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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eTQ6iLyClU First comb check of the top bar. I have a top bar and a langstroth. Bees seem to be doing well, I counted brood in both. The top bar bees are building like gangbusters however, more comb than I saw in the langstroth. Any suggestions for first year IPM strategies? We kind of half assed on the protective gear. The gloves and the long sleeves are for the bees protection at this point, as we still haven't fully gotten over the instinctual swatting "getitawaygetitaway" reaction that an inquisitive bee generates. But wow, my bees have been so docile so far. We haven't had to smoke them once, and usually we're out there replacing feeders without any gear at all. Raskolnikov2089 fucked around with this message at 21:30 on May 10, 2010 |
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May 10, 2010 21:27
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I went out to check my hives a little while ago and noticed some interesting bee-havior. Walking up to them I noticed that there is a fair amount of activity in front of one of the hives (We got a nuc several weeks ago to complement our first hive). There are bees camped out on the landing area that seem to be rocking in a forward-backwards way while buzzing their wings. I saw at least two pairs doing this head-to-head. There are some more bees just buzzing around the entrance and the usual steady stream of foragers. Anyone know what's up with the rocking bees? <ninja edit> I thought about ventilation since it is pretty warm out today, but the hive has a screened bottom and there is a good breeze and from what I've read and seen this does not appear to be that sort of behavior. <double ninja edit> So many awesome pictures here. Thanks to everyone for posting them. Oneiros fucked around with this message at 22:06 on May 13, 2010 |
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May 13, 2010 22:00
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Are they sticking their butts up in the air while fanning their wings? That's a scenting behavior that helps bees find their way back to the hive. I've seen it right after hiving our bees, and also after opening up the hive - a lot of 'house bees' wind up in the air and the fanning/scenting bees on the front porch help them to find their way back inside. I've also read about a couple of other 'porch' behaviors. There are guard-bees that check every incoming bee to make sure it smells right and belongs to the hive (because bees will raid each other's hives if they can get away with it). Sometimes you'll see them doing this just outside the front door. There is also the ventilation thing. Even with an open bottom, they can do this to get airflow if it's too warm, or too humid, inside the brood nest.
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May 13, 2010 22:12
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Leperflesh posted:Are they sticking their butts up in the air while fanning their wings? Thanks for the reply. They don't seem to be scenting. They were fanning their wings while I was watching earlier but they were not sticking their abdomens up in the air. Neither were they checking incoming bees. Also, I just got back from dinner and there is still a mass of bees on the porch doing the weird little back-and-forth dance. They are not fanning their wings anymore, though. As of the time of this post they have been doing this for at least seven hours, and they are not normally so active this late in the evening (8:00PM EST). I've uploaded a short, 30s clip that is still processing on YouTube. You can see that they are mostly massed on one side of the porch. No fanning, no abdomen waving, and no checking that I can see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kY9IPCPYWw <e> At first I was just curious, but they have been doing this (at least) since lunch and now it's 9:00, pretty drat dark out, and they are still out on the porch doing whatever it is they are doing. Oneiros fucked around with this message at 02:08 on May 14, 2010 |
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May 14, 2010 01:28
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Dunno where you are or what the temp was today but on hotter days here the ladies will hang out on the porch sometimes until a little after dark. I assume it's because it's warmer in the hive than outside. Not sure if that's what's going on with your colony or not but they could just be out enjoying the weather and having a beer on the front stoop.
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May 14, 2010 03:30
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I'm seeing the youtube thing but it still says the video I requested is not available... I've not seen or heard anything exactly like what you're describing, but I'm pretty inexperienced. If you're concerned maybe a local beekeeper could be tempted (by beer?) to come and check it out.
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May 14, 2010 05:15
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They might be cleaning the entrance. I've read that when bees rock back and forth (like they're kinda doing) it means they're cleaning. I really wouldn't be alarmed. I definitely see some bees fanning the entrance in that video. Are you sure your queen is alive?
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May 15, 2010 07:33
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Thanks for the ideas everyone. We inspected the hives today and it seems that the bees on the porch were the "overflow" from a very large cooling operation (by large I mean that the entire interior eastern wall was covered by bees cooling the hive). The hive in question sits to the west of the other hive and thus takes the brunt of the afternoon sun while shading the other. We had expanded both hives to 2 brood boxes apiece a couple of weeks ago and they have both made great progress drawing out new comb since then. We didn't spot either queen this week, but the brood patterns looked normal. 
