main learning objective for the day was centred around thart word 'simple' (for those that hadn't noticed).

 

Regards, RAB

[Old Speckled Hen]

I have not had a simple introduction to beekeeping ........ my one june nuc is now three boxes ... but that's another story. I will never know many answers but I must agree with RAB it really does pay to keep good records and simple succinct ones are adequate. Quite often you can see a problem more clearly looking at it on paper/screen. My records are essays now but they will archive my growing experience..... and I hope prevent harmful inactivity because I didn't understand what I was looking at.

[Lesley]

I googled 'beekeeping records' and there are quite a few versions available (with permission) to print off.

I also take the camera now and snap anything which looks different - our hives are coloured so I make sure that a bit of the hive body is in each shot so that I remember which hive the photo belongs to when looking later on.

 

Not getting at anyone here - but as Rab says.....others read for info.

[thedruggist]

Hi All

 

Firstly I do keep records, simple, easy to make and read records with headings of Date/Queen/Brood/Stores/QC/Room/Health/Temper/Notes/Weather/Forage. Under each heading just a simple tick or cross. So for eg under Queen a tick for seen, a cross for not seen.

 

Secondly the position of my hive in shade makes seeing eggs very difficult (esp as I no longer have 20/20 vision) but young larvae are easier to spot so I have evidence that she was laying. What I probably missed is the reducing number of young larvae and more capped brood. I shall be more observant in future!

 

I haven't totally accepted what the BKA member said - it just sounded logical. My doubts are that I would have seen some evidence of Queen cells and so far all I've seen are 3 play cups and one slightly more enthusiastic effort at a Queen cell. Again it is possible I missed one but I doubt it.

 

What I originally wanted to know is ....is it possible (if it's my original Queen) that she might stop laying and then start again spontaneously when She feels conditions are better? Or is it more likely she's stopped permanently and it's new Queen time. I feel that it's the latter.

My second original question was how long can/should I leave it. Obviously the sooner I do something the better, but when does it become critical?

 

In addition you seem surprised about weekly inspections - is this too frequent/not enough? How often do you check your hives RAB (I realise you have a few!).

 

Thanks for your wisdom so far....

 

Tony

[Olly]

I'm not the most experienced on here, but if you believe that the queen is defective, then I wouldn't delay - as RAB said earlier, at this time of year there it's more critical.

 

I was probably lucky in that my queenlessness occurred at the end of May. If you consider that a new queen will take 16 days to raise (assuming you can find/remove the current one, and get a test comb), it could then be a week or so before she is mated - we're well into August by then, it will then be 3 weeks before any brood are raised. If you want to go into the winter with a strong colony I would act very quickly.

[thedruggist]

So how often do you inspect your hive(s)? Obviously this will vary according to the season, but during the main spring/summer how often do you look at your hive(s)?

 

Cheers

 

Tony

[Guest]

Weekly is the answer you should be getting mostly as you specified 'main' in your question, but those with clipped queens can go longer, without fear of swarming.

 

BUT it all depends on the colony. For instance a hopelessly queenless colony with a queen cell introduced would attract a simple check to see if the queen had emerged and then leave it for two or perhaps three weeks. This is, of course provided other remedial action is not required (like a high varroa drop rate).

 

Nucleus into a full brood box - look weekly to assess outer frame comb building, move divider(s) (to add frames of foundation) and leave alone. If increasing satisfactorily why disturb any further? Now, if they were not bees of my origin, that would be different, and disease checks would be far more stringent.

 

It all depends. I do not have enough colonies to need to do 'blanket' inspections BTW.

 

Like the actual inspections, I look for eggs. Only if there are no eggs do I bother to take further action re the queen. Just not needed, a waste of valuble effort and more disruption to the colony. For what gain? The unlikely situation where she has stopped laying in the last couple of days? If she is dead, they would be building emergency cells by then and hopefully I would notice those!

 

Brood diseases are probably the most important and I would only note that if it were to occur. Most other problems are easily circumvented as and when they arise.

 

Those with one colony are more compromised when it comes to the routine mishaps than those with two. Those with two, while better equipped for an emergency, still have to be much more careful than those with several options.

 

Several colonies - more time consuming but simpler.

 

Regards, RAB

[thedruggist]

RAB - Thank you, just the info I needed.

 

I inspected again today and..........wait for it..........She's laying I found eggs, young larvae and more capped brood than before. I wanted to give her a good talking to but never found her.....but I know she's there!

 

Also found were some more queen cells, quite advanced ones, not used. Is the colony wanting to supercede her?

 

Anyway thanks again RAB for your advice.

 

Tony

[Olly]

Phew! That's good news. Re the queen cells, if they haven't been used then I'd assume they are just play cups, and that they are not planning on supercedure. If they were, they'd be feeding up larvae in them?

