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I will likely either open and shift them individually, or just let the bees do what they do with the least disturbance until I swap that box out.
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May 31, 2017 17:53
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:My cats' vet actually is a member of my former association (I forgot to re-up membership I had some nosema during our Spring (we had a few late freezes that screwed everyone up). Helno helno posted: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. Grats on your first swarm! Everyone needs to do that at least once. Yeah, I'd give them about two weeks to settle in. If you want to feed them, you can always setup something outside the hive (just be sure to leave them a way out so they don't drown).
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May 31, 2017 19:15
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) 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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I 3D printed a feeder with a bunch of long thin grooves for the liquid to run in so they don't drown. I'm going to mount it on a board attached to the hive if they haven't found it yet it is around 20 feet away on a water tank right now. Edit: They found the feeder and drank a litre in less than a day. I'll have to keep that topped up for a while. helno fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Jun 1, 2017 |
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May 31, 2017 20:32
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 Just enough out of alignment to trigger my sperg
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May 31, 2017 22:31
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Fog Tripper posted:
I mean, the bees will maintain their space as it suits them, but the warre top bar method you are using will likely make inspecting the hive much more difficult than necessary.
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Jun 2, 2017 02:00
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ShotgunWillie posted:I mean, the bees will maintain their space as it suits them, but the warre top bar method you are using will likely make inspecting the hive much more difficult than necessary. Honestly I plan to leave them to do what they will. No plans to disrupt via inspections.
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Jun 2, 2017 12:50
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Fog Tripper posted:Honestly I plan to leave them to do what they will. No plans to disrupt via inspections. Will you not be checking them for FEDSS (Food, Eggs, Disease, Space and Swarming?). Not inspecting seems like a high risk way to go, will you be doing checks on your varroa drop rate and treating for that if not opening the brood?
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Jun 2, 2017 13:22
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Fog Tripper posted:Honestly I plan to leave them to do what they will. No plans to disrupt via inspections. I understand your mentality here, but depending on where you're at, that could be a real bad idea. Varroa is pretty vicious in some areas and there are other considerations like hive beetles, wax moths, or even just swarming or running out of food. Aramoro posted:Will you not be checking them for FEDSS (Food, Eggs, Disease, Space and Swarming?). Not inspecting seems like a high risk way to go, will you be doing checks on your varroa drop rate and treating for that if not opening the brood? We were apparently posting at about the same time. But yeah, I'm not even bothering checking for varroa anymore. I'm just straight up going to start treating in the fall. Sinister_Beekeeper fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Jun 2, 2017 |
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Jun 2, 2017 13:37
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Keeping an eye on the pull-out board for stuff that falls through the screen. Following a couple treatment free groups and they make a bit of sense that less treatment=stronger future colonies. From my understanding so far, the bees know how to take care of themselves better than we do and we do the species no favors by propping up ones that cannot handle some of the stuff going against them. I am a long way off from the swarm end of things. Only partial of one box built up so far. If I keep ahead of the comb and rotate a box out each season to process, it should prevent a bit of the nasty stuff. Next year all my boxes should have decent windows and that is about as much "inspecting" I will be doing. (To watch for crazy comb and such) One reason I went with the Warre is because of the more hands-off approach to them. A Kenyan top bar is on my list to build for when these ladies look to outgrow the Warre. Mainly to see which overwinters better here. That hive I know will require more maintenance. On a side note: I know it is early in production, but these Carniolans are as gentle so far as they were said to be. I have a Adirondack chairs a couple feet from the hive and it is enjoyable to just sit and watch them come and go, flying all around me. Doing the planting, weeding and mulching up close to the hive has resulted in zero aggression whatsoever. Sometimes they land on me and say Hi, and then fly off again. Really nice after a stressful day at the office. Fog Tripper fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Jun 2, 2017 |
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Jun 2, 2017 14:04
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The thing I dislike about the treatment free approach is that these diseases are contagious. Infected colonies can spread parasites, bacteria, and viruses. And not treating disease doesn't really fly with any other kind of livestock.
