|
Most (??) of the swarm returned to the hive today so I split it. Saw tons of honey but no eggs, though it was fairly dark out. Moved at least one capped queen cup into an empty hive with a few frames of honey and workers. Reading tells me the first hive is going to swarm again since that's the vibe, but there's nothing I can do about it now. I'll check again in a week or so and see what horrible mistakes I've made.
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2023 03:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 16, 2024 07:40 |
|
|
I started a bee hive this year. I wanted to get one for my wife for her birthday, she wants to live on a farm and have chickens and goats and things so I figured this would be something we could handle in our suburban yard. A buddy had some old equipment he gifted us, and I got a package of bees at the end of April. https://i.imgur.com/BHGW3oT.mp4 So far they are doing amazingly well. I started them in a deep box, and added a medium super pretty early on, and when I inspected them yesterday they had almost everything drawn, there's only one frame they don't have fully drawn yet. I added another medium box, and I broke open a few queen cups they were working on, hopefully they don't swarm on me.  Finally spotted the queen for the first time since she was in her cage, looking good. She has been busy, there is lots of brood at all stages.  There is one funky spot of comb, looks like drones, should I scrape it off or leave it?   Pulled the bottom board insert out and these little worms/larvae were on there, are they wax moths? Should I be worried? There was no evidence of any inside the hive. I'm really enjoying the process and learning about bees, my 4yo also likes to come watch me do inspections, and if we see a bee anywhere he asks if it's one of ours.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2023 21:50
|
|
|
Your hive is looking good! If they were already making succession cells while having a healthy laying queen, it means they were feeling crowded and getting ready to swarm. That they're also making lots of drone cells is also a sign that the hive has been getting ready to reproduce. So getting them some extra room is a good plan. You can use a queen excluder if you want your medium supers to be honey-only, although they may do that more or less on their own - you can kind of judge if the brood "ball" is pressing up against the top of that first medium or not. Those do look like wax worm larvae, but it's OK with a hive that full and healthy most likely the bees are kicking them out effectively. It's very easy to tell if you have a wax worm problem because the worms eat the comb, you'll find tracks through the comb in particular in the top corners of the hive where there's not as much bee activity. I'm looking closely and I don't see mites on your bottom board so that's good too. You can remove the bridge comb (whether it's drones or whatever) if you want, it may be an issue if it's sticking frames together or to the wall of the hive but you can also ignore it if it's not preventing you from working the hive. Sometimes a bridge like that between two frames indicates the frames were spaced slightly too far apart, so do make sure they're all tucked tightly against each other on both sides. You can add spacers to the outer two slots in a box if you want to help press them together.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2023 01:34
|
|
|
Prepped my bees for winter.  cozy bugs. look at those pants!  I have some OA pads in there and see very few mites on the bottom boards. Should I gas them with OA before winter really sets in?
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2023 18:58
|
|
|
there's one or two dead bees in that pic but them's some full pollen baskets for sure it's been a few years but my experience at the time was that beekeepers in different areas have different wintering setups and preferences, so exactly when and what to do to treat mites for example is locale-specific. Is this your first overwinter? Around here we have mild winters and there was no need for insulation, we provided some extra food cakes, water, and that was it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2023 19:05
|
|
|
I'm in the PNW and trying an insulation method my Bee Guy(tm) recommended - a lot on top, a little on the sides - to limit condensation to the sides. I added some candy boards on top with fondant/pollen, and after they empty the jars out front I'm going to make the entrances really small. This is my first overwintering. My bee guy said he gasses his going into winter, but I don't have the kit for that yet. May try to see how they fare without it as they've been strong colonies so far.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2023 19:52
|
|
|
I have had screened bottom boards on my hives with sticky board inserts so I can see what's dropping. Never noticed much until a month or so ago I saw a varroa on the old hive's board, and there happened to be a bee on there with a mite very prominent on her back! So I made up some OA Swedish sponges and put them on each hive (1st hive got two, 2nd hive got one). I didn't get too many dropping on the newer hive's board but the old hive had gotten infested really quickly!  This is the bottom board a few weeks after I placed the treatment, I go down every few days and check it/wipe it off. Quite a lot of mites have dropped. Hopefully this is putting a dent in them. The new hive still hasn't dropped many, I think either the mites didn't get into the old hive until after I did the split, or the break in brood rearing while the split raised their new queen got rid of them. I did a full inspection of both hives the other day, both looking strong, lots of brood and stores, old hive had So Much Propolis it was a real PITA getting the frames out. They seem to have cooled down a little on the bridge comb though. New hive I spotted the queen, she's enormous and I never have trouble finding her, the first one is much more elusive. We are moving so I am going to take them out to the barn where I keep all my projects, I am not looking forward to being in the van with them...
|
|
#
?
