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So this spring I am planning on buying 6 hives and building a new hive support structure. (The old one rotted away). It has been... years since we last raised bees. My 93yr old neighbor still raises two hives and has great honey. He no longer can take care of them and only one other neighbor in ~10 miles of farm land has hives. Since I am starting from scratch again, is there a good book to read this winter? Thanks!
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Nov 19, 2012 06:07
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 01:35 |
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So I've been a terrible amateur beekeeper by neglecting our two hives and freaked out a wee bit too much over some bearding. It's been fairly hot the last week and our hives have been spending quite a bit more time outside in the afternoon/evenings. Last night one of the hives had a particularly large beard compared to the other hive and I decided to quickly inspect it. Problem #1 - everything was glued together- which is normal. The top cover was firmly glued into the roof. Normal inspections would probably help with this. The gap between the roof/feeder/top was packed with a inch thick of bees. This screams overcrowding to me, but I also have no idea what I'm doing. Problem #2 - the feeder was left on since this spring and firmly attached to the super below with comb spreading through the entrance. After getting everything apart, I found I had broken a succession cell open and inside was a nearly developed queen. This has me a bit concerned that they were mid-process of re-queening or possibly getting ready to swarm? I'm planning on doing a full inspection before work one morning if possible this week. In the mean time I temporarily added a smaller honey super for more room. The good news is that everything else looks great. We are entering dearth and they appear to be packed full of nectar, honey, pollen, and brood. It's unlikely they will draw the super out- but at least there's more room until we can inspect the hive. A quick peak in the neighboring hive shows a similar state and I plan on adding a small honey super on it tonight. I'm going to join our local BCA and see if there's anyone who is willing to mentor me so we don't loose the hives in the winter. Question- does anyone either 1) Space their top for airflow or 2) Drill a upper vent/entrance hole in their langstroth? Last night:    This morning: 
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Jul 25, 2017 22:45
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Our two hives have been doing great this year. One is definitely stronger than the other, but both queens are laying in the tightest brood pattern I've seen. Like solid frames of 80% brood. I'm hoping to split them in the spring. I do have one question, the "weaker" hive does not seem to like building out comb. We had a frame break apart earlier this year and they haven't touched the "used" partially drawn frame I replaced it with. Same for the honey super, they refused to touch the new comb in it. The other hive has built out every piece of frame I've put in it. Odd?
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Sep 12, 2017 23:48
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I've been being a lazy bee keeper (again) and today I decided to do a full inspection on both my hives. The west hive is super strong and produced a nice 10 frame super of honey. It was crowded enough that I added a second full super and removed the honey super. I did not use a queen excluder this year and this plays into the next bit. The east hive has been weaker since I brought it home. They expanded to just 7 frames and never touched the top box. I went ahead and removed three untouched frames. I decided to try replacing them with three frames from the other hives honey super that had a hundred or so brood mixed in with the honey. I'm hoping this both provides food and workers. Both hives have laying queens, but I might have to look at a replacement for the east hive. As dearth is here/fast approaching, I'm planning to start feeding next week.
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Jul 27, 2018 20:54
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Well, I'm trying again after a bad winder. I found a local beekeeper who gave me a good price on 3x 5 frame NUC's with local overwintered bees/queens. I just cleaned all my equipment and re-arranged my bee yard. I have room for I believe 12 hives right now and if I can put the time/energy into it, I would like to make a few splits. Maybe double the stock and get them through winter. I learned my lesson this last year and stocked up on reading material. Here's to a productive 2019.
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May 4, 2019 02:41
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Advice needed: Background- Three NUCs purchased three weeks ago. Locally bred and mated queens installed. Our spring flow has started, but the weather turned last week. I fed ~2 gallons of syrup last Sunday the rain to boost comb building. My inspection this Sunday showed 1 and 3 with empty feeders. 2 however was still full and still at a low bees/frame count. Tonight while supering 1+3 I found two issues. 1) Hive #1 has a fully developed capped queen cell (it had three... but I was nervous and bumped the frame. Sorry girls.) I thought initially the cups I saw were due to the space constraints of the NUC, but I would be more incline to believe they do not like the current queens laying pattern. Comparing to #3, I would agree. This one is spotty and while there are eggs present, it's not consistant. I left the queen cell and figured I will just let nature take its corse unless otherwise recommended. Tons of drones are present and all 8 frames are full of bees. 2) Have #2 has no queen. I thought I found eggs two weeks ago, but all empty places in the brood nest are now filled with syrup. The hive had a distinct (angry) tone when being worked not present in 1 and 3. I'm not sure what to do here and honestly I thought about taking the frame with the queen cell from #1 and adding it to #2. The issue is the lack of drones in #2 for mating. Am I better off buying a mated queen? The hive still has ~6-7 frames of bees with more capped brood coming. I would hate to loose it entirely. There was the smallest start of a queen cup during inspection. Thoughts? On the plus side, #3 is doing AMAZING with the best brood pattern I have ever seen. 1 and 3 both got temporary honey supers until my frames/wax gets here to add the 2nd brood box. I do have to say, I feel like going 8 frame was a mistake. I would be doing 10 frame singles if I could for ease of management.
