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celewign posted:When I do some bee watching of the bees going in the front door sometimes I see a bee that is at least 50% larger than the smaller more numerous forager bees. Is this a drone or something or a robber from another hive? Check the eyes. If they basicall run into each other/there is no seperation between them, it's a drone.  also: drones don't rob, only workers rob. chances are it's a drone that waits for good weather to go out or one that just came back. e: if it doesn't have a pelt and red stripes on the head, it's a hornet waiting for it's meal tuo fucked around with this message at 20:01 on May 12, 2019 |
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May 12, 2019 19:58
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tuo posted:Check the eyes. If they basicall run into each other/there is no seperation between them, it's a drone. Well technically all drones do is rob, and mate with queens. Lazy bastards.
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May 12, 2019 21:05
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Hasselblad posted:Well technically all drones do is rob, and mate with queens. Lazy bastards. Well, they get what they deserve in the end....either die loving, or getting ripped apart, alive. I had my first swarm this season. Luckily was able to catch it, but still don't really understand it. I was at the location when they started swarming, and couldn't believe my eyes, as we checked them seven days earlier. My first guess was that we oversaw a swarmcell. We managed to catch the swarm and put it in a nuc. drat interesting to see them building a new hive there. Of course, I immiditially checked the hive they swarmed from, and found a total of six swarm cells, closed. I still couldn't believe it, as how we could have missed six swarm cells in the making. Anyhow, I took one of the frames with two cells on them, and created another split with bees and brood from another hive, and removed two of the other four swarm cells. I was sure that the new queens should hatch any day now, as that's how I learned it, that the swarm starts shortly before the queens hatch/when the old queen smells the nearly hatching queen. Well....they actually hatched nearly a week later, so the swarm cells must have been pretty new (which conforms to the 3-5-8 days, so we didn't actually miss one). Never heard or learned that a swarm would leave the hive so many days before the new queens hatch. The hive also had enough room to populate, so I still don't know why they swarmed. Well, now both the original hive and the split managed to make a queen, and the swarm is also coming along nicely, allthough I fear it might be pretty weak (sits on three frames only). Maybe I give them some brood from another hive that is very close to hatching, so they have enough bees to build the new hive. Queen also wasn't that old, a yellow one actually. But yeah, witnessing and catching my first swarm (from my own hives, d'oh) was quite the experience. e: oh, and beeing not prepared for a swarm, I couldn't even treat them against Varroa, as that would have been an excellent situation, beeing completely without brood. Lesson learned, always have some lactid acid at hand. tuo fucked around with this message at 10:31 on May 13, 2019 |
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May 13, 2019 10:27
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Anyone in here doing queen breeding?
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May 14, 2019 09:42
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Checked on the queens yesterday and thankfully their cages were empty. Another successful hive dive without smoke or bee suit.
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May 15, 2019 21:27
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I tend to use as little smoke as possible, as well. I always take a running smoker with me, but 99% of the time it went out after two or three hives anyway, because I don't need it and forgot to pump it. What I use to very great success - even with more aggressive hives - is clove oil. I always take a couple of towels with me to the hives, basically open them up, check the overall mood, and then cover as much as possible with the towels. Keeps the temperature in, and I can unwrap the spot where I am currently working/drawing frames. I spray a dash a clove oil on these towels (really just two or three drops per towel, then rub them against each other). The bees don't really like the smell of that, but also don't get aggressive. It makes it very, very easy to work with every hive I have (and I one that is pretty aggressive, allthough strangely not this year...seems the "aggro-sperms" have been used up by the queen, and she now uses the "chill-sperms" of the next drone), and it prevents the bees from flying all over the place. I also never have problems with bees sitting on the underside of the towel, due to the slight smell of clove oil.
