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If we have someone that comes and sprays pesticides every month or so in our backyard, could this be harmful to the bees? I live in California, and if we don't have this done, hundreds of spiders/ants invade our house in the summer and winter. We really want to start a hive, but I don't know if we can now.
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Mar 28, 2009 22:49
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| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 15:33 |
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How loud is the sound of the bee hive? I'm getting my Russian bees on saturday, so I'll try to post some pictures of when I install them.
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Apr 20, 2009 22:58
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I installed the bees today and put in an entrance reducer, but it seems to be hindering their way inside. Should I just remove it?
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Apr 25, 2009 23:53
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I have a pretty small backyard too and it's almost getting out of hand. I wouldn't recommend it if your backyard is that small. You could do it if you don't care about bees running in to you all the time. Touchy, how many days did you wait to check on the queen? I have an entrance feeder and they're going through that crap so quickly I'm going to have to make more syrup tomorrow. I'm not too keen on doing that, cause they're all swarming around the hive. Is it better to inspect a hive in the evening or during the day?
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Apr 26, 2009 21:16
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I'm really worried because I just inspected the hive today and I couldn't find the queen anywhere, even though she's marked. I saw a lot of cells with clear liquid in them, some bright orange, but no capped cells (honey?). And I took the queen cage out and there wasn't anyone in there, so she definitely got out, I just have no idea where she is.
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May 1, 2009 01:52
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what kind of bees did you get?
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May 9, 2009 01:43
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Finally have an update. Sorry the pictures are so crappy, my brother was kinda far away.   The rest are too far away to notice anything. I saw a lot of larva in various stages of development, and they'd drawn comb on about 4 frames. I hope they fill up the box by next week.
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May 12, 2009 03:37
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I added a second body to my hive last week. I'm going to check them on Saturday and take pictures. Has anyone else added a second hive body? How long does the pollen/nectar flow last? I'm wondering if I will be able to get a honey super up in time. It's almost the end of May but my bees keep on bringing craploads of pollen.
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May 28, 2009 22:25
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My queen is apparently not doing well. They are making supersede cells to replace the queen. I'm not sure if I should let them do it or order a new queen. It's been five weeks and they still haven't filled up the first box so I just took off the second one.   This really sucks...Advice is appreciated. I don't know how I'm ever going to find the queen anyways.
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May 30, 2009 21:19
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Are you guys still feeding the bees tons of syrup? I swear to God I go through 10 lbs of sugar a week. It's costing me a fortune. Is this normal?
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Jun 17, 2009 17:46
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How is it that every beekeeper tells me you won't get honey the first year and yet most of you have supers filled with honey.  Mine haven't even filled the second brood box.
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Jun 25, 2009 02:14
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I've noticed that my bees are really pissy now when we fill their feeder. I loathe the boardman feeder, you have to fill it twice a day. My dad got stung twice already. Are your bees more aggressive?
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Jun 28, 2009 03:43
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I live in norcal. All the bee books told me to feed them syrup until they had filled both boxes up. I just put my super on so naturally I took off the feeder. They're making really dark honey.     You can see the lil eggs there..Build my pretties!
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Jul 11, 2009 03:02
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My hive still hasn't touched the super and it's been a month. Also, they keep making supersede cells.
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Aug 4, 2009 21:13
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Not recently, but there's tiny eggs. I know she's there, I'm just wondering if the bees think she's not preforming up to par. I think my queen is mediocre. I've had this hive since April 26 and they still haven't filled all the frames of both boxes. I've registered my hive in the hopes that someone will inspect it and tell me if this is normal or not. Does the state inspector usually call beforehand or what?
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Aug 5, 2009 01:19
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I don't even check the bottom anymore. It's way too heavy and the last time I tried I messed up my back and killed a bunch of bees. :S But I noticed that the bees are using the bottom mainly for food storage and honey and the top for brood. Kinda strange how that happens. Yeah, I don't think I'm getting honey this year, despite them being super active all the time.
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Aug 6, 2009 05:39
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Do you guys have any 'tricks' to make the bees draw comb on the super? Mine's been there a whole month, and still no progress whatsoever. I really want to put a frame of bees in there, that really helped draw out the second brood box. The problem is that the frames are too big for the super.
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Aug 10, 2009 00:41
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Yeah, I've read a lot of arguments whether or not it's a honey excluder so I don't know what to think.
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Aug 10, 2009 21:06
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Hell, I guess I'll try it. It can't hurt.
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Aug 10, 2009 22:18
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I took out the queen excluder and there seems to have been an explosion of bees. Now they're all over the super, I really wish I had taken it out much sooner.
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Aug 13, 2009 22:42
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I hate you. I'll be lucky if I get one frame. My bees suck.