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May 22, 2019 05:18
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tuo posted:If #1 definitely has a queen, take the frame with the queen cell and put it in #2, or - if possible - get another mated queen for #2 (if you are unsure wether the swarm cell in #1 is still alive...if it was capped just recently, and the frame got bumped, chances are the larva inside the cell fell down and starved there. You can try to check that by shining a lamp on it. The most secure way - allthough costly one - would be to get another mated queen. Thank you for the reply, I read similar advice last night and you’ve confirmed it. The cell in #1 has been developing over my last two inspections, so I doubt it’s been damaged. (I more so bumped and tore the warm wax on the other two). It’s also huge, 1.25”. For right now I will pull a frame from #3 with eggs and brood, replacing it with a empty built brood frame. This helps solve the space issue for #3 and holds me over until I can decide if I need to add a purchased queen to #2.
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May 22, 2019 16:27
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The plot thickens: Yesterday I removed the frame from #3 and before installing into #2, I did a very thorough inspection and found a queen in #2! No eggs, no larve still. Frames still packed with polled and honey in the brood area. I stopped and put everything back how I found it. After reading it sounds like I have two options. 1) walk away for a bit and see what happens. 2) go ahead and add a brood frame from #3 anyways. It won’t hurt. To complicate things, the NUC supplier got me a mated queen! It shows up Saturday. I’m half tempted to pull the non laying queen, sticking her with 2 brood frames and honey in a NUC and adding the new queen to #2. Worst case I still have the original queen. Best case I have a NUC/split. Feedback?
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May 23, 2019 22:18
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Doing a quick phone post, so excuse the short replies. Queen from #2 was mated approx 1m ago. Today I picked up the new queen and installed her. Two inspections and two sets of eyes could not find the old queen. No idea what happened to her. I took a frame of eggs, larve, and capped brood from my strongest hive #3 and put it in #2. The superceedure cell in #1 is gone, just the chewed outline is left. No clue what happened there. The inspection I did yesterday showed a strong queen with better brood pattern. I took the opportunity today to add the second brood boxes to #1 and #3. So now we wait. I’ll see how they are doing in a week. With maybe a quick peak at #2 for a queen update. Until then, I’m going to stop worrying and let nature do its thing.
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May 25, 2019 21:21
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Today I learned that young queens can fly... Crap. I inspected the re-queened hive (5 days after installing the new queen) with the goal of removing the queen cage. Turns out she was still in it. There was just a 1/32nd of candy left at the very bottom. It popped off once I tipped the cage and out she flew. I just stood there for a good 5 minutes looking for her... and then moved on. Either she's going to return, or the eggs/brood I added with make a new queen. Guess I'll check back on Sunday. Man. This just kills me. I know it's not a huge deal, but It's very disappointing.
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May 31, 2019 04:16
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Good news: I've got 3 healthy, large hives from this springs NUCS. All are large enough I would feel comfortable making a few 4 frame NUCS (1 per hive) to over winter. It's mid summer here and I have not made a split before. Queens are readily available. Feedback?
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Jul 9, 2019 06:46
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the spyder posted:Good news: I've got 3 healthy, large hives from this springs NUCS. All are large enough I would feel comfortable making a few 4 frame NUCS (1 per hive) to over winter. It's mid summer here and I have not made a split before. Queens are readily available. Feedback? I thought more about this last night, if they are happy and healthy just before a dearth- I’m just going to leave them alone. IF I did anything, it might be a single 4 frame NUC using a frame from each hive to limit impact.
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Jul 9, 2019 21:27
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anitsirK posted:Any thoughts around here on managing hives as a single vs double brood chamber? I'm planning on moving to single 10 frame brood chambers next year. Mainly for all the reasons UoG explains, easier inspections and less lifting.
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Jul 12, 2019 04:51
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I've been too busy to do a alcohol wash, so I quickly coated some inserts with Crisco to make sticky boards based off the UoG. I put them in Sunday afternoon and pulled them tonight. So in 3.5 days my hives look like this: North Hive: 1 mite Middle Hive: 2 mites South Hive: 42 mites... My initial reaction is holy crap! I'll put together my shaker this weekend to confirm, but still that's one heck of a delta vs my other two. This is a decent hive, double brood chamber with ~50k bees. They did not fill any of honey supers, but hardly any of my hives did. I guess my question is where to go from here. I was planning on a lighter treatment of oxalic acid or hop guard, but I'm tempted to research and use something stronger. https://honeybeesuite.com/monitoring-mites-with-a-sticky-board/ the spyder fucked around with this message at 04:24 on Jul 18, 2019 |
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Jul 18, 2019 04:18
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So I’ve wanted to try oxalic acid as a treatment method. I was initially very interested in Randy @scientificbeekeeping’s shop towel method. I have the ingredients and was planning on trying them this weekend. With the results from the more drop, I just don’t think it will be effective enough on my hive with the high drop count. Last night I started looking at those $70-140 oxalic vaporizers. After learning it’s just a diesel glow plug in an aluminum block with some generally crappy wires, I ordered one for $6. I’ve got a mill and a lathe, so we’ll see what I come up with. I just can’t justify the markup when I can make one. I’ll make sure it still fully vaporizes the acid by 2-2.5 min. Any other variables you can think of?