Oct 29, 2023 16:16
|
|
|
I'm setting up my first hive and I understand that southeast facing is better for sun in North America, but is it okay to put the hive under or near trees? The trees are all deciduous so it will get exposure in the winter but I'm worried about spring/fall being too shady. I'm in Oregon if it matters.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2024 21:33
|
|
|
McGurk posted:I'm setting up my first hive and I understand that southeast facing is better for sun in North America, but is it okay to put the hive under or near trees? The trees are all deciduous so it will get exposure in the winter but I'm worried about spring/fall being too shady. I'm in Oregon if it matters. Under trees should be fine so long as the entrance doesn't get blocked by leaves Update on my prior post re: gassing them -- The pads in the hives are old and probably long dried out, so I gassed them a couple days ago. Found a fair number of mites on the boards the next morning. Seems more OA was the right call 
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2024 23:01
|
|
|
If it gets quite hot where you are, under trees/in shade is actually preferred over being in the full sun in summer. When I drive up through central california in the summer I can see the orchards with their working beehives and they're often under the trees somewhere. Make sure there's no branches like right in front of the hive though. The bees want to launch off the entrance and be able to fly more or less at a straight angle up to a particular cruising height, make a turn, and then go in a straight path to wherever the other bees said to go and smell for whatever nectar/pollen smell they had on them. The bee dance is basically giving them that, go x direction up to y height, turn z, then go in a straight line. So if they have to navigate through a bunch of branches on their way up that might be too confusing.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2024 23:29
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:If it gets quite hot where you are, under trees/in shade is actually preferred over being in the full sun in summer. This is the area I'm thinking - in the rooty area between the two trees. There is a road to the south and some water nearby. Maybe slightly in front of the big tree to prevent some wind? 
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2024 23:50
|
|
|
That seems totally fine to me. e. also you can move a hive pretty easily if you need to. The bees navigate by smell and if it's within a dozen feet or so they'll have no problem finding it. Close it up at night and do it then, while all the bees are home, and you can move a hive miles - agriculture bees get moved like that multiple times a season. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Jan 9, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2024 20:25
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:That seems totally fine to me. Ah okay - I knew that about ag bees but I've also read that sometimes even moving them a few feet can confuse them? Getting my hive next week and building a stand out of some scrap 4x4s I have. Excited to finally be doing this!
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2024 21:05
|
|
|
You can move your hive a few feet if it's not sitting with three other hives, if you scramble up multiple hives in the same location that can definitely cause confusion. But if it's one hive and you move it ten feet away even during the day they'll figure it out. Moving at night is best.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2024 21:12
|
|
|
I just moved our bees about 70 miles. You'll often see the mantra "3 feet or 3 miles". Bees navigation is quite accurate, and supposedly if you move a hive from its original location but not far enough that they 'reset' their home coordinates they will return to their original spot and wonder where the hive is. If it's reasonably close they will probably find it but you will have a lot of confused bees flying around, especially if you have/move multiple hives. You can force them to reset a few ways though. One obviously is to move them a large distance. They won't be familiar with their surroundings and reorient. You can also move them shorter distances and leave their entrance closed for a couple of days. Being cooped up supposedly triggers them to reorient. You can pair that with putting a loose plug of grass in a reduced entrance and having them clear that to be able to exit, and/or putting branches as obstacles in front of their entrance. It's obviously ideal to move them at night when they are all cozy in their hive, unless you're just shifting <3'. We have two hives, are selling our house, so the bees went for a car ride. I have a big dumb van, so plenty of space for them but if any get loose they are in there with me, a pickup or trailer is preferred but I didn't have time to arrange that. So I waited till an hour after sunset, it was a chilly afternoon so there was barely any activity by sundown, they were all in there or soon to be unhoused. Put in entrance reducers on the smallest hole and then taped over those with painter's tape; one hive's inner cover has an exit but it is usually blocked. One hive is a deep with two mediums and one has three mediums on a deep. Honey stores were pretty good in both hives, I think the third medium was pretty empty still they were working on drawing comb still last time I opened them. So each hive was roughly 100lb I would estimate. I put ratchet straps on both hives after I found my new split knocked over the morning after I set it up, so that made them pretty straightforward to move, between those and the propolis nothing budged. My buddy helped me carry them up the hill in the backyard, it's too steep and uneven for a hand truck. Once we were on level ground I wheeled them into the van and strapped them to the side. I had bought some big mesh laundry bags to put over them to contain any escapees but they were too small. So I drove them in my bee suit, which was a sight my buddy found quite delightful. It worked fine but the veil definitely wasn't helping my night vision. Once I got them set up on their stand at their new home I pulled the tape but left the entrance reducers in for a few days. The new spot gets cooler at night but a lot less windy so we'll see how they do. I am going to make some more deep boxes so I'm ready to do some splits this spring.
