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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 😊

Hi Keith, If you mean the use of the borage seeds, it's ground for the oil it produces. We are not so lucky to get paid for pollination as the farmer believes we benefit enough by getting a crop of honey. It's very difficult to get paid as so many beekeepers want to put their hives on borage because of the large honey crop they can achieve. Have a great Summer's beekeeping. Stewart

Hi Alex, We're moving bees to the borage this week, a lot of hard work and hopefully a decent honey crop as a reward! have a great Summer's beekeeping. Stewart

You are welcome!

Hi Simon, Small world! Good luck with your beekeeping this Summer. Stewart

Delusional seems a little harsh but, yes, there are a number of parts so I understand what you mean. Once you understand how it all fits together and works it is a very good and reliable system though. Have a great beekeepoing season. Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo Maybe minimally delusional. It is a lot of parts. Don't get me wrong, if it works it works.

@@robertredbeard1855 I thought my wife was the only one who would ever call me delusional, lol. I hope you have a great beekeeping season. Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo I'm actually working on a design with less parts. So I can 3D print it. So far I have reduced the parts count to only the queen/cell block, single part cups and the front and back cover. I like the concept. Just not how they made it so many parts. What I'm working on should reduce the process to simply removing the cups from the back and placing them on the bars in the end. I didn't like the cups being three separate parts.

Hi Richard, Not a dumb question at all! Planning is everything and queen rearing gives an ever decreasing return on numbers. If you start with 20 queen cells waiting to get sealed, you might end up with 15. Then maybe 12 of those emerge, 8 successfully mate and return, maybe 6 have a good laying pattern and 5 are a nice temperament! Sometimes. you do get 10 really nice queens from a batch, if that happens, you're a lucky chap and start offering them to your fellow beekeepers! Good luck with your beekeeping. Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo Thanks for the fast reply and advise.

Hi @24nevil, They can be tricky, but with practice and a steady hand they're no worse than a National frame, and if you can handle commercial frames you'll find National frames a doddle! Stewart

Glad it was helpful!

Hi @gypsygem, It's a good point you make. The problem with recording videos is there's always so much to remember! I hope your season is going well. Stewart

Many thanks for your comment. I'll look to shoot a video on the topic of levelling off comb in the near future. I think there may already be one posted to my patreon page but look out here for it too. Stewart

The European Hornet is a native to the UK and is widespread. They never cause our honeybees any major probelms and I enjoy watching them fly around the apiaries we have. I'm not looking forward to the arrival of the Yellow Legged Asian Hornets locally however!

Thanks for your comments, this video is a blast from the past for me but still relevent :) Have a great Summer beekeeping Stewart

Hi Michael, It's called Dri-Pak here in the UK. Available in most supermarkets the price has increased dramatically over the last couple of years but it's still invaluable for cleaning hive tools and gloves between inspections. Stewart

Hi @rtxhoneybees, I spend a huge amount of time recording and editing both my videos and podcast each week. The intention is to alert people to the huge amount of content available and offer them the option of both the additional content and my mentoring experience via a monthly coaching zoom meeting. It's not for everyone but for those people who would like the additional tutorials and assistance it is an option. I still aim to share some free content on CZcams, there is also free content on my patreon page. Good luck with your beekeeping this season, hoepfully the rain will stop at some point and we can all get out and enjoy our bees. Stewart

Hi Simbobcrafts, One of the main reasons for using poly hives is the benefits of getting the colonies through Winter and into Spring as strongly as possible as we often split colonies early for increases or sales of nucs. The poly hives have always outperformed any wooden hives in this regard. In terms of honey crop, the Spring crop is always better from our poly hives, but it does even out by the time we get through to the Summer crop. Now we no longer have wooden hives I have nothing to compare them with. I'm very happy with the Honey Paw Langstroth in particular. Good luck with your berekeeping this season. Stewart

There are no "special" eggs. It is the royal jelly fed to queen cells that makes the difference. Queen cells are fed royal jelly and lots of it from day 1. Emergency Q cells can be anything up to 6 days old (3 days as an egg 3 days as larvae) and less royal jelly is fed to ordinary cells. Queen breeders place grafted cells into cell builder colonies stuffed full with nurse bees to maintain a good supply of royal jelly. Nothing to do with "special eggs".

@@keithpadbury9818 You know, that is exactly how I understood it to be and I guess what I was reading could have been Internet garbage and completely incorrect. However, I found the concept appealing. Tell me - is true that every time an egg is found in a queen cup it is a case of the queen laying it there? Or can the workers move eggs around and put eggs in queen cups without the queen being involved at all?.

Hi Paul, We use either spare corrugated cardboard or wood shavings (untreated wood). We buy the wood shavings from a pet shop where it is sold as pet bedding and guaranteed to be untreated.

Thanks for reply. I have used the cardboard have you found the smoke very hot?

@@paulflaherty2264 Not if you're gentle! it doesn't take a lot of smoke to maintain control of most colonies, so little and oftern is the way!

Hi Tim, You're right it has been a while! We followed up this inspection and found only a couple of open queen cells. These were removed and all seems well. The colony has since been split to prepare for the arrival of some new queens ready for our trip to the heather moors later this Summer. Good luck with your beekeeping this Summer. Stewart

Hi Amy, Thanks for commenting. Well done for for finding your queen and settling everything down. I would add a frame of eggs. The weather has been very tricky hasn't it, it may be the virgin queen has been unable to get out and mate so it's worth testing with a frame of eggs to see if the workers will produce any queen cells. Good luck with it. Stewart

Hi @Blue2crows, I'm very lucky to have built up some nice beekeeping equipment over the years. Thanks for your comments and good luck with your beekeeping this season. Stewart

Hi Ronan, Thanks for commenting. Don't try to do too much all at once, become sponge-ike and absorb information little by little and when you visit your hive to inspect always have a reason to focus your mind on what to look for. Maybe it's spotting eggs, or maybe checking for adult bee diseases such as deformed wing virus, or maybe it's just to spot the queen. Whatever it is, really look hard at the frames and understand what you're looking at. Good luck with this beekeeping season. Stewart

Hi Geoff, It's a stainless steel flask and keeps the OA solution warm. The solution is only in it temporarily, perhaps for just a couple of hours so I don't think it does any harm. It never seems to make any difference in terms of the efficacy of the treatment and it certainly does appear to have damaged the flask in any way. Good luck with your beekeeping this Summer. Stewart

Hi Dawn, Thanks for commenting. It's really all about being prepared and taking things calmly. I've collected so many swarms over the years with a range of results both positive and not so positive! Good luck with your Season's beekeeping. Stewart

Hi ReadyUpGo, Quality soft set honey takes time and patience. I wouldn't want to introduce honey that wasn't my own into the mix. You never know where it's from! Have a great beekeeping season. Stewart

Whoa! Good thinking on this one my friend. Much appreciated. I’m 73 and new to the sport. Maybe I should put that this way, 73 and still keepin beezy!

Hi Patrick, That's a really good tip. I don't always find the time to do all of that but I'm sure the results are well worth it. I'm just preparing another batch so will see if we can store it somewhere cool while it settles down in the jars. Have a great beekeeping season. Stewart

Hi Karen, It's a small world indeed! I hope you enjoy the videos. Is it the Winter period for you now? Stewart

@@TheNorfolkHoneyCo Yes indeed, such a small world. We're having an extremely warm Autumn, sunny and 20-23 degrees C most days, ... and no rain. I will be putting the girls to bed for winter soon. Most of them are at Marion Bay, Yorke Peninsula next to the sea, so very mild. Our girls produce well here, ... and yes, LOVE your videos ... I'll be watching you.