Hi Helena, Thanks for your comment. No, the customer gets them. The wooden frame and foundation probably costs around 60-70p currently but the effect of the comb is spectacular I think. Well worthh it for a present for someone and if they're being sold they should easily sell for £15-20 at a market if not more. Stewart

Hi Abenezer, Thanks for getting in touch. I've used both but only here in the UK. The best advice I can give is for you to get in touch with Bees for Development www.beesfordevelopment.org/ They have a huge amount of experience and good contacts locally to help you get involved. Good luck with it. Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo Thank you for your replay! From your experience, how many kilograms of honey can be harvested on average from top bar and Langstroth (Zander) hives respectively? Regarding Zander hives, when harvesting honey during the flow season, do you immediately replace the honey super with new frames of foundation sheet, or do you extract the honey from the supers and return the frames to the hive after the extraction process is complete? Thanks

Hi, At a farmers market or fair I would think they should sell for £19.99 without any trouble at all. They take a bit of work, you do lose some honey production from that colony and you have to start all over again next season. They're in limited supply and so shouldn't sit around on the display for very long at all I would think. Stewart

I've seen a unit supplied by the Thomas Apicultre company in France, this blends a 300kg drum by mechanical means but way more than we sell in any one period. Our soft set honey just isn't as popular as our other honeys yet it's my favourite! I hope you've had a great season beekeeping this year. Stewart

Hi Mark, Thanks for your comments, that's really interesting to hear. is the Champion Juice a mehanical juicer machine. I'm not familiar with it here in the UK. Stewart

Hi, Yes, you could make the starter as you say, there is nothing wrong with a coarser granulated set honey, it's just some people like it as smooth as possible. The trick is the stirring while it granulates so if you can do that it will be better for it. Good luck. Stewart

Hi Mark, Thanlks for your comment. I have know beekeepers to buy creamed ghoney from supermarketes and use that to seed their honey which seems bizarre really. The heat will damage the honey, there is no doubt. It doesn't just turn it into a "sweet sticky sauce" and I think you can still smell the local flora and taste that it is a local honey too. But I do take you comments and acknowledge that the honey is not the same as freshly bottled raw honey. I think the method needs to be viewed as a whole and the aim is to produce the smoothest set honey possible, which is what some people want. We also produce naturally set honey that is more granular but isn't heated. This can sometimes ferment as the process of granulation releases water. This is the reason the honey is heated to kill off yeasts and the like. It's a commercial bulk honey method, so, not a method for everyone, but if you're looking for a very smooth, still delicious tasting honey, then this method is worth a try. Stewart

Heat

Hi, The heat will damage the honey, there is no doubt. I think the method needs to be viewed as a whole and the aim is to produce the smoothest set honey possible. We also produce naturally set honey that is more granular but isn't heated. This can sometimes ferment as the process of granulation releases water. This is the reason the honey is heated to kill off yeasts and the like. It's not a method for everyone, but if you're looking for a very smooth, still delicious tasting honey, then this method is worth a try. Stewart

Hi Brent, Check out my other queen rearing videos for the additional info. The sealed queen cells come out of the cell builder set up prior to emerging and are put into queen mating nucs where they emerge and hopefully get out to sucessfully mate. We don't leave them in the cell builder coony to emerge because as you say they will either kill the rest or swarm. Stewart

Hi Lexie, Yes, it seems the bees really don't/won't/can't build the comb to the very edge of the basic wooden square, but I don't think it detracts from it as they've done such a great job overall. I do need to find a decent container for them as the ones I have are really not great! Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo next time you make up section frames rub the inside of the sections with beeswax and put water on outside of bends with a small paint brush to bend them this helps the bees to fill sections right out

Hi John, Yes, they are sold with the wooden surround. I've yet to find a really attractive container for them but I think for hobbyists, they make great gifts for friends and family. Stewart

Hi Peter, Both sides are the same, fully capped and looking very nice. I do hope the weather improves for the heather, we're taking our bees to the North York moors and this week looks rather wet and cold. Good luck with your heather crop this year. Stewart

My pleasure!!

