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Rosemary bushes attract tons of bees. I wouldn't do sugar water because then you'll get a shitload of ants. Do you guys know if the old queen goes with the swarm or the new queen? I have two hives now cause my hive swarmed. Ugh. It's nuts.
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May 7, 2010 06:10
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My swarm hive isn't doing well. I think the queen is dead/dying. They're building a bunch of queen cells. I also found a bunch of sugar water on the bottom of the hive, and it wasn't even close to the feeder, strangely. The queen cells also look oddly small....I think I better order one, right?
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May 8, 2010 01:19
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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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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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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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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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post that last picture on beesource.com and they'll probably be able to tell you what it is. To me that looks a little weird. I never had brood that looked like that.
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May 31, 2010 09:14
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I think my hive is doomed. I introduced a new queen last week and I didn't see the queen in the cage but only one frame of brood and its really crappy. I think the old queen was still in there and they killed my expensive new queen! arrgh...
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Jun 12, 2010 00:20
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well there were quite a few capped drone cells and eggs....sigh...DONT LET YOUR HIVES SWARM.
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Jun 13, 2010 07:43
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It's a bit too late in the season...Unless the boxes already have bees in them?
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Jun 27, 2010 01:02
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I might be in the same boat. Luckily, my hive swarmed pretty early. It seems like whenever they make their own queen, it's doomed to fail. My beekeeper friend says that new queens have a 1/4 chance of not making it after their nuptial flights. Both of my hives failed, I had to combine the two and order a new queen. I'm not sure if they'll make it. If you have at least 6 frames of bees you should try and order a new queen.
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Jul 10, 2010 23:37
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Wow, so you live near Mt. Diablo too? I'm not getting quite as much honey as last year. How the heck do you get the bees off? I harvested a frame today and it was pretty scary shaking all of them off. Now they're flying around the backyard, all confused. I'm so jealous of your two filled supers. Maybe I live in a crappy area!
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Jul 12, 2010 01:26
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Yeah, I'm from the bay area. Out of curiosity, which supplier did you buy bees from?
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Jul 12, 2010 04:49
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Leperflesh posted:Maximusi, I mentioned you to my wife and she says you should come over if you'd like to check out our bees and/or chat about bee stuff or whatever. Also if you need a frame or two of bees to get your hive back together, we'll be happy to donate some (we have Italians). Send me a PM or e-mail me at my username at gmail. Yeah, that'd be cool! Well, I checked the hive yesterday and I saw lots of capped brood, so I think they'll be just fine. Besides, I have Russian bees. But I'll shoot you an email soon. I took a frame of honey out and the honey is really orange-colored. It tastes like artificially flavored orange candy. It's really weird!
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Jul 13, 2010 04:53
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OMG I am never being that lazy again. I harvested honey a couple weeks ago and didn't replace the frame. I just inspected it today, and the bees had made a huge honeycomb in between the space where the frame was supposed to be. We had to cut it off and the bees were really pissed. A bunch of grubs fell out cause it was half brood half honey. I think I got stung in my toe, but I'm not sure if it's a stinger or a splinter.
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Jul 26, 2010 00:31
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I saw that on the news too. I hope they catch the rear end in a top hat.
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Aug 2, 2010 06:22
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I don't know about you guys but I just harvested a poo poo ton of honey. It tastes sorta fruity. Weird. I had kept on an extra brood box and they filled almost the entire thing. I have probably like 25 lbs of honey. How is everyone else?
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Aug 24, 2010 05:49
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Leperflesh, yeah I've sent you an email saying the same thing haha. I got stung for the first time two days ago and my finger swelled into a sausage. It's still a little swollen today. Is that normal?
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Aug 25, 2010 00:52
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I still can't believe how much honey you guys harvested. Your honey tastes so much better than mine! How full did that plastic bin get?
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Sep 5, 2010 06:42
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My neighbor, who is a doctor, saw my bee sting and basically told me that I was allergic. It's not normal to swell that much, apparently. After that, I took 2 benadryl a day just to get the swelling and itchiness down. I posted this pic on goon doctor as well and they told me the same thing. :/
Maximusi fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Sep 7, 2010 |
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Sep 7, 2010 00:14
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Wow that sounds crazy. Hope you get better!