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May 16, 2019 13:30
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I think I might of missed a swarm. I was at work when it might have happened. My roommate called me, so I rushed home to check on them. By the time I arrived, it had "calmed down." We went to check them, and everything seemed fine. I added a second brood chamber the week before and they almost already filled a frame with nectar. I couldn't tell you if there were less bees. After I finished checking for swarm cells, (and finding none.) I decided to rearrange the hive so the emptier box would be at the bottom, closer to the entrance. I hope I didn't miss a chance to split the colony, and release a hoard of bees on my neighbor. E: also, I'll definitely try that clove oil trick, It sounds awesome. Johnny-on-the-Spot fucked around with this message at 11:42 on May 17, 2019 |
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May 17, 2019 11:40
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Oh my, what a swarm season! We had like two weeks of pretty bad weather, while our hives already showed signs of wanting to swarm (one did two weeks ago, cought the swarm). Today is the first day with good weather. At around 9:00 am we got the first call from someone who had a swarm in their garden. Luckily, I bought two more nucs last week. Travelled there, caught the swarm (a really big one) and while we were doing that, the phone rang again. Friendly beekeeper asking us if we could catch another swarm, as he is at work. Travelled there, caught the next swarm (which was rather tricky, because it was way up in a tree....we need to build one of those swarm-catch-hoses....). Of course, all the while my actual customers also rang me up with some important jobs which need to be done today. Drove back to where our hives are to put the two swarms there, and what do we see, hanging in a bush? Another swarm. No more nucs available, but we still had some pretty old hive boxes so we put that one in there. One day, three swarms. Now I'll actually earn some money with my daily job, then mix food, then feed the swarms. What a crazy season over here....
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May 17, 2019 14:09
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Johnny-on-the-Spot posted:E: also, I'll definitely try that clove oil trick, It sounds awesome. I'm interested in what your experience is. I'm super happy with it. There also some beekeepers around here who use - I hope it's the right translation - cedar oil (or maybe cedar nut oil?), to the same effect.
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May 17, 2019 14:20
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Another day, another swarm. I am running out of hive-boxes/nucs to put them in, and I think I am developing an unhealthy relationship to ladders. It's pretty crazy what's happening here at the moment.
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May 19, 2019 10:45
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tuo posted:Another day, another swarm. I am running out of hive-boxes/nucs to put them in, and I think I am developing an unhealthy relationship to ladders. Ugh, I’m jealous. Nonstop rain and <50 degree temps here for the last 2 months. The bees aren’t getting a chance to do much of anything. I’m still waiting for the NUCs I ordered that were supposed to be ready at the end of April.
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May 19, 2019 15:56
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First inspection went well. Sans smoke and bee suit. Just gloves (in hindsight didn't even need those). The Layens hive is building comb like mad and I put empty frames between each one with existing comb. The Warre is a bit sluggish. I think this offseason I will build another Layens. and do away with the Warre entirely.
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May 20, 2019 18:14
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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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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. It doesn't matter if #2 has drones or not of you decide to use the swarm cell from #1, ideally, the young queen should actually mate with drones that are not from here own hive to prevent incest. They don't mate in the hive anyway, they fly to a mating spot where all kind of drones are present (from your hives, from other hives in the area) and will mate with whatever just happens to catch them (they mate with 6 to 12 drones). e: of course you could also simply add a frame with eggs/fresh brood from one of the other two hives if you are unsure about the status of the swarm cell. #2 will create a new queen from the fresh brood...the younger, the better (eggs are best) tuo fucked around with this message at 07:01 on May 22, 2019 |
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May 22, 2019 06:57
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I cannot believe just how wet it’s been this spring, and temps just barely inching above 50. At the end of a brief period of sun yesterday I sat and watched the girls all trying to get back into the hives at once, before yet another wind/rain/cold front swept through. They cannot seem to catch a break, but they are trying their damndest to make the most of the few windows that appear. It sucks to see so much in bloom while they are getting grounded by showers and low temps.
