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Leperflesh posted:Here's my best guesses. I am not an expert. What happens when it's harvest time and you have stuff mixed like this? Do you get brood in the honey or do the bees spread out more later on?
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Apr 28, 2017 08:39
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Catberry posted:What happens when it's harvest time and you have stuff mixed like this? Do you get brood in the honey or do the bees spread out more later on? You don't harvest from the brood chamber generally. You use a Queen Excluder to separate the brood from the excess honey. Here we call the brood boxes and supers, with a queen excluder in between so you only get honey in the supers.
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Apr 28, 2017 10:37
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You don' t harvest the brood and sell Fortified Honey with Extra Protein?
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Apr 28, 2017 13:48
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To add to what Leperflesh said about drones, I'd try to leave an empty frame in for the hive to make drone comb (the cells are bigger so regular foundation isn't good for this). They don't always use it, but it seems to really cut down on them trying to put comb in the wrong places. As far as I can tell, they want the option for drone comb, so it isn't available, they do more stuff like comb in between the bottom and tops of frames. Just my experience, but it's happened every hive until I made a point of leaving an empty frame once I hit two boxes.
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Apr 28, 2017 13:51
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Since mine is a top bar, I'm kinda just hoping they make some pure comb. I'm toying with the idea of small honey supers over the hive, though
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Apr 28, 2017 18:00
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It has beegun. Was kind of hoping for a wooden box so I could see them better, but I will certainly be up close and personal very soon. From what I can tell it appears only a dozen or so dead in the box. They are a hummin'. Fog Tripper fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Apr 29, 2017 |
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Apr 29, 2017 19:26
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Big file (dunno if will work) Fog Tripper fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Apr 30, 2017 00:20
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It's generally best practice to install your package bees at dusk, so they stay in their new home overnight and it smells "right" by the time the sun comes up and they start to explore. You'll probably be fine, but just for future reference.
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Apr 30, 2017 00:44
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Leperflesh posted:It's generally best practice to install your package bees at dusk, so they stay in their new home overnight and it smells "right" by the time the sun comes up and they start to explore. You'll probably be fine, but just for future reference. Yep, thats what I understood as well. I aimed to avoid dusk simply because it was in the low 40s and gusty but sunny at least. They are indeed humming up a storm inside the hive at this point and I have the package cage propped up as close to the bee door as possible so the remaining couple dozen can find their way in. Other reason I couldnt wait for evening was I have orchestra tickets with the wife and have to leave a few hours prior to dusk to get there on time. THANKFULLY it shoul be windless, sunny and 60+ tommorow.
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Apr 30, 2017 00:57
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Leperflesh posted:Here's my best guesses. I am not an expert. This is great. Add to OP?
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Apr 30, 2017 03:24
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Bees look to have accepted their new digs and are zooming in and out while the weather is improved. Saw one already loaded up with bright orange pollen that I imagine is from the abundant fields of dandelions near us. Still is a little chilly and some breeze, otherwise I would relax out there just staring at them.
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Apr 30, 2017 22:11
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Neat. Just discovered this today https://www.wunderground.com/us/ut/heber-city/zmw:84032.1.99999/health#tree Shows what likely pollen is flying about.
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May 1, 2017 23:15
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Neat. Definitely some downsides (no honey supers, very small max size) but neat. He says he'll harvest honey, so I guess he'll just trust them to segregate their own brood from honey? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC4eGRyyZwc
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May 5, 2017 18:05
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BrianBoitano posted:Neat. Definitely some downsides (no honey supers, very small max size) but neat. He says he'll harvest honey, so I guess he'll just trust them to segregate their own brood from honey? Isn't that essentially just a clay hive, meaning lots of wax, a lot more dead bees, and little bits of honey?
