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Did my first inspection of the year. One hive was nice and mellow. The other was not. If you get a top bar, do NOT neglect it. A lot of the comb has fallen to the bottom of the hive, and is now a part of it. I'm not sure how we're going to clean it up.
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Mar 19, 2012 04:58
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I found this thread through the PI thread too! I keep my bees in a suburb of Boston. We did our second spring check 2 weekends ago and were thrilled to see that the bees were already coming back coated in pollen! Not just little pollen pants, but it looked like they'd been rolling around in it. We tried a new overwintering strategy and 9 of our 11 hives made it (last year I think 3/6 hives survived), but because the winter was so mild we don't know whether it was the hive setup or the weather. Our location is lovely and there hasn't been a second nectar flow the last few summers so honey production has been tragically low. We also probably have about 10x more bees than the local flowers can support, but we recently got permission to plant about an acre and a half with whatever we want! Right now we're thinking a ton of white clover in the middle of the field and some raspberry canes and apple trees around the elevated edges. What do your bees eat?
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Mar 21, 2012 04:25
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Trees are really good since they give off a ton of flowers, see if you can't plant yourself up an orchard.
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Mar 22, 2012 00:45
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I went out to the community garden yesterday to get things set up for two new packages I am getting next Saturday. The hive that survived winter is doing great and I am going to make a split from it since its bubbling over with bees. I cleaned out the hive that didn't make it and see they starved to death. It was very sad, the queen and maybe a dozen bees were stuck to a frame near the top, most of them with their heads in the cells. They had honey around them and fondant on top, and there were bees that dies while chewing their ways out of their cells. Not certain what else I could have done for them considering. So with that, I have 1 good hive and will be starting up 2 new ones with packages and 1 with a split. Would it be better for me to put one of the packages in the hive that died with 2 deeps full of drawn comb or should I use one deep with comb per package and let them both draw out the second box?
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Mar 26, 2012 18:16
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Yeti Fiasco posted:Do we have many British beekeeps here? I'm stuck on the isle of wight and am isolated from the affects of AFB and EFB, but I'd like to know how rife it is over the rest of the UK Check out the BeeBase site. AFB/EFB aren't really hugely widespread on the mainland.
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Mar 30, 2012 13:20
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I was reading a Smithsonian article about how bees find new hive locations and it said that returning scouts beep when they're sharing info about where they've been, and they headbutt other scouts who found lower quality sites. They beep! 
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Mar 31, 2012 02:20
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Dick Trauma posted:I was reading a Smithsonian article about how bees find new hive locations and it said that returning scouts beep when they're sharing info about where they've been, and they headbutt other scouts who found lower quality sites. Back to your SHSC pod! Bees are amazing macro organisms and I can't wait my first hive arrives on April 18th!
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Mar 31, 2012 03:59
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I just got picked for a weekend beekeeping apprenticeship program this summer, at a rooftop farm in NYC. I have almost no direct experience with bees, but my interest in local food is probably what got me the gig. I'm so excited! Now to furiously read everything I can find about bees before we start next weekend...
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Mar 31, 2012 21:05
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showbiz_liz posted:I just got picked for a weekend beekeeping apprenticeship program this summer, at a rooftop farm in NYC. I have almost no direct experience with bees, but my interest in local food is probably what got me the gig. I'm so excited! Now to furiously read everything I can find about bees before we start next weekend... Hello Liz. Small world. Hope you enjoyed pouring those bees out!
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Apr 8, 2012 14:16
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ShotgunWillie posted:Hello Liz. Haha, yes indeed. Can't wait to get back and play with them some more...
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Apr 8, 2012 15:09
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Kinda excited today. Five weeks ago I was in our hive that over wintered and seemed to be going gangbusters with the early spring. 1 deep and 2 medium and things looked well. We lost a hive last August so my fellow bee keeper (next door neighbor) and I had planed to buy a couple new queens and split this year. Upper medium has some drawn out comb but nothing else really. Cool, good inspection. Last weekend (four weeks later) I go in again and do a complete tear down knowing that I would be out of town all week long and better get to things. Holy Smokes! Hive is practically jam packed, more bees than I've ever seen. Upper medium is full and mostly capped! Crap! I'm flying out in < 16 hours and all my supers are still sitting in sealed boxes with Para Moth. I find queen cups all over the place. I rip out all I can find thinking I've got them all. Take some supers out of storage and figure we'll slap some on when today. Getting all the queen cups should set them back about two weeks I hope. Today my beekeeping partner comes over about noon and we're making a plan for the afternoon with a glass of wine in hand when about two minutes into the conversation she stops me and points to a red bud in my yard some 30 yds from our hive and maybe 20 feet from us. 12 feet up on a branch was a huge cluster of bees. gently caress they swarmed.  So we got out our spare deep and put in a few frames in a wheelbarrow and placed it under the tree. I climb about halfway up and give the branch one good violent shake. 2/3 rds of the cluster drops and about half of that in in the wheelbarrow/deep. An hour later they are all in the deep or flying around. I've stuck on an inner cover and we'll wait till nightfall to move them over to their permeate home. I think I just totally lucked out and captured my first swarm!