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Oct 3, 2009 06:28
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Wow this is weird. I just opened the super and it was packed with honey (6 frames). I guess they waited till everything hatched and now they're filling all the empty cells with honey. I don't get these bees, but at least I'll get honey, yay!
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Oct 4, 2009 22:01
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Wow that's really dark. Nice color. Walrusman what kinda bees do you have?
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Oct 6, 2009 05:21
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My beekeeper said to use apistan or something. But I'm not going to medicate until I see a problem, those medications are drat expensive.
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Oct 21, 2009 03:39
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Well I got some fall honey a while ago. It tastes delish! I'm in cali and I dunno about you guys but my bees are bringing a crapload of pollen in the hive. Spring?   
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Nov 13, 2009 04:18
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Have you guys noticed a lot of bees dying? I saw like 20 of them on the bottom, dead...I really should have checked to see if they had enough honey. Bahh!
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Dec 10, 2009 07:57
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^^You should be able to find packages somewhere. I also live in Contra Costa county, not far from you actually. I starting looking in March, I think you should start calling places right away. The place I got it from was Bee Genetics near Davis. For the winter I didn't do much other than put an entrance reducer, the bees are totally fine. They'll go out throughout winter since it doesn't get that cold out here. Make sure you put the hive on an elevated stand and put moats of motor oil or vegetable oil or something otherwise you'll get tons of ants in your hive.
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Feb 28, 2010 05:28
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That one looks like the one I have. Works just fine. just make sure you get a wide hat, if not the beekeeper hat, otherwise bees will be able to sting you through the mesh. Has anyone started giving the bees sugar syrup? I still have my super on the hive because it had a couple frames of honey inside. Did any of you replace the queen? The bee book says to do it but I don't know. It's hard enough finding her.
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Mar 3, 2010 05:45
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Just checked my hive and I think my queen is dead. Which means my hive is totally hosed. WHY GOD WHYYY?! I'm so sad.
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Mar 15, 2010 01:05
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I didn't look very thoroughly because the bees were really agitated but I need to confirm whether or not I have a laying worker or a failing queen. If I have a laying worker I'm definitely hosed. I didn't see any queen cells. I saw a bunch of drone cells and empty cells...It doesn't look too good.
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Mar 15, 2010 07:37
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What I saw was a frame with domed drone cells spotting the area and a bunch of empty cells. I freaked out because normally you never see drone cells. Maybe 1-2 per frame if that. Then I rechecked today and saw some worker cells and a bunch of empty cells. I think the bees hatched recently. So the queen isn't dead. There was only one egg per cell. But now I'm stuck with brood in my super cause I left out the excluder. I'm wondering if I should switch the bodies around. Do you guys check all your hive bodies in each inspection? I tried doing the 2nd box, but the frames are glued so well I couldn't get one out, even with the hive tool. I'm so glad my queen's not dead. But if you have a laying worker, ordering a queen will not solve your problem. The bees will kill the queen every time, guaranteed. Because they think laying worker=queen.
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Mar 16, 2010 02:40
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Melodywise: That sucks, sorry. Have you thought about trying Russian bees this time around? They're supposed to be hardy against cold weather and disease resistant.
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Mar 30, 2010 07:27
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just added a second super cause the hive is really overcrowded. And I switched the hive bodies. How do you know when you're supposed to add a third hive body? does that even happen, or should you just keep adding supers?
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Apr 4, 2010 00:50
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Yeah, I mean the deeps. I have two deeps and two supers. I took off the queen excluder originally because the bees just weren't going inside, but now they're raising brood in there. For the second super I added the excluder. When I say they're overcrowded, I mean the hive is jam packed with bees. I think they might be running out of space. When I opened the hive all the frames were covered in bees.
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Apr 4, 2010 04:47
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Ishmael you might wanna put the legs of your hive in tubs of some sort of oil otherwise you'll have an ant invasion. Just to let you know. Tanisen that looks crazy. I hope that doesn't happen to my hive. Is your hive just one deep?
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Apr 8, 2010 05:14
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:s I hope they don't kill your queen!
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Apr 10, 2010 01:16
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That's weird. I wondered what happened? Have you been able to find the queen?
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Apr 13, 2010 23:01
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Ishmael, you said you built the hive with a mesh underneath, right? That might make them too cold. I think the lack of access to a feeder might have done them in as well.
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Apr 16, 2010 18:47
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Yeah :S. That looks pretty bad. You should get a new package.
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Apr 17, 2010 20:23
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| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 15:33 |
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My hive swarmed today. What a nightmare. I successfully got them down the tree into a box. Then I got the super off my hive and put that into another box, then dumped the bees into that box with the super. They keep going back to the tiny box even though I put sugar syrup in the one with the super. Stupid bees! I really didn't wanna swarm.
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Apr 25, 2010 22:53
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