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May 5, 2017 18:15
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Sat at the hive and watched the comings and going for a while this weekend. Was surprised to witness a very large and loud one come buzzing out, loop around and shortly zoomed back into the hive. No idea if it was the queen. Could not make out much detail beyond it being as big as a wasp but not a wasp. A group of workers had congregated at the entrance beforehand and then dispersed afterward. Not aggressive toward it. I may remove the jar feeders this eve or tomorrow. They are bringing in tons of pollen and I would assume nectar from the swaths of dandelions in the area. Should get a peek at comb once I remove the "feeder box". Hoping to see brood comb. Will be good to have the hive shorter as it has been gusty as hell in the past few afternoons. The hive is tied down on the sides, but the wind of course is coming perpendicular to it's typical pattern and I've seen the hive sway a little. Fog Tripper fucked around with this message at 16:27 on May 8, 2017 |
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May 8, 2017 16:19
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You might have seen a drone taking a practice flight? Drones are a little bigger than the workers.
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May 10, 2017 17:48
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Fog Tripper posted:Sat at the hive and watched the comings and going for a while this weekend. Was surprised to witness a very large and loud one come buzzing out, loop around and shortly zoomed back into the hive. No idea if it was the queen. Could not make out much detail beyond it being as big as a wasp but not a wasp. A group of workers had congregated at the entrance beforehand and then dispersed afterward. Not aggressive toward it. Yeah most likely a drone; as for stopping feeding make sure that the hive is actually increasing in weight first, as a costly lesson all beekeepers learn eventually is that just because somethings blooming doesnt mean its actually producing nectar.
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May 14, 2017 14:52
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How do you experienced beeks deal with swarm cells? Constant rain combined with my crappy schedule meant that I had to go a month without doing a deep hive check- I knew they were a little crowded, but looks like we've had a lot more pollen than I realized and they're starting to become honeybound. Found 4 swarm cells with uncapped larvae, went ahead and cut them off, though I know there's lots of different opinions on whether or not that's the best idea. I don't have the space or resources to split the hive, so not sure what my other options would be. In the meantime, I also added a super and swapped out some of the honeybound frames from the top box with open foundation. Thoughts?
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May 17, 2017 23:34
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I saw this on imgur. What's that black bee? 
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May 19, 2017 21:13
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So, if you look very closely you'll see that bees have two pairs of wings (they lay on top of one another when not flying). That thing looks to me like it only has one pair, which would make it some kind of fly... possibly a bee mimic, although it'd be mimicing some native bee rather than a european honeybee. What it's doing in a hive without being killed, I have no idea. e. The more I look, the more it looks like maybe it does have two pairs of wings, so maybe it's a carpenter bee robbing the hive. Again though, I'd expect it to be attacked and killed in short order. In that second pic it may have already lost one or more wings to being attacked? Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 23:32 on May 19, 2017 |
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May 19, 2017 23:28
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I want to re-mulch my garden in front of my house, do I need to remove the old mulch or can I just keep piling the poo poo higher? There's weeds and poo poo growing through it so there's not that much mulch.
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May 20, 2017 03:25
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The bees seem to be giving it a wide berth so they are obviously not comfortable with it.
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May 20, 2017 11:37
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Melanin mutation? Do bees even use melanin for colouring?
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May 20, 2017 22:17
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Someone on Imgur suggested it might be a drone from a different type of bee that snuck in.
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May 21, 2017 03:50
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I started my first hive last April, they overwintered well, and when I checked them in April this year there was plenty of larvae and the population looked good. Since I am a teacher I have been absolutely swamped after school with work and hadn't peeked into the hive for a few weeks. Big mistake. Yesterday my husband noticed a bunch of our bees had left the hive and swarmed in a branch nearby. We never expected them to do well enough that they were setting themselves up to split, so we didn't have a second empty hive ready. To be honest despite having researched bees before and after having them I didn't understand what to look for to anticipate a swarm or how to prevent one from happening, which is totally my fault. I called a master beekeeper in a neighboring town and he got them and told me what to look out for the next few weeks to make sure the developing queen actually ends up back in the hive and is laying eggs. He said our bees are pretty docile, our colony looked strong and that the hive smelled really good which made me feel less like a failure. If anyone has advice on what to look out for next year to keep this from happening and how to proceed it would be a great help!
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May 21, 2017 18:28
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On my car today  
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May 22, 2017 17:44
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Not much to report since install. Bees come, bees go. Bottom box has the window in it so I can see they are still active up above but no comb in the bottom yet. I am just going to let them do what they do with no tampering. Once I see comb filling up the bottom box I will add another underneath. By then I will have built a solid bottom board. Not thrilled with the design of the screened bottom with sliding plastic insert. They seem to be losing a ton of pollen through the screen, and with the huge temp swings from night to day and back, a solid should help keep the internal more consistent.
