Backyard beekeeping: Oh shit! RUN!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Backyard beekeeping: Oh shit! RUN!

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

holy crap how did i just barely discover this thread! everyone has BEES!!! this is fantastic!

I guess I'll post an update on my hive. It survived its first winter, although it was kind of harrowing since there was a 2" deep patty of dead bees in front of my hive.

Early this spring, when it got about 50 degrees, I got into it to see how they fared. I left them with 9 frames of honey in a super, and 2 medium boxes that had at least 4 frames of honey. The bottom box was pretty much completely vacant and empty, and a couple of the frames had mold on them. I guess this is normal, with a little bit of moisture getting in one side somewhere. They just cleaned it up all nice and new. The second box had a little bit of brood and a couple of frames almost totally full of honey still, and the queen had taken up shop in the top super I left them. It had probably 6 frames of honey and 3 frames just chock full of beautiful brood.

I left them alone after that, and I've only opened the hive once more, since it's at my old house, and I've yet to move it to my new house's yard. (Ugh what an adventure that's going to be.) I had put a second super on top about the end of May, and when I checked it last time about 2 weeks ago, it was 100% totally _full_ of honey. I nabbed and replaced 7 frames, since they had run out of room and glued the 2 end pieces to the box and I didn't have the means to transport a couple of supremely sticky drippy supers. All in all, the first haul was 30 lbs of honey.

So far they're doing beautifully and I couldn't be happier with them. They're sweet and gentle and let me check them without getting pissed off in the least.

____________

TouchyMcFeely, I'm so happy you got a hive! I haven't ever tried foundationless but I'd like to for the comb honey aspect. I'm sorry about your bees not building properly; have you put a popsicle stick horizontally in the upper groove of the frame, to give them a little guidance on what to build on? Also, I run with 9 frames personally, it makes it easier to pull frames out once they propolis the poo poo out of everything. Just keep them tightly bunched in the middle of the box.
One more thing, if your bees are getting cranky, and continue to be cranky you could either have no queen, or a mean queen. I'd suggest doing a really good inspection, and locate the queen. If she's there, leave it a couple of weeks and see if something didn't just piss them off that one time. If they're still lovely, I'd say try to find another queen to replace and pinch the bitch.

topenga, you can't find a beekeeper to take that swarm off your hands? It should be really super easy for them to just come in, smoke the poo poo out of them, cut that comb off, tie it to a frame and put them all in a box. They're right out in the open!

# ¿ Jul 30, 2009 05:35

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 09:03

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

TouchyMcFeely posted:

Ah, glad you finally found the thread!

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to locate the queen since I started. I'm pretty sure she's still in there somewhere but I wasn't able to spot her before the hive got largish.

I haven't been in the area of the hive since the little bastard was bombing me. I might get in there to check the progress of the first super but I've been trying to leave them alone as much as possible. I know Africanized have been spotted in St. George but they aren't as far north as SLC yet so I should be good in that regard.

Quick question for you since you're here and some folks are getting towards harvesting time: How did you harvest last year? Did you rent a honey extractor from the crazy people in SLC or did you do something with what you had around your house?

I doubt it's an africanized problem, bees tend to get pissy when their queen either vacates or sucks, or something is trying to invade them, like skunks. Check out https://www.beesource.com's forums and see what you can find in there about hot hives. that's a great forum.

as for harvesting, i just use a big metal sieve, and a bigger metal bowl. i put the frame over the sieve and use a de-capping comb to just scrape all the whole mess into the sieve.

then i just let the poo poo drain.

i keep the wax leftover in the sieve by melting it down in a pot with water, dumping the whole mess into a bowl to cool and taking the wax off the top of the water/leftover honey mess once it's cooled. i made one batch of chapstick with the wax and coconut oil, flavored with a little bit of honey and it's awesome.

we're thinking this year that we'll try an extractor, since my folks' hive swarmed 4 (!) times and they now have way more hives than they did last year. But I really don't mind the old scrape 'n drain method.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2009 22:13

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

Maximusi posted:

My hive still hasn't touched the super and it's been a month. Also, they keep making supersede cells.

Have you been able to locate your queen?

# ¿ Aug 4, 2009 23:59

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

Maximusi posted:

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?

That sucks, poor queen.

