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Sinister_Beekeeper posted:You're too far from me or I'd offer to try to do a split or something for you. As far as chickens, I knew folks with both and the chickens usually only do it once (unless they're really dumb). aww thats sweet  . one of the bee swarm response guys is giving me first crack at whatever swarms he catches so I still might end up with a hive this year. Is there any reason I should or shouldn't consider Warre hive boxes? My friend who's into woodworking wants to help me build my hives in exchange for honey and wax and we both agreed the Warre boxes are super duper cute and might let me stick a camera all up in my bees beesiness when I'm feeling voyeuristic. wheres my beer fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Mar 22, 2016 |
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Mar 22, 2016 00:18
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I don't see how you can re-use comb on Warre frames, if that's an issue for you. Most folks I know like to reuse drawn frames as it saves the bees some effort to redraw new comb. Also, I'd think harvesting honey could be messier that route, but I'm only speculating there. Since you're talking about harvesting wax for someone, that's probably not a huge deal for you, but figured I'd mention it. I don't know anyone personally that doesn't do Langstroth, but I thought there was a goon here that went Warre. If you wanted to go that route, you can always buy frames and have the other woodware made/make it yourself. Also, if you get a swarm, there is a good chance of illness if they're being removed from walls or structures in my experience. It's not a big deal if they're not going near other hives of yours, but you should be aware that they might need some treatment. I wouldn't turn one down if I were you, but you definitely want to go over a swarm more than you would a nuc or package from a good dealer since there's just going to be more of a chance of something that needs to be taken care of.
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Mar 22, 2016 02:23
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Sinister_Beekeeper posted:Also, nosema is why you need to be really careful about feeding protein/pollen substitute during the winter season as too much protein encourages pooping which can lead to nosema like Free Cheese was mentioning. I thought Free Cheese would discourage pooping  After taking a year off I'm back in the game this Friday. Getting excited. Wax Months invaded my stored frames starting about a month ago. I've been rotating things through the freezer but gently caress those little loving fuckers. They are all over my house.
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Mar 23, 2016 13:41
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I did treat, but I'm new at this. I might have done so at a sub optimal time. And I only fall treated, not spring.
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Mar 23, 2016 15:33
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Indolent Bastard posted:I did treat, but I'm new at this. I might have done so at a sub optimal time. And I only fall treated, not spring. Yeah, worst part of the hobby/bad lifestyle choice is that sometimes things just go bad through no fault of your own. drewhead posted:I thought Free Cheese would discourage pooping I guess it depends on the cheese. But yeah, had a hive taken out by small hive beetles and I go out of my way to murder any that I happen to see now.
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Mar 23, 2016 17:19
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I took a trip to the Pierce County Beekeepers Apiary on their Apiary Tour Day and took a few photos and got edumucated on baby bees.    Are hive tools just Stanley Wonder Bars that are painted yellow?   Getting familiarized with the combs and frames.  Free Range Queen!  Where's Queendo? I'm glad I got a chance to visit active hives and would recommend anyone who's thinking about bee keeping visiting an apiary. Now I'm even more interested in getting a few hives of my own going. wheres my beer fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Mar 28, 2016 |
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Mar 28, 2016 22:56
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Hive tools are slimmer to fit in between the boxes/help get frames out. These are the ones I like: http://www.amazon.com/Mann-Lake-HD588-Steel-2-Inch/dp/B00B8L5YGA But keep in mind that it's a matter of personal preference and a lot of folks don't really care (I bought a bunch of different ones to see what I liked most). Sinister_Beekeeper fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Mar 28, 2016 |
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Mar 28, 2016 22:59
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Sinister_Beekeeper posted:Neato! Well, update: I am on the agenda for my HOA's next meeting on April 6. I have to turn in a proposal including a site map showing my planned hive location by this Wednesday. I just finished writing what I have jokingly entitled my "Bee Brief", including exhibits. I get 5 minutes to make a presentation, and a 10 minute Q and A. A few board members of my local Beek Assoc. will also possibly be joining me. But, the decision from the HOA will likely come after bees are delivered, so if I win it's a project for next Spring. Hopefully I can at least do some workshops in the meanwhile.