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May 22, 2017 18:14
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There are bees? hanging around outside my house, should I be worried? They can't live in that vent, birds already live there... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io6h69mCOIY Quality should improve in a minute. To a certain extent anyway, I was holding my phone out of a window.   Edit: Oh hey, looking at the pictures I guess they're bumblebees? They can stay there then, the birds have all fledged out now anyway!
Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 13:34 on May 24, 2017 |
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May 24, 2017 12:19
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Nettle Soup posted:Edit: Oh hey, looking at the pictures I guess they're bumblebees? Ah yep, looks like you've got a bumble bee nest in that vent. Those bees flying around are males waiting for the queen to come out for sexy times. Totally harmless, and should make for a very small nest. https://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/habitats/bumblebee-nests/
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May 24, 2017 15:22
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Got contact info to pick up two swarms. Sadly I was to late for one and they buggered off into the bush but I got to take a look at the wild hive that they took off from.  Apparently they have lived in this tree a long time and have stuck with it despite first the tree breaking in half and then the remaining truck falling down as well. The started in one side and them moved to the other after it broke, then stayed in the log after it was taken down. The homeowner is quite happy to have them around so I just took a picture and setup my swarm trap in case they come back. The second call was not actually a swarm. I get there and it is an old lady who has had a hive in her wall for the better part of a decade. You could hear them buzzing through the wall of a closet and could feel that it was warmer there. There must have been a gap into the house because they were coming out in her guest bedroom and hanging out on the window sill. Didn't seem like a good way to get to know bees so I let her know she will need a professional.
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May 27, 2017 01:35
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helno posted:Got contact info to pick up two swarms. Those are some persistent bees. Especially in contrast to bees who live in proper man made hives. Then the owner goes on vacation for a week and the bees fly off because the hive will no longer do.
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May 27, 2017 08:45
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Opera Bitch posted:I started my first hive last April, they overwintered well, and when I checked them in April this year there was plenty of larvae and the population looked good. Since I am a teacher I have been absolutely swamped after school with work and hadn't peeked into the hive for a few weeks. Big mistake. Yesterday my husband noticed a bunch of our bees had left the hive and swarmed in a branch nearby. We never expected them to do well enough that they were setting themselves up to split, so we didn't have a second empty hive ready. To be honest despite having researched bees before and after having them I didn't understand what to look for to anticipate a swarm or how to prevent one from happening, which is totally my fault. I called a master beekeeper in a neighboring town and he got them and told me what to look out for the next few weeks to make sure the developing queen actually ends up back in the hive and is laying eggs. He said our bees are pretty docile, our colony looked strong and that the hive smelled really good which made me feel less like a failure. If anyone has advice on what to look out for next year to keep this from happening and how to proceed it would be a great help! Have a second box ready, even one of those corrugate cardboard jobs. Also, they'll put the swarm cups up under the frames on the honey supers usually (they're trying to hide it from the queen since she tends to kill them before they hatch). There will usually be 1-2 per frame and usually several frames with them. But yeah, they don't swarm if they colony isn't strong as they're doing it in response to real or imagined overcrowding. Sometimes switching frame positions helps but yeah, and you can always kill the queen cups before they hatch if you want. But yeah, swarm management is the hardest part of this hobby in my opinion.
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May 29, 2017 17:14
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Catberry posted:I saw this on imgur. What's that black bee? I would guess it was a small black bee or some other member of hoplitis if it's not just a really beat up honeybee. But there is at least one disease that makes normal honeybees look that way, but it doesn't look rounded enough for that (frankly, I would have killed it if I saw it in my boxes since I'm weird). Also bees that have robbed, stopped robbing, or otherwise have fought a lot can look that way as they've gotten their hair pulled out. I'd have to see a better shot of the antennae and/or stomach. Sinister_Beekeeper fucked around with this message at 17:46 on May 29, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 17:43
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Well I collected my first swarm. They were clustered on a well head so it was quite difficult to brush them into a bucket but after a while I must have gotten the queen in there as they slowly started moving into the bucket. Didn't get any pictures since my wife was a litter terrified of the cloud of them. Got them into a 5 gal pail and quickly drove home and got them into the hive. That bucket was surprisingly heavy.  