When I registered my hive last year, the inspector did call me up beforehand and I was able to go through my hive with her. Or you could probably call up and ask to have one come over and tell you what's going on. Good luck!

# ¿ Aug 5, 2009 06:21

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

adept posted:

We tried a single foundationless frame this year and will probably be harvesting it tonight. I took a look at the frame a few weeks ago and it was looking beautiful. Since it was only one frame out of 10 we didn't even bother with a comb guide, the other frames foundations kept them going the right direction. We received 12 foundationless frames (and a third super for next year) from brushy mountain bees yesterday and plan to put comb guides on them. If we don't add comb guides I imagine we would alternate the foundationless frames with foundation frames to try and make them less necessary.

Another idea similar to the popsicle stick is a paint stick if it will fit in the groove, since it is even larger. Personally I'm just going to use the same kind of comb guides as I put in my top bar hives because I have them mostly ready and they seem really nice. They are little wooden triangles around 1" wide on the largest side and as long as the inside of the frame. I attach them to the frame by predrilling the frame then putting a screw through the top of the frame down into the comb guide... I really like the result but it's probably not worth the trouble. I don't even own a table saw, and I have to borrow one to make this comb guide triangle (right now I just have some left over that I'm going to use on the batch of foundationless frames that arrived yesterday).

Michael Bush seems to have some good ideas, I liked his top bar plans okay and he goes into depth on foundationless in this link.
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfoundationless.htm

We also just received a 1.5" honey gate to make bottling quicker. Last time we harvested 6 frames and found that I had put far too narrow a spigot on the bucket and it did not pour nearly fast enough (this is a huge understatement, I was foolish to even try it). Maybe a full open 3/4" spigot would have worked but the one I tried was smaller.

Melody, have you had many bad experiences at Jones Bees? I am ordering gear now because the lady is always rude to me.

I like that triangle guide idea, I think I may build something up as soon as I get my hive over to my new house. Who wants to help transport a hive? :eek:

As for Jones Bees experiences... they are all.. hmm. God drat insane? I guess? I dunno, that family is nuts. The one lady is really hard to understand with her huge thick Utah accent (and jesus i was born in utah) and IMO they sell sub-par quality equipment because they're the only show in town. My dad is actually sorely tempted to open a bee supply shop just to give them some competition, and allow people to buy better quality equipment for their hives.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2009 17:07

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

walrusman posted:

I checked my bees last night, and was also somewhat disappointed at their (lack of) progress. I guess the local beekeeping club's timeline was accurate when it said honey flow stopped at the end of July; that would definitely coincide with my observations. The last time I checked them, which must be at least two weeks ago, they had almost filled the first super, and made virtually no progress on the top one.

Last night I cracked it open and...yeah, pretty much the exact same thing. They have wickedly glued the frames in place, to the point that I think I damaged a couple trying to pull them. There is a ton more propolis than at any time previous, but those little bitches need to be making me honey, not propolis.

They were also surprisingly docile last night, which I had heard was unusual for August.

At any rate, I have one super virtually full of honey, and a very strong population of bees, so I can't complain too much. So, people who have done this before: how do you go about stealing the full frames from the bees without pissing them off too much?

I get my hive tool in the edges between the frame and the box and just wiggle around till i feel like i can actually move it without bringing the whole box with me. The little fuckers love to glue poo poo down. Just work slowly and they should come out in one piece.

When I harvest frames of honey, instead of bumping it on something (and maybe squishing bees) I generally just shake the poo poo out of the frame once and brush the stragglers. Shake it by moving it up and then sort of... "snapping" it down. So it's like a sudden stop at the bottom. Only do it once, maybe twice. I like to do it in front of the hive entrance, so they don't have to go so far to get back in the hive. Then, like adept said, just brush the klingons off.

Congrats on your hive being strong! How many supers are you running on it?

# ¿ Aug 6, 2009 23:14

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

walrusman posted:

Cool, thanks for the advice.

Just two supers: the one that's essentially full, and the one that's essentially empty. For it being my first year, I think they did fairly well. I can't wait until next year, when the comb will be all drawn out already and they can concentrate on making more honey.

I have 2 supers as well, and leave the bottom super for them to feast on during the winter. When they start filling up the top super, I gank however many frames are full and replace them with empty. I got 6 batches of honey last year this way. If they have space, they'll keep loadin' it with honey!

