|
Picking up my 3 packages on Saturday. Very excited! Any tips on riding home with them? I don't expect any kinds of trouble, but I don't know if things like an open window or them being in the backseat vs. trunk is good or bad for them.
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2011 22:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 05:19 |
|
|
ShotgunWillie posted:You got it. Bees make good pets. They clean, feed and water themselves for the most part with some help in the early spring and late fall. Your job is mainly to check in on them once every week or two, check for signs of disease, give them more room so they don't swarm and give them food if there is a dearth. Hmm, cool, thanks. Are there "emergencies" that could arise that would result in my parents calling me up screaming "GET OVER HERE BEE poo poo JUST GOT REAL"? Also, is a beekeeping course worthwhile? There's a place nearby that does one, but it costs $250 for two days classroom instruction, then 3 "field sessions" (Edit: Oh, they also provide free seminars about winterizing and starting up in the springtime for people who take that course). Would that money be better spent on some books and equipment to learn ourselves? Lemons fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Mar 29, 2011 |
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2011 22:22
|
|
|
nesbit37 posted:Picking up my 3 packages on Saturday. Very excited! If your trunk is enclosed and it's warm out, I'd put the bees in the back seat instead. They need adequate ventilation. Depends on how long your drive is but they should be pretty chillaxed. A few might be on the outside of the package and they might buzz around a bit but they'll be OK. I would not like drive down the freeway with the windows wide open but it'll be OK to leave them down a bit unless it's freezing out. Lemons posted:Hmm, cool, thanks. Are there "emergencies" that could arise that would result in my parents calling me up screaming "GET OVER HERE BEE poo poo JUST GOT REAL"? Unlikely. The only thing I can think of is if they swarm, in which case if you want to catch the swarm you need to get over there, but odds are they either won't swarm, or they'll do it when nobody is looking and just be gone. quote:Also, is a beekeeping course worthwhile? There's a place nearby that does one, but it costs $250 for two days classroom instruction, then 3 "field sessions" (Edit: Oh, they also provide free seminars about winterizing and starting up in the springtime for people who take that course). Would that money be better spent on some books and equipment to learn ourselves? My wife and I did an introductory class that was really cheap ($30 I think?) and, combined with a couple books, some videos on youtube, and this thread, was sufficient. I'm sure that class is good though, but if there's two of you I could see $500 being a really big and unnecessary expense. An entire hive set up, plus equipment for two people, should be under $500, so that one class would be doubling your expense.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 00:10
|
|
|
So I am finishing putting wax in the brood box frames and am running into what appears to be a problem. Some of the foundation now doesn't appear to fit quite right and is bulging a considerable amount to one side of the frame. The frames are square, it just seems that the foundation is a half cm or so too long, and I can't trim it because of the wires in the wax. Is this a problem I need to worry about or will it not matter to the bees and they will do whatever they need to? Its very bizarre, and I bought the foundation and frames from the same place so you think they would know if its supposed to fit or not. edit: It seems to be from using posts rather than wiring frames. I picked up enough posts to do 20 frames to try them out and, well, they suck. Not only do they take longer to put in then wiring frames but they cause this bulging which can't be good. Glad I have some extra frames, will have to undo the furring strip and wire the few posted frames I did. nesbit37 fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Mar 30, 2011 |
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 01:23
|
|
|
Shotgun! I'm moving to Brooklyn this Fall for graduate school (in Entomology no less! Parasitic wasps!) and I would love, love, love to keep a beehive and a rooftop garden with things bees love. How the hell do I find that kind of situation? I've seen a few ads on craigslist toting roof decks (and gardening potential), but even though they're legal now, I'm worried about landlords just sort of staring at me like I'm a crazy person. Any advice? I've seen the NYC beekeepers club page so some of these folks must be managing.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 08:26
|
|
|
When I moved to a different place in Philadelphia this past November I tried to find a place that I could keep bees at and still afford the rent but had no luck. Places that had the right requirements were very rare and usually far more than I wanted to spend on rent. I was not worried about the landlord, I don't think you really need to tell them you want to keep bees (though thats your call). The bigger issue for me was both somewhere to put the bees and neighbors. The place I did get was has a quasi deck on the 2nd floor that only I have access to, but I decided against putting bees on it because there are about 10 houses within ~75 feet of the place and I didn't want to chance even one of them raising a stink. I also decided that putting bees in a place I am renting is risky because if I decide to move in a year for whatever reason and I have bees then I have no choice but to find another place that is suitable for bees. You also need to check the laws in Brooklyn, can you keep beehives there legally? I am pretty sure it is not (or at least not until recently) to keep bees in New York City, people just do it anyway. What may work for you is what I ended up doing; talking to community gardens to find one that is looking for someone to keep bees in one of their plots. I also know people that use urban cemeteries, and old factory buildings. One guy has had a lot of luck keeping bees on the roof of an old abandoned Tasty Cake factory.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 12:14