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May 22, 2019 16:06
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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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Well, finally got the NUCs I ordered. The weather has been garbage, and my bee guy warned that they were a little smaller than he’d hoped. One of them is plenty big, the other fairly small. There’s comb on all 5 frames, but overall it didn’t appear to be thriving like the other one. Got them both installed on Sunday during a brief respite from the constant rain and was a bit troubled to see a few bees in the smaller nuc that seemed to have trouble flying but hoped they were just disoriented or something. Today it’s actually beautiful out, so I went to check the activity at the hives. The larger nuc looks great, lots of orientation flights and overall healthy activity. The smaller nuc, though, I don’t know. A handful of bees are crawling around on the ground, there’s a few dead young bees here and there, and a bunch of bees just hanging out on the outer cover barely moving. This worries me. I texted my supplier but haven’t heard back yet. Don’t know what this could be other than some weird virus, also don’t know if I should ask for a replacement NUC or just try replacing the queen... either way, bummed it looks this way after such a long wait. I also foolishly forgot that he sent all his hives to California this winter, so it’s not the typical overwintered Illinois stock I try to stick with. Blarg.
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May 22, 2019 22:10
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the spyder posted: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. Sounds good. If #2 isn't that strong, I'd even suggest to not remove the queen cells they create. Normally, one should remove all but the best cell, to prevent the young queen from swarming after hatching. I never did that with splits, because I was teached that splits don't exhibit that behaviour. Since I switched from Zander format to ZaDant, and made my splits much stronger this year because I have much more bee mass to create them from (three brood frames per split), each and every split (I made four) swarmed as soon as the first cell hatched, instead of the fresh queen wandering around, killing the other unhatched queens (like she does in weaker splits). I managed to catch three of the four swarms, and now basically have seven splits (  ). If you break all but one queen cell, you reduce the chance of them swarming as soon as the first queen hatches (as she doesn't smell the pheromone from the other queens that are close to hatching), but you also risk that something might happen to that one single cell. So if the hive ain't too strong, and you don't have queens at hand, I'd say maybe let them do their thing, and don't remove cells. That's why I'm currently taking my first steps in queen breeding, and keeping them in smaller boxes, to have mated queens at hand as soon as I need some. I keep them in boxes which you can still bring through the winter like larger hives, and you always have a couple of mated queens for unforseen accidents. But I'm also still new to this, and learning (and also making errors). But it's pretty exciting. Also: checked a nuc yesterday if the queen already hatched, and boy, I just caught her getting out of the cell....that noise she makes while wiggling out there, calling for help, gave me chills. It's an awesome noise, even louder that the typical "toot toot" they do when they wander around the hive, introducing them as the new queen.
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May 23, 2019 10:49
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Melicious posted:The smaller nuc, though, I don’t know. A handful of bees are crawling around on the ground, there’s a few dead young bees here and there, and a bunch of bees just hanging out on the outer cover barely moving. This worries me. I texted my supplier but haven’t heard back yet. Don’t know what this could be other than some weird virus, also don’t know if I should ask for a replacement NUC or just try replacing the queen... either way, bummed it looks this way after such a long wait. I also foolishly forgot that he sent all his hives to California this winter, so it’s not the typical overwintered Illinois stock I try to stick with. Blarg. Are there poo poo-stains in the hive? Or at the entry to the hive?