# ¿ Aug 7, 2009 00:47

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

adept posted:

Wow... It would take some serious queen problems before I would try one of those, I haven't really heard much positive about those queen excluders. I might even replace the queen on a hive before using an excluder if I did have problems with where she lays eggs.

I had the same problem when I tried my queen excluder for about a week last year. It just made it so the whole hive was crammed down in the bottom 2 boxes and they'd hardly venture into the super at all. My bees haven't had a problem putting honey in the supers and keeping brood below in the mediums. I'd try taking the excluder out and seeing how they do in a couple of weeks.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2009 17:34

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

Welp, just buttoned up my hive for the winter. I put the entrance reducer on, and it started to make a bee-pileup out front. The dummies were starting to figure it out when I left. I ran 2 supers all summer long, with 1 harvest of 7 frames in July, and then today, I took all 9 frames out and took the top super off. It's probably close to 55-60 lbs. The super I left them with for the winter was completely full, so they'll have at least 60 lbs to themselves just in that box alone. And they were still hauling in the pollen!

I have propolis everywhere! I'm sticking to everything! Augh!

What has everyone done as far as varroa mite control? My bees are so chill and lax that they just let varroa mites crash on their couch and eat all their chips and drink all their beer without saying anything. I'm thinking of getting those strips for the winter, but is there anything else that's better?

# ¿ Oct 19, 2009 22:15

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

So I hate to be a downer, but.. my girls didn't make it the winter. :gonk:

I opened the hive up, and there they all were, just like they were working away, only frozen in place, forever.

I just had a baby 3 weeks ago, so the postpartum hormones kicked in and I sobbed and sobbed. I feel like I let them down, even though I did all the same stuff I did last winter.

I guess it'll be easier to move the hive to my new house now.

I'm going to call and put in my order for another batch of bees. God that's depressing though. The poor dears. I'm sorry.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2010 03:23

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

TouchyMcFeely posted:

Well that sucks rear end.

Don't know where you had gotten your bees before but I got my colony fron Knight Family Honey last year. Their box pickup was pretty crazy and the folks there were pretty kick rear end.

They're also at the Salt Lake Farmers Market every week which makes it easy to drop in and ask quick questions (and buy their kick rear end honey butter).

Dang, it looks like they Knight Family Honey is sold out of package bees for the year.

I guess I've gotta get 'em from Jones again.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2010 04:15

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

Leperflesh posted:

Melodywise, I'm curious; did you find that the hive still had honey left? And if so... what was the coldest day you had this past winter? If you don't mind talking about it, I hope it's OK.

Yeah, they have a ton of honey still. I haven't taken it apart yet, since it's poo poo-tastic weather again (snow argh) but when I looked in they had a bunch of frames that looked packed with honey. As for how cold it got, it had a span of being between 12-17f every morning when I went to work for about 2 weeks maybe.

I'm just not sure what happened. It's a sad, sad thing.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2010 03:26

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

Man, those swarms are cool looking. My parent's single hive swarmed FOUR times last year. Dad was able to catch 3, but one swarm fled down the street, and he lost the trail.

I'm heading to my hive tomorrow (it's at my old house that I rent out now) to dismantle everything, clean it up, and bring it to my new place to set up. Anyone have good suggestions for mail-order bee packages?

# ¿ Apr 9, 2010 00:53

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

BEES!

I installed my new package of bees today. Spent yesterday running a torch over all my frames and boxes, just in case there was some sort of virus or something nasty in there, and put new foundation in all my frames. It's pretty windy today, but my backyard seems to be rather impervious to wind. I hope they do well, the installation seems to have gone without a hitch.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2010 23:31

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 09:03

melodywise: Aug 1, 2002; Sweetness and light.

TouchyMcFeely posted:

Well that's good news. Hopefully this new batch will have a better run than the last colony.

If you don't mind my asking, where did you get your ladies from this go around?

I ended up breaking down and getting a package from Jones. It was the cheapest and easiest way to get them. I wanted to get them somewhere else locally, but everyone else was sold out.

I installed them at lunch today, and when I came home from work, all the remaining bees were out of the box and buzzing around happily. Looks like the installation has been successful thus far!

# ¿ Apr 28, 2010 04:17

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