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We split our hive and added a new queen to the split a week ago. Checked them today, and both the hive going into its second year and the new split seem to be doing well despite below-average temperatures since the split. No swarm cells in the old hive, and we found the queen in the new one. Knock on wood, but six years in and this is the best start to a year we've had  Got real nervous at first because there wasn't much activity in the new one and there were some dead larva and bees sitting in front of the entrance. On further inspection, the frames we transferred over had quite a bit of larva near the bottom. I think the cold weather did them in and we just saw the aftermath of cleanup. I do wish we could have gotten a Saskatraz queen for the new hive, but we've gotten Italian hives through winter before. There is only one provider for package bees and queens that I know of in the Twin Cities area, so I guess notes for next year are to get to the store for a queen earlier in their three days of being open.
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May 9, 2021 22:01
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After a accidental double order of NUC's and several splits/swarms, my yard is full this year. I'm hoping to start OA treatments this week. We're only weeks away from a huge blackberry bloom and linden bloom. Everything is early this year. Makes me worried about a hot/dry summer and extended dearth.         
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May 20, 2021 03:59
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That’s an amazing setup! I’m entering year two of my beekeeping journey. One overwintered hive (white) did amazingly well and is thriving, another one (blue) died but I installed a new bee package and two weeks later they’re doing really great and the queen is laying really well. These bees are on 35 acres of restored prairie. I intend to split the huge white hive tomorrow. I picked up a new screened bottom board, we already have extra outer & inner cover. I am banking on them making a new queen. Local advice says that is not an insane decision. Any tips? If they are queenless in a couple weeks I will install a new queen. I know some local folks with queen castles and could purchase one.
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May 21, 2021 23:00
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At the risk of resurrection, I just needed a place to vent a little. Wife and I have always wanted to keep bees as more of a stewardship/education tool moreso than end result bee products. After years of studying about it and making our yard into a place that is acceptable and a safe place (we just weeks ago had our yard certified locally as a refuge), we ordered a package after getting all out equipment in place. The package was supposed to arrive on Friday. It's now Monday night and usps never updated the tracking since it was accepted at the post office. They said they had no more information than I did as it hasn't been scanned into any facility between the first post office and now. They're insured, but I can't do anything about it for the time being as it is still listed as "in transit." I don't care too much about the money anyway. I feel awful for the bees. I found a guy locally, well, 4 hours from here that was selling nucs. After spending a lot of time speaking with him, he was passing through a town 20 minutes away today making deliveries. I agreed to buy one and meet him. After waiting over an hour today, he texted and said that he forgot about me, had no extras, and maybe he would catch me next time, but stopped responding to texts. I've been so excited heading into this week for the last couple months and it has turned into a heartbreaking nightmare. I don't know. I'm just frustrated and needed to vent. What the hell.
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May 25, 2021 05:28
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Jeez dude, that stinks! How frustrating. Hope you get some bees soon. Whereabouts are you located? Wonder if anyone itt might be able to hook you up.
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May 25, 2021 07:42
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USPS is horrible in respect of virtually no accountability when things fall through the cracks and missed deadlines. I too feel for the bees stuck in their lovely system.
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May 25, 2021 12:10
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Melicious posted:Jeez dude, that stinks! How frustrating. Hope you get some bees soon. Whereabouts are you located? Southwest. New Mexico. I've reached out to a few apiaries but have yet to hear any response from anyone. Update as of Tuesday night- Still no new scan of that package.
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May 26, 2021 01:37
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Droogie posted:Southwest. New Mexico. I've reached out to a few apiaries but have yet to hear any response from anyone. Update as of Tuesday night- Still no new scan of that package. The pointlessness of their scanning system cannot be over stated. I mean the whole reason for such a system is so that they know exactly where a package is, but it is commonplace that they simply manage to have items simply disappear into thin air. I too feel for those bees. Who exactly did you order from?