|
|
|
nesbit37 posted:So I am finishing putting wax in the brood box frames and am running into what appears to be a problem. Some of the foundation now doesn't appear to fit quite right and is bulging a considerable amount to one side of the frame. The frames are square, it just seems that the foundation is a half cm or so too long, and I can't trim it because of the wires in the wax. Is this a problem I need to worry about or will it not matter to the bees and they will do whatever they need to? Its very bizarre, and I bought the foundation and frames from the same place so you think they would know if its supposed to fit or not. Lemme guess: slotted or solid bottom bar and hook end wired foundation? I'm always surprised at how common this problem is. Frames with solid slotted bottom bars tend to have slightly less room for foundation because they have to increase the thickness of the bottom bar without increasing the overall size of the frame. The bowing is a problem and will make your bees build their comb just as bowed as the foundation. If wiring fixes it, then good, but make sure that you're not just putting all the tension/bowing on to the last section of foundation under the lowest wire. You might consider using wire cutters to snip the wires and shorten the foundation a bit. You can recycle the bits as starter strips for if you ever decide to go foundationless. Weitz posted:'m moving to Brooklyn this Fall for graduate school (in Entomology no less! Parasitic wasps!) and I would love, love, love to keep a beehive and a rooftop garden with things bees love. nesbit37 posted:You also need to check the laws in Brooklyn, can you keep beehives there legally? I am pretty sure it is not (or at least not until recently) to keep bees in New York City, people just do it anyway. It's completely legal to keep bees ANYWHERE in NYC, and it's great. There are a few requirements, of course. You must use useable frame hives (duh), keep domesticated bees (duh), maintain the hives (duh), and provide a constant source of fresh water for every hive site. I generally don't recommend keeping bees at your place if you rent. You'd have to inform your landlord about them or risk your lease, and most landlords aren't comfortable with it. On top of that, moving bees in the city is a royal loving pain. Have you ever tried carrying a full hive (Deeps!) up 4 flights of steep NYC stairs? I have. You don't want to. Like nesbit mentioned, people in the city get creative. I keep bees on the roof of an orthodox synagogue, a restaurant, and at a large urban farm. I know people who keep bees on decommissioned nunneries in the Bronx! I do know people who have them in the backyard of their rental, but they have landlords who are very interested in urban homesteading, which adds some stability to the situation. Edit: Weitz, I didn't even know they HAD an entomology program in the city. Where are you going. Drop me a line when you're in the city and I'll introduce you to some people. (Bees.) ShotgunWillie fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Mar 30, 2011 |
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 16:07
|
|
|
ShotgunWillie posted:Lemme guess: slotted or solid bottom bar and hook end wired foundation? I'm always surprised at how common this problem is. Frames with solid slotted bottom bars tend to have slightly less room for foundation because they have to increase the thickness of the bottom bar without increasing the overall size of the frame. Thats exactly it, slotted bottom bar with hook foundation. I tried cutting one of the foundation pieces last night but the foundation itself just didn't being cut before I even got to the wire. If I go that route I may try a hot knife something till the wire is clear, but at least so far the pieces that I have used wires on rather than pegs have worked fine and it doesn't appear to add any tension on the lowest wire.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 17:20
|
|
|
nesbit37 posted:Thats exactly it, slotted bottom bar with hook foundation. I tried cutting one of the foundation pieces last night but the foundation itself just didn't being cut before I even got to the wire. If I go that route I may try a hot knife something till the wire is clear, but at least so far the pieces that I have used wires on rather than pegs have worked fine and it doesn't appear to add any tension on the lowest wire. Like you said, no-one seems to have caught on to the fact that 8 1/2 inch foundation doesn't fit in solid barred frames where the depth is only 8 3/8s of an inch. If you already have the frames or just like that particular style, Walter T. Kelley sells deep wired foundation cut specifically to fit solid and grooved bottom bar frames, catalog numbers 122WH (8 3/8") and 121 (8 1/8") respectively. I don't think I've wired a frame in the last decade or so. It's a lost art. Do you crimp? Use an electrical embedder or a spur tool?