[Guest]

Tony,

 

Good news, but absolutely amazing! Capped brood you say. Only one week after there were definitely no eggs and had not been, for over 3 weeks.

 

Through this thread, we have 'brood only on 3 frames (indicating nuc sized colony) to a 14 x 12 full of bees (that is about 1 1/2 times as big as a standard National hive brood box. Theories of dead queen, swarming, etc. Value of weekly inspections, nucs on wrong size frames, and a host of other asides.

 

We now know you no longer have 20/20 vision! Can I suggest you get, and use, a magnifying glass or one of those fresnel screens (for checking varroa drop). I am not keen on the magnifying goggles but they are another simple alternative to avoid missing those important signs when inspecting.

 

We now know you have a laying queen (or laying workers!) - check the laying pattern and number of eggs per cell and the position of those eggs in the cells..... Oh, should be alright, as there is already capped brood and you would know if it was drone brood in worker cells.

 

So we can safely say you have a laying queen?

 

I really believe the most likely scenario is that of the original queen being superceded without you noticing. That may be a reason for the supplier not marking the queens before sale. I don't know, but am more than a little cynical of some suppliers' motives. Most suppliers are selling 'good' nucs with marked queens, I would think.

 

It is a fairly common occurrence where the nucleus has been 'hurriedly' manufactured - from bees and frames taken from hives (often more than one hive) and a queen (often recently imported) added almost at the point of sale. I don't call it a 'proper'(as in 'good', in the previous para.) nucleus unless the queen is the mother of all the brood and some (at least) of the foragers, .

 

That of course requires more than 6 weeks elapsing between introduction and sale (I do not sell nuclei). All my nucs have the queen hatched in the nucleus, from a queen cell introduced from a hive (of a queen from which I wish to propagate my next generation of colonies).

 

The demeanor of your bees may change after a second supercedure, btw. Be aware of that.

 

You should have taken steps to prevent the wild comb underneath those wrong sized frames for your hive.

BTW can you tell us all - did they build all drone comb under those original frames, or was it mainly worker cells?

There are several out here who would be really interested in your reply to that question.

 

You may wish to cut out/remove that first batch of capped brood if your varroa drop is high. After 3 weeks of nowhere to reproduce, the mites will have dived into those first capped cells with gusto!

 

Also, as another point, a healthy colony of that size should easily repel any wasp attack, especially if the entrance is reduced (and not to that silly 4(?) bee-way contraption, as supplied with the beehaus!).

 

Happy beekeeping.

 

Regards, RAB

[thedruggist]

Hi RAB - it was just a small increase in capped brood, not going from nothing to wall to wall brood. It's still a little erratic but, with a magnifying glass this time, there was definately egg laying in groups of cells towards the base of the frames. One egg per cell. The increase in capped brood is worker although there is some drone brood capped at the bottom of one of the shorter frames (in the extended comb).

I think you may be right in that she was superceded and I failed to spot it, but my favoured reason is that her laying slowed dramatically and has now speeded up and I just missed seeing the eggs. My reason for this is that the capped brood diminished but didn't dissappear, hence why I'm seeing an increase in capped brood (as you intimate it doesn't just appear!).

I am also a bit anoyed that my nuc MAY have been slapped together, I've heard this from other BKA members who also advised that the demenor may change next year when I artificially swarm them. Adivce was to re-queen with local queen of known origin.

Re the short frames, you're right again I wish I'd put in a false floor. I think this advice should come with the manual from Omlet. What I did was to gradually push them to either end of the hive so that as the brood hatched out it should be replaced by stores and I can eventually remove them replacing with 14 X 12s. I left one frame in for culling purposes. The brood in the extended comb was mostly drone but not all of it. The drone brood tended to be towards the outer edge of the brood area with worker in the centre.

The "silly" 4 hole wasp protector is in place. If not that what would you use? Do you have a Beehaus by the way?

Thanks for the advice re the varroa drop rate - I'll keep a close eye on that (with my magnifying glass!!!)

 

Thanks for your comments RAB

 

Tony

[chickenanne]

I find spotting eggs tricky; new combs and the light behind me is the best answer I reckon. And.... wearing my new glasses!

[Guest]

Hi Tony,

 

Yes, I have beehaus. It is now colonised and has a laying queen (was queenless for a while as it was the only queen cell which failed, earier in the season, when I made some extra splits) after taking steps to correct that mis-fire. I think it will make a winter colony but I may add a couple frames of hatching brood to give it a well-needed boost. I may yet requeen, not enough data to decide on that, yet.