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May 26, 2021 01:47
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Hasselblad posted:
Wolf Creek Bees out of Maryland. which.. yeah that may be my fault. their website is a bit trash but they came recommended in a few places online and had still had later in the season packages. To their credit they were extremely helpful in walking me through the inevitable process of having to file a claim with USPS for the insurance on the package. They also said they have heard of their packages lasting upwards of 9 days, but it's certainly more exception than rule. Today is day 7. Every time I think about them I get really bummed out. I think what also really frustrates me is that the apiary booked shipment for the bees. I got a message from USPS on the 14th that the company had purchased and booked the package shipment a week before they even brought them to the facility. So it's not like there were surprise bees at the post office. Droogie fucked around with this message at 02:03 on May 26, 2021 |
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May 26, 2021 02:01
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D-d-d-double post As of this morning I have a nuc. A redditor helped me track down a small time local guy that just happened to have a few on hand. The journey begins.
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May 28, 2021 18:18
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Equipment shortages are biting me. I did not account for the extra NUCs and I typically run double brood boxes. Long story short, I'm 5 8-frame deeps shy. I've got orders in with three suppliers, all with no ETA for shipping. Local shop is calling me back on his inventory. Worst case I use mediums (ugh). Our blackberry flow is going to start any time and I really want to give the girls a chance to build wax out in the 2nd brood box. It's going to be a busy summer.
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May 28, 2021 22:12
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the spyder posted:Equipment shortages are biting me. I did not account for the extra NUCs and I typically run double brood boxes. Long story short, I'm 5 8-frame deeps shy. I've got orders in with three suppliers, all with no ETA for shipping. Local shop is calling me back on his inventory. Worst case I use mediums (ugh). Speaking as an expert, after nearly one full day of having bees, I can feel this. I always wanted to build my own boxes, but it's basically cost prohibitive at this point. The other edge of that sword is the sudden shortages of anything built with wood or dimensional lumber. I have deep and medium templates ready to go, but it makes more sense to wait and buy given material costs and time to build. It's awful.
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May 29, 2021 06:07
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Our big hive suddenly decided to start producing swarm cells so I took the opportunity to set up some nucs and do some mini splits. (Don't ask, I have no idea what I'm doing or if this will work, I just want to try overwintering some nucs this year.) Buckerfields ( ) still has equipment for sale but I bought the last division board feeders and deep frames at one store and had to go to another for the rest.I need some more deep hive bodies. Buckerfields has them on sale for $17 cdn. Price for an 8' 1x12 board to build a hive body is $26 at Home Depot, Lowes $40. I think I'm going back to Buckerfields tomorrow before they sell out. The world is not getting any saner. Next spring I will be better organized.
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May 29, 2021 06:35
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I paid $26 each for three boxes. Unassembled. $32 if I wanted them glued/nailed. Either way I've got half he problem solved - except I have no frames ready. I'm heading out of town tomorrow. I'll do a quick inspection in the morning, add a queen excluder and medium super just to give them something until I can sort this out.
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May 30, 2021 05:11
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I use nothing but poly boxes, I would recommend especially if you live somewhere colder.
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May 30, 2021 10:56
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CA meets Beekeeping. Turns out my basic gear will fit in the panniers of my old bike. Hive is getting ready to swarm. Eight queen cups with eggs in them and one with a larva developing. Have to go back with the nuc box and get the queen into an empty hive. 
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May 30, 2021 18:24
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I love that bike, where can I find out more? Yard update: 15 hives (2 remote) are about as time consuming to manage as you guessed. I'm behind schedule like normal this year - but for the first time I have every single colony super'd before our giant nectar flow. The blackberries are blooming and soon will produce nectar and the basswood/linden trees are right behind them.  I have to make a ton of gear in a very short period of time. I need 10 more 8 frame medium supers, 80 frames. I need 5 more 8 frame deeps, 40 frames. I might have to just spend the $$$ on some pre-assembled frames if a local supplier has any. Thankfully my friend came and helped me assemble boxes/frames today. We made a jig for the boxes which really made them go fast.      So far the hives that survived winter are really putting away the honey. Just from them I should be able to pull 3-4 supers each. I really hope this trend holds true throughout summer.
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Jun 6, 2021 04:59
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the spyder posted:I love that bike, where can I find out more? This is a 1950 BSA Bantam. I have a few posts about it in CA.