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Jun 2, 2017 14:14
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:The thing I dislike about the treatment free approach is that these diseases are contagious. Infected colonies can spread parasites, bacteria, and viruses. And not treating disease doesn't really fly with any other kind of livestock. Yeah Varroa will destroy a hive, spread Deformed wing virus and the drones will head out and spread that infection to other hives. I've seen some information about increased resistance in Apis Mellifera Mellifera to varroa by not treating but nothing concrete yet. If there's varroa in your area there's a very high chance that your colony will fail if you do not treat for it.I can see if you have 200 hives and you lose 75% of them then build back up from that stock and repeat then you can try to build resistance. But if you have 1 hive? Aramoro fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Jun 2, 2017 |
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Jun 2, 2017 14:30
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Yeah I looked at it the same way. Treatment free works if you have a lot of colonies to lose and are relatively isolated. I'm less than 0.5 km from a massive bee yard and was told by them that there are mites around. So if I try going treatment free for Varroa then my single hive will likely get hosed but they larger group. I was also warned to look out for small hive beetles since there will be a very large influx of more southern bees into my area due to a big change in pollination services.
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Jun 2, 2017 14:50
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Disease are not just your problem but a problem for every beekeeper in your area. Over here the municipality inspects hives on a regular basis (all hives need to be registered) and if they find contagious disease in your hive they will alert nearby bee-keepers and then help you treat the disease. If they detect American Foulbrood in your hive then the municipality will terminate the colony and then confiscate and burn the hive.
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Jun 2, 2017 15:28
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Aramoro posted:Yeah Varroa will destroy a hive, spread Deformed wing virus and the drones will head out and spread that infection to other hives. I've seen some information about increased resistance in Apis Mellifera Mellifera to varroa by not treating but nothing concrete yet. I plan on expanding to multiple hives. Let me walk my intentions back a little. If I start to see mites on the sticky board, I will take treatment into consideration. In regards to taking the comb out to visually inspect (with the warre), I am leaning toward letting them build at will and not disturb comb until time to rotate the box out. In fact when I do so I plan to replace with new self-built boxes, as the ones from Bee Thinking are already warping and I will need to figure out a way to fill in the gaps between the boxes beyond the propolis they are adding to the interior. Giving it a year as-is, with hopes that next spring they will want to swarm and populate additional hive(s).
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Jun 2, 2017 15:31
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I think you will find that warping is just part of wooden hives. The changes in humidity around here make my top bars go from loose to tight and the boards that make up the sides bend a twist a bit. I don't think having a colony inside is going to make it any better. I also don't think the bees give a rats rear end.
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Jun 2, 2017 15:41
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helno posted:I think you will find that warping is just part of wooden hives. The bees will not care for the present season, but -18F is not uncommon here in the winter nights. The hives I will be making myself will be dovetailed together as opposed to the ones I bought that are simply rabet. I also am considering angling the bottoms slightly for better water runoff as well as stability. Going to make good use of the router table and dovetail jig this year. 
Fog Tripper fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Jun 2, 2017 |
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Jun 2, 2017 16:37
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They will also propolis the ever living gently caress out of everything. Once that stuff crystallizes with age, it can be incredibly tough. But please do share pics of your handmade woodware! I've been considering learning to make my own now that I have most of the tools.
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Jun 2, 2017 21:51
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Did my first inspection today. Just a quick check to see if they were building straight comb and to see if there is any sign of a queen. They have built four combs with each one about 10 square inches. Lots of stored nectar and pollen. Took a bit to clearly see them but many of the cells had a tiny little egg right in the middle so I have a laying queen. They were much more docile than when I collected the swarm and moving the bars around was really easy. I just wiggled the bars back into place and they moved out of the way. I took away about four bars worth of space to keep them building straight comb.