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Jul 19, 2019 17:18
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I pulled my 1 box of honey for the year. It’s been a poor year for production, even comb building. I did not make any splits due to work and this late in the year I’m not sure it’s a good idea. I was considering expanding next year and I may have overbought on equipment.... a local supplier had to move and was selling 10 frame supers for $7.50/each. Deep or medium. I bought 10 deeps, 20 medium, and screened bottom boards/top lids. I also bought enough 8 frame gear to finish out my remaining 10... so 20 hives worth of equipment are now in my barn for next spring/future use.
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Aug 8, 2019 19:24
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Each of my 1st year NUC's ended up with 2-3 honey supers just for extra space. It helped a ton with bearding and gave them plenty of room.
the spyder fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Aug 10, 2019 |
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Aug 10, 2019 00:03
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I haven't been keeping up on updates, but I somehow ended up with 8 hives this year. It's a mix of cheap NUCS, swarms, and a literal "free box of bees" off Facebook. It's been a rough start. Due to the constant rain this spring/early summer the girls missed out on the linden bloom and a good part of the Blackberrys. I'm planning on leaving extra supplies on and only taking excess required to downsize the hives for winter. I learned my lesson about leaving extra honey supers on with a queen excluder. Don't do it. Now I've been particularly neglectful about treatment. I want to improve this- it would help to understand others regiments/schedules. I want to get as many of these as I can through winter.
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Jul 6, 2020 22:43
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Man, I feel like a complete idiot today. Yesterday I pulled supers from 5 hives. I had ran out of deeps mid spring and used mediums in the brood chamber. I then ran out of mediums. Not ideal, I ended up with a single 8 frame brood box I never revisited. I did however put a queen excluder and 2 mediums on it. I do not know how, but the queen snuck upstairs. I only learned this AFTER pulling the supers and using my small 18v blower to dislodge the majority of the bees. I have no idea if I have a queen left. Completely my fault for not doing more thorough inspections. I reassembled the hive after a quick inspection. Downstairs is looking great, completely full of honey and nectar - but I was scooping up handfuls of clusters bees and putting them back in the box. At least they were calm. Definitely going to have some cleanup this spring when I can replace all these mediums with deeps.
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Aug 15, 2020 18:21
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I’ve got a hive I absolutely have to split in the next few days. It started as a swarm I was given in a cardboard box and I only had a spare deep/medium at the time. I forgot to install a queen excluder on it and just let it run the season last year with extra mediums. When I checked it this winter it was packed. I added back two mediums, but it’s still overflowing. Last night I added a new deep in the bottom from one of my dead outs. I’m hoping they will clean it up and I’ll be able to check for eggs. How would you split this monster? It’s only April and there’s 5 boxes on.
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Apr 29, 2021 16:09
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After a accidental double order of NUC's and several splits/swarms, my yard is full this year. I'm hoping to start OA treatments this week. We're only weeks away from a huge blackberry bloom and linden bloom. Everything is early this year. Makes me worried about a hot/dry summer and extended dearth.         
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May 20, 2021 03:59
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Equipment shortages are biting me. I did not account for the extra NUCs and I typically run double brood boxes. Long story short, I'm 5 8-frame deeps shy. I've got orders in with three suppliers, all with no ETA for shipping. Local shop is calling me back on his inventory. Worst case I use mediums (ugh). Our blackberry flow is going to start any time and I really want to give the girls a chance to build wax out in the 2nd brood box. It's going to be a busy summer.
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May 28, 2021 22:12
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I paid $26 each for three boxes. Unassembled. $32 if I wanted them glued/nailed. Either way I've got half he problem solved - except I have no frames ready. I'm heading out of town tomorrow. I'll do a quick inspection in the morning, add a queen excluder and medium super just to give them something until I can sort this out.
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May 30, 2021 05:11
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I love that bike, where can I find out more? Yard update: 15 hives (2 remote) are about as time consuming to manage as you guessed. I'm behind schedule like normal this year - but for the first time I have every single colony super'd before our giant nectar flow. The blackberries are blooming and soon will produce nectar and the basswood/linden trees are right behind them.  I have to make a ton of gear in a very short period of time. I need 10 more 8 frame medium supers, 80 frames. I need 5 more 8 frame deeps, 40 frames. I might have to just spend the $$$ on some pre-assembled frames if a local supplier has any. Thankfully my friend came and helped me assemble boxes/frames today. We made a jig for the boxes which really made them go fast.      So far the hives that survived winter are really putting away the honey. Just from them I should be able to pull 3-4 supers each. I really hope this trend holds true throughout summer.
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Jun 6, 2021 04:59
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 01:35 |
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Well, I'm down to 3 strong hives this year. This weekend I'll make my splits. Hoping to have 6 hives total after the splits. I'm going to keep it small this year - just too much going on to try and get back to the ~14 I was at.
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Apr 2, 2022 01:26
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