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 17:40
|
|
|
Participating in a hive inspection next Saturday. My girls aren't scheduled to get here until the last week of April (though something tells me I might get a phone call before that, knowing how unpredictable everything has been lately) so I figured I'd get some experience on opening the hive, checking the health of the bees, and other important things to notice. I'll be going with a much more experienced beekeeper, so I'm looking forward to it. Nothing like learning from experience!  A question about hive placement: we're planning on sticking the hive in our backyard by a shady fig tree. However, we have some invasive English Ivy growing around that area, and some friends of ours advised us to cut it way, way back or risk it growing over the hive or possibly destroying the hive. Does anyone else have any problems/experience with invasive vines/plants around hives? From what I've noticed over the past year, it doesn't really grow that fast and it tends to avoid the area around the fig tree. We plan on pouring down some gravel over the location and setting the hive down on cinderblocks in the gravel, and we also don't plan on using any chemicals to kill the ivy.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 17:51
|
|
|
ShotgunWillie posted:Like you said, no-one seems to have caught on to the fact that 8 1/2 inch foundation doesn't fit in solid barred frames where the depth is only 8 3/8s of an inch. If you already have the frames or just like that particular style, Walter T. Kelley sells deep wired foundation cut specifically to fit solid and grooved bottom bar frames, catalog numbers 122WH (8 3/8") and 121 (8 1/8") respectively. Thanks for the info. I don't crimp, and I use a spur tool. Its pretty relaxing while watching tv. Can do a medium frame in under minute when I rush. Deeps take twice as long since you need two nails.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 18:10
|
|
|
nesbit37 posted:Thanks for the info. Do a write up. Seriously, not enough people know how to wire frames to do a good job of it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 18:16
|
|
|
AFK SWARM OF BEES posted:Participating in a hive inspection next Saturday. My girls aren't scheduled to get here until the last week of April (though something tells me I might get a phone call before that, knowing how unpredictable everything has been lately) so I figured I'd get some experience on opening the hive, checking the health of the bees, and other important things to notice. I'll be going with a much more experienced beekeeper, so I'm looking forward to it. Nothing like learning from experience! You're gonna have fun. Bees are extra friendly in the spring and it's remarkably satisfying to see them fly back and forth carrying massive loads of pollen. Beekeepers are the best people to learn about beekeeping from! When I started out, I read a bunch of books and did a lot of research, but nothing was as helpful as getting real hands on experience with someone who actually knew what they were doing. Don't worry too much about the Ivy, just cut it back every time it gets too close to the hive. I'm assuming that since you have a fig tree you live in a warm locale, so the shade will be useful. Make sure you place the hive so that they get sun in the morning and shelter from the hottest sun in the afternoon.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 18:19
|
|
|
quote:Edit: Weitz, I didn't even know they HAD an entomology program in the city. Where are you going. Drop me a line when you're in the city and I'll introduce you to some people. (Bees.) Welp, I'll be a phd at the Museum of Natural History (they've just started their own phd program, but they've maintained fellowships with CUNY, NYU, Columbia, and Cornell for hundreds of years and lots of students have passed through) whose research focus is entomology and fossil insects. There *is* a curatorial department of entomology with collections, just as there are curatorial departments of vertebrate paleo, ornithology, botany, etc, etc. "Behind the scenes" of the museum is wild. What's it like to keep a beehive on top of an orthodox synagogue? I've been wanting to do educational outreach with the orthodox community (namely orthodox girls) and beekeeping and urban gardening seem an awesome way to do it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 20:10
|
|
|
