THF Beekeeping Thread

Is there another thread about Beekeeping?

I'm very interested in starting a hive.

I have only seen a few threads on bees and most are concerning feral bees in blinds and what not.

I have 10 hives now, fluctuates with the times. I would recommend a lot of reading and finding a beek in your area willing to mentor, much different now then it was 25-30 years ago.

I dont belong to a "club", but they can be a great help starting out I think if for anything to meet a local beek that is willing to work with you.



Not sure how current this is.......
Big Country Beekeepers Association

Contact: Ken Hobbs
P.O Box 7369
Abilene, TX 79608
Phone: (325) 665-4045
EMail: Paniolobee@icloud.com

Meetings:
3rd Tuesday of every month except December at 6:30pm.
Ben E. Keith Company (Budweiser Distributor)
2141 Cottonwood Street
(Ambler and Cottonwood, entrance on Cottonwood next to flag pole.)
Abilene, TX 79601

Don’t know about another thread.

What you need to know an old timer told me. Take 1,000 cash, put 500 on a shelf to look at, take the other 500 and flush down the toilet. After a year of staring at the 500 on shelf, if your still game get you a hive!

It’s costly and a gamble. You will lose hives and sometimes you will not know how or why. You will fight beetles, wax moths, ants, and other things. You can find a bunch of used equipment for sale for the simple fact someone wanted to do it, got into it, lost a few hives and then gave up. This is the reality of it. It’s a thing like the emus back in the 90’s.

If you are interested see if a bee club is in your area and join. You can get help and info from them. A lot of them have Nuc purchase programs to get you started. Someone will be along shortly to criticize what I posted, each his own. I’ve been doing it for 10 years or so now. Internet is full of info but it’s like everything else, you have to find what works for you.

I only try to attract them. They are now working my cilantro blossoms on the warmer days. I'm also careful by not using insecticides.

Startup now days will run you close to $1,000.00 Prices have gotten crazy.

I was just about to start a thread myself. I am looking at ordering my first as well. Have been looking a lot at Elzner Farms

In the gardening thread, we just talked about this and I learned something new. I've done honeybees and I had not heard of Mason Bees.

If you're wanting to do garden pollination, read up on the Mason Bees, very interesting, not as expensive, but they make no honey.

Honeybees require minimally, a hive or two with frames, bees and a queen. Hat, gloves, smoker etc. There's a price to pay for harvesting honey.

Charlie

They are extremely fascinating to me.

I really would like to try and start my own hive. I've read a lot and watched a bunch of YouTube videos.

There was an online class offered for free recently that I'm kicking myself for not entering.

Someone want to make a starter list of what you need for anyone wanting to get into beekeeping?

Following.

Thought this was pretty good..

Just placed an order for two hives and boxes for pickup This spring from Elzner farms

You can also contact your local youth 4H & FFA programs - lotsa options open for landowners if someone nearby.

We ended up ‘hosting’ a couple of boxes on our property - and getting some new friends - didn’t cost us a penny.
They brought & setup, and did all the ‘hard’ work, we helped maintain in between .
They taught us along the way, and we got ‘a share’ of the honey harvest.

Beekeepers are always looking for additional places to set hives.

I had about a dozen colonies and enjoyed them. They certainly aren't worry free. Then I married a woman who we found was highly allergic to bee stings. So, I sold them all and put my equipment om EBAY. I still have a smoker somewhere.

For a home hobbyist, I think about 2 colonies would be ideal. But, you still need all of the gear.

What a lot of people don't realize is that all honey isn't the same. It all depends on what the bees forage on. Some is dang near inedible.

I didn't know that.

I looked into it for a while then did not do anything after that. I found this style hive and the ease of getting the honey. I had 2 colonies of bees to start with already in the walls of an old farm house that I would have had to use as starter.
https://www.honeyflow.com/

Seen those before, pretty cool.