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Jun 3, 2017 03:08
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Congrats on the new hive's health! The weather around here hasn't been cooperating. Rain almost every day. Thinking I'll do those jar feeders you insert into the front hive entrance of a langstroth. Any weird quirks I should know about?
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Jun 3, 2017 03:43
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Catberry posted:If they detect American Foulbrood in your hive then the municipality will terminate the colony and then confiscate and burn the hive. Tennessee is supposed to reimburse folks on this if they are registered, which is something I've brought up with folks being dumb about registering. Also, they'll let you know if bad stuff in in your area. But yeah, in my region varroa is just too endemic and a very large part of why most hobbyist hives don't make it two years. I very rarely catch varroa in screened boards, but I've seen signs of its presence so I'm just not going to risk it anymore. Also, waiting until the afternoon makes it easier to handle propolis since it'll get softer and less sticky when it's warmed up.
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Jun 3, 2017 22:03
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I don't remember if they reimburse us in RI, but I do know that they'll come out and do postmortems for you on request. The problem with TN I've heard is that there's literally one inspector for the whole state. TN is a big fuckin state.
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Jun 4, 2017 01:27
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:The problem with TN I've heard is that there's literally one inspector for the whole state. TN is a big fuckin state. Sorry, but that can't be true as I personally know at least four. The problem is that it's not very well organized in general (kind of like our state government in general), so there isn't an actual list of contacts besides the main guy, who in my experience isn't good about returning calls/emails. Most places here I've bought nucs and packages from can give you inspection tags, but usually won't unless you ask for some reason.
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Jun 4, 2017 03:42
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Sinister_Beekeeper posted:Sorry, but that can't be true as I personally know at least four. The problem is that it's not very well organized in general (kind of like our state government in general), so there isn't an actual list of contacts besides the main guy, who in my experience isn't good about returning calls/emails. Most places here I've bought nucs and packages from can give you inspection tags, but usually won't unless you ask for some reason. Ah, that must be why my TN beek pal thinks there's only one inspector! Four is a little better.
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Jun 4, 2017 15:12
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:Ah, that must be why my TN beek pal thinks there's only one inspector! Four is a little better. There are obviously more than four (and I wasn't listing the state apiarist since I'm pretty sure I've never met him), but yeah anyplace that sells bees is very likely certified as inspectors from my experience and I know the state does have some employed because I've seen the hiring page. But yeah, they don't do a good job of connecting folks with them. Asking local beekeeper associations would be my advice, since they probably either have some in the group or would know them.
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Jun 4, 2017 17:22
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I wonder how one goes about becoming a certified bee inspector. This week I've been having uhhh fun melting old honeycomb that I don't want to replace in my hives. The frames were used for three years and the comb is almost totally black. Melting it left behind all the proteinacious hulls and the dirt and so forth that accumulates on the comb surface -- and all that junk retained the comb shape.  Here's one of the shells left behind after the bee emerges from its cell! I thought it was kind of neat.
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Jun 4, 2017 17:32
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I've never figured out how to get all the gunk out of the black wax.
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Jun 4, 2017 18:50
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Sinister_Beekeeper posted:I've never figured out how to get all the gunk out of the black wax. I filter it through a clean rag or blue shop towels. Two or so passes gets most of the gunk out. After that, some time in a sunny window can bleach the wax a bit, but that's not really necessary since I plan to use this yellowy wax as wood varnish. I've been working on getting some photos together to show my process for processing beeswax when the weather is too lovely to use a more passive solar process, but it'll probably be a bit longer before I can post it.
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Jun 4, 2017 19:12
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Remember these girls? They threw off a second swarm and it has moved into my swarm trap. I'm heading out of town tomorrow so I will let them build for a few days. As for the other hive they have built 8 nearly full combs in just over a week. Lots of neatly placed eggs but haven't seen the queen yet.  They are building very straight combs and not attaching to the walls at all so it is very easy so far. I shuffled the combs around to put the little ones between two large straight ones to keep them building straight.