Weitz posted:Welp, I'll be a phd at the Museum of Natural History (they've just started their own phd program, but they've maintained fellowships with CUNY, NYU, Columbia, and Cornell for hundreds of years and lots of students have passed through) whose research focus is entomology and fossil insects. There *is* a curatorial department of entomology with collections, just as there are curatorial departments of vertebrate paleo, ornithology, botany, etc, etc. "Behind the scenes" of the museum is wild. That's pretty loving cool. I have a membership to that Museum and it's totally worth the trouble of getting to. Feel free to bring me along to see "behind the scenes". I'd love to see some sweet fossil bees to write up for my blog. I work those bees with my neighbor who is both Orthodox and Jewish. They're starting to lean Hasidic (according to my neighbor), if that is of concern, but they seem like nice folks. The rabbi seems to be quite pleased to have bees on the roof and apparently honey is used in some religious ceremonies. *factoid* Many rabbis consider honey kosher. While it is partially ingested by the bees, raw nectar is stored in the honey stomach or crop, and so is not considered 'unclean'.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 21:43
|
|
|
Actually, Honey is a huge part of Rosh Hashonnah, the new year! Apples dipped in honey for a sweet new friggin' year. Yea, rocking my secular Jewish upbringing. Maybe I shall meet your bee-friendly orthodox 
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 23:43
|
|
|
Bee day! yesterday I picked up 3 packages of bees and installed them. It was crazy busy at the pickup place. I wasn't expecting the mass of people there all to get bees. There were at least 200 there when I got there, and I arrived in the last 30 minutes that they had bees. The crew that came up from Georgia with the bees seemed to be having fun though, and they didn't seem too tired despite being up for more than a day straight. Here are some photos my girlfriend and I took of installation. 36,000 bees in my backseat!  Bees in a package. A few loose ones cling to the side, probably been there since Georgia.  The hives pre-bee installation.  A shot of the community garden the bee-yard is in from the vantage of the hives.  Packages on hives  More gratuitous bee shots  Getting the hives ready for bee dumping.  More prep.  Getting them nice and wet with that sweet sweet sugar syrup so fewer of them fly when I pop the top on that package.  A final shot inside the package.  The first queen cage, with live queen inside and many bees on the outside.  One little bee decided to check out a flower rather than hang out in the new hive.  How to get bees out of the box.  Going in and out of the first hive to relieve themselves from being stuck in a box and driving up from Georgia for 24 hours. There was bee poop everywhere!  This queen cage had a lot fewer bees that I needed to push off it for a clean shot.  Doing something with the second hive  Queen cage installed, frames in, just about set to put the lid back on.  Putting a gallon jug of sugar syrup on top for food.  Looking around for my hammer so I can nail the queen cage to the frame.  Freshly dumped bees just waiting for a frame to be placed on top of them before I seal it all up.  All done! Bees in their new homes. Just need to clean up now and head back. Will be going back today to pick up the package boxes. I hope the non-dumped out bees flew to the hive and didn't decide to freeze to death last night 
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2011 15:05
|
|
|
nesbit37 posted:Bee day! Lookin' good man. Your inner covers are on upside-down though. The notch/upper entrance and side with bee space faces up under your outer cover. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2011 15:59
|
|
|
Those hives are pretty close together. I'd separate them by at least a foot because it's gunna be hard to inspect them when they're that close. Cool, though. Three hives drat that's expensive!
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2011 16:56
|
|
|
ShotgunWillie posted:Lookin' good man. I was told to put them on like that for now, the reasoning being if they are on the other way the bee's won't defend that entrance and bumblebee's and other insects will be allowed to go in to drink from the sugar syrup fountain. This way that entrance counts as part of the hive and the bees will defend it. I flip it back of course when I stop feeding. Maximusi posted:Those hives are pretty close together. I'd separate them by at least a foot because it's gunna be hard to inspect them when they're that close. Cool, though. Three hives drat that's expensive! I thought as well initially, but several people told me that keeping them that close was fine; especially with the amount of space I have to work with. I can easily get at 3 sides of both hives, and you don't really need access to all 4. Luckily I didn't pay for all the hives. The community garden bought one, and is helping me with bee related expenses. Again this is all just what I have been told by the experienced locals. This is my first year keeping, should be fun!
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2011 17:52
|
|
|
Before I forget, on Wednesday I plan to release the queens assuming the bees seem to be non-hostile towards here. What is the best way to take out the cork of the quick release? Do I just dig it out with a hive tool?
