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Beekind is excellent! 8 years ago when we got bees they were doing classes, they might still do them. I think it was free, just a one-off ~1-2 hour lecture for new beekepers, in and out back of the store.
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Jan 25, 2018 23:41
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They still do classes, I'm signed up for one in March, that'll give me a month to get set up for my ladies to arrive. I also completed this Online Class from University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It's free, but you do need to sign up. (Titled: "Honey Bees and Colony Strength Evaluation")
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Jan 26, 2018 00:10
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Lots of snowfall the last two days. They are still buzzing away after a really cold January. 
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Feb 4, 2018 20:47
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Go go bees! All three hives here looking good at the moment. Hope we get all three through the winter.
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Feb 5, 2018 10:42
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tuo posted:Go go bees! I'll be putting pollen on mine today.
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Feb 11, 2018 12:16
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Hive 2 is also buzzing away. It is in a much windier area. 
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Feb 12, 2018 02:27
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Building a Layens have this winter. Has anyone run one? I may build some of the frames that will accommodate deeps frames in case I go with a nuc transfer, and the rest of the frames as foundationless.
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Feb 12, 2018 17:41
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does anyone here run a digital/IoT bee-hive-scale?
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Feb 17, 2018 16:37
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I'm running a typical, european Zander-hive on my three hives. This means that the brood nest is divided into two boxes, so everytime you do swarm control/check the hive, you rip apart the brood nest. I don't like this, especially since it happens all the time that you kill some bees when reseating the top brood box. Thus, I plan to change to what is called Zadant here...basically enlarged Zander-frames, so you only have one brood box, similar to Dadant. Since we are a couple of weeks away from reopening the boxes/restarting the season, my idea to adapt was the following: - take the brood frames from the (I suppose) bottom brood box, and put them into the new Zadant-box. Put a new Zadant frame between them (depending on how many brood frames there are). Put a food frame at the outer part. Add one of the old Zander-boxes on top with the rest of the food frames. - when one of the "old" non-Zadant-brood frames is fully filled, move it to the outside of the brood nest, wait till it hatched, then replace it with another new Zadant-frame closer to the middle (moving the other brood frames more outwards) - continue until everything is moved over to the new, larger Zadant-frames another idea - of course - would be to only start with the Zadant-change when creating splits from the hives. Anybody done anything similar to this and has experience on how to do it?
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Feb 18, 2018 14:58
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After having the darkest three months since people record the weather over here we had a rather sunny day today, and I stuck a camera in front of my three hives since all three decided to go out for some cleaning flights and for collecting pollen. All three hives were treated the same regarding Varroa and all three were fed the same. The hive further out (team brown) was rather weak, but managed to get strong again before going into the winter. Team red and Team blue were drat strong, but strangely, team red has a very high death toll, as you can see as I just cleared out the dead bees yesterday. The first bucket of dead bees had nearly all with the tongue wide out, so the first thing I did was check for food, which they had plenty of. The second thing was checking the dead bees for Varroa, and from about fifty that I checked, only two had a Varroa on them. Still puzzles me what's going on with them. The dead bees since then are dying "the normal way", without the extended tongue, but they still have a rather high death rate, and they also seem to refuse to bring them out of the hive, which - as I was told - is normally not a good sign. I checked underneath the hive wether I can see specks of bee poo poo (which would be another very bad sign, if they defecate inside the hive), but I couldn't. All three are still very alive, have plenty of food, but strangely, team red drops a lot of dead bees. They were the strongest hive last year, but not by a huge margin in regard to team blue, who has nearly no dead bees within the hive or on their doorsteps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG_0zYAXVUg e: oh, by the way, I guess this is common knowledge already, but whatever: the University of Hohenheim in Germany researched a completely new way to treat Beehives against Varroa. They apply Lithiumchlorid to liquid food, it has been reported in the "Scientific Report" (make of that what you will). I had the chance to speak with some of the people at Hohenheim, and they assure that it works, leaves no traces in honey - thus could be applied during the spring - and is rather cheap to come by. I can only hope this is all true and works, it would be a game changer over here. tuo fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Feb 18, 2018 |
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Feb 18, 2018 16:01
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tuo posted:All three are still very alive, have plenty of food, but strangely, team red drops a lot of dead bees. They were the strongest hive last year, but not by a huge margin in regard to team blue, who has nearly no dead bees within the hive or on their doorsteps. Do you plan to shuffle brood frames between them during spring buildup?