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Sep 7, 2010 04:04
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For me it took like a week for the swelling to go completely down.
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Sep 7, 2010 18:51
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Just harvested 3 frames of honey. I noticed there was a lot of pollen packed beneath the honey. Kinda weird. How's everyone else doing? Do you think you're going to harvest more, Leperflesh?
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Sep 27, 2010 02:11
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Wow, that's incredible. We only harvested 1.5 supers this summer. I think the whole swarming thing really shafted us on honey.
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Oct 11, 2010 04:10
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I've noticed that sometimes before winter, the bees will haul out developing pupae for them to die. I guess they get worried if there's not enough honey for all the bees. That pattern looks strange though.
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Nov 5, 2010 20:04
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I've noticed that the bee population drops drastically during winter. Maybe they'll survive.  I'm sorry that really sucks.
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Nov 13, 2010 20:24
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Leperflesh, yeah that's what I'd do. Uncapped honey isn't good anyways. Decap, wash, and store it somewhere. I'm kinda nervous about my bees now. I've no idea how they're doing.
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Dec 1, 2010 06:23
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Am I the only one with bees still alive? They keep flying out on warm days. What about you guys?
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Dec 25, 2010 00:47
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Wow. Did you cover the hive in black tar paper? I can't tell from the picture. If I were you I'd try to shovel the snow away from the hive so it isn't surrounding it. But it might be too late. My bees are already up and about..Aah, Californian spring.
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Jan 21, 2011 00:51
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June sounds way too late. I'd do it by the end of April at the latest.
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Feb 16, 2011 02:34
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Wow three hives. That must've cost a fortune. What kinda bees are you getting?
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Feb 16, 2011 03:42
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I got Russian bees for my hive and I live in Cali. My supplier ships the bees too so you could get some if you wanted. They're very hardy. I haven't had a problem with pests or diseases at all. If anything they're too efficient. http://www.honeybeegenetics.com/
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Feb 16, 2011 04:20
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My bees have been hiding from the rain. It's been nonstop pouring for a couple days. Stop raining so my bees can get to work!
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Feb 19, 2011 04:47
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I dunno about you guys but my bees are repopulating like crazy. :S Please don't swarm!!
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Feb 23, 2011 20:38
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I live around the base of Mt. Diablo. Wow, snow, really? That'll be nice.
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Feb 24, 2011 00:03
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Does anyone else have dreams of the bees attacking you or swarming? I think I fear my bees.
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Mar 13, 2011 06:27
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Those hives are pretty close together. I'd separate them by at least a foot because it's gunna be hard to inspect them when they're that close. Cool, though. Three hives drat that's expensive!
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Apr 3, 2011 16:56
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I wish I had been more proactive about scraping burr comb and propolis off because now that poo poo has hardened into cement and its really hard to get off. Every time I open the lid/free up the frames it makes a horrible cracking sound. So I checked the bees today and holy poo poo they were overflowing the box so I added another super. I reeeeally hope they don't swarm again like last summer.
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Apr 4, 2011 01:34
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Weitz, you can make a split of your hives and that will drastically reduce the chances. I think I'm going to have to do one. http://www.bushfarms.com/beessplits.htm What I also do is look for swarm cells (on the bottom of the frame) and remove them all. It's pretty hard to prevent it though. Provide the bees with a lot of space as well.
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Apr 7, 2011 21:04
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Man, this reminds me that I really have to check my bees. Haven't in a few weeks :S. It's just that the colony is so large, and inspecting the hive has become really difficult with how they've cemented everything together. The burr comb has hardened into rock. And they're pretty aggressive. This is my third season with the same bees. Different queen. Every time I've let the bees make their own queen it always fails. The queen dies/vanishes and I had to buy a queen. Just a warning. I think it's easier to just buy a queen.
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Apr 30, 2011 04:16
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