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Mar 28, 2016 23:32
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Save me jeebus posted:Well, update: I am on the agenda for my HOA's next meeting on April 6. I have to turn in a proposal including a site map showing my planned hive location by this Wednesday. I just finished writing what I have jokingly entitled my "Bee Brief", including exhibits. I get 5 minutes to make a presentation, and a 10 minute Q and A. A few board members of my local Beek Assoc. will also possibly be joining me. That's great! Yeah, see if you can shadow some folks from your local beekeeper association. A lot of them will have mentor programs specifically for that.
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Mar 28, 2016 23:41
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My husband and I just installed our first package of bees on Sunday but I don’t like where he chose to put the hive and want a more experienced person’s opinion. I’ve argued for a few different places in the yard but he’s shot down them for various reasons such as not enough sun, too close to the woods where bears may find it, or worries about him getting attacked if he has to mow too close to it. I should add our town has no regulations or zoning when it comes to hives: I doubled checked with town hall and their rep outright laughed when I asked. I included a picture of our yard layout and the current location of the hive is starred. As you can see, it is very close to the driveway (about 20 feet away) and despite the bushes right near on the side of it, the neighbor’s driveway is about 10-15 feet away. I am extremely worried about them flying into the neighbors’ driveway, as well as potential problems with deliverymen and other people who have to approach the house. I suggested moving the hive against the right side of the garage with the entrance pointing to the back yard, but worry this is still too close to the neighbor’s house. My husband first thought to put it on the side of the screened in porch but is worried about mowing around that area. What would be the optimal placement given the sun and location of the house and surrounding features? 
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Apr 12, 2016 04:09
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I have an electric mower and mow right next to my hives (I have them on pavers so I don't have to deal with grass under their boxes). With a fence that high, I'm not sure your neighbor would know they were there unless you told them unless you put more than two hives there. I'd put them in the back if it was my call, simply because they are going to probably freak out people. A lot of folks are irrationally terrified of bees (probably a great username/comment here). Also, try to leave them some kind of water source like a birdbath or something and try putting a little lemongrass oil in it to try to keep them out of your pool/drowned in your pool.
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Apr 12, 2016 04:50
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Point the entry/exit at the 12ft hedge where it is now and it should be fine.
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Apr 12, 2016 06:22
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Would it be better if we moved the hive to the side of the garage with the entry pointing towards the fence? I have a birdbath I plan to move right next to them already.
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Apr 12, 2016 14:49
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I think any of those spots are fine. The only real issue I could see is people getting weird if they know what it is. We don't have any backyard fencing (other than some pound in stuff I got because of deer destroying my garden) and only one person in my neighborhood will even go into my backyard because they're irrationally terrified of my bees, despite seeing me out there in no gear mucking about their hives on a regular basis (during their busy season, I like to sit out there when they're coming back in for the night so I'm sitting a few feet from the boxes).
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Apr 12, 2016 16:12
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Welp, with this being the start of my second year of beekeeping and not having any extra wood ware to work with, my only hive swarmed yesterday for the third time. I've built two more (8-frame) deeps and two more mediums and ordered frames, inner cover, a bottom board, and lid so I can hopefully split what bees are left in there. After they swarmed the second time I opened it up and there were still fuckloads of bees in there but were back filling the brood boxes like mad and refuse to draw comb in the medium super (with plastic foundation) I put on there weeks ago for some reason. I don't currently use a queen excluder but might try one out if I ever get drawn comb on some of the medium frames. Any thoughts?