You are welcome!

Hi Jen, thanks for you message, glad you're enjoying my videos and that they're helpful to you. Yes, we will "Under-Super" our colonies later in the Autumn. It's my preferred way, it brings the brood nest higher in the hive and to my way of thinking, keeps it above any cold breezer that might get under the hive over winter. Stewart

I would suggest Vitex Negundo. It blooms all spring, summer and fall and always covered in buzzing honeybees. Make sure it's not Vitex agnus castus. It's bloom is bigger but honeybees dont like it. Nothing that will grow in your area will beat a shrub of Vitex Negundo for honeybees but Vitex Agnus Castus wont do bees any good . But planting vitex shrubs is only my humble opinion not his. We still need his opinion on what to plant.

I like to leave that period for the bees to store up for the Winter, there's lots of forage out there still but not a massive nectar flow unless you have something specific locally. It's a great time for us beekeepers to take a breath and start extracting too!

We're taking supers this week and next. There's not much of a flow from here on so I like to leave it for the bees to load up the brood nest.

Hi, It's a tricky topic and one that really needs considering thoroughly. I'm certainly going to look at it further and see where it leads. Good luck with your beekeeping. Stewart

Hi, We have put drone brood frames in for July to remove in August, I don't think I would do this after August as you really want the brood to be Winter worker brood at that point. It's going to take around three full weeks to get that drone brood out of the hive so anything added now will come out in Late August. Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo Thank you so much for replying Stewart, that is brilliant information, many thanks for your expert advice 🙂

Hi Steve, Are you in the UK? Yes they are mediums, we bought a bulk load from another bee farmer a couple of years ago. If you're after some drop me a message via my website and I'll see what we have spare. Stewart

It's a Honey Paw hive, available here in the UK from Modern Beekeeping.

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo Thank you.

Hi Simon, This video is from a while back so I'm not totally sure what did happen. The follow up video is probably in the archive on Patreon. www.patreon.com/norfolkhoney Stewart

Hi and thanks for commenting. Certainly, adding more space for the bees does help in reducing the desire to swarm, and we are at that point in the season where the urge to swarm should be falling off. For us, the available forage will start to diminish very soon and the brood nest will also start to reduce in size as the queen slows down her egg laying as we approach Autumn. It's always difficult to advise what the best course of action is as there are so many variables but giving additional space will help. Good luck with them. Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo thank you for replying and that really helps I appreciate i. I was going to demaree (on foundation) however I've been forced to split late, not ideal, but as they have made swarm preparations in the BB with 3 supers on 2 rammed with bees and nearly capped, I really feared they would probably swarm, weather is pretty good here in East Sussex. I did a 3 frame split, will feed nuc and pray they make up the numbers before it cools down, there is a lot of late forage here so I'm hoping they will be okay (fingers crossed). It's hard to say but hope I've done the right thing. All the best

Hi Mart, It's an interesting point you raise and one that needs discussion. I'm hoping to chat with someone who is an advocate of resistant honeybees so I'll be sure to put that point to him. Stewart

Hi Rob, It's really interesting and something I've never really considered doing before. I think I will set up a single apiary and go treatment free with the colonies having selected for whatever visible traits, such as this bald brood, as I can. Stewart

@TheNorfolkHoneyCo please keep us updated. There is afew not to far from me that don't treat and I believe one that has never treaded ever, im not sure I should share their location but if you want I can find the information and send it to you?

I’m also interested in this question?

Hi Simbob, Our Honey Paw poly hives are fantastic for overwintering colonies compared to any wooden hives I've ever used. Colonies come out of the Winter stronger, healthier, and in my opinion better equiped to generate either a better spring crop or a larger brood nest area that I can make splits from. These go on to build large colonies for the Summer flow too. They are tough and wear well, all they need is some masonry paint and that protects the poly from UV rays.I wouldn't go back to wooden hives now and I'm converting all of my equipment over to Honey Paw, oh, and I'm not being paid to say that either! :) Stewart

Hi Paul, It's an Oz Armour bee suit. My first year of trying it out and I've had some rather annoying stings through the veil. I discovered the reason for this and hope to shoot a suit review video explaining what happened once we get nearer the end of the season and I can give some feedback through experience of a full season with it. Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo OK thanks. I'll look forward to seeing this as my family and I just have bee keeping jackets and hoods so far... But saying this they're working out very well.