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Feb 18, 2018 19:06
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Hasselblad posted:Do you plan to shuffle brood frames between them during spring buildup? Depends on what the state of them is, normally I try to make all hives equal in strength during spring as it makes things easier over the year. If the slightest feeling remains that team red has some kind of infection, I won't. If team red shows signs of heavy Varrose, I'd rather remove all of the brood during spring...I haven't opened the hives since middle of december (apart from a very short stint in january to check food), so I'll wait how they come out of the winter.
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Feb 18, 2018 19:55
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I know that this is the wrong forum, but I couldn't find one and maybe I get lucky here: does anyone here know about Runner Ducks?
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Feb 21, 2018 16:56
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Yesterday was a balmy 64 degrees F out here so the bees were buzzing around my backyard hives. It's another warm day today, but unfortunately I can't crack the hives open alone right now so I'm missing a good chance to lay in more fondant.  the next two days are gonna be much too rainy. Our two hives out at a city farm are probably dead. Seems they absconded based on our last peek. I'm going to stop by during a break in the rains and verify then remove the equipment to inspect it and freeze it.
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Feb 21, 2018 17:46
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tuo posted:I know that this is the wrong forum, but I couldn't find one and maybe I get lucky here: does anyone here know about Runner Ducks? Yes, but this is the wrong forum. Over in Pet Island there's a few livestock threads, might want to poke your head in there. What I can tell you is to check your local laws to make sure they are allowed to be kept without a permit. Different ducks are allowed in different places. North Florida is positively psychotic. Mallard breed ducks can be kept only with a permit, because they interbreed with the local Florida Brown Ducks, which are endangered. Muscovy ducks can be kept, but not allowed to be released into the wild, because they are invasive and displace said Florida Brown Ducks. But wild muscovy at the same time have federal protection as a game bird, which is insane.
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Feb 21, 2018 18:03
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Suspect Bucket posted:Yes, but this is the wrong forum. Over in Pet Island there's a few livestock threads, might want to poke your head in there. Many thanks for your post. I'll check that thread. We got some runner ducks last year from a friend beekeeper who had underestimated the hatch-rate of the eggs. We checked with local laws, everything is fine. Sadly, we just lost our first duck due to one (or basically all) of the males killing her during what looked like a gang rape. We weren't there when it happened, only saw it afterwards on the cam, so obviously we are a little bit shocked at the moment about what to do. We know that this is a possiblity, and built everything for them following the best practises, but it's rather hard to find someone who can tell you "saw that, you have to do that now, else you loose another duck". That's why I asked, knowing this is the wrong forum, so sorry for that, probate me if need be.
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Feb 22, 2018 18:09
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First day with > 10 °C this year, removed the mouse guard so they can clean up their hive better. Looks like all three made it, and still have plenty of food. If the temperatures go over 15 degrees this week, I'll take a closer peak into the hives and clean out the bottom. Fingers crossed for a successful year for the ladies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01pV1K0oNKA
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Mar 5, 2018 16:01
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Hey guys! long time no see... So, last fall, both my hives hosed off and absconded. Apparently the mite load got too high. That's ok though as they were buckfasts and very ill tempered. Lesson learned: if you do not like getting hit every time you go near your hives, DO NOT GET BUCKFASTS. In the morning I am placing an order for 2 packages of Russian Hybrids, as my Local Carniolian supplier is sold out. Has anyone run Russians? If so, what did you think?
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Mar 8, 2018 07:05
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MrDesaude posted:Hey guys! long time no see... Out of interest: were you're buckfasts aggressive from the start, or only after hatching a new queen?