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Apr 12, 2016 16:21
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I had a hive position related question. I live in a flat with a back garden, it has 3 storey buildings on 2 sides and lower buildings on the other sides. My garden is spot in the middle of this and where I was thinking was 15-16m (~50ft) away from the closest building  A bit like that. Just over the building to the north about 250m is a massive country park and a river 150m away to the west. Because I live in Scotland I'm really concerned about this being too shaded and sheltered for the bees to get enough sun. They won't get hit with sun first thing in the morning, it's usually more like mid morning right through to the even that sun hits that spot in the garden. Should I reconsider my hive location and move it somewhere it's going to get sun earlier in the day? Tomorrow is my 2nd week of my 7 week introduction to beekeeping course, I'm looking forward to it.
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Apr 12, 2016 16:39
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TheToxicEuphoria, are you wanting to use a queen excluder to stop swarming? I don't quite understand your question there. A unfertilized queen can probably get through an excluder though. If I'm understanding your post correctly, I'd try to get a nuc box, sell the swarm and use the dough to get more woodware. But there's usually more buyers than sellers for bees in my area, so YMMV. Aramoro, I'd ask the beekeeping group instead of me at least since you got some climate considerations that I just don't have in the Southern U.S. I'd guess that the buildings being a windblock might help, but I'm totally guessing there.
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Apr 12, 2016 17:23
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Sinister_Beekeeper posted:Aramoro, I'd ask the beekeeping group instead of me at least since you got some climate considerations that I just don't have in the Southern U.S. I'd guess that the buildings being a windblock might help, but I'm totally guessing there. Oh yeah I will be, just cuirous about how shaded people keep their hives generally, especially here were our average temperature May to September is 10-16C. I guess pretty much all of the Beekeepers here are american though which doesn't help.
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Apr 12, 2016 17:28
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No no I was saying I don't use a queen excluder because of the fact that my bees have refused to draw comb in the top most box, in case using one would interfere with that. The swarm is too far up in a tree for me to retrieve so I'm not even going to attempt to deal with that part. I didn't really have a specific question, just general input I suppose. Though I am really curious why they won't draw out the super. I added it shortly at the end of summer last year hoping they would work on it at least a little bit so I could use it this spring but all they did was propalyze(?) around the frames a bit. Not much activity in it this spring, either.
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Apr 12, 2016 17:54
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What does your brood look like? Is there a lot of "milk" around them or is it dry? They should be drawing, excluder or not, but they also tend to have a season when they do more drawing. In my experience, it's Spring. I'm just wondering if you need to be giving a supplement in case they aren't getting enough specific nutrition and that is your problem. I use all mediums and last month they knocked out the empty frame I put in for drone comb in like 1 1/2- 2 weeks while extruding some on the foundationed frames I had in there. You can get swarm pheromone to help lure them into boxes. What region are you in so I have an idea of what type of weather you're dealing with?
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Apr 12, 2016 18:31
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I can't comment on the "milk" part as I didn't notice or think to look for anything like that but I will when I open them back up this weekend. I'm in northern Alabama so it's been an early spring for us. They're bringing in lots of nectar and pollen to the point of backfilling the broodnest, like I said. I haven't fed them since I installed them from a package last spring but seem to be making boatloads of workers still so nutrition wouldn't be my first thought, but then again I'm still a newb. I'll try to post pictures from my next inspection. Also, when I split the hive I'm planning on blocking both hives in for two or three days and moving the current one into a sunnier location about 20 feet away. Any idea if this might encourage the bees to draw more comb since they'll not be able to forage? e: In my hive's current state, they have two fully drawn 8-frame deeps using plastic foundation and an 8-frame medium super using plastic foundation but no drawn comb as of last inspection (about a week ago.) TheToxicEuphoria fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Apr 12, 2016 |
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Apr 12, 2016 22:40
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Maybe they don't like the plastic? I've heard people swear that, but I've never messed with it. Some hives just don't do wax (or any other thing you'd want) as good as others sometimes. Try spraying a little sugar water (with any attractants you use) on the plastic when you're working them and see if maybe that helps. I'm in Nashville, so I'm pretty much in the same climate, and a lot of folks I know lost hives because of the Winter sort of dragging. Seems like the "warm enough for the bees to fly and burn through their reserves, but too cold for plant blooms" is worse than having a cold Winter. But yeah, in general, if the brood are in a milky looking pool, that's a great sign. It means the hive has a lot of nutrients and are putting it into brood milk. This is a good sign in terms of how the hive would resist diseases and pests since strong babies helps a ton. I use if the brood are milky or not to guide if I put out pollen substitutes so they can get whatever amino acids they're possibly missing out on. Whenever I move hives, I'll usually put some screen over the entrance so they can still get ventilation, and just put some branches in front of the exit after you open it (wear gear or you will be stung/have bees in your nose and ears depending on how aggressive your honeys are). I'm not really sure the screening/blocking is needed though. You should be able to get away with using entrance reducers if you're worried about robbing. Sinister_Beekeeper fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 13, 2016 00:10
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Sinister_Beekeeper posted:That's great! Request denied. 
