In message <[log in to unmask]>, Murray McGregor <[log in to unmask]> writes >We also had approx 15 whites and one blue this spring still active and >doing generally well, but we have since raised a crop of young queens >from these long lived old ladies and replaced them with some of their >own progeny. A certain proportion of older queens, including a good >number of the yellows of good strength, sportingly supercede which saves >us a lot of work. (We keep them under pressure to lay which encourages >this to happen) Wonderful! How do you keep them under pressure to lay? Is this only by making sure there is space to lay? I have tried out one frame of black plastic foundation and it worked fine as you suggested, between 2 brood frames. This was in a late split in the old queen's box. They seemed to take a lot longer than a wax foundation which they drew quite quickly. But she laid well. Eggs were rather easily visible on the black background! They didn't make queen cells. I am putting another in tomorrow. I will try an experiment in a hive which uses 14 inch square frames (exactly one brood and one super frame high). I will put the foundation in long ways down at the front, leaving a gap for the bees to fill at the back (I might change my mind when I get there and leave the space at the front or put it in the middle to be on the safe side). Up till now, I have used 14x12 and wired the bottom end and put another wire in an inch below to support their comb and stiffen mine from waving about. I will see if it works! I haven't got round to the super frames. The weather has been awful. Now there is a flow on, I'll make 2 up and get them into an actively drawing colony. I hope all is going well for you. I am just developing my new "hand reared" and highly selected queens into nuclei and replacing poor or swarmy or bad tempered stock. We seem to have a lot of chalk brood this year so that's a target for re-queening too. -- James Kilty