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2024 19:33
|
|
|
I inspected both hives yesterday for the first time in a few months, they seem like they are doing well after their first winter. I found both queens pretty easily since they aren't packed with bees. Not a ton of brood yet but there was a bit in both hives and eggs were laid. Both still had a good amount of honey left over too. I had put a protein patty in each hive when I did the last inspection back in late October, and they hadn't touched them at all. I think what happened is it rained shortly after and the condensation made the tops of the hives hazardous, and the moisture made the patties ferment. They were quite moldy when I found them, unfortunately, so I need to clean that up better. I scraped as much of it off as I could but I hadn't brought anything else to deal with that. The top cover on one of the hives is MDF and it was pretty damp, the other one is painted so less absorbent. I need to do a little insulating, I've seen people do a sheet of mylar bubble insulation which would probably be enough? I was thinking some pink foam board might be a good option too?
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2024 22:35
|
|
|
mylar is good, you can also use pink foam although that may be overkill - but if you have a scrap lying around, it'll be fine. You're basically replicating what a wild hive would get by being inside a tree trunk or similar, which is not a huge r-value. They'll stay warm enough if they have a decent number of bees and plenty of energy from honey and/or sugar water so they can use body temp to warm the place. I never did protein supplement (I'm in california where it stays relatively warm during the winter, and also my bees hosed off both winters due to overpopulation swarming) but if it's the usual practice in your area, that's fine. I don't like MDF for outdoor use, it absorbs moisture and goes mushy very easily. You can paint it to help a little but paint doesn't totally seal wood and the moisture will get in and mess it up sooner rather than later.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2024 23:13
|
|
|
We assembled our first super today. Ordered a nuc through a local beekeeper of "mutts". Dude is a bit of legend and has been beekeeping for like 60 years or something. We are very excited to get the bees in place and start on this journey.
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2024 23:35
|
|
|
I hope to be an area's mythical grizzled beekeeper some day. I agree with MDF the stuff is trash, almost all of my hive components are hand-me-downs. I do have some other covers, I will see if one is better and swap it. I'm also in Norcal, I was giving the bees pollen patties and sugar when they were just a brand new package. We moved and I still had some in the fridge so I figured I would just chuck them in the hives but my timing wasn't great I guess.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2024 19:00
|
|
|
Nah I think they just don't need it as much, california has a reasonable amount of warm winter weather and various flowers and pollen sources through the winter that the hives don't crash way down to near nothing like they do in colder, snowier, longer-wintered areas. But I doubt it hurts to give them the option, albeit as you found out you don't want it to just rot in there so it's good to pick a warmer day and crack the hive open every few weeks through the winter anyway. Much less of a problem here to do that during the winter than in really cold places, too. You can also just opt to leave a hive a short or medium honey super through the winter. Although that might be why our hives swarmed, lol, they just stayed real big into november or december and needed more space.
|
|
#
?
Feb 21, 2024 07:29
|
|
|
Yooper posted:We assembled our first super today. Ordered a nuc through a local beekeeper of "mutts". Dude is a bit of legend and has been beekeeping for like 60 years or something. We are very excited to get the bees in place and start on this journey. Hey! I’m also starting out as a beekeeper this year. I’m keeping it to one hive for now, but if things go well I might get a second next year. My area has a really great beekeeping association that guides newbies through the process. In addition to offering mentors, they put out weekly videos about how they’re managing 12 group hives. They’re doing a package installation day in mid-April and I’m excited to get started!
|
|
#
?
Feb 22, 2024 14:40
|
|
|
Congrats! IMO it's a very rewarding hobby, and it's awesome giving jars of your own home honey to people as easy gifts. Everyone loves honey.
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2024 07:51
|
|
|
I finished my county's new beekeeper classes last week and passed the written portion of our exam. After 4 months of experience I can take the practical exam and be a licensed beekeeper in my state! It's not required for keeping bees, but it was a very good and engaging set of classes and I definitely learned a lot. My two NUCs should be here sometime in the next couple of weeks. I have all of my equipment (except for the cement blocks I'll put my hives on and a smoker). Gonna spend time this weekend putting eco treatment on the hives and we'll be off to the races! Hopefully it won't be too time intensive as I have a baby coming in at the end of April LOL.
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2024 18:35
|
|
|
Sorry for the pointless post, but as a mere assistant backyard beekeeper I was thinking the best bee suit would work like one of those inflatable t-Rex costumes. Bees can’t sting you if the stinger can’t reach your skin. Also you’d have fresh air pumping into the suit, it might stay cooler. I know the cool guys don’t even wear a suit but they might if it looked like this  I just have a badly fitting beekeeping hat so I’m fantasizing about a better life
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2024 11:44
|
|
|
What're you going to do about the face?
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2024 13:15
|
|
|
Nettle Soup posted:What're you going to do about the face? 
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2024 15:35
|
|
|
I mean obviously you should use the disguise of a fellow bee, and not a predator
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2024 16:56
|
|
|
Nettle Soup posted:What're you going to do about the face? You could use a regular veil I suppose, and inflate the bottom part. It wouldn’t need to be as poofy as this bad AI mockup, but it could basically be a regular bee suit just a lighter material with a nice fresh air cushion of protection  Including another failed attempt for fun  E- original character DO NOT STEAL
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2024 17:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 16, 2024 07:40 |
|
|
Snowy posted:
An improvement might be to have tiny humans in the net
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2024 22:31
|
|
