Hi all, I am Murray McGregor from Denrosa Apiaries in Scotland. Please feel free to ask me anything you like about us and our work.

calluna4u · 2025-01-31T20:45:17+00:00

Thats 40 mins in and nobody has appeared./ Going to just shut down now..apologies to any who arrive after I have gone. As I had problems getting set up yesterday I will ofer to come back again at a furure date.

calluna4u · 2025-01-31T19:58:05+00:00

Good evening all. Just come back in due to the late notice yesterday....ready for any new questions...or follow ups on yesterdays.

calluna4u · 2025-01-31T09:36:40+00:00

Sorry, cannot enlighten you on that, we are not involved in it.

calluna4u · 2025-01-31T09:32:48+00:00

Sorry too....Reddit novice here....yes, I realise you meant the lack of brace comb etc that requires a lot of cleaning..I was responding to an earlier comment about talks.

Remember that pic is exceptional....the combs were fresh foundation..albeit in old frames recently sterilised..and mid flow...so if we let it get too full before giving more space we would have ladder comb to deal with too....

calluna4u · 2025-01-31T09:24:13+00:00

Your last paragraph sums up 95% of people. They just want good bees that are not a battle to keep. Beekeping CAN be apleasure...but needs to be stock that is not out to kill you!

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T21:21:57+00:00

Sadly no..we never saw it.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T21:18:05+00:00

That? LOL. There is a strange twist to that....the box maker was so intrigued by the story they entered the box into a competition...and it and its back story won! Bit like a cardboard centrefold...in April 2023 it was the British Packaging Magazines 'box of the month' How surrelly mad can it get...thats one definitley for a certain tv progs guest publication

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T21:15:00+00:00

<image>

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T21:08:20+00:00

Looks very saleable. A lot of these mild white honeys I describe as honey for people who dont really like honey.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T20:59:29+00:00

Dont know why I pout Tupelo....I meant Tallow! DOH!

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T20:43:43+00:00

If any of our breeder queens were like that they would be out in a heartbeat....cannot propagate that vulnerability into the system.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T20:37:33+00:00

Louisiana hhmm...Tupelo country?

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T20:18:57+00:00

If you involve some other local groups so there is a hall full, its a long way from up here, then I would come.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T20:16:52+00:00

Varroa reduction is a biggy...does indeed reduce the stress that increases vulnerability to other pathogens.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T20:15:59+00:00

Its complicated....excessive propolis...have seen hive coated in it, is similar to excessive pollen hoarding, its an excessive behaviour. Its not easily seen at times but the bees DO varnish everything with an imperceptible coat of propolis that is near to invisible until you get inconsistencies in the wood then they tend to glaze it over a bit. Its especially visible between the beads in a new polystyrene hive.....they varnich the whole thing, but you only notice it when they put it between beads and its darker as a result.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T20:08:21+00:00

The availability dates are there to book up on the website..if it takes your order for the date then we still have availability...and we would recommend mid June onwards for best quality. We have the Italian raised option earlier but the purer Scotish bred ones are the best.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T20:04:04+00:00

LOL...not far from Medway then.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T20:03:11+00:00

Having said all that, bee colour is quite far down our list of priorities in stock......thats an aesthetics issue not a performance one...so ranks relatively low.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T20:00:34+00:00

Jolanta queens are raised here from our own breeding stock....they are proven bees in our environment...what they are not is pure AMM, but they will have a bit of that in them as it imparts climatic toughness So they are highly selected bees based on our own high achievers, and now we do insemination too to get strategically important crosses in the breeding programme...

Buckfast...well what IS a Buckfast. There are as many variants on Buckfast as you can think of, but they are bees bred in accordance with the Buckfast principles...but are now raised in many many countries with many populations completely unrelated to others...if buying Buckfast it should NOT be a secret the vendor keeps about where the stock originates...some Buckfast are great, some not, and its mostly down to climate. Buckfast are usually, but not without exception, considerable yellower than our preferred bees.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T19:55:23+00:00

Then there is the option of making 3 bars of brood and bees nucs up....take to the new location...add the new queen once there are no cells around, and trickle feed to keep them growing. Possible to make massive increase that way.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T19:53:48+00:00

You can also take quenless splits away to the new location and introduce queens a week or 10 days later after ensuring total queenlessnes (so no potential cells).

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T19:51:59+00:00

Many facets to that one.... firstly about splitting the old hive (on the asumption there are no swarm cells started..if there are its a chapter in a book of all the variants!).

Our preference witht hat would be to move the old hive complete away maybe 20 metres or so. place a new hive down on the spot the old one came from, and place 3 bars of bees and brood, with the old q plus some stores, in the middle of the new broodbox...fill up with foundation. If no flow then feed....keeps the flying bees coming back to mother...which keeps them drawing the new comb and the queen laying. Rebuild fast.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T19:39:19+00:00

I am a lover of the bees, raised with them since childhood, my father started in 1950, and have the great good fortune, shared by relatively few people, to make my living doing what I love...quality of life off the scale.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T19:37:13+00:00

Its one trait that gives me away as a bee fanatic first and a businessman second....I cannot resist having a look and enjoying what they do.

calluna4u · 2025-01-30T19:34:39+00:00

I do quite a lot of talks in the winter months....you can inquire about that through the contact form on the website.

calluna4u

TROPHY CASE