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May 30, 2017 02:23
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I like the picture that discourages you from stuffing babies in the bee bucket 
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May 30, 2017 20:47
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Do any of you top bar folks utilize a spacer tool of some sort to get distances equal for proper bee space? I marked my boxes off and put the bars in alignment, but when I went to change out the top fabric I saw that at some point they became unaligned. Was hoping there was some kind of toothed tool that would quickly realign bars. Bee Thinking had them but they are perpetually out of stock and reportedly shutting down the business.
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May 30, 2017 21:06
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Well, I successfully overwintered a hive my first year. The second year and third winters were failures. In year two, i split my one strong hive when it became clear a swarm was imminent. Unfortunately, I ended up with one very weak hive that never grew stronger despite all my efforts, and the original hive died out after a robbery and a wax moth invasion. The weaker hive ended the same way. Last year, year 3, was bad from the start -- the packages arrived during a conference of and wet spate. I installed one at dusk right before a storm hit. I held onto the second package and installed it the next morning. Both packages had a lot of dead bees when they arrived, but not so many that I thought to reject delivery. The rest of the day of install two was pretty lovely cold weather, and the installation itself went terribly -- the bees just would not come out of the package, so I put the whole package into the deep and closed it up with frames and thick syrup in the feeder. It rained the rest of the day and night. The next day, the first hive was alive but the second was completely dead. It took a while but that first hive ended up quite strong and yielded two honey harvests. There was no sign of significant varroa infestation I. September and a sample in October yielded very low numbers, but we treated just in case and all seemed well. We popped a feeder with fondant on just before the weather got too cold, covered it with burlap, shimmed the top a bit with a matchstick like in year one, and lightly insulated the hive. Unfortunately they seemed to have kicked it in late January or early February. They didn't starve to death -- at least, that's not what spelled the colony's doom. Instead it seems like some sort of disease hit and killed most of the hive. There was no sign of other insects or pests like mice. The comb and remaining capped honey seem fine. Whatever got the bees didn't cause dysentery and the corpses all fell to the bottom board and were left undisturbed til earlier this month, when I was able to remove the whole hive from the site.  The sad remains:  These poor guys were the only ones who survived the disease. They ended up starving and freezing in the super with loads of capped honey less than an inch off frame. The deep hive body and medium just below had plenty of honey as well. The fondant above was barely touched. My cats' vet actually is a member of my former association (I forgot to re-up membership  ) and mentioned a couple viruses went around last year and hit other keepers really hard. My best guess is nosema ceranae.
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May 30, 2017 23:41
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Fog Tripper posted:Do any of you top bar folks utilize a spacer tool of some sort to get distances equal for proper bee space? I marked my boxes off and put the bars in alignment, but when I went to change out the top fabric I saw that at some point they became unaligned. Was hoping there was some kind of toothed tool that would quickly realign bars. Assuming you are using a regular top bar hive with full bars instead of warré style comb guides, top bars should butt up against each other, with no space between, at least in all the hives I've used. Since a top bar hive is a single layer, there is no need for bee space between them. Each bar is wide enough for the comb and half a bee space on either side of the comb. Close them tight, the bees will draw the comb nice and straight (if you are lucky), and because there is no gap, the frames will only get propolised at the joints, with minimal burr comb.
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May 31, 2017 02:56
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ShotgunWillie posted:Assuming you are using a regular top bar hive with full bars instead of warré style comb guides, top bars should butt up against each other, with no space between, at least in all the hives I've used. Since a top bar hive is a single layer, there is no need for bee space between them. Each bar is wide enough for the comb and half a bee space on either side of the comb. Close them tight, the bees will draw the comb nice and straight (if you are lucky), and because there is no gap, the frames will only get propolised at the joints, with minimal burr comb. Warre style. 
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May 31, 2017 16:54
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My bars are the correct width that beespace is maintained with them tight against each other. I'm going to give them a few days to settle in before opening it for the first time. They were. Dry busy coming and going yesterday.
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May 31, 2017 17:05
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