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Apr 15, 2012 21:43
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^^ that's awesome! I'm only a second year beek so I shouldn't really be giving advice, but am I wrong in thinking that there's a possibility that you *did* rip out all the queen cells but then the hive swarmed anyway with the old queen leaving. (Even if this is the case, this leaves the old hive queenless, I think it should be able to throw up some emergency cells, so you might come back in a few weeks and everything will be normal again.) Then again, I'm a worrier. I found honey leaking out of the back of my hive today and freaked out, thinking it might be a heavy small hive beetle. Pulled apart the entire hive, found nothing. I probably broke some comb in a previous inspection and it dripped out. I've also gotten a microscope so I can squint and unidentified blobs squished from a bee's gut and pretend they are Nosema spores.  I'm going to be *such* a good helicopter parent.
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Apr 16, 2012 07:18
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Opened the hive about a month-a month and a half ago and pulled out two frames loaded with honey, the hive looked great, laying queen, full frames at the beginning of March. My dad wanted his own hive so he ordered a package and a hive and was just going to pull some brood frames out of mine when he got it. We havent been able to check my hive since the beginning of March due to the both of us being busy or the weather being cold/windy/rainy. He got his package and opened my hive and it was full of bees and honey but no brood. So today I grabbed another queen and had to introduce it. I got like an eaves vent since noone knew what I was talking about when asking for wire mesh. The holes were too big so I used some fiberglass door screen material to cover it completely, I hope this doesnt annoy the bees. The plan is to introduce the queen and watch the reaction of the bees. We put the queen on one of the empty brood frames and watch the reaction. We used the vent to separate the queen with a couple attendants on top of the comb so she can start laying since there is no brood at all. The workers wandered around the queen but I didnt think their behavior was very aggressive. I havent really seen aggressive bee behavior so Im not entirely sure. When my dad was putting the vent cover on the comb he almost chopped the queen in half. I dont know if she is hurt or not, I hope not. I feel kinda bad now. We saw her lay after he had done that so I hope its alright. Right now she is on a frame of empty brood cells separated from the rest of the hive by the cover we fashioned with three workers. We are going to open up the hive in a couple days and hope for the best. Ugh, bees!
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Apr 17, 2012 02:36
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The joy of new England winters means I just got my bees today. I'm quite jealous of those of you who've already got honey. Here I am about to open up the box.  That's where the queen has been, and I've been advised to keep her in there for a week or two. Some of the other hives have killed the queen after a few days.  Steady... steady...  Then you gently, carefully, WHACK the box of bees down onto the hive.  Hundreds of bees will come pouring out. This is the part where you realize skipping the gloves and just wearing a T-shirt might not have been the wisest thing to do.   However, I only got stung twice, and it really didn't hurt that much. I put the sugar water on top of the hive, and I'll check up on them again next week sometime. I'm glad I finally have them! 
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Apr 21, 2012 18:12
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Awesome, but you don't want to keep your queen caged for a week or two! Replace the stopper with a mini marshmallow and let the workers eat their way to her it should take a couple of days quite enough time for the hive to get used to her pheromones
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Apr 22, 2012 05:24
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If you're getting stung while the bees are in swarm mode, you might be doing something wrong, too; moving too fast, or getting them pinched against a joint when moving, etc. They don't have anything to defend at that point and should be really docile. I probably should wear a veil, but I don't use any protection when setting up a new hive.
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Apr 22, 2012 05:46
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I also don't wear any gear when installing packages and have been stung in the 5 I have done so far. It also helps if you spray down the sides of the box with sugar water to preoccupy them while smacking the bow around and dumping out the bees. One of the installs this year had a queen cage fall into the mass of bees. It was fun listening to and seeing everyone's reaction as I stuck my hand in the swarm and pulled out a fistful of bees. No stings. 
nesbit37 fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Apr 22, 2012 |
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Apr 22, 2012 13:31
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Nebulis01 posted:Awesome, but you don't want to keep your queen caged for a week or two! Replace the stopper with a mini marshmallow and let the workers eat their way to her it should take a couple of days quite enough time for the hive to get used to her pheromones Well, other people who've gotten the hives from this company have reported that their queens have been killed because they didn't wait long enough. The head of the club recommended 5 days at a minimum. OneTwentySix posted:If you're getting stung while the bees are in swarm mode, you might be doing something wrong, too; moving too fast, or getting them pinched against a joint when moving, etc. They don't have anything to defend at that point and should be really docile. I probably should wear a veil, but I don't use any protection when setting up a new hive. I think my two stings are because the bees got under some clothes and pressed up between my clothing and my skin.