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Apr 13, 2016 00:49
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We installed our package on Sunday, and were told to wait three days to release the queen from her plastic cage. So does that mean we should let her out tomorrow? We ended up moving the hive tonight to the other side of the house away from the neighbor's yard and to a place with better sun exposure. Not sure if that will affect releasing her.
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Apr 13, 2016 02:03
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Opera Bitch posted:We installed our package on Sunday, and were told to wait three days to release the queen from her plastic cage. So does that mean we should let her out tomorrow? We ended up moving the hive tonight to the other side of the house away from the neighbor's yard and to a place with better sun exposure. Not sure if that will affect releasing her. There wasn't a candy plug for the other bees to eat off to free her? Save me jeebus posted:Request denied. Be a real shame if those fun-haters got randomly attacked by swarms of bees. A real shame indeed.
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Apr 13, 2016 02:10
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Save me jeebus posted:Request denied. gently caress em just do it anyway
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Apr 13, 2016 02:17
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Sinister_Beekeeper posted:There wasn't a candy plug for the other bees to eat off to free her? No, it just has a plastic plug.
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Apr 13, 2016 02:27
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Opera Bitch posted:No, it just has a plastic plug. If they've been together since Saturday (I'm assuming you're hanging the cage in between some frames in the box), let her out. Be careful, and keep in mind that they might have clipped the wings and that even normal queens like to fall off stuff (then you step forward looking for her.../splat). Just carefully open it over the hive, she'll likely scurry in and then you're set. Is she supposed to be fertilized already?
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Apr 13, 2016 03:34
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Yes she is already fertilized, and I did leave her hanging between the frames as the seller suggested.
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Apr 13, 2016 12:08
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Aramoro posted:Oh yeah I will be, just cuirous about how shaded people keep their hives generally, especially here were our average temperature May to September is 10-16C. I guess pretty much all of the Beekeepers here are american though which doesn't help. Contrary to popular belief, sun/shade doesn't affect the hives that much. I'm not discounting that full sun is better, but I have hives in full shade, and they are my best producing hives. They used to be in full sun, but I got tired of mowing the grass around around them and sweating my rear end off in the summer. Another member of my club has hives under his deck - total shade (even more than me) with addition of being damp because it's under a deck. Everything about his setup is wrong - dark, damp, facing the wrong way), and those hives are his best producing ones also. I attribute the great production to a really good forage area and I have a theory that the bees spend more time foraging and less time cooling the hive in the heat.
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Apr 13, 2016 14:40
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So i opened the queen cage, laid it on the side to release the queen… and it fell to the bottom of the hive. I didn't want to mess with them anymore so I didn't move the frame to pick it back up. Since the cap is open should it be ok on the bottom, or should I really go and get her out?