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Jun 8, 2017 02:53
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Looking lovely! I'm envious of all you swarm catchers this year. My local yardening/ urban ag store has entirely sold out of hive kits thanks to everyone up here apparently wading hip deep through swarms.
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Jun 8, 2017 03:40
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I really need to get back in touch with my beekeeping contact to get involved this summer.
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Jun 8, 2017 04:52
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http://i.imgur.com/aPiLEi8.mp4
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Jun 10, 2017 18:07
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Moved the swarm trapped bees into a hive tonight. They got quite a bit of comb built in 4 days. Very calm compared to the first swarm.  Edit: Posted that picture on facebook and got this comment. "I assume he knows: the "wax" sheet is supposed to be taunt in the center of wooden frame. The bees build up from both sides each little octagon. My dad had bees (and honey) when I was a kid." helno fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Jun 12, 2017 |
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Jun 11, 2017 02:15
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A bee stung me while I was scraping burr comb out of a top feeder. Dang bee. That colony almost entirely blocked off access to the syrup while building. Took me two visits before I clued in on why they were using syrup more slowly than their neighbor, which was installed at the same time. At least I can use the comb to encourage them to build out some more frames.
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Jun 11, 2017 02:26
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 Amazing.
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Jun 19, 2017 15:03
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Sat watching my hive for a few minutes yesterday mid day. Seemed to be plentiful drones and a lot of orientation flight and congestion at the entrance. I closed it down a little in the event it was actually robbing by a different larger breed. Or if they were giving drones the boot.
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Jun 19, 2017 19:32
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Robbing looks and sounds very different from normal activity. You'll hear the hive's agitated buzz and see bees fighting. Bees will also be flying out of the hive with honey, so they will be heavy and fly flower instead of buzzing up and away. I recommend looking at a few videos on YouTube to get the idea. Once you've experienced a robbery, you won't mistake it for anything else. It seems too early for the drone eviction as well. You could have a drone congregation but those are usually well overhead. If your hive is honey bound and there's nowhere to lay eggs, it's possible you may be seeing swarm preparations.
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Jun 19, 2017 19:44
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:Robbing looks and sounds very different from normal activity. You'll hear the hive's agitated buzz and see bees fighting. Bees will also be flying out of the hive with honey, so they will be heavy and fly flower instead of buzzing up and away. I recommend looking at a few videos on YouTube to get the idea. Once you've experienced a robbery, you won't mistake it for anything else. No comb has begun in the lower box yet, so I don't think swarm.
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Jun 19, 2017 19:46
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Fog Tripper posted:No comb has begun in the lower box yet, so I don't think swarm. Post pics if you got em. Sometimes bees just hang out fanning their wings in the entry way to help manage heat. There's also an phenomenon called bearding which tends to happen when the temps go above 80 F ime.
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Jun 19, 2017 19:50
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:Post pics if you got em. Sometimes bees just hang out fanning their wings in the entry way to help manage heat. There's also an phenomenon called bearding which tends to happen when the temps go above 80 F ime. No fanning, but warm enough that after a fashion I opened up a bit of the removable bottom board to allow more air if they needed (below the screen). It was congested coming and going with the larger bees intermixed. Did not want to get too close in my shorts and tee to see if they were definitely drones. Will be checking them out after work today and will get some pics if it is still happening. No bearding.
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Jun 19, 2017 19:53
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So here is one of the more clear photos I could grab: 99.9999% certain the ones in the pictures are drones (by the eyes and round butts). The wood block is allowing just enough space for the girls to get in and out, and the huge drone beasts only the two ends, where the ladies can smack them around. This is the fist drone activity I've seen like this. They are about twice the size of the female carniolans. Seeing so many appear in a short amount of time has me slightly worried. Along the lines of a worker laying drone brood due to missing queen. Edit: None were aggressive toward me. One worker landed on my camera hand, flew off and that was that. I like to think they know me by my smell at this point from all the sitting and watching I've done next to the entrance. Fog Tripper fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Jun 20, 2017 |
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Jun 20, 2017 01:07
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