One of my biggest concerns is how to deal with varoa mites. Any tips

I never had or really worried about mites too much. I used all screen bottom boards and Beeweaver bees. Their bees will eliminate infested pupae and are heavy groomers. I never used any chemical treatments. There are powdered sugar dusting options, traps you can use.

https://beeweaver.com/beeweaver-queen-pick-up-navasota/

One year our area had a huge outbreak of horse mint. It was everywhere and the bees hammered down on it. The honey had a real minty taste to it. It pretty much sucked imo.

I didn't either. Interesting.

My experience is dated (30 years ago) we had a small square of cloth stapled to the top of a frame, I think one in the top honey super and one in the bottom brood chamber. Placed a few eye dropper dots of some kind of chemical on those cloth squares. Back then, many people assumed if you lost a hive, it was due to mites, I think they've proven now that's not necessarily correct. As a hobbyist, most of the time when you mysteriously lose a hive, usually have no idea why. It would really suck when it happened after trying to create a new hive from splitting an existing one.

Charlie

When I was a teenager I had a little girlfriend down the road and her Daddy owned a huge bee farm. Had a huge barn full of big stainless vats, vessels, tables etc for processing honey to sell. GF and I used to ride horses out there and everywhere you looked were old dead bee colonies, hundreds of them at least. Anyway, I was told it was fire ants that killed all of his bees and shut the whole operation down. We do have bad fireants here.

This is very true. Reason most honey is harvested by August. The “flowers” that bloom after the spring bloom often make the honey less than good. This is usually left for the bees to eat.

There are many occurrences that will determine the success of the hives.

Yep, even Gordon Ramsay talked about it on his new show.
Did y’all also know that there is a ton of imposter honey coming into the country as well? Local honey from individuals is where it’s at if you don’t have your own hives

It doesn't make the news often. But look into bee theft. Commercial keepers have 100's of hives stolen every year.

That's right Bullfrog...........buy it from someone you know.

At a minimum you'll need a vial, smoker (get a large from Dadant bee supply, trust me, you don't want a small smoker)) and hive tool. A young man I have been helping started with this min and used a painters suit and work gloves from lowes and he did fine his 1st year.

Depending on how much cash you can spend and what protection level you need, then there are options. I have a 2 full ultra breeze suits, one each for my wife and I, used mostly for "cut outs" and real pissy bees. For general use on nice days, I use an ultra breeze jacket with hood, or just a veil and long sleeve shirt depending what chore I'm doing.

Misc items that come in handy
Large rubber bands,,Use for holding comb to frames when needed
Cheap magnifying glass if its hard to see eggs and you're old like me, I keep a $5 walmart cheapy in an old sock.
Small tool box to keep stuff in

If you are going to treat varroa mites with OA (Oxilic Acid and I would) You'll need to consider how you will introduce it to the hive, soaked on rags, or easier and quicker imo is doing it by vapor with a vaporizer either made or bought for around $150

Just off the top of my head

Yep, That's why you see some sold as "alfalfa", "clover", "mesquite", "wildflower". even then it can vary, same with the color and water content depending on forage/range conditions. That's if it's 100% real honey and not some of the much adulterated stuff.

I live in an area that the commercial honey producers bring in BIG TRUCK loads of bees & hives. The hives & bees are spread out among miles of farms & ranches. The hives are loaded back on trucks in early fall and taken elsewhere.

Can you explain a little about the vaporized OA?

How often? Do treat on a schedule?

So, are we winning the battle against the Africanized Bees now?

Haven't heard much about them lately.

Have known more than a few people that were killed by them.

BradyBuck, When Oxalic acid crystals are heated, they turn to a vapor, when injected into a hive, the vapor coats the surfaces as it cools and re-solidifies (nutshell version)

Most beeks treat when varroa threshold over 2-3% is noticed and almost absolutely in the month of August prior to winter bee production. OA is in the hive naturally, in food we eat and in our bodies, also, it has shown no side effects to bees and best of all, varroa haven't built up a tolerance to it as they have other manufactured synthetic miticides like Apistan that has been used so much, the mites have grown tolerance to it.