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2011 18:07
|
|
|
nesbit37 posted:I was told to put them on like that for now, the reasoning being if they are on the other way the bee's won't defend that entrance and bumblebee's and other insects will be allowed to go in to drink from the sugar syrup fountain. This way that entrance counts as part of the hive and the bees will defend it. I flip it back of course when I stop feeding. This is true. However, the risk you run is a lot of brace comb under the inner cover. I would suggest putting it the right way and blocking it with a small piece of wood. That would solve both problems.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2011 23:51
|
|
|
nesbit37 posted:Before I forget, on Wednesday I plan to release the queens assuming the bees seem to be non-hostile towards here. What is the best way to take out the cork of the quick release? Do I just dig it out with a hive tool? Yeah, it shouldn't be stuck in too badly. I just use the corner of my tool to gently pry it out. If it's stuck for some reason, you can also use the tool to carefully pry out the staples keeping the mesh on the front of the cage and let her out that way.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2011 23:52
|
|
|
ShotgunWillie posted:This is true. However, the risk you run is a lot of brace comb under the inner cover. I would suggest putting it the right way and blocking it with a small piece of wood. That would solve both problems. I'll check out the situation on Wednesday and if there is a bunch of burr comb starting to form I'll do that. I wasn't too worried about it since I figured (perhaps incorrectly) that they would worry about building out the frames with foundation first, so if I stay on top of things right and put the next deep on the right time it would be a non-issue. That and the instructors that told us to do this didn't mention any issues, so I figured either the burr comb wasn't an issue or they are just fine with scraping it off.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2011 00:25
|
|
|
I wish I had been more proactive about scraping burr comb and propolis off because now that poo poo has hardened into cement and its really hard to get off. Every time I open the lid/free up the frames it makes a horrible cracking sound. So I checked the bees today and holy poo poo they were overflowing the box so I added another super. I reeeeally hope they don't swarm again like last summer.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2011 01:34
|
|
|
My father took a picture this morning of an Arizona bee hard at work.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2011 18:41
|
|
|
Regicide! Went out to the hives to let the queens out today. It was very exciting to open a hive for the first time and see what they had done. I think the holes on my feeders are a little too large. Its been 5 days since i put the bees in and two of my gallon containers are half empty and one was completely empty. Maybe they drank it that fast, but I doubt it, especially since some of the bees had dried sugar on them. The first two hives had accepted their queens ok, or so it appears, so I let them out to do their thing within the hive. The Third hive, however, had a problem I didn't anticipate. All 3 queens were fine when I put them into the hives, but when I took this queen cage out I found that the attendants had participated in a coup and had assassinated the queen by biting her in half at the thorax. I called up one of the guys I got the packages from and he said to check and see if there were any eggs in the small amount of wax they had drawn, of if I could find a rogue queen that was dumped into the package. If I can't find a queen or eggs in a day or two he will give me a new queen, so except for setting that hive back a week it should be all good! edit: Is there any chance that queen pheromone traverse between two hives and cause this? The hive in the middle of my yard is the one that killed its queen, and that hive is only about 6 inches away from the hive that is next to it. I'll be sure to ask about that before I get a new queen (If I need one) but has anyone heard of that before? nesbit37 fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Apr 7, 2011 |
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2011 20:43
|
|
|
I have a question! I've been thinking about this a bit since pondering about the whole urban beekeeping thing and convincing neighbors that it's not a terrible idea. How does one keep your bees from swarming? I know with top bar hives, it's basically impossible, but for the sake of simplicity let's assume I'm talking about the normal types of hives. I mean, bees breed like rabbits on crack, so how do you deal with them getting bigger. I know about adding more supers, but that seems unsustainable at some point. Thanks guys! On the plus side, I'm going to a Bee hive installation/beekeeping workshop this Saturday at a co-op here in Berkeley. Should be educational!
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2011 20:48
|
|
|
Weitz, you can make a split of your hives and that will drastically reduce the chances. I think I'm going to have to do one. http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm What I also do is look for swarm cells (on the bottom of the frame) and remove them all. It's pretty hard to prevent it though. Provide the bees with a lot of space as well.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2011 21:04
|
|
|
Hey, sorry if this was mentioned earlier, but I couldn't find it. Anyone have any good links for tax incentives/ state grants for home apiaries? Preferably broken down into programs by state?