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May 15, 2010 19:01
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It occurred to me that maybe that blue paint had some sort of scent to it that the bees were investigating, or the color was throwing them off somehow. But if they don't seem distressed and they're still doing all their chores, I wouldn't worry about it.
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May 15, 2010 19:03
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I'm jealous of your bees. Ever since my hive swarmed, everything went to hell. I need to check tomorrow and make sure the original hive still has a good queen. My swarm hive's queen cells look like they're going to hatch soon. The queen needs to hurry up and make more BEES.
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May 16, 2010 06:51
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When you're working on the frames how do you not squish bees, especially when putting them back in? They just seem to cover everything so densely.
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May 16, 2010 13:33
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It's really hard. I always end up squishing a few. In the beginning it's not too bad because there's not so many bees, but later on when the population explodes it's really hard not to kill them.
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May 16, 2010 19:25
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I'm using only 8 frames per deep, with follower boards on either end. That lets me use the hive tool to kind of space the frames out a little bit before I pull one. Then I just raise the frame very very slowly, so bees have a chance to get out of the way or move or whatever. I've definitely killed one or two; under the lip of a frame edge when replacing a heavy frame, or with the hive cover or something, but not that many really. I think it's just a matter of taking care and going very slowly and gently. Then again I don't have that many bees yet, so it might get worse once the hive is more populated.
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May 16, 2010 23:08
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God. I just checked my old hive and its jam packed with honey, with almost no room for brood. And the pattern looks pretty crappy, but the bees only have 1 or 2 supercede cells. In my swarm hive, it looks like the queens have hatched. No way of knowing if there's a queen. I guess I'll wait a week. Good god, season 2 is such a mess. I wish my hive had never swarmed.
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May 16, 2010 23:55
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Yay! Topbar! This is the topbar I previously had the cropped frames and a relocated queen cell. It's so pretty~  Click here for the full 1605x1204 image.  Click here for the full 1605x1204 image. The queen is laying and there's capped brood. 
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May 21, 2010 18:54
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So my bees seem to be thriving after my little surgery last week - I will check in on them tomorrow to make sure the queen is still alive and kicking. However, I can see from underneath that they have not abandoned the upside-down frames at all! They are still all over them. So, I am not sure what I will do there. Also, unlike Tanisen, my bees have just stuck to the cropped frames and haven't drawn any new comb that I can see. More info tomorrow!
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May 21, 2010 19:21
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Ishamael posted:However, I can see from underneath that they have not abandoned the upside-down frames at all! They are still all over them. So, I am not sure what I will do there. Also, unlike Tanisen, my bees have just stuck to the cropped frames and haven't drawn any new comb that I can see. More info tomorrow! I laid the frames down on the bottom screen at an angle and once they robbed most of the honey out of it I just brushed them into the box and told them to deal with it. 
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May 21, 2010 19:47
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Tanisen posted:I laid the frames down on the bottom screen at an angle and once they robbed most of the honey out of it I just brushed them into the box and told them to deal with it. Yeah I am gonna have to do that too. I just hope they haven't relaid brood in there.
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May 21, 2010 19:50
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I had been very apprehensive about getting stung for the first time. That is now over during my first hive inspection today. Forsooth it was but my fault! I reached down to pick up my hive tool off the ground and when I bent my wrist I trapped and squeezed one of my girls between the cuff of my shirt and my hand (not wearing gloves) so she naturally let me have it. Because it was the underside of my arm/hand I couldn't see and didn't even know she was there exploring. I got stung between frame 4 and 5 and totally wussed out and put gloves on. It made me feel more comfortable but good grief I completely see the value in not wearing gloves now. It's so much easier working wit the hive gloveless and I was even using Nitrile which are pretty low profile. Both of my to hives seem to be doing well. I installed from NUKs two weeks ago. Of the five empty frames one is untouched, two have considerable drawn out comb with some syrup. One is just about completly drawn out with some capped pollen and a little syurp, and the one next to the first NUK I found my queen and a good cluster of eggs. All of the NUK frams have a pretty C pattern above capped brood. I could see a lot of lava in various stages, and even saw two new girls cutting their way out. My partner inspected the other hive and I didn't get quite as close a look but she saw much the same as I did but didn't find her queen. Here's my co-beekepper holding up a frame with a nice crescent pattern.  all and all I was very pleased with the progress made so far. We figured the bees were definitively at the 70% mark and slapped on the first of our two mediums. 