 

I only bought it to compare with my Dartingtons, which are superb for what I want, and to actually dissect the design and search out the advantages and down-sides of the plastic 'phenomenon'. Really, so that "Ooops, word censored!"ody could accuse me of commenting on something I had not seen. I run all 14 x 12 brood frames (apart from the odd times HRH needs extra space for laying).

 

If you have a colony strong enough to resist wasp attack, and it seems yours is well up to the job, the normal entrance, without any insert, would be perfectly OK. I might reduce it to half, but 4 bee-ways is a joke for a strong colony! Believe me!

 

Unfortunately the varroa drop board is a joke too. Any substantial winds and it is likely to be found in the nearest hedge, if your hive has an 'open' aspect. The plasic side strips have likely improved things but the varroa may still blow away. Just not 'suitable for purpose' except for sheltered sites, perhaps.

 

Even without any appreciable drop I would cut out, or at least de-cap and remove (some, or all of), the first capped brood (checking for varroa mites in the cells, similar to drone brood culling), as this is your only colony?

 

I would say most nucs are 'slapped' together. There are some beeks who do the job 'thoroughly', but they are either mainly making nucs for themselves (so they do the job as best they can), or are just the good reliable suppliers who do not usually offer hundreds of nucs for sale each year.

 

Re the wild comb - I would expect the first to be all worker brood, as the colony was expanding initially. Only when reasonably strong would they have added drone brood, I would think, as that is an appropriate and obvious place (as cells can be built on in drone brood size). Not 100% the answer I was hoping for but, nevertheless, easily explained - especially if she has been superceded....

 

Now you can see that beekeeping is actually quite easy. It is the bee-losing which is hard to swallow.

 

Regards, RAB

[thedruggist]

You may be right about the 4 way wasp guard. When I put it on I had a big cluster of bees trying to get in/out. This made easy pickings for the hornet I watched selecting a victim and then carrying them off to eat only to return for more in a couple of minutes Without the guard though I have found the odd wasp inside the hive (unless it scooted in whilst I was inspecting).

 

My Beehaus is in a very sheltered spot boardered on all sides by a greenhouse, 6 ft hedge, 6 ft fence and a low 4 ft fence so I don't have an issue with the fragility of the arrangement. My issue is with the fact there are so many holes in either end for Wax Moths to breed. I've sealed all the open edges of the plate and supers with Duck Tape. In addition the bees don't seem to like to go through the QE. Put it on - few bees in the super - take it off - loads of bees and drawing comb.........

 

Isn't it a bit late for re-queening? (You're the expert not me - just asking!)

 

Beekeeping MAY be easy (I'll tell you after my first year) as they do all the work! Trouble is I'm a scientist - I don't like variables and uncertainty although often find both. If you've taught me one thing it is to be more methodical and observant!

 

Regards

 

Tony

[Guest]

Late for re-queening - nah!

 

Lots change their queens ready for the next season. Young queens are more likely to survive over winter than old queens who may 'run out of steam' just at the end of the season or any time during the winter. Changing a queen might be by uniting, or I can introduce the queen to one colony and unite the bees elsewhere. It's not a case of developing queen cells, waiting for them to hatch and come into lay, while the colony stands still, so no brood gap as the redundant 'queen' will still be laying. An advantage of having some new/spare colonies around in the autumn. I could take them into winter as nucs, but my nuc hives are 14 x 12 frames and some take 6 frames, so do we call them a nuc or a small colony? I can pop on a honey box (Dartington half-super) and the lot is about the same size as a standard National brood box.

 

So what makes you a scientist? A Pharmacist? Or development of drugs?

 

I might regard myself as an analyst in an earlier life. Analysed all sorts - radio-isotopes, cement, concrete, precious metals, and a few others in my time.

 

There is always an uncertainty, isn't there, with science. All we can do is reduce it to within acceptable limits, and if it works for long enough it can become a 'Law' - but then even Isaac got it a bit wrong and Albert had to make some slight improvements after a couple hundred years!

 

I'm not a real expert beekeeper; I've only been keeping bees for about ten years. Was never really hard, difficult at times, but now relatively easy to keep (at least) one step ahead. I soon realised that big healthy colonies going into winter is much preferable to weak ones. That, hopefully, gives a good start to the next season, so no need to keep playing 'catch up'.

Colonies reduced, 'cos we were away for long periods over about four years before the last, but now considering running a few more. Still only a hobby. They are fascinating insects; just a pain when they 'get' me.

 

The new 'improved' version has no little cavities - the brood and 'super' sides are now mouldings. I glued mine up with silicone. I am also going to fill the coverboards with insulation material, before the winter, to reduce the convected heat losses. There were other convection losses as well. I rarely use a Q/E, only above the first National super, on the Dartingtons. Not got that far with the beehaus, yet.

 

Happy beekeeping, and looking forward to those pics on the other thread.

 

Regards, RAB