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Mar 8, 2018 18:06
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How's everyone doing? We removed the winter food frames last weekend, and had already fully filled drone frames in all three hives which we cut out. Hives are currently gaining 700g per day of honey/pollen/brood. Weakest hive to go into the winter is now strongest hive, strongest hive to go into the winter is now weakest hive, all three treated exactly the same regarding Varroa and winter food. gently caress Varroa.
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Apr 12, 2018 12:16
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I lost my hive to Varroa in late autumn. Went from insanely huge and thriving to absolutely decimated in just a couple of weeks. Guess my oxalic treatments were too late. My new package and queen should be here in the next couple of weeks. I’m also grabbing a nuc to start a second hive off on a good foot. Here’s to hoping both hives kick rear end all year!
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Apr 12, 2018 16:18
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Sorry to hear that :/ I lost our only split hive over the winter, it wasn't pretty. Opening a dead hive is something I hope I never get used to, because it really sinks you. It'll be(e) interesting to see this weekend if our hives already start hatching queens. First splits in April?
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Apr 12, 2018 17:54
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I'm opening my two remaining hives tomorrow. Cross your fingers for 'em.
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Apr 12, 2018 18:00
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*finger crossing intensifies* go bees!!!!!
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Apr 12, 2018 22:11
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Well after a third blast if winter last week it has finally gotten back above 10 C here. And both hives have made it through the winter. Did a quick inspection and cleaned out some dead bees from both hives but did did not disturb any frames that had live bees on them. One hive is stronger and appears to have come close to running out of honey. They ate most of the dry sugar that I put in as emergency food. The other seems to have less bees but has tons of honey left over so I took a tiny frame that was left untouched on one end and strained it out.   
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Apr 22, 2018 15:53
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Out of interest: what did you use as dry sugar for the emergency food? (not a native speaker, so not sure what it is)
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Apr 22, 2018 16:10
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I quite literally poured granulated sugar out of a bag into the hive.
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Apr 22, 2018 17:02
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Ah, okay. Never thought that could work during the winter, if they water is frozen/they can't get out to fetch water. I used honey + powdered sugar/icing sugar to form a paste as some kind of emergency food, worked quite well, but you have to get the mixture right to get it close to the bee sphere without it beeing to gooey to flow all over them.
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Apr 22, 2018 19:33
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Well I tossed up a hail Mary today. Last fall my bees were wiped out by a robbing spree mixed with local wasps. I decided today to bust out the hive and reassemble it with some swarm lure dabbed inside it. Not planning on getting a nuc or package. My hope is that scouts find it and tell their swarming friends. I was weed-feed spot spraying daisies yesterday and accidentally sprayed one of the local ladies. Felt horrible. S-Day +0: No scouts spotted yet.  Took the old comb off and scrapped the bars, leaving some residual wax. Plenty of propolis in the old boxes. I set the comb about 50 yards away from the hive and the wasps love me again.
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Apr 22, 2018 19:52
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Got to o a full inspection of one hive. It was very windy at the second hive so I left them alone for now. The Queen was active and had two small areas that she was laying in. Two small patches as seen in the second picture but on both sides of two combs.  
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May 2, 2018 00:15
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Took a field trip up to 8000 elevation yesterday to place a swarm trap. Very little pollen going on this early, which I wanted to get in front of with this placement. For background, this place gets to -20F and many feet of snow. That said there were bees there in the warm months and my hope is to get some of the super-bees that survive in that harshness. Jammed a small piece of old comb in it with a couple drops of lemmongrass oil. The bars have remnants of old comb and plenty of propolis.
