Thanks to everyone who has helped me realise I've read the right books! I've
always been careful whilst feeding, scraping brace comb etc and have not
witnessed this awful sounding sight. Given that several of my apairies are
pretty far from garden sprinklers I guess I'll carry on being dead careful!

We've had some poor weather and one of my hives that had a few capped combs
didn't have them anymore yesterday...I obviously wondered if they'd been
robbed out, but there were no dead bees about. Also every time I've fed (Top
feeders Ashforth style, even on Nucs) I've fed everyone at an apairy at
once...when necessary. I'm intrigued by the idea of a demand type feeder for
several hives to share for pre winter feeding. Do any UK beekeepers on the
list practice this system?


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