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May 23, 2019 10:50
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tuo posted:Are there poo poo-stains in the hive? Or at the entry to the hive? Nope. Forgot to mention earlier that some of the larvae is positioned funky in the cell, and today I saw one perforated cell that looked like sacbrood... all the brood frames are pretty dry, I was going to give them a bucket of syrup but now I just want to get rid of the dang thing. E: just talked to the supplier, he’s dumbfounded but giving me a replacement tonight. Of course, I still have to drive out to BFE to get it, but whatever. Hoping nothing spread to the other hive, it looks great so far but who the hell knows. Also hoping the replacement will be healthy... Melicious fucked around with this message at 21:49 on May 23, 2019 |
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May 23, 2019 21:18
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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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Depends on the strength of #2. If it can spare bees for a split without getting to weak, sure, do it. But I would take the brood frames from #1 and #3, so #2 does not get weakened even more. Of course you could also use brood from #1 and #2 and bees from one of them, put the queen in a cage with couple of helpers, give them a small blast of smoke and then a little water mist, close the cage with sugerpaste and put it in the nuc. The smoke at first covers the #2 smell, the bees from #1 or #3 won't aggro against her, and the water forces the helper bees to clean the queen and each other, further "putting the new smell" into the queen. It all depends on how weak #2 actually is in regard to bee mass. Mind you, this could all be for nothing if the queen actually is unable to lay eggs (she might have been injured, caught/pressed between two frames etc.), which would mean you waste two brood frames + bees. Pretty hard to give an actual advice without having seen the hive. e: out of interest (just red your original post again): when was the queen from #2 mated? Was that also three weeks ago, or more recently? I had a queen in a nuc this year where I thought she didn't get mated....no eggs four weeks after creating the split (which normally is my limit for waiting...16 days for making the queen, 5 to 10 for her to mature, mating, then 3 to 5 days until she starts laying = 31 days). 31 days is the limit I get nervous, so I checked if there was a queen (I only found the open queen cell before) and found her. So I gave it another week. Now, nearly six weeks after creating the split, she started laying, and is laying like a mad tuo fucked around with this message at 07:44 on May 24, 2019 |
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May 24, 2019 07:37
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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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Yesterday I planted a bed of buck wheat and a bed of sunflowers on either side of my hive, and today I did an inspection and found my queen. The hive itself has a lot of capped honey, but I'm worried there might not be enough capped brood. I'm hoping I'll see more brood next week. The second brood box is still a work in progress, but it looks well more developed than it did last week. Does anyone here use frames that are filled with plastic starter? I have a few plastc deep frames in my brood box that they started covering with wax, but it seems they way perfer the wax.
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May 27, 2019 00:09
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Speaking of planting bee-friendly stuff: I have found my new favourite plant bucket: old hive boxes! We have a couple of runner ducks here, so we can't plant a lot of stuff directly into the ground because they'll eat it in a heartbeat. So I had some old hive boxes, the ones which we started from and got super cheap from a friendly beekeeper who no longer needed them. They were pretty beaten up, but it was pretty good to get into the whole thing, before we switched to new boxes the next year. They: - are super easy to fill/work with - look cool when nicely planted - the grid on the bottom lets water run through/prevent it from collecting there - are a perfect fit imo for a bee-friendly garden - are high enough (with floor and two brood boxes) so that runner ducks can't eat the stuff in there We got them at something like 25 EUR for a complete hive (floor, three zander boxes, roof), and I just spoke to the beekeeper again if he had really defective ones (holes etc.). His anwser: "how many do you need, and when do you want to pick them up?" Wants 15 EUR for one floor and two brood boxes, I'll pick up some more. Gonna wait a bit though with filling them to see how the wood holds up, maybe I'll add something between the wood and the earth inside it. But for that price, it's a steal, and looks better than most pots/buckets I could get for that price. I'll make a pic as soon as some of them are fully planted. e: also much easier to drive a lawnmower around because they aren't round 
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May 27, 2019 11:16
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From our six splits, four already have a laying queen. I'm super happy, because we had quite some trouble with splits in the last years. We created them much stronger this year, and it worked like a charm. The other two have hatched queens (which I haven't seen yet), allthough one of them is pretty aggressive, so I assume the queen didn't get back from mating. I'll give em another week. The other one (white one standing in the pic....yeah, I had no time painting the box, and the white actually really irritates them...another lesson learned) is pretty calm and collects pollen like crazy, so I hope there's a queen in there and she starts laying soon. Took me also by surprise, as we had to create a makeshift beestand for them (gonna need some more stones under there, as I fear that won't hold/start to bend soon).  The pic is couple hours after moving them to the makeshift stand during the night, so of course lots of orientation flights going on, but they calmed down pretty quickly over the day. tuo fucked around with this message at 18:00 on May 27, 2019 |
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May 27, 2019 11:31
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BTW: I hope everyone has seen this movie already, it's pretty drat good (and IIRC the first time the mating of a queen was filmed....one the DVD in the making of they show how they achieved that shot...very cool!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh_IRrBeu-0
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May 27, 2019 12:01
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So at around 5:30 routinely my bees get very active. I have no idea what they're up to but I got a video today. The inspection yesterday revealed no queen cells or swarm cells, so I don't think they're swarming but I don't know. It's pretty cool looking but they got me worrying. http://imgur.com/a/7zvFm70
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May 27, 2019 23:55
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Johnny-on-the-Spot posted:So at around 5:30 routinely my bees get very active. I have no idea what they're up to but I got a video today. The inspection yesterday revealed no queen cells or swarm cells, so I don't think they're swarming but I don't know. It's pretty cool looking but they got me worrying. Were there any eggs? Was there a queen? Bees do that if there is a queen on a mating flight.
