A skep. They used to be used as hives here, but combs were not removable for inspection, and so they were discouraged in favour of frame hives.

Followers are a nuisance that cannot be cured by smoke or spray, only re-queening.

@@BarefootBeekeeper I wondered if it may be the queen. I’m not able to re-queen, I only have one colony. I guess they will swarm and she will be off to pastures new.

No. They will use the sugar as an energy source for foraging, and store nectar to make into honey.

My ZEST hive is still going strong and I plan toale another video about it soon.

@@BarefootBeekeeper Thanks, Phil. Looking forward to watching your new video about your ZEST hive. I have built five horizontal hives approximately the same size as ZEST. The frames are of similar size - actually inverted by 90 degrees Dadant frame - 300x440 mm. The insulation is really big - actually the hives were built from PIR panels 120 mm - 4,7 inches (just got them free of charge). Bees are doing pretty well in these hives. I am keeping dark European bees (I am in the central part of Russia). I actually started from Lazutin's hive design. (You are familiar with it as you shot one video on Lazutin's hive - nice young lady). I built 7 hives for the double deep frames according to his recommendations - 435x460 mm. From my few years of experience, the frame is somewhat wide. I just got a feeling that a narrow frame would suit my bees better. I also read a lot on the Internet - Melliffera Association in Germany (Golden hive or Einraumbeite), David Heaf in the UK experimented a lot with the same design, ZEST hive (communicated with Bill Summers by e-mail), Layens hive also has narrow frames (330 mm). So, all that moved me to a narrow frame. (Maybe that is not very critical at all as bees will handle everything that is at their disposal. But anyway that was my way). Last year I bought at Amazon your two Balanced beekeeping books - I and II (Building a Top Bar Hive and Managing the Top Bar Hives). I enjoyed them - very well written and very useful information). Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise.

I don't treat at all, as I'm trying to identify strains that are resilient and disease-free. I had an unusually high loss rate this last winter of around 20%, but that is the worst for a decade, and hopefully means that splits from survivors will be that much more robust. Treatment-free is tough, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

@@BarefootBeekeeper yes I agree, I am 21 years old and I have been reading and researching bees and regenerative agriculture for a few years now I got my first hive last year. I haven’t treated and the bees made it through winter and are building up well. However they do have some deformed wing virus. It seems as though they are managing it well I have seen them pulling out some young white pupa which I imagine is diseased or weak. I hope to carry on treatment free and hope to catch and propagate feral and local strains. However the Beekeeper’s around me seem to think it can’t be done. I suppose something is considered impossible until it is proven otherwise. Thank you for your advice and I look forward to your future videos. What time of year do you normally make splits ?

Presumably only if you use a lure/attractant!!?

I often add some peppermint oil, or sometimes Olbas oil, but only to mask their alarm pheromone. These bees were pretty chilled.

They were expecting to start from scratch with no help, so I'm sure they will manage.

@@BarefootBeekeeper I have a package coming soon . Its a help to know what to give them. Many thanks.

The book describes a gabled roof, but easy enough to add hinges.

It's quick and easy and the bees seem fine with it. You can feed syrup in a TBH, of course, and I will cover that soon.

Ha ha!