OA is used after the honey supers are removed generally, not to be used when supers are on. Also, most that use OA, also do a rx once or twice over winter, usually around Christmas or a day when the cluster of bees is loose and some are flying (50 degrees) OA is most effective for phoretic mites, does nothing to the majority of mites that are in egg cells, so winter is a good time for a one or two shot dose since there is far less, if any brood at this time. August, or even a spring rx of OA is done in a series over a period of days, usually each hive gets a does on day, then another every 3-4 days for 5-6 treatments, this tme period covers the mite reporduction and kills mites as the emerge with baby bees.

There are other products that work good, most have some twerks if you will, like thymol products work well, but are heat sensitive ( has temp reqs), but are a good addition to ipm and mite management,

Many beeks choose a treatment for real early Spring and then another in August as I mentioned earlier.

One synthetic I like and is quite popular is Apivar, it is a treatment that stays in the hive as "strips" for around 42 days, but it is good to use a couple different types and not just the same type back to back.

I also like and have used Thymol products, you just have to follow the directions, some beeks reportedly have had queen loss but I never have.


Edit : EPA violation to use OA when honey supers are on, or open to the vapor, many that have to treat during honey flo remove them for a spell, or use cardboard to separate the supers from the brood boxes

Skinner, last I read they are a bit watered down, but still marching and likely in our gene pool for a longtime with x breeding. IIRC, registered Texas beeks are suppose tp re-queen any captured swarm, but that may have changed , not sure. I know they are bad mojo

That fight was lost years ago. They are actually really good bees. Their temperament is the bad part, but it's slowly being bread, modified out with the bad traits left behind.

Great information, thanks!

I spent some time yesterday watching YouTube videos on vaporizing OA. Seems fairly simple.

Yeah, seems daunting, but pretty str8 forward once you have the materials. OA is about the cheapest rx after the higher buy in as well.

Thoughts on the Flow hive? Very expensive, and I actually like the thought of opening up the hive and all that beekeeping entails vs just cracking the faucet.


https://www.honeyflow.com/

Personally, I think the FH is a gimmick and you'd be better off just buying $7-800 of bottled honey. In all honesty and just my personnel opinion, if you want the animal husbandry, the fun learning and dealing with bees, not to mention the challenge, it is a super hobby that has the potential to give you a bit if honey each year (not a guarantee). If all you want is the honey, far easier to locate a local beek and purchase it str8 from them and skip all the expense and time spent. Caveat, I have never had a FHm just have spoke to a few that tried them and read about them on post made by those that tried, I have also read some good reviews as well, but you have to read between the post and see who actually is a "beekeeper" and knows the difference.

I'd rather buy 2 hives and get them going near the same cash and grow from there and get enough experience before deciding on a FH. Easier to sell the two hives with bees then a FH I'd bet as well.

I can post a long quote from a thread I read a few years ago about the FH if you care to read it, good summation of how I feel for the most part at least from the enjoyment side of it. Guy sold them, but it was a lengthy post.

Cordless.



Near my garden. I'm not willing to get any closer.

Cant get bees much cheaper than that!

I don't want to kill mine. They are real gentle. I found a bee keeping club in Rosenberg. No phone number. I contacted them online and no reply to date. I'm willing to donate to the cause if they can relocate them. There is a colony of hives across the road.

If there is an "Apiary" across the road, that is likely where they came from. Might put a note on their entrance and I bet they will come after them.

You have to stop doing me this way.

Pfft, I have 50k girls in each box that wear less than that!


She is holding a frame from a top bar hive and not a bee in site, great photo tho

This cold front will sure test the hives stores, fingers crossed I have them prepped enough.

I have a bee keeper coming next week. Fingers crossed.

I saw my neighbor has wrapped his hive in a pretty thick layer of insulation

Yeah, that is doable if you have the "stuff" available, I have insulation boxes on top I made a few years ago. You have to be careful and make sure they still have ventilation or condensation can build up and drip down on the bees killing them, It will still bee a roller coaster with temps near 0.