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Jun 7, 2021 19:12
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I did an inspection, and my bees completely filled up the top box with honey. A full sized brood box with honey! So I'm getting ready to harvest. On another note I was cutting away some cross comb and had a bowl of wax and honey left in the back yard. I forgot about it until peak hours and found it surrounded. I took some video and saw some bees stuck in the honey and got a bit bummed. I came back later and the bowl was empty except for the wax. I was not expecting the bees to be able to reclaim all their honey back and I'm hoping they also saved their bee buddies. I was really impressed!
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Jun 22, 2021 02:10
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Caught a big swarm last week. Found the queen, marked 2020, clipped, Italian. Hope they didn’t pay extra for that clipped wing! I was out on my bike when my friend called me about the swarm, so I basically just used whatever equipment she had available for the capture. Big ladder, gave the branch a good hard thwack and dropped them into a Rubbermaid bin. Fortunately, I had a deadout in a community garden a few blocks away that I hadn’t broken down yet, so I just tossed them in. Pics from my friend: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PV5FaCuNYxgmHP3W9 Queen: 
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Jun 24, 2021 14:49
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nice
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Jun 25, 2021 01:44
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I mostly lurk the thread to learn some odds and ends, but I also work for a beekeeping supply place (Mann Lake) and all that talk of not getting packages in the mail and shortages made me figure I should at least throw the name out if anyone is still looking for things. They're a pretty big operation with locations across the US, so they can probably hook you up with most things involved in the hobby, including bees. To note -- shipping bees is very tricky and it is very discouraging to see package bees arrive dead/devastated to the point of sure failure. I'd very much suggest UPS for shipping single packages unless your local USPS is a good location. I find that a lot of people struggle with communication issues with USPS and with the time-sensitive nature of shipping live bees, it's a pretty perilous situation. I also have a question if anyone might be a little more knowledgeable on the botany side of things. At our Florida location (Come visit if you're local! We're in central FL) we've established about 20 hives and everything is shaping up nicely. However, we're now looking ahead to building to a honey harvest and wanted to maybe try getting a little flora growing in the neighborhood to play around with something unique. Anyone have any ideas of something that would take in this kind of climate (FL, so lots of direct strong sunlight and frequent rain) that isn't pepper/orange oriented? I moved here from PA and my knowledge of this aspect is virtually nil.
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Jul 14, 2021 23:08
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Standingstoic posted:I also have a question if anyone might be a little more knowledgeable on the botany side of things. At our Florida location (Come visit if you're local! We're in central FL) we've established about 20 hives and everything is shaping up nicely. However, we're now looking ahead to building to a honey harvest and wanted to maybe try getting a little flora growing in the neighborhood to play around with something unique. Anyone have any ideas of something that would take in this kind of climate (FL, so lots of direct strong sunlight and frequent rain) that isn't pepper/orange oriented? I moved here from PA and my knowledge of this aspect is virtually nil. UF has a full on bee lab attached to their agri department, here are a couple of articles that might be handy. I wouldn't think they're exhaustive, though. https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/design/gardening-with-wildlife/bee-plants.html This one goes a bit more into depth about laying out a garden and might have some plants listed in the diagrams. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/in1255 Might at least be handy to get an idea of some of the things that work in Florida.
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Jul 15, 2021 17:17
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Any of you bee nerds seen this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ItlOFLTUAs I found it super interesting maybe a little woo-woo, but I know nothing about keeping bees. Thought maybe some more experienced people could share their thoughts on it.
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Jan 17, 2022 19:02
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Thumposaurus posted:I found it super interesting maybe a little woo-woo, but I know nothing about keeping bees. A lot of beekeeping stuff can really come off as woo-woo. His setup is pretty neat it is closer to skep beekeeping but using modern materials and a system that allows for honey supers rather than killing the whole colony when it comes time to harvest. I have been running non traditional hives (Top bar hives) and as a result all of my honey is crushed honey just like him. It results in lower production but if you are not in it to make money then it is not a big deal. Now I need to find cheap plastic bottles.
