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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.
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Jun 22, 2023 21:50
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:06 |
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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...
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Oct 29, 2023 16:16
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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.
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Jan 15, 2024 19:33
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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?
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Feb 17, 2024 22:35
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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.
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Feb 20, 2024 19:00
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:06 |
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I was checking my bees weekly for the first few months at least, they could go through a frame feeder or two in a week at the beginning, that slowed down a lot when they got more established. When they slow down at all on eating the sugar pull the feeders IMO, especially this time of year when nectar is abundant. I'm on the other end of the spectrum now, I haven't checked my bees in a month probably, went to do inspections and do mite treatment and one of the hives made so much bridge comb when I picked up the top super two frames of the next one came with it, turning that into a complete clusterfuck. And I was wearing just my veil hat instead of my usual jacket so bees were sneaking in and one got my neck. Didn't swell much thankfully, but I said gently caress it and didn't even check that whole hive, they are super swarmy and I pulled at least one capped queen so I need to so splits ASAP. I didn't even check the other hive, just lifted the boxes and chucked some pads in and left it at that. I have two new deep boxes I need to assemble, next week is split time.
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Apr 17, 2024 22:20
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