Most northern beeks, even up to Alaska use tar paper as a wrap, some use a bought hive wrap, but imagine if you had 1000 hives, or as some 10k+!. I purposely dont beak the propolis seal the bees use to seal the hive, so I haven't looked in my hives since early November.

for some reason i read this as the THF Beek Keeping thread

I think my honeybees headed south. I don't see them hunkered down anymore.

I was wrong. They were swarming this afternoon. I really like. Still searching for a new home.

For the ones wanting to try beekeeping look into top-bar hives,get some plans and make one or two.Do not use treated lumber.

Please end a debate between me and the War Dept. Is three parts sugar to one part water too rich for bees feeding from a bowl of marbles? TIA

Take mine and find out.

Two parts sugar to one part water 2:1 and it's still thicker than spring syrup,look it up.

Thanks!

For open feeding, there is no requirement other than only white sugar, or high fructose corn syrup. Avoid anything with color like waffle syrup, or brown sugar.

1:1 is close to nectar

I just got started last year with one nuc hive ordered in December and suppose to get around Easter. Cost for nuc was $225.. Guy wanted to make sure they were established well and did not get it until late June. They did well, had one of the best gardens in years! He suggested feeding 1:1 syrup all year. I ended up adding second brood box and they made quite a bit of honey which I left for winter. I treated for mites with the strips. I checked them after the severe cold and found quite a few dead ones, but, the hive still seems strong. They are really starting to fly again with the warmer weather. I will be adding a honey super soon for spring. I have a second nuc ordered to add this spring. I almost exclusively used youtube for my education into this. Derek was right in estimating about $1000 to get established. Don't do it to make money, probably wont happen!. It is really a fun and interesting hobby and it helps my fruit trees and garden. My 2 cents.

See?

Goodbye old friends.

Successful Beekeepers are those that propagate more Bees than they kill.

I set up hives from swarms that I catch. I let them do their thing for the most part. I only extract honey from June to July.

For me, the more aggressive the hive the better. Never had any issues with Virroa Mites, Black Hive Beetles, or Wax Moths.

Who is that masked man? The bees would not take the bait so Tom had to use a vacuum. I really like the bees. Bill

Done deaL. Tom just pulled out headed for Bois D' Arc Lane. I can now cut the log up and put it in my burn pile.

Anyone else doing pollinator bees (Mason/Leafcutter)? First time giving them a try as I have a real lack of bugs/pollinators for my small garden. I get tons of blooms (last year), but almost no fruit/vege's. This year, everything is blooming again, but I've only got a single banana pepper growing.

I put my house out with I think it was 10 reeds of bees probably 3 weeks ago (just after that last overnight frost we had) . I've seen a couple by chance, but nothing regular and 1 dead one in the house, attracting ants. I'm going to move the house off of my fence and hang it from a plant hanger (like a shepherds crook) as I read that ants can/will chew on the larvae. Just to see, I did split one of the reeds and there were 5 I think it was cocoons/larvae. so I know there is something in there.

I ordered these https://masonbeesforsale.com/collections/bees/products/package-bees to try and prime this pump I guess... also bought some kind of spray that helps make the house smell like a bee house and is some kind of attractant . I have some planters on the fence by the garden with some flowers to help keep them around

I've done honeybees before, but never these. Any thoughts/comments? (I also put out a Praying Mantis cocoon which should start dropping some shortly as well. I'm assuming the bees are too big for the mantis to fool with.)

Thanks
Charlie

Interesting bees, hope it works out for you.

I'd like to raise some honey bees and have been looking into it, but I dunno. My youngest daughter is terrified, and I do mean terrified (screaming & shaking) of bees.

I lost one native hive but have another near.

True, but that’s typically the fail forage sources so I never pulled any of that off the hive. The spring honey flow is usually going to be clover or mesquite blooms in my area. YMMV of course.

I don’t have any hives at the moment, but I got into it back in the early 90’s when I lived in a more rural area. I kept all of my equipment though and it came in handy as I had to remove a hive in the floor of one of our blinds last year.

BTW, dried cow patties make excellent material for the smoker. Easy to keep lit and burns a long time.