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Jan 31, 2022 04:05
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Brutally sunny mid-high 40s F allowed me to take a quick crack at the hives this weekend. Plenty of girls out doing poo flights, and despite a lot of dead ones on the ground (have since cleaned them up and gave a proper burial in the garden) in the snow, plenty seem to be active within the hive bodies. Made some simple fondant and put a couple small slabs in because it is still late winter, but too warm. I didn't take any honey in the fall, preferring to do so in the spring after they have eaten what they will over winter, and figure the fondant will help in case they run low on honey by proper spring. https://imgur.com/Ms2tjn8 Hasselblad fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Feb 13, 2022 |
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Feb 13, 2022 23:43
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I expected the worst from this winter, but am actually a bit relieved about the current situation. We had one of the historical worst bee years last year here. Terribly warm late winter, rainy spring (with a lot of canola around us though). Didn’t harvest a single drop of spring honey as all the hives were struggling. Decided not to create splits, as not a single hive showed swarm tendencies (never saw this before). Basically every hive was struggling. Summer was okay, we harvested a little bit of summer honey, but we left each hive one full super for winter. For once, perfect conditions for Varroa treatment, and then the real strange stuff started. Gave them the typical winter food. And most of the hives just ignored it. Like…meh. Never seen that before. Switched to sirup for some, which led to better results. Still, two hives collapsed before winter. Box 100% empty, so I can only assume Varroa-damage, even though the mite count was low this year. Speaking with other beekeepers here, there were professional beekeepers with tens of years of experience who lost - no poo poo - 50 to 80% of their hives (and some giving up), until it dawned on us. There was a emergency regulation in the EU that allowed the use of neonicotinoids that were banned before (exactly because they caused massive death in insects) to get the EU back into the sugar business for growing more sugar beets, and of course we were surrounded by so many sugar beet crops as never before. Talked to some of the farmers, and while they weren’t ignorant, they exactly knew what they are applying, and said they are sorry, but it’s the only way to stay in the business. Still happy we only lost two hives yet (still created two new artificial swarms with surplus queens which are doing fine, so two losses out of twenty, with two new ones), but on one isle of four hives it seems like two have nosemosis, though I can’t say it for sure yet. Gonna be an “interesting” year seeing what damage all that stuff has done. The kicker though is that last year Germany here saw one of the best yields of both sugar beets and wheat, and guess what? Prices for sugar and bee sirup are going up uP UP!!! YEAH! /end rant
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Feb 14, 2022 09:11
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tuo posted:There was a emergency regulation in the EU that allowed the use of neonicotinoids that were banned before (exactly because they caused massive death in insects) to get the EU back into the sugar business for growing more sugar beets 
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Feb 14, 2022 10:40
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tuo posted:I expected the worst from this winter, but am actually a bit relieved about the current situation.
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Feb 17, 2022 11:11
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IIRC it‘s strictly for farmers. I mean you can buy insect killers everywhere, but not at a grand scale like the farmers are now allowed to use. e: you also have to have sugar beet crops. Then again, it seems they came to their senses: https://www.agrarheute.com/pflanze/zuckerrueben/neonicotinoide-2022-keine-notfallzulassung-fuer-ruebenbeize-cruiser-587297 tuo fucked around with this message at 11:32 on Feb 17, 2022 |
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Feb 17, 2022 11:22
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tuo posted:IIRC it‘s strictly for farmers. I mean you can buy insect killers everywhere, but not at a grand scale like the farmers are now allowed to use. If aphids are the carriers, why not simply raise ladybugs to eat them?
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Feb 17, 2022 13:41
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Hasselblad posted:If aphids are the carriers, why not simply raise ladybugs to eat them? Wouldn‘t solve the problem, even if it would be viable to do. Over here, farmers are mandated to create strips of insect friendly blossoms (though this is currently changed as well, but that‘s another story) which is actually cool and good and works. These strips are usually full of insects (and bees). Basically for each field they operate on, they have to create a small strip of these „Blühstreifen“/flower strips/however the correct translation is. These strips are right next to the field though where they were allowed to sprinkle the insect-death-stuff…so…yeah. Little gush of wind and the strips made to protect/re-populate insects and birds are now death traps. The law prohibits them from bringing it out during the day…but…yeah, time is money, and sadly many don‘t care.
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Feb 17, 2022 13:56
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tuo posted:Wouldn‘t solve the problem, even if it would be viable to do. It never ceases to amaze me how in TYOOL 2022, there are still decision makers in power who are this level of idiocy.