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May 21, 2010 22:23
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Glad to hear you got your first sting out of the way. I'm still waiting for mine  From the picture it looks like your gloves may be too big for your hands. I like to wear a medium that fits really tight. For me, wearing a medium is like wearing nothing at all. Glad to see your not using those really thick leather gloves though. Those things are atrocious.
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May 22, 2010 04:52
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Out of curiosity, what are all your opinions on the Omlet "Beehaus"?
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May 23, 2010 13:29
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Nettle Soup posted:Out of curiosity, what are all your opinions on the Omlet "Beehaus"? The only real benefit to this over a longbox is easier super management. Though, with nice planning you can design a longbox that'll fit supers on it and use standard sized frames for much less. Bee haus looks like the ipad of hives.
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May 23, 2010 20:28
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Yeah I'm immediately turned off by it, because I assume it's not going to be very compatible with all the world's beekeepeing stuff. OK it appears to take standard-sized frames, but... what if you decide you want a queen excluder, or a different type of base, or maybe you want an entrance feeder or something. You're stuck with proprietary design. Also it appears to be very costly. Not sure what benefit you get for that.
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May 23, 2010 21:22
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Glad to hear you got your first sting out of the way. I'm still waiting for mine Me too. The BF got his out of the way, though it was at his farmer's market 45 miles away from the hives. Though he did manage to get stung again the next day when we were checking on the hives. Said it wasn't bad at all and he didn't know what he was worried about. The last time I was stung I was 7, and it was the most traumatic thing in the world. I think it should be a little easier to take as an adult  **edit The BF called me at work and said both the Langstroth and the TBH are jammed full of bees, both seem to have taken to their homes remarkably well. That put a huge smile on my face. I have a video from inside the TBH I need to post as soon as I'm able. That's beautiful. I'm just always so overcome with awe when I check on the bees. Nature is an amazing thing. Raskolnikov2089 fucked around with this message at 20:42 on May 25, 2010 |
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May 25, 2010 14:59
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:Me too. The BF got his out of the way, though it was at his farmer's market 45 miles away from the hives. Though he did manage to get stung again the next day when we were checking on the hives. Said it wasn't bad at all and he didn't know what he was worried about. Yeah, getting stung isn't very painful, especially compared to a yellow jacket or wasp sting. Just scrape the stinger out, and if it hurts a lot put some meat tenderizer on it, that always works. It will itch for a day or 2 after you get stung but it really isn't bad. I end up feeling worse for the poor bee who died.
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May 25, 2010 15:17
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Tanisen posted:The only real benefit to this over a longbox is easier super management. Though, with nice planning you can design a longbox that'll fit supers on it and use standard sized frames for much less. Bee haus looks like the ipad of hives. Hey, they're the same guys who make the Eglu, the iPad of chicken coops that was advertised on TV a while back: https://www.omlet.us/shop/shop.php?cat=Eglu
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May 25, 2010 20:51
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Cockmaster posted:Hey, they're the same guys who make the Eglu, the iPad of chicken coops that was advertised on TV a while back: Noticed the BeeHaus and Eglu when I was in the market for a chicken coop, I ended up getting a bigger, better coop for £110 including shipping, but I'd never been aware that bees were something the average person could keep before. My mother took one look at it and said that no way was that horrible plastic thing going near her garden. I wonder if The Eden Project will move into bees next. The Eglu is fairly ugly, but their stuff is 10x worse.
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May 25, 2010 21:27
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There's really nothing wrong with a standard langstroth hive. You can paint it any color you want, and it's basically sold with tiny or nonexistent profit margins. Made of real wood and lasts for years. It'll fit on a balcony or roof or whatever just as easily as any colorful plastic thingy, too.
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May 25, 2010 22:18
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I've been wondering... How feasible would it be to make all the parts of a standard Langstroth hive on an inexpensive laser cutter such as this? http://www.epiloglaser.com/ http://www.ulsinc.com/english/laser_systems/laser_systems.html Of course you wouldn't want to bother with that as a backyard beekeeper, but for commercial scale operation (500 hives or so) it might potentially be cost effective. The sort of machine I'm talking about typically costs about $10-20k (depending on the laser power and work envelope you need), and they're designed such that using one is more like using a laser printer than an industrial machine. Compare that to buying hundreds of hive kits at about $100 each. And if you know how to handle a nailgun, assembly should go fast.