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Apr 22, 2012 23:29
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Pagan posted:Your inner cover is on upside down. Flip it over and block the upper entrance with something to prevent the bees from accessing it. If you don't, in 2-3 weeks they'll fill the extra space underneath with comb, probably full of honey and drone brood, assuming you're using foundation.
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Apr 23, 2012 23:58
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ShotgunWillie posted:Your inner cover is on upside down. Flip it over and block the upper entrance with something to prevent the bees from accessing it. Thanks for the heads up, I'll get that taken care of when I open the hive this weekend. The weather since I got them home has been terrible; heavy rain the past two days, and high winds today. Nonetheless, I saw some of the girls out flying around, so I grabbed my camera.  Already got plenty of pollen! Who knows, maybe I will end up harvesting some honey this year.
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Apr 24, 2012 20:16
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So many bees in my hive. I thought they were dead, but nope!
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Apr 26, 2012 00:04
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You mavericks with your bare arms and uncovered heads make me nervous (and jealous as you look so drat cool). I'm terrified of bee stings and dress up like a spacewoman even if I'm just taking a looksee. I'm laid up injured, so my dad has been working on extending our apiary. Here are the posts in place, just need to lay the decking now.  We're getting 6 polystyrene hives this summer, bringing our number up to 13 hives (12 national and 1 rouge WBC that lives off in the wilderness). We decided to go polystyrene as we had a lot of woodpecker damage this year. I miss working the bees, so am using my injury time to study for my BBA certificate in bee keeping. If I wanted to I could keep taking the exams and eventually become Master Bee Keeper. Man that sounds good. Oh, yes, British bee keeper here! I'm over in Norfolk.
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Apr 27, 2012 14:52
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So I packaged my first hive ever on Wednesday and just check on them last night. I'm worried I failed at this  I shook them out and they went into the hive as planned. I performed a direct release of the queen, as my supplier said they had been together long enough, she came out of the cage dropped in between the frames and promptly flew off! I discovered yesterday night that the hive was empty but there was a nice ball of bees inside the wooden package box huddled together. So even though it was pretty cold (like 45F and raining all yesterday) i rehived them and they went strait down into the hive. Is it possible they will survive? There were a considerable number of dead bees due to the rain and cool weather. I couldn't find the queen but assume since they were bundled together they might have her? I'm kind of scared this is all sorts of hosed up
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Apr 27, 2012 15:16
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Pagan posted:Thanks for the heads up, I'll get that taken care of when I open the hive this weekend. This is an amazing photo. Looks like she's carrying luggage! Do you have a larger version of it?
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Apr 27, 2012 18:21
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Dr Scoofles posted:Oh, yes, British bee keeper here! I'm over in Norfolk. Hello fellow British bee goon! I am so very jealous of your apiary, it looks amazing! I have a single national tucked away at the bottom of my garden..
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Apr 27, 2012 22:08
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Nebulis01 posted:So I packaged my first hive ever on Wednesday and just check on them last night. I'm worried I failed at this Did you leave the queen cage in the box? It still smells like queen, so the bees will be drawn to it. If the queen doesn't / didn't come back, you might be in trouble. You'll need another queen or at least a frame of bees with eggs that your bees can make into a queen.
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Apr 28, 2012 07:17
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ShotgunWillie posted:Your inner cover is on upside down. Flip it over and block the upper entrance with something to prevent the bees from accessing it. You were right, but it didn't take a week. I decided to do 9 frames to start, and left a space in the middle. This is what they did...  I felt bad scraping it off and destroying it, but it was only full of sugar water. The queen is out now, she was still alive and healthy. They had finished off the bucket of sugar water, too! I was surprised that they had drained it so quick.  Here's an artsy shot of how happy they were 
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Apr 29, 2012 17:03
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Pagan posted:You were right, but it didn't take a week. I decided to do 9 frames to start, and left a space in the middle. This is what they did... No, no, no. If you want to 9 frame a 10 frame hive, you have to start out with 10 frames. Then, once they've drawn all ten, you can remove one, evenly space them, and the bees will widen the frames. If you start them out with nine, it breaks the bee space between frames, giving them enough room to build comb BETWEEN frames, much like you have there. Many bees will build their own comb and ignore foundation if allowed to. Rip out any mess comb, put the tenth frame in and press them tight in the middle. Space on either end is okay. Why are you 9 framing anyways? It was in new and in vogue when I started beekeeping, but I dont know anyone who does it anymore. In fact, I know more people who are shaving down their hoffman frames and putting 11 in a 10 frame hive.