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May 2, 2018 20:10
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British spring so far has been poo poo. Set my cell raising nuc up today and the overwintered nucs I use to harvest brood from are a good three/four weeks behind where they should be. But - the sun seems to have arrived and next Sunday I'll do my first grafts of the year .... woo hoo
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May 3, 2018 21:26
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Spring over here (Middle Germany) is quite good currently. Our reference hive gains about 1,5 to 2 kilogramms of weight per day (depending on weather). Slowed a bit down because we created couple of splits from the three hives last week. In one of the three, I guess we managed to kill/loose the queen, but they hatched a new one couple days ago, so fingers crossed we'll see some eggs again soon. Both splits doing very well, allthough one of them - after three days - only just began to build a queen cell....hope everything works out. We went out of winter with the reference hive at about 55 kilogramms, removed about 12 kilogramm of winter food in march, and they are now at 68 kilogramms. Looks like we'll harvest some honey next week. tuo fucked around with this message at 13:29 on May 4, 2018 |
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May 4, 2018 13:22
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My top bar hive seems to be going well. Bit of a learning curve because I don't have a mentor and some design differences from the Les C. versions I've seen got me turned around spacing wise for week one. Foolish mistake, but it only cost me a little more work straightening out those new leaves of comb. I think I'm going to commission a set of gloves with a capacitative touch fing so I can take phone pix without fooling around as much. Here's my restored top bar though.  Here's some improvised wax foundation I attached to an empty bar.  The bees liked it.
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May 9, 2018 13:36
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Any other New England/northerly seaboard region beekeepers? I'm wondering if something odd I found was a rather early hive robbery attempt. Basically popped out to the backyard around 9:30 am a couple days ago where I have three hives. A bunch of bees were crawling around on the ground for no particular reason I could tell. They were mostly confined to a radius of about a meter and a half around two langstroth hives. They didn't appear to be collecting water. It was a chilly morning with no rain or dew from the previous evening. Some of the bees seemed injured and most appeared disoriented. By my estimation there were at least several dozen, maybe a couple hundred? I couldn't tell if there were a mass of fresh dead bees because I've still got a lot of leaf litter on the ground in front of my (elevated) hives. The hives' activity seemed normal. The grounded bees were mostly lighter looking in color, so I wonder if an Italian beehive tried a morning or late evening robbery when I wasn't around and got repelled? Or maybe something else is up... Seems like an odd time for a robbery given that the temps have been mild to chilly and the trees and dandelions are in bloom.
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May 13, 2018 20:28
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:Any other New England/northerly seaboard region beekeepers? I'm wondering if something odd I found was a rather early hive robbery attempt. Chicago here, but I’m having the same issue with a new hive I installed a week ago with a nuc. Almost seems like they’ve been poisoned, but not the entire hive.
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May 14, 2018 03:11
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Melicious posted:Chicago here, but I’m having the same issue with a new hive I installed a week ago with a nuc. Almost seems like they’ve been poisoned, but not the entire hive. I found a few more dead this evening so I'm starting to wonder like... tracheal mites? Saw more acting weird in the grass today. I don't want to have to collect a sample for labwork.  Good luck to you and your bees.
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May 14, 2018 04:08
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:I found a few more dead this evening so I'm starting to wonder like... tracheal mites? Saw more acting weird in the grass today. I don't want to have to collect a sample for labwork. Same here. I gave them a jar of syrup today with some Honey B-Healthy in it, fingers crossed that’ll help somehow.
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May 14, 2018 06:24
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Today there are more bees crawling around again. Mostly they're behind my hive stand. I only saw three on the ground in front, oddly. I took a close look where most of them seem to be clustered today. Until yesterday, that spot had had some messy comb I'd cut off and lost a couple weeks ago. Now it's just fallen leaves. None of the bees look shiny, greasy, or hairless. None have their wings in the k position. All their wings look normal, no obvious deformity or tattering. Some were shivering or buzzing their wings like they were maybe trying to fly, but they kept walking. Some were flopping around losing their footing quite a bit, like drunks. The bees weren't clustered in that spot yesterday, but there were still a lot crawling around on the ground with the same behaviors. I figure if it's a virus there's little I can do to treat it. At this point tracheal mites seem a bit less likely? No k position wings seems to point to some other issue. I'm going to do a varroa count and maybe take a sample from two of three hives to send for labwork on the next sunny day. I don't want to randomly apply treatments to the hives, and the weather has been sub-80s during the days and sub-50s at night so a lot of strip based treatments seem like they won't be very successful anyway. heckin bees
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May 14, 2018 17:35
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I'm a total knowlessman here, but could you be looking at some kind of poisoning, e.g. from a pesticide?
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May 14, 2018 18:06
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