Andy D

Kiwi honey, wine face new Chinese rules - Business - NZ Herald News Looks like this is what it's all about, but still don't agree with the way they are implementing it. There is almost no information in this article about the details of what is the requirements... However as Dal has said it's already covered from the harvest declaration and RMP... Amazing how MPI don't appear to have discussed with those who are doing the real work... almost like a rush/reaction just to do something. Not a good way to get the industry on board. Has everyone contacted MPI yet? if not do it! They need t

Has anyone used MAQS in a top bar hive? Keen to hear how you applied and the results? Photos would be awesome.

Yeah, the plan was to get another hive once this was up and running... lesson learnt. The plan was to get some brood, eggs and bees from another top bar hive and put them in with the idea they would create a queen as I haven't been able to find a swarm yet... just missed out on one on the weekend. Yes, reduced the entrance down to 1/3 this evening once I noticed the wasp

Thanks Janice, yes, going to sort out some sugar syrup tonight. Thought I didn't need some after the hive started humming... things change quickly

I wish also! Nu Bee bad luck... first and only hive at the moment. learning A LOT the hard way. But have to learn sometime. Just sorting out recovery plan, which is looking like restart.

How does that work? I thought a swarm need a queen? Either ran out of room or evicted by workers aka swarm cell.

Checked the hive this afternoon as I ran out of time this morning. There are larva and pupa with a majority of capped drone brood. I didn't see any eggs, maybe need to look harder. Bee numbers are low now:crap:. Spotted a wasp in the hive too... so tomorrow on the hunt for the nest towards neighbors place, managed to spot 2 flying... harder to spot than the books make out, but the straight liners help. Some worker bees are trying to build more comb on a bar they haven't used yet... don't understand that. The honey and a reasonable amount of nectar gone now. Looks like some larva is dead,

Thanks Frazzledfozzle. It's good to have my thought re-enforced from people who have more than 1 month hands on experience Bees are sooooo interesting! Just amazing.

Thank M4tt for advise. Maybe I missed the queen when I collected... though I got all but a handful of them. It was a decent size swarm on a post. So a pain to collect verses cutting a branch.

sorry, w.r.t. being "with respect to" a week ago there was capped drone cells, drones eating their way out, not very many larvae and I didn't note eggs. I'll open the hive up this morning and get back to you...

sorry, just to clarify the previous reply was w.r.t. before the change in hive status.

Thank Otto. There was drone comb also seen drone hatching out. I didn't notice/see any worker bee cells. Also noticed multiple eggs in some cells.

Firstly I'm new to bees, ignorance is not an excuse Need peoples input on what happened, what I could have done as I haven't been able to find a good answer as to what happened... other than swarming after creating comb in top bar. Why, no idea, close to a stream, sun all day, native trees in flower and pasture land at their door step. I collected the swarm and placed into a top bar hive at the end of October. Things looked good with comb being formed (pre-waxed bars) and a good amount of room. After about 5 bars which was about 3 weeks a single supercedure cell starting in mid way dow