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May 28, 2019 00:36
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rdb posted:Were there any eggs? Was there a queen? Bees do that if there is a queen on a mating flight. I'm positive I saw the queen yesterday during inspection. I'll be extra vigilant in looking for eggs now. I imagine she's a new queen because all the queen cells I saw in the past have mysteriously disappeared a week ago. I'm glad to know my queen is just trying to get laid. How long is she gonna keep up her daily prowl? tuo posted:BTW: I hope everyone has seen this movie already, it's pretty drat good (and IIRC the first time the mating of a queen was filmed....one the DVD in the making of they show how they achieved that shot...very cool!) E: Also I watched "More then Honey" and I enjoyed it very much. A lot of great cinematography, and A lot of interesting information. Plus, you didn't mention John Hurt doing narration! Johnny-on-the-Spot fucked around with this message at 04:06 on May 28, 2019 |
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May 28, 2019 00:49
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Johnny-on-the-Spot posted:E: Also I watched "More then Honey" and I enjoyed it very much. A lot of great cinematography, and A lot of interesting information. Plus, you didn't mention John Hurt doing narration! Didn't know that, as I watched it in the original (that's my native language), but John Hurt sounds like an awesome narrator for this film. I'm actually surprised they managed to get someone like him, as it is a pretty niche film.
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May 29, 2019 11:14
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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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the spyder posted:Today I learned that young queens can fly... Ha I learned that also two days ago. I was re-queening this hive because I found no new eggs and they were building queen cups. I drove across town and paid $40 for a queen and installed her. I checked on her a couple days later. I was looking for a marked queen and but I find this young queen on a frame. So I put her in my queen catcher and markered her and then frantically look for the queen I bought in the hive. I finally give up and release the queen into the hive. She looks around for a couple seconds, runs to the top of the frame and fly's off.
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May 31, 2019 16:58
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Queens can fly allright, especially if they either were on a diet (which happens before they swarm) or when they are freshly mated/young and their abdomen is still pretty small. If they are fully fed/in fully egg-laying-mode, they can more or less do a "controlled landing" when you somehow drop them out of the marking catcher (not that that EVER happened to me, noooo). Marked three of five new queens yesterday, two won the hide and seek for this week. Now only a single hive is left where the queen has to get mated, though it's about drat time. Maybe I'll drop a mated one on there mid next week when I see no eggs. It seems to be an awesome year for bee reproduction over here, but a terrible one for honey...well, at least I get a couple of new hives (all the splits/swarms develop beautifully), but my honey customers are already starting to riot due to lack of honey :/
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Jun 1, 2019 07:50
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https://imgur.com/nSsvEEF Bees seem to be digging plain old 1" entrance holes in the Layens. Is anyone else using Terro bait traps for ants? I have a couple down near the legs but they do not seem to be lessening all that much. Wrapped some aluminum tape around the legs and am going to use some paste wax to "polish" it, to see if it will make it tougher for the ants to climb across. Hasselblad fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Jun 1, 2019 |
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Jun 1, 2019 17:41