Hi Laura, Thanks for the comments, I'll look to get some close up video of this blad brood for KZfaq, there are a number of my other videos showing close ups of bald brood caused by wax moth but not this particular type I don't think. Next time we check them out on video I'll see if we can find some more to shoot. Stewart

Hi Lexie, It works really well but make sure to use washing soda in a good quantity and hot water. That way the propolis seems to melt away leaving the frames nicely clean. Good luck with it. Stewart

Hi Nix, Thanks for your comments. Yes, I think allowing the eggs to develop further is something well worth doing and something experience has taught us, we get a far better success rate. I will look to produce another video using this process showing that. I think for ease of use, using all of the cups and taking only what you need works best. I means less cleaning and it's a simple enough task to relace and clean unused cups. Stewart

Hi Anthony, No need to use syrup at all. Keep it simple and marvel at how the bees organise themselves. Stewart

Hi P.P. The results we have just seen are not too bad for a first attempt. We have some nice looking comb being built in quite a lot of the squares. I do think the key to real success with them is having lots and lots of bees that are producing wax and as you say a swarm would work fantastically well with them. Good luck with your beekeeping. Stewart

Hi, Thanks for commenting. Use only thin foundation so there is minimal extra wax. I think without foundation it would be almost impossible to get the bees to draw comb in a way that suits us. Not that the bees really care what we want of course! Stewart

Hi, That's really interesting to hear. I'll have to order some Irish sections in and see how I get on with those too. have you had much success with Sections? I'm getting a lot of negative comments regarding their ease of use and the ability of the bees to draw them fully. Stewart

Hi Nigel, I've heard that too, I don't think my taste buds are so delicate to detect any smoke getting into the honey and sometimes necessary to drive bees down or out of a super without getting them worked up and grumpy! That said, we tend not to smoke supers heavily, just a puff or two between boxes etc. Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo thanks for your reply. useful to know.

Hi Paul, With our Langstroth hives I have no problem over wintering the colonies on a single brood. If we have supers that have a little honey in them at the end of the season we'll probably leave that on beneath the brood box but otherwise everything will be settled down for the long haul as normal. What are you intending to do? Anything different form your normal set up? Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo This year has been a rubbish year so I'm checking them and I'll probably feed them during Autumn to help them stock up for winter.

Hi, Yes it is a long way but, with luck, worth the effort! Fingers crossed we get some help from the weather gods! Stewart

Hey there, Sounds like you're on for a bumper harvest! Glad it's looking good for you. Stewart

Thanks for your comment. Stewart

Hi Jared, Yes, most certainly, we have simply left the cups in place, added replacement cups where needed and given the entire box a spray with clean water. I dno't know if that is essential but it makes me think I'm cleaning them out and with a little water in there the workers get in and clean it out anyway. We always have enough young larvae for our needs and never need it to be fully loaded so I'm happy with the process. Have a great SUmmer beekeeping. Stewart

Hi Fred, The weather has turned, we're now "enjoying" heatwave conditions and about to move our bees to the borage. Have a great Summer's beekeeping. Stewart

Hi Alan, I don't think it's either the bees or the borage! I'm sure they're on it but you might have a larger source of nectar and pollen locally that they are more interested in. Good luck for a nice summer crop of honey. Stewart

Hi, You're certainly not the first person to do this and you won't be the last so don't beat yourself up about it. If you can add a frame of eggs from another colony then they will produce more queen cells. If you don't have another hive, ask a friendly local beekeeper if you could have a frame of eggs from them. Good luck Stewart

My pleasure 😊