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2011 01:56
|
|
|
Hive inspection today! It was humid and sunny, and about 7 of us gathered at the zoo to check out their three hives. We opened the first two without smoking, and the bees were remarkably tame and calm (at first). The third hive had a reputation for being pissy, so we had to give them a few puffs of smoke. (apologies, pics are big)  One of the hives.  Our beekeeping guide, opening up the hive.  Oh God! BEES!  Checking for brood pattern, drone cells and queen cells. The first two hives were doing pretty well -- Hive #1 had suspicions of varroa (some brood cells were uncapped) but it was still pretty healthy.  Can you spot the queen? We had the pleasure of watching her enormous rear end waddle around this frame.  Second hive had amazingly good growth -- it was the original hive, and had been serving the same queen for nearly three years. Hive #1 was a swarm of this one.  Some inquisitive ladies peeking up to catch the action.  After a while, they started to get pissed at us for digging around in their hive.  Wap! Got stung. I pulled out the stinger and carried on. Finger is still a little puffy.  Hive #3 had already built up some honey on one of the supers.  Sky full of bees.  I picked up a few frames -- man, they can get heavy. Here I got to see a baby bee chewing her way up through a cell (hard to see in the pic).  Boyfriend blowing on the bees to try and get them to move (he wanted to see the baby bee). It was a really great experience and I'm definitely ready to get our bees in a week or two.
|
|
#
?
Apr 10, 2011 01:34
|
|
|
Looks like you had a good inspection day! My bee class went out yesterday and did something similar. We took a look at a hive with new equipment and a new package, a new packaged in a dead out hive, and a hive that had been going for a few years. The instructor also "popped" a drone so we could see the hooks and other bits they use when mating with queens from their abdomens. Was a good class overall. Inspected my 3 hives after the class and the two with queens are looking great. They are really starting to move fast with drawing out the wax, eggs in cells, some honey, and lots of different colors of pollen. The queenless hive is not looking as good. They have drawn out almost 0 wax, though there are a good number of bees there. I brought a new queen home with me and installed her queen cage. Hopefully they won't kill this one.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2011 14:30
|
|
|
nesbit37 posted:Looks like you had a good inspection day! My bee class went out yesterday and did something similar. We took a look at a hive with new equipment and a new package, a new packaged in a dead out hive, and a hive that had been going for a few years. The instructor also "popped" a drone so we could see the hooks and other bits they use when mating with queens from their abdomens. Was a good class overall. It was a lot of fun. My sting was a painful bitch for a day or two (probably because it was on my index finger, and I kept bumping it while doing stuff) but it's entirely gone now. Now that you mention popping a drone, I think I'll try that when I get my bees in. I'm pondering going back to school for Entomology or Biology so insect anatomy fascinates me. Here's hoping your new queen takes! I brewed up a huge batch of 1:1 sugar syrup for spring feeding. Is there a thread-established preference on what kind of sugar to use? The old adage of "ask 3 beekeepers, get 4 opinions" really held true for this -- I had some folks telling me "nothing but pure cane sugar!" while others said "It doesn't matter as long as you feed them something." I don't want to use HFCS and I've read that brown sugar can have impurities that are bad for the bees. Right now I just settled for syrup made with pure cane sugar, though I do have some tubs of organic Florida cane sugar floating around the house in need of use. Kind of wish I knew what syrup recipe my grandfather had used.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2011 14:19
|
|
|
AFK SWARM OF BEES posted:
The people in the Philly Bee Keeping guild push honey because they are all chemical free and organic beekeepers. Thats expensive though, so forget it as far as I am concerned. The instructors in my class have said repeatedly to only use generic white sugar like you can buy in 25# bags at the grocery store from Diamond. They have said brown sugar is bad for bees, but I don't remember why. They didn't go into it much since everytime some would ask "What about **** sugar" they would just interupt and say stick with the generic stuff from places like Diamond because we know it's safe and other sugars can cause problems. If it helps, they also said to put a couple of drops of bleach or chlorine in with the sugar if you are putting on a feeder larger than a quart. It will prevent the sugar water from molding, though the bees will drink it even if it does.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2011 14:54
|
|
|
Just got an article from Mother Earth News called "Bee Gardens: Flowers, Fruits and Herbs for a Bee-Friendly Habitat." http://www.motherearthnews.com/modern-homesteading/bee-gardens-ze0z11zhir.aspx It's not so much about keeping bees as it is about what plants to have in your garden to attract bees, how to ensure spring to fall nectar flow and other items of interest. It's a pretty good read if you're interested in this sort of thing. Mother Earth News has quite a bit of information regarding bees and beekeeping going back quite a while. Well worth checking into.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2011 16:51