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Feb 17, 2022 14:08
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The even more funny thing is that they now changed to Blühstreifen/Flower-Strip law (because farmer got pissed with the extra work apparently). They still have to be there, but the farmers no longer get seeds for them and must actually leave them completely alone, so „nature can grow back on its own“ (Rückbegrünung). This sadly collides with another law over here that basically says a farmer has to plow farming land at least once every IIRC three years so the farming land keeps it‘s status as „can be farmed“. So the farmers are now  in regard to how this should work….It‘s all just such a wonderful shitshow… E: especially since all of these strips are usually right next to crops that are anemophilia, so one can guess what nature grows back… There is a project field not far away from us where they tested this idea. Seeded it like five years ago with everything under the sun and then left it alone to see what dominates. No blossom to be seen after year three. Don‘t get me wrong, it‘s good that something is beeing done, but the outcome of such projects should be pretty clear to experts, if even a laymen like me immidiately thinks „but but…it‘s right in the middle of corn and wheat fields? What do you expect to dominate there….“ tuo fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Feb 17, 2022 |
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Feb 17, 2022 14:14
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"On the other hand, imports from third countries with lower social and environmental standards would increase." I have to chuckle at the "environmental standards" part, given the level of pants on head idiocy being displayed.
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Feb 17, 2022 14:39
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Near 50 again today, placed a bit more fondant as the coming week is supposed to be not even remotely as warm (high in the 20Fs a couple days) https://i.imgur.com/NlalYgm.mp4
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Feb 20, 2022 00:32
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We also had a few warm (and windy) days this week. Ladies flew like crazy, bringing in tons of pollen (in exchange for a good poo poo I guess). Seems like I have to get off my lazy rear end and do spring preparations… (not that I had all winter for this…). E: also gonna do my first year with absolutely no queen excluders. I always hated them, watching bees having to squeeze through. Half of my hives last year didn’t get one, and I had basically zero problems with brood inside the super (okay…we also didn’t have a good honey year). Put the supers on as soon as there was a nice ring of honey around the brood nest, and not a single hive I ran without an excluder decided to put brood into the supers. Guess Maeterlinck and Adam were right that “the queen never wanders over capped food” (upwards). tuo fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Feb 20, 2022 |
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Feb 20, 2022 08:50
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tuo posted:E: also gonna do my first year with absolutely no queen excluders. I always hated them, watching bees having to squeeze through. Half of my hives last year didn’t get one, and I had basically zero problems with brood inside the super (okay…we also didn’t have a good honey year). Put the supers on as soon as there was a nice ring of honey around the brood nest, and not a single hive I ran without an excluder decided to put brood into the supers. Guess Maeterlinck and Adam were right that “the queen never wanders over capped food” (upwards). Might not just be an "upwards" thing. In my horizontals, they have the brood near the entrance, and after a certain distance it is all honeycomb. This year they should complete the rest of the frames with comb, and THEN I will start to keep track of how many frames of brood they utilize versus honey eaten over the winters. Then when I rob a few frames in the spring I can replace those frames with fresh ones to draw out at the entrance/brood end. Rotating frames down the length of the hive. Fingers crossed that these 2 hives continue doing well through spring. It is motivating me to complete my 3rd LL (I had been building them up till Covid killed my material supplies) that is just a floored box for now. If I get that done and installed by spring, I'll try my hand at splitting for it.
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Feb 20, 2022 17:51
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If have basically zero experience with those kinds of boxes, but I helped care the children at our beekeeping school couple of times. They exclusively use them for the children so they don’t have to lift around heavy supers, and yeah, I experienced exactly the same there. The guy running the school told me he usually fills half the box with frames and then adds a solid “excluder”, basically how you narrow down Dadant in the spring. As soon as the rearmost frame is filled with pollen, he removes the wall, and fills with frames for honeycombs. The pollen frame stops the queen horizontally, the honeycombs vertically. Though that’s just what I was told, no personal experience with it (horizontally). E: okay, that last sentence came of wrong…
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Feb 21, 2022 07:45
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Backyard Beekeeping: no personal experience with it (horizontally)
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Feb 21, 2022 13:59
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