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Apr 13, 2016 17:13
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It's not going to hurt anything sitting there for a few days if the queen was out/can get out. Though they might propolis it to something.emanonii posted:Contrary to popular belief, sun/shade doesn't affect the hives that much. I'm not discounting that full sun is better, but I have hives in full shade, and they are my best producing hives. They used to be in full sun, but I got tired of mowing the grass around around them and sweating my rear end off in the summer. Another member of my club has hives under his deck - total shade (even more than me) with addition of being damp because it's under a deck. Everything about his setup is wrong - dark, damp, facing the wrong way), and those hives are his best producing ones also. I attribute the great production to a really good forage area and I have a theory that the bees spend more time foraging and less time cooling the hive in the heat. Only thing I've noticed damp affecting around here is it kills hives in Winter (and it's possible that there still could have been steps taken to minimize risks there). I think there might be some validity about location, but I suspect it is for folks that live in much harsher environments than me. Around here, I'd avoid shade if possible simply due to hive beetles. Other than that, I'd generally just tell folks to avoid things like in the front yard next to the mailbox because I've seen people's neighbors really freak out about bees. When we got our freak two feet of snow in one day, I trudged out and cleared the top of my box. But I freely concede that I'm kind of weird. Sinister_Beekeeper fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Apr 13, 2016 |
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Apr 13, 2016 19:58
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emanonii posted:Contrary to popular belief, sun/shade doesn't affect the hives that much. I'm not discounting that full sun is better, but I have hives in full shade, and they are my best producing hives. They used to be in full sun, but I got tired of mowing the grass around around them and sweating my rear end off in the summer. Another member of my club has hives under his deck - total shade (even more than me) with addition of being damp because it's under a deck. Everything about his setup is wrong - dark, damp, facing the wrong way), and those hives are his best producing ones also. I attribute the great production to a really good forage area and I have a theory that the bees spend more time foraging and less time cooling the hive in the heat. This makes me feel better about where I put my hive because we moved it to the side of our screened in porch, thinking it was the best placement. Despite living here for 5 years i never realized that area doesn't get any sun except for about an hour in the morning until today because I kept going outside to watch the bees. I am glad that probably won't be a bad thing.
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Apr 13, 2016 20:11
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I was out in the garden today doing some stuff for a few hours and all of a sudden the swarm in my tree decided to leave. It was nuts. They swirled around like a bee tornado then just slowly drifted across my field into the woods at a walking pace. It was really surreal following them, like a ghost made of bees. You know the bug swarm monsters in Diablo 2? Exactly like that. I loving love bees.
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Apr 13, 2016 22:17
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TheToxicEuphoria posted:I was out in the garden today doing some stuff for a few hours and all of a sudden the swarm in my tree decided to leave. It was nuts. They swirled around like a bee tornado then just slowly drifted across my field into the woods at a walking pace. It was really surreal following them, like a ghost made of bees. Yeah, I love when it's warm to sit in front of their boxes when they're coming in for the door and hanging out in a cloud of bees. Especially when I see ones coming back with full pollen baskets.
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Apr 13, 2016 23:14
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Sinister_Beekeeper posted:It's not going to hurt anything sitting there for a few days if the queen was out/can get out. Though they might propolis it to something. True, dampness is a killer in winter. I mitigate it with a candy board that has a finger sized hole for a top entrance. Allows for a bit of ventilation, and the candy absorbs a good bit of moisture. Other people in the club use wool blankets to absorb moisture, but then they have to through the effort of changing them for a dry one.
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Apr 14, 2016 14:53
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I got some shim board from Betterbee with a pre made spacer (they include a stopper). I then got some 1/2 inch mesh from the hardware store, cut out a piece, and stapled it in. That is what I used for the candy for Winter. I should have probably posted pics of the setup months ago, duh.
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Apr 14, 2016 16:07
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Sinister_Beekeeper posted:
Backup plan is a nest of bullet ants.
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Apr 16, 2016 17:01
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I'm trying foundationless this year and I've found they are building the comb from the bottom of the frame up. Any tips?
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Apr 23, 2016 21:05
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Tally posted:I'm trying foundationless this year and I've found they are building the comb from the bottom of the frame up. Did you leave the wedge bars in? Also, sometimes they just do what they want. I've heard of removing comb and attaching it where you want with rubber bands, but I wouldn't do that myself.
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Apr 24, 2016 05:06
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