Many folks may not know that Africanized bees were an intentional breeding experiment to create more aggressive foragers but they escaped Africa and spread. They got the nickname killer bees. Their venom is no different than other honeybees but they are more prone to attack and in greater numbers. The other problem is that they are less picky about where they establish a hive and that often puts them in places where human interaction is likely.

It’s a classic problem. More docile bees are generally not good foragers and good foragers are not so docile.

Not quite…. They didn’t escape Africa, they were purposely brought to S. America and have been making their way north for the last 40 years or so.

Charlie

Truff, a Biologist /bee keeper brought some into Brazil in the mid 50's to try and breed a better forager honey bee for the rain forest, another bee keeper came along and thought they'd produce better without excluders and they where released by mistake.

I think it was in the 80's they 1st made it to California and many here will recall in the very early 90's when they came into STX.

So far, I’ve had 2 neighbors stop me and ask wtf I’m doing different then them? I ask, “you ever heard of a Derek?”
The day No. I say well, find the guy and you’ll know!

I need a pound or two of bees wax for lubing my shotgun wads if anyone has a little laying around not being used....

Got a buddy that wants to attend a class or visit with a beekeeper to help him start bee keeping.

I recall a fella out of Allen/Fairview that was offering up his services however can’t seem to find the info.

Anyone have any info or referrals I can pass along?

Thanks
Blake

There are classes at Texas Bee Supply for beginners. They are up by Blue Ridge on the boarder of Colin and Fannin county. They also have great free monthly webinars the first Thursday of every month. And if you go to their website they have all the past webinars posted so you can watch then at you convenience

Awesome. Thank you Steve

If you ever want to come see my hives to get a hands on experience let me know. I'm up to 9 hives now. And you can get a feel for what a strong hive looks like as well as one that is struggling (A new swarm that I caught)

They are up by Wolfe City..

Harvested the honey already. Got about 100 lbs.

As a bonus, when I let the bees clean out the extracted frames I ended up catching a swarm!!

Cool.

Hate those boardman feeders, helped a fella going through a lot of robbing, he used those and robbing went way down after they where taken out.

I hate those Boardman feeders also.. but that was all I had that day. I moved them to a deep brood box the next day with a frame feeder. They are doing great now and the box is 80% full of bees already. Going to put a second brood box on this week and continue feeding.

They are on the end of my line... I'll get better pictures later

I use the qt jars inside on the inner cover, I can go to half gal if needed with same lids. Been so dry here, I wont get much if any production, at this point just keeping them fed

I gave my bees a water source via a 55 gal drum cut in half and put some wood in it for them to land and drink

Will be doing the OA thing soon, beetles have been mild so far for me though

I started to do the OA treatments this weekend on two hives that tested high for mites. First treatment showed a good number of dead mites below the screened bottom board.

I used the Lorab Bee Oxalic vaporizer and it only takes about a minute to treat each hive.

I have a wand from back when those came out, have one made in Canada that does it it in about 45 sec. There is a new one out that uses dewalt 18v batteries and takes about 18 seconds

I’m fixing to get in the bee keeping business. We had three hives when I was a kid 7-8…

Had 2.5 acres and just purchased three more. Adding 6-10 hives for an ag exemption.

Will be doing lots of reading and asking lots of questions just as soon as I finish with the new water well.

Good luck !! Texas Bee Supply still has hives for sale if you want to get going now.

I’ll check them out. Thanks!

Awesome!

Thats so cool...........getting the water supply and a sellable and tradeable commodity........walking the walk. Good job and good luck.

SW, I would spend the rest of this year reading and working on the material budget, gathering supplies. You can start off reasonably easy, but will need/want more equipment as it goes.

Bee keeping is much different then it was when you where young as far as introduced bugs and pathogens= more supervision of the hives, ASome snake oil imo, to avoid as well starting out

When I was a kid, we had bees on the family farm (grandfathers)m we bottled and sold honey, boxes and frames to beeks and grocery store chains, back then the biggest issues where moths and rarely american foul brood.

