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Our big hive suddenly decided to start producing swarm cells so I took the opportunity to set up some nucs and do some mini splits. (Don't ask, I have no idea what I'm doing or if this will work, I just want to try overwintering some nucs this year.) Buckerfields ( ) still has equipment for sale but I bought the last division board feeders and deep frames at one store and had to go to another for the rest.I need some more deep hive bodies. Buckerfields has them on sale for $17 cdn. Price for an 8' 1x12 board to build a hive body is $26 at Home Depot, Lowes $40. I think I'm going back to Buckerfields tomorrow before they sell out. The world is not getting any saner. Next spring I will be better organized.
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May 29, 2021 06:35
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 03:12 |
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Conventional wisdom is to wait until the bees expand until they're using everything but the two outside frames before adding another body. But I dunno, my bees never read any of the literature I do. Make sure you have the new box ready to go when they need it. It's a pain not to have it when you open the hive and it's bulging with bees and the ag store is backordered and the price of 2x12 pine boards is  Not that this has ever happened to me, of course.
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Jan 4, 2023 19:32
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Leperflesh posted:
Interesting idea. I might try that if we get hit by another heat dome like we had a couple of summers ago. It was a little disconcerting to find melted frames in the hives, not something I'd seen before up here. HAIL eSATA-n posted:Alright, I’ll see if i can get an additional deep this weekend. I’m in the PNW so don’t need to worry about heat. - me, slightly over two summers ago. 
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Jan 5, 2023 05:05
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Roughly whereabouts are you located? If you're American Mann Lake frequently gets mentioned as a mail order supplier. Local farm & feed stores could probably direct you to local suppliers and bee clubs. The Beesource forum has local area discussion groups that could point you in the right direction too.
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Feb 28, 2023 00:24
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We've had snow on the ground for the last three weeks, not typical early March West Coast weather. There was a fresh dump overnight and I need to stick my ear against the hives today and listen for any signs of life. We checked a few weeks ago and the two big production hives seemed to be okay. Not sure about the one super hive and I'm pretty sure we lost the two nucs. Ah well, just need one to survive long enough to split, I guess. We were worried the smaller hive and nucs didn't have enough supplies to overwinter successfully so we used fondant for the first time earlier this winter. I think that was a mistake in our climate. It's obviously hygroscopic so the small hives have a moisture problem now even though I improved their ventilation last fall. Vivaldi boards on the big hives cured their problem a couple of years ago so I guess I need to make some miniature Vivaldis to get the nucs through winter without mildew coating everything.
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Mar 6, 2023 16:02
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Whelp, I guess I've hit the big time this spring. Professional beekeepers on Vancouver Island have been running 30-50% winter kill over the last few years. The worst I've had was 30% and I usually do better getting the girls through to spring. This spring 100% mortality - 3 production hives and 2 nucs.  Even worse than Saskatchewan's 80% last year. Guess I get to find out what stratospheric price nucs are going for this year. 
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Mar 18, 2023 23:47
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I'm leaning towards mite-borne viruses. Varroa's here and a problem, we monitor and treat regularly. Feral swarms don't survive in the wild anymore. All the hives were treated with formic acid in August when the mite counts started going up but I missed a final oxalic acid treatment in November. Could be be that my bees robbed out a declining mite bomb in the neighbourhood in September and brought a lot of mites back home after we thought we were safe and quit monitoring. The clusters were still alive in early January and they had lots of stores. Very few died head down in a cell like they were starving. No signs of wing or other deformities which is supposed to indicate varroa viruses. I'm going to throw a sample in alcohol and see if I can get them looked at for tracheal mites. Those are here as well but I don't think anyone worries much about them. I probably shouldn't get too obsessed about it, even the professionals are scratching their heads over the high winter mortality lately. Really feels like I need a microscope though. Add that to the cost of 2 new nucs in May. Also pencil in oxalic acid treatments in October as soon as the last brood hatches and again in November.
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Mar 19, 2023 21:21
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While researching winter kill I ran into this middle bar frame idea, basically taking a standard deep frame and running a pair of dowels across the middle to encourage the bees to build foundationless comb in an organized manner. Anyone familiar with this system or is it just another gimmick that works in a limited number of situations? Video is a bit cringe but she has the clearest view of how the frame is constructed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9KLR23Ckfs Tangentially, wtf is a barn hive and why would I ever want one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EegbR81Fmsg
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Mar 26, 2023 21:57
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 03:12 |
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I like that hive stand - simple and effective!
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Apr 16, 2023 04:19
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