Freeslave

Alastair - you are a bloody legend! When all others had given up hope on our little Spartans, and all seemed lost, you arrived on the scene like Gandalf at the Battle of Helms Keep. Thanks so much from Leo and Jeremy, you have made a little boy (and his dad) very happy. And thanks for all the other comments folks, all very helpful. Cheers JJ

Thanks for replying Alastair - Yes my 9yo son developed an interest in bees so the hives were a present for his birthday last week and I wanted to keep it alive at least until then - so that mission complete. - Didn't want to say "happy birthday son ... by the way your bees are dead" ? But I accept and appreciate that they are a lost cause, and know now that we were a bit naive to take on this lemon. - Having said that the bees were already in the neighbourhood - so I haven't made the world a worse place. And I have learned a bit in the last week (and got very little work done)

hmmmm thanks for your comment and advice John - I had a closer look using the afb app - seems ok - but I have contacted a local group to see if an experienced beekeeper can assess, Thanks J

Great thanks for the response Chris - I poured in about 2 cups of syrup and it held in there OK and put the frame in next to the cluster .. see how we go with that. I will see if I anyone around Muriwai has got some extra brood frames Thanks JJ

Hi everyone I got some "rescue bees" from a guy a few days ago and relocated them. I think they were a bit neglected and have lots of wax moth throughout. He did treat for varroa though. I dont know a lot about bees but I think the bees are in trouble - the queen looks OK but there are only about 200 or so bees in the hive covering about 1/3 of a frame. Interestingly they are all on the one plastic foundation frame. There are lots of empty cells on the frame they are on and the rest of the frames have nothing in the cells , so I think they need some food fast. I dont have a hive feeder r