So what's a realistic initial investment for a strong hive in the rolling plains/SE panhandle? I've seen the aforementioned $1k, but times change. Starting from scratch...I have the land but no equipment (or bees). Not looking to sell anything, just wanting our own local source of honey and a good retirement/self-sustaining hobby.

I’d say about $600 for a complete hive with a good suit and tools. See if there is a vendor near you that sells them. It’s best to get local bees that are used to the climate by you

Caught another swarm

Afternoon Colonel,

I think 1k would be a good budget to start and I would recommend at least 2 full hives, this will allow you many benefits as in, comparing the growth of both, but more importantly, having resources if one hive needs help. I would also consider keeping and extra hive body set, or at least a "nuc" (small 5-6 frame hive) can be made by you or bought when you can

You'll need a smoker and you want the large from https://www.dadant.com/catalog/tool...stainless-steel-with-heat-finger-shield. Trust me on this.

There are odds and ends you can compromise on somewhat depending , I have ultra breeze jackets and a full suit, but they are pricey, one young fella I have been helping used a hat w/ veil and a painters suit and work gloves from Lowes his first year.

Hive tool

Bees are resilient , I have had Queens from Hawaii, east coast, west coat, Canada and in between, they have all done fine, There are several "strains" of bees you can read up on, some developed for cooler temps, but do fine in the south as well, some are bred for varroa sensitivity and are sold as VSH "Bee type" Like VSH Italians for example. btw, the Italian is the most common strain in the world probably. Carniolans and Russians are used a lot in the North, but are used here in Texas s well, "Carnis" and Itailians would be good as they tend to be docile and good producers, read up on them

Will come back when I think of something else lol

Another thought as far as bees.

I would strongly recommend you getting your bees as a "nuc" if you can find some local or within a reasonable driving distance for you. Ideally they will be overwintered, but even a spring nuc you pre-order will be better than a package bees but that's just my opinion. A nuc will come as a mini hive where all are familiar with each other. Packaged bees are bees from many hives put in a cage with a caged queen and shipped/picked up.

What’s the best time of the year to get bees? Know anyone in the Freestone area looking for a place to set a few hives 4-10….

Late Spring to early Summer is when most of the swarms happen (hive splitting) if you have someone with several hives that will let you, place an empty hive close to that or those hives and often the swarm will make that empty hive it's new home

Best way to start is pre-order as early as you can, usually Jan 1st on, and folks start selling pre-order. Since initial cost will be higher with having to purchase incidentals like bee suit/jacket, gloves, hive tool, boxes and frames et cetera, I'd try to at least start with 2 hives

Yes, a "Nuc" is the BEST way to start. I started 5 years ago by catching swarms. Expanding next year, so will be purchasing at least 10 "Nucs". Check out Facebook groups for used equipment if needed.

"MILL CREEK HONEY BEE FARM"

Not sure if I shared this yet.

I started my first hive spring of 2022. They seemed to do well but just didn’t expand like I expected but that’s a whole other topic.

A few months ago I went down to check on them and I wasn’t wearing any sting protection. Unless I’m pulling frames I usually don’t. I’ll open the hive just peek in real quick, check on my sugar water I’m feeding etc.

Well this particular day they decided to protect their resources more aggressively, I have now learned not uncommon heading into winter for bees to become more aggressive.

I was hit twice, once on my left temple and once at the base of my right ear.

Anyway, I didn’t think much about it, I’ve been stung before and it usually dose not bother me. This time however my head started to get a bit hot but still didn’t think much of it.

We needed to run to town so I jumped in the shower. Things got a bit more scary at this point. I started to break out in full body hives. I took some Benadryl. Then my jaw got tight and tongue seemed to swell. I believe I started to have a bit of a panic attack (never had one before) because my heart started racing, sweating profusely and vision became blurry. I’m a paramedic and my wife is an NP.

We got in the car and headed to the ER, thankfully the Benadryl kicked it halfway there and everything subsided.

The next day the left side of my head looked like grapefruit but only the right side where I was also stung never swelled.