|
|
|
nesbit37 posted:The instructors in my class have said repeatedly to only use generic white sugar like you can buy in 25# bags at the grocery store from Diamond. They have said brown sugar is bad for bees, but I don't remember why. They didn't go into it much since everytime some would ask "What about **** sugar" they would just interupt and say stick with the generic stuff from places like Diamond because we know it's safe and other sugars can cause problems. Yeah, pretty much. Brown sugar has a much higher mineral, or ash, content- a lot of impurities that the bees can't digest. Too high a concentration of indigestibles and the bees get dysentery. You can usually clear it up by switching to a syrup made from plain white sugar. The bleach trick works, but be sure not to add too much. Alternately, adding Honey-B-Healthy (I don't use it personally, but hear it's fine) or other essential oils (lemongrass/wintergreen (what I use)/peppermint) will both help prevent mildew AND encourage the bees to take the syrup. If you're adding oils of any kind to your feed, be sure to take it off before you put your honey supers on to prevent contamination. Regarding high fructose corn syrup, AKA HFCS, let's clear up some misconceptions. It is NOT bad for you bees in any way. It's certainly not organic, and it has an ick factor for a lot of people, but to the bees, it is a great food source. In fact, it is closer to honey than any feed other than honey itself (chemically speaking). It's nothing but fructose and glucose in a supersaturated, acidic (pH 4.9-5.1) solution. Honey is 95% (on average) fructose and glucose (in a similar ratio!) in a supersaturated, acidic (average pH 3.9) solution. In fact, HCFS has a significantly lower ash content, arguably making it a better for overwintering on than honey. I tend not to use it myself, but it's not the bogeyman that some people make it out to be.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2011 19:21
|
|
|
ShotgunWillie posted:
I don't think it's a bogeyman, I just don't want to use it. Personal preference, really. I'd rather feed my bees sugar. The only literature I've seen that heavily slams HFCS in use for bee feeding was a paper that our local beekeeping society posted on their website. The paper indicated that levels of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) contaminant in HFCS would kill the bees. I don't recall if the paper says that traces of HMF are innate in samples of HFCS or if it's put in there by some other medium. EDIT: Used my chem. engineering degree, found out HMF forms from heating/drying of HFCS. Doh! I plan to use some Honey-B-Healthy in our first feedings. I'm getting a nuc, not a package, so I wonder if I'll have to feed less since they'll already have some comb drawn up? AFK SWARM OF BEES fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Apr 14, 2011 |
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2011 20:41
|
|
|
AFK SWARM OF BEES posted:
You'll still need to feed. You are supposed to feed until they have all the frames drawn out on 2 deeps or 3 mediums if you are using all mediums.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2011 21:03
|
|
|
A nuc will grow in population faster than a package of bees, and therefore actually needs more food than a package. Feed them like crazy and don't be shocked to see them going through a quart in just two or three days. Make sugar water by mixing white sugar with water in a 1:1 ratio by weight. Yes, that means a pound of sugar for a pound of water. A gallon of water weighs about eight pounds (actually 8.35 but that's close enough), so that's eight pounds of sugar per (American) gallon of water. (An Imperial gallon weighs 10 lbs by definition, so britgoons should use ten pounds of sugar per gallon). Last year my wife and I made a gallon at a time and kept the extra in the fridge. The package used up a gallon in about two and a half weeks, if I recall correctly; but we had an exceptional spring last year (late rains and then a huge rapid bloom in late april) so I don't know if that affected things. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Apr 14, 2011 |
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2011 21:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 05:19 |
|
|
^^^Are you sure about 8lbs of sugar per gallon? I was told 5lbs, which makes more sense since you can't fit an entire gallon of water into a 1:1 mixture in a gallon container. Even though it dissolves that sugar still takes up some space in the container. Just got back from releasing the new queen. Everything appeared to go better this time around. None of her attendants were even dead. I figured things were going better when I saw two frames drawn out about 75% each. There was almost nothing there when I put the queen cage in on Sunday. There has to be a better way of letting her crawl out though. I just stick the cage on the top of the frames and set the inner cover on top. I can't do it without squishing bees; either those on the inner cover or the ones that go to crawl on the queen cage. Its only a couple but they don't need to die just for wanting to be near their monarch! Now I just need to wait a little bit to make sure everyone is laying eggs. Once I have that confirmed I will feel much more relaxed about it all. Right now I only know one of the hives is laying eggs for certain. The other two do have live queens though.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2011 23:01
|
|