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Hasselblad posted:https://imgur.com/nSsvEEF I don't do any beekeeping (but I think it's interesting so I lurk in the thread) but I've seen folks with pet ant colonies do this to make impassable barriers: https://www.antscanada.com/ant-care/ quote:There are several ways. In the ant keeping world we use common deterrents to keep ants from escaping through little cracks or open spaces. We at AntsCanada like to use vaseline (petroleum gel) and smear a two inch wide band around the outworld door and its joints. Most ants come in contact with it and don’t bother walking through it. Those who have ants that still travel over a two inch thick band of vaseline smeared around the top of the outworld, can also use baby powder (talcum powder) mixed with rubbing alcohol, and smear this mixed substance instead. If you choose this method, be careful not to put too much because the ants can get coated in it and die. Another deterrent commonly used in Europe is paraffin oil. If all of these fail, the most effective deterrent is Fluon or a substance called PTFE, however if you choose to use this substance remember that the fumes before drying is highly toxic so apply it to your outworld in a well ventilated area and before your ants are given access to the outworld. Fluon/PTFE is also known commonly among laboratories working with insects as the product ‘Insecta-slip’ and it can be purchased at an online store known as Bioquip. I've got ants using my mailbox as part of their nest and the terro liquid ant bait hasn't managed to eliminate them yet despite being in there for a few days. I have seen other ants go in there looking for it though, so I don't know if it's just a particular type of ant it works on or what. I'm tired of having to brush off my mail so I may end up spraying the inside of the mailbox at this point.
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Jun 1, 2019 18:46
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Rexxed posted:I don't do any beekeeping (but I think it's interesting so I lurk in the thread) but I've seen folks with pet ant colonies do this to make impassable barriers: The way I understand the Terro, is that the ants are given enough time to get back and feed the queen and such before dying. The queen then dies in theory, so no new ants are raised. Would take some time for all that to happen, but I have been baiting since I put the hives in. Maybe I will try the Vaseline on the aluminum tape.
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Jun 1, 2019 23:42
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Leason learned: never let an innocent bystander mark a queen just because they asked "can I try it?". I think I have a queen now that's either pretty blind on one eye or only sees green on that eye-cluster.
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Jun 2, 2019 11:03
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tuo posted:Leason learned: never let an innocent bystander mark a queen just because they asked "can I try it?". I think I have a queen now that's either pretty blind on one eye or only sees green on that eye-cluster. Ugh.
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Jun 2, 2019 14:48
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Welp. Last week, I gave back the sickly nuc to my supplier and got another sickly nuc in return. We did the swap at night, so I couldn't get a look at it until I installed it the next day. Immediately was worried because of how small the population was, but figured I'd give it a week and see how it did. Went in a week later, no improvement- only 2 frames of brood despite the nuc having been given 5 fully drawn frames. A few cells with perforated caps and sacbrood looking larvae, a few drones being evicted from cells, and still a handful of sickly bees crawling around in front. They also had made a swarm cell that appeared to have larva in it- they definitely didn't have the population to swarm, so I refrained from cutting it off in case they were trying to supersede. Texted my supplier that I didn't want to be a pain, but this one wasn't looking good, either. He responded that I was making something out of nothing, that the nuc I gave back to him was totally fine, and this nuc probably just got wet and chilled. I told him I disagreed and would expect to see SOME growth from a nuc even in less-than-optimal weather conditions, but that I hoped he was right. That was Wednesday. Yesterday, I was out gardening near the hives and found the queen from the weak nuc dead on the ground about 6 feet from the hive. Cracked the hive open and the "swarm" cell has been capped and they're working on 2 emergency cells, too. So clearly I'm not the only one who felt the hive was failing. Texted the supplier and he replied "WHAT?" and nothing else since. So now I'm trying to figure out if I should just let the existing queen cell(s) hatch and hope that they're free of sacbrood/whatever other poo poo their mom had going on, or purchase a new hygienic queen from the other supplier I know. Obviously the former is easier, but ugggh. One thing is clear, I'm done with my old supplier. What do you folks think? I assume I should probably give them a frame of younger larvae from my healthy hive, too...
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Jun 2, 2019 17:02
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