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I'm a novice beekeeper and have an Octagonal Warre, a National and a Smith (long story) but I'm trying to work out which one works best for the bees (and me). Someone mentioned to me recently the merits of the top bar but others have said they're not for beginners. Any views?

We got a batch of new Galtee queens on Monday morning which had travelled up North from Tipperary with a local beekeeper who attended the GBBG queen rearing demonstration.
I was expecting 2 but 13 arrived.
These were ones we ordered and paid for in January for distribution among members of the queen rearing group.
I introduced two to nucs I had made up the previous day and when I checked earlier this evening both were out and laying.

I also introduced two to queenless ...

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About 2 weeks ago, I set up my still empty Warré as a bait hive. As usual with me, there was a pile of junk nearby, and part of this was a dilapidated nuc. When the first swarm arrived, it chose the nuc. Thinking that the swarms may well prefer nucs, I decided to put a nuc and the Warré side by side and take whatever offered itself.
The nuc is about 30 litres and has 4 frames of the most foul comb that I could find.
The 2 Warré boxes have a combined 36 litres capacity. I removed all ...

I was just getting ready to head out to the allotment to do some weeding when my other half called me out to the garden where the air was black with bees.

The bait hives had been actively scouted all morning.



This time they chose a wooden national as opposed to the Payne Poly nuc.

But then a lot of fanning started and bees were going under the nuc.



Oops. ...