So just a warning, always wear your gear, you can have a reaction even if you never have before and get an Epi pen

I always have an epi pen on hand. I also don’t have any reaction to stings. But you never know when that could change. Glad you’re okay. 👍

Timing is always a "thing", sometimes a night visitor has them riled up (skunk, possum), dark clothing can get their attention at times.
I've been lit up a few times, but generally its one or two guard bees that get me when I'm not ready lol

Ordered 6 complete hives today! Should be delivered mid-to late April or early May!

Getting everything together to prep the area. Going to set cattle panel wind breaks around the hive area using T-posts to keep the bottom of the panel 14-18” above ground level then using topsoil to create a 12-14” tall 3-4’ wide mount then length of each panel. Planting red honeysuckle and several varieties of grapes to grow as a view/wind screens on the panels and planting various berry bushes on the mounds. Expect to have between 10-18 panel/mounds depending upon final layout.

Also looking into chickens or quail or both….meat and egg production.

Good luck with your new bees. I’ve been keeping bees for three years now and love the honey.

I’m planting alfalfa on 4-5 acres for my bees this year

Does anyone have any experience with the Flowhives? My wife bought a couple of these for here at the house and I’d never even heard of something like this before so I’m curious what other bee keepers think about them. I put them together today and they seem like a really well built/thought out box and super easy to maintain but time will tell I guess.

She’s been going to classes the last couple months trying to get a crash course in bee keeping but does anyone have any must know and must have items to keep on hand at all times? She’s purchased all the tools, gadgets and safety gear already but me being as OCD as I am I want to have anything she might need eventually on hand. I’m thinking like pest control, food, supplements, etc etc. so I can go ahead and order for her before she needs it. I’d appreciate any and all help,

Well, I’ve been seeing bees flying around the hive on warm days for the last few weeks.

When do you typically start adding your supers?

My hive only filled one deep last year so I took off the super and condensed them down to just the deep. Fed them over winter.

I was thinking about giving them more space next week.

When the brood box is at least 80% full then add either another brood box or a honey supper. It all depends on if you’re trying to grow your apiary or harvest honey this year

I was asking because my hive only wintered with one deep brood box 5.5 of 8 frames drawn out.

When winter hit I took off the super (they hadn’t touched it). I put some paper directly over the brood box frames, built a 1/2 inch wood frame spacer and filled that space with plain white sugar, covered that with my inner cover then outer cover.

I picked up the method from somewhere. Stated it fed their bees through winter as well as absorbed moisture keeping the colony dry.

I opened them up today and they look great, all the paper and sugar was gone. 6.5/8 frames drawn. I added a super as well.

Bradybuck, I assume you are using 8 frame equipment? I do.

The sugar and how you added it, is called "mountain camp"

Running 1 brood box will keep you busy, you will have to be on the look out for potential swarming, even using 10 frame. Monitoring a single deep can tax even experienced beeks.

You need to make sure they have nectar, they likely have plenty pollen by now and should be brooding up way by now, mine started brooding up end of February. You need to check how much brood you have and in what stages they are, this will give you an idea what to expect in number explosion.

You don't want a swarm to occur, or it will be like starting over for a spell.

Do you have more wooden ware to expand if necessary? In a good flow they potentially could draw out the super in a week or less if they are strong.

Do a mite wash?

Hey Thumper, Just mho, I think they are a bit gimmicky and lead one to believe it is as easy as just turning a spout and at a premium price for the novelty. I an sure the wife has learned enough by now to know all the work in keeping bees alive will still be the same.

I also have some reservation on what honey comes out of the spout, if the moisture content is to high, it will start to ferment. That is an issue for standard Langstroth hives but possibly easier to pull my frames and see where the bees are in capping cells. May not even be an issue for her to go to that trouble.

I have read several threads about them, there are a few guys that like them, but many that get frustrated. From what I've been told, they really need a long, strong nectar flow to really work well, as they have in Australia where the father and son developed them.

In any event, welcome her to the clan lol, it is a fascinating, frustrating at times hobby. Varroa mites are the enemy.....