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May 26, 2010 03:21
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It's tremendous overkill. You don't need cuts anywhere near that accurate, and, the parts are very simple and straightforward. You could probably buy much cheaper equipment and churn out the parts anyway. But you wouldn't make money as a small-time producer because there are already several bigger companies making them as efficiently as possible.
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May 26, 2010 07:27
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Leperflesh posted:But you wouldn't make money as a small-time producer because there are already several bigger companies making them as efficiently as possible. As a business no, but I think on the local level you could sell a few hives. I searched for quite a number of days for a close by beekeeping supplier because I didn't want to pay shipping, but no such luck. Craigslist usually has a few people looking for hives/hive supplies as well.
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May 26, 2010 14:48
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:As a business no, but I think on the local level you could sell a few hives. I searched for quite a number of days for a close by beekeeping supplier because I didn't want to pay shipping, but no such luck. Craigslist usually has a few people looking for hives/hive supplies as well. Look up your local county bee keeping association. There was a guy at mine that had bought something like 300 hive bodies with the idea of supplying club members. At the very least you should be able to find some people to aggregate an order and freight rates tend to be loads cheaper than UPS.
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May 26, 2010 15:57
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I got bees! I loved the thread a few years ago and finally got my act together and got a hive. The guy I bought them from was amazing, instead of a nuc, he sold me a hive, bottom, inner and outer cover with the bees already in them. If you're looking for bees in Ontario, he's at http://www.site.dancingbeehoney.com/ The bees are amazingly docile, not a single sting yet. I feel bad smoking them because they're always so chill, it's no worry checking the baggie feeder or hanging out by the hive. First inspection is on Friday and it should be time to add the second set of frames. They'll probably still want the feeder for another week or two I imagine so I plan on picking up either a top feeder or another hive body. A bee!  My hive  Thirsty bees  Baggie Feeder. I think I made the slots too small the first time, went back and made them about 3 inches and much more bees are on it. I'm a little worried the baggie is forcing them over to the other side of the hive though.  We've got pollen. They really seem to have found it now.  Everybody getting along 
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May 26, 2010 16:37
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If they're not stinging you, I wouldn't bother smoking them. Just keep it on standby. Whats w/your entrance reducer?
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May 26, 2010 19:35
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I bought one and it was about a half inch too long for the bottom board the guy had on the hive. I had it on for the first day because I was worried they were being robbed but haven't had it on since then, it's been ridiculously hot here. I'll give them a little smoke when I check the frames for the first time, I'm pretty excited.
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May 26, 2010 21:52
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Leperflesh posted:It's tremendous overkill. You don't need cuts anywhere near that accurate, and, the parts are very simple and straightforward. You could probably buy much cheaper equipment and churn out the parts anyway. I wasn't talking about producing hives to sell, but making them for personal use for large scale bee farming. And the idea with the laser isn't the accuracy so much as the labor saving - you just put a piece of wood in the machine, load a computer file, push a few buttons, then sit back and let the laser do its thing. Depending on the size of the part relative to the machine, you could even cut a bunch of them at a time.
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May 26, 2010 23:55
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I guess I still don't get it. You're suggesting that you could save money by spending at least $10k on a laser cutter, vs. spending $100 each for hive kits. I think you need to factor in the cost of raw materials though, and maybe added labor, scrap disposal, and energy costs. I mean maybe it'd work out but by how much? Would you save at least a thousand dollars?
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May 27, 2010 00:26
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Cockmaster posted:I wasn't talking about producing hives to sell, but making them for personal use for large scale bee farming. And the idea with the laser isn't the accuracy so much as the labor saving - you just put a piece of wood in the machine, load a computer file, push a few buttons, then sit back and let the laser do its thing. Depending on the size of the part relative to the machine, you could even cut a bunch of them at a time. I know you're looking for an excuse to buy a laser cutter. A random person on the internet said it's a required piece of hardware to beekeep.
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May 27, 2010 03:51
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There was a little, white baby bee dead on the stoop this afternoon. He wasn't chalky but soft and moist. He'd only been there an hour or two as I'd checked on them before. Does that just happen or is it a sign of bad ventilation or some other problem?
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May 27, 2010 23:27
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I would sure like a laser cutter  but it would have to be able to cut steel.
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May 27, 2010 23:28
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