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Apr 30, 2012 00:14
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Curious. What's the point of 11 frames? ( I like 10 over 9, because I run all mediums and like to be able to interchange frames from brood to super. )
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Apr 30, 2012 04:01
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j4on posted:Curious. What's the point of 11 frames? ( I like 10 over 9, because I run all mediums and like to be able to interchange frames from brood to super. ) It's a treatment-free beekeeping thing. If you regress your bees to small cell comb, i.e. from 5.4 to <4.9mm cell width, the bees will draw the comb proportionally shallower. In the same vein, small cell worker cells have a volume about a third smaller than the larger stuff, which means the bees are significantly smaller. Smaller bees, smaller comb, smaller beespace. An easy way to reduce the beespace in a standard langstroth hive is to shave down the end bars from a width of 1 3/8" to 1 1/4". Here's Michael Bush's explanation of narrow comb spacing: http://www.bushfarms.com/beesframewidth.htm If you haven't read his site before, I suggest you do. There's a lot of really interesting information on all aspects of treatment free beekeeping, and he's a good teacher. Full on crazypants, but awesome resource.
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Apr 30, 2012 04:54
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I installed my first package of bees about 3 weeks ago and things have been going swimmingly. I have done 3 checks on them, pretty much weekly, and to fill their feeder. The first check went well, they had started to draw comb on both sides of about 3 frames, but had also drawn a bunch of comb inside the frame feeder which I cleaned. I was able to spot the queen on this check. second check went well. It had been very warm and the bees had completely drawn out the 3 frames and had started on about 4 more. The queen had also begin to lay and they were storing pollen. I did not spot the queen on this check. I went on vacation for a little over a week. 3rd check, yesterday, Lots of bees. Fully drawn out 6-7 frames, some capped brood and pollen and honey. There were also a couple very large capped cells on the lower region of 4 frames. Are these queen cells?. They are not vertical but horizontal like the rest of the cells, just significantly larger. I did not spot the queen on the check through either. There are multiple frames of brood, so the queen was laying at some point. Any thoughts?
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May 4, 2012 18:10
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I installed my first nuc today, after taking a course through BANV, our local beekeeper's association. It was more valuable for the keeper connections and a (probably false) sense of confidence than anything else, but I'm glad we did it. There's been a good nectar flow in northern virginia, and it was a robust five frames that went into our 8-frame mediums. My husband gets his nuc in another few weeks, from a different keeper who has a load of Heikum (?) queens. We used suits but didn't end up using the smoker, the girls were very calm and went straight for the pollen patty and sugar water instead of bothering with me. Didn't see the marked queen, but it was starting to drizzle and they'd already been boxed up on the keeper's dining room table for a few hours. I'll check them in a week, to see if there's new brood or find her for sure. I've been waiting 6 years to get this started, am very excited. I keep going to window to look at them.
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May 5, 2012 22:21
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Pagan posted:You know, as insects go, bees are pretty drat cute.
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May 6, 2012 03:55
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I opened it up and I've got a varroa mite problem. Do you guys use Apistan or the grease patties with mineral oil?
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May 6, 2012 22:28
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Dick Trauma posted:This is an amazing photo. Looks like she's carrying luggage! How much larger were you thinking?
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May 6, 2012 22:41
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Maximusi posted:I opened it up and I've got a varroa mite problem. Do you guys use Apistan or the grease patties with mineral oil? I've used Apiguard, along with powdered sugar on inspections. I'm going to start using sacrificial drone comb this summer. If you already have honey supers on the hive, be careful not to use anything that will contaminate the honey. I haven't done this long enough to make notes on efficacy, but I've read that apistan-resistant strains are pretty common now. http://scientificbeekeeping.com/ has a lot of great information online on treatment.
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May 7, 2012 04:54
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What about grease patties + wintergreen oil?
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May 7, 2012 06:32
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Nebulis01 posted:I'm kind of scared this is all sorts of hosed up Success, first inspection and day above 60F here. 2.5 drawn out frames and one queen with lots of bees  I'm a happy camper.
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May 7, 2012 08:55
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My bees are making good progress, they've filled 6 of the starting frames, and have made progress on two others. When, as a rule of thumb, should I add the second box of frames? Also, when I take the top of the hive off, all the bees come up to the top and get in the way of me putting it back on. They're buzzing around the edges and all, so I can't put the top on without squishing them. I used the brush to brush them off, but that just seemed to make them angry, and they still hung out on the top edge of the box. I slid the top back carefully, but I'm sure I squished a few nonetheless. Is that just part of the price I pay every time I open the hive?
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May 18, 2012 17:34
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Pagan posted:My bees are making good progress, they've filled 6 of the starting frames, and have made progress on two others. When, as a rule of thumb, should I add the second box of frames? I was told no longer than 30 days after hiving to add a second deep, shorter if they are doing very well. As to them all coming up are you smoking them when you return the lid? I find this helps hunch back down into the hive so I don't have to squish so many of them.
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May 18, 2012 18:52
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