EDIT: Get her a Refractometer, This is good for anyone that will jar honey, especially if you intend to sell or give honey away

I have this one and it works great and easy to calibrate using extra virgin olive oil
https://www.amazon.com/Refractomete...;linkId=f325044b5202ed01a740d1c9fcaf9a3a

Congrats Jess!!
Sounds like you are doing your level best to never get bored lol

Already added honey supers to all 6 of my double deep hives. Hopefully they will continue to fly this spring.

Looks like a good location along a treeline. I only have one super on yet as the flow if still a bit off, did get some early redbud and wild plum so far.

April can be tricky and many hives can starve out if brooding heavy. I've been pushing mine for about a month to give me enough nurse bee's for a cell starter, which I grafted just 6 cells this past Sunday ( hoping for 2-3 queen cells from this Cordovan girl)

Yes, 8 frame equipment.

I would like to add another brood box but these bees for whatever reason just are slow builders. They seem healthy but they only drew out 5.5-6 frames from April until November. I added a super in early fall. They never touched it. I reduced them down to the one deep for winter but have now added the super. I’ll give them a peak in a few days.

Right now I have the 1 deep and 2 supers.

I don’t do a wash but treated in the fall with Formic pro strips and plan to do the same very soon.

Yes sir, you have something going on if they didn't build last summer.

Where did your bees come from? Queen marked so you know she is the original?

I would also urge you to do a mite wash so you know exactly if mites are holding your bees back and possibly pushing them to crash. I know a couple large commercial beeks that had mite troubles last fall when their treatments weren't as effective as they thought. Only way to know is a mite wash of 1/2 cup of nurse bees. It sucks to do, but it may save the whole hive and/or keep you from treating when not needed.

They won't do much in fall with a super, late summer if you have a flow, most start pushing feed late Aug-Oct so they bees can put up stores for winter. You want them making your over winter bees strong and healthy.

BTW, what type foundation are you using? If its is the normal plastic style, often a good coating of wax will get them to draw it out. ( along with having plenty of nurse bees)

I'd consider a new queen and possibly running 2 separate hives. Having at least 2 makes management a lot easier when one needs help. This is if you can determine whats going on.

Things to look for

Deformed wings
brood stages and color, also does the brood look "wet" (well fed) or are they dry
How many frames with capped brood and how is the pattern, solid, sporadic?
Abnormal smell
new eggs

Besides them not drawing out the foundation quickly everything seemed to be doing well. Always have a good amount of brood in various stages.

I chalked it up to the horrendous drought conditions.

I am using waxed plastic foundation.

I got them from Mountain Sweet Honey out of GA

Some photos from last summer





We

What about fire ant poison around bee hives? I’m waging full scale war against fire ants this year. My six hives should be delivered in 3-4 weeks.

Strong / Aggressive hives will take care of "ants". I try to keep the soil beneath my hives void of any vegetation. Any granular insecticide / pesticide is fine for control of pesky insects. "Granular" because you place it on the soil. A sandy / rocky base below the hives deter many types of insects, and bee won't forage there. It also helps to prevent BHV's - breaks the life cycle.

I’m building a space for my bees right now. They will reside on a stand inside the wood frame. Heavy duty landscape fabric will be the only thing below them. A screen of red honeysuckle will be around the hives. On the north side of that will be a screen of star jasmine. A few peach trees and a hedge of oleanders. The honeysuckle, star jasmine, and oleanders will provide a wind break, visually screen, physical barrier, and with the exception of the oleander food for the bees.

The fire ant control will be going on over 5.5 acres!

I also planted several grapes and berries nearby.

The “Bee Palace”…




Grapes and berries….

Wow!!! That’s first class setup

I started 36 wild plums last week for a small grove and have to buy 6-10 peaches. Getting three different varieties (early, middle, and late fruiting).

Jess, I have read quite a few beekeepers in the south that have had trouble with imported fire ants, I have as well, other ants are more a nuisance. I actually had some getting in brood in a large hive. but that was the worst I've had. I don't mind fire ants as long as they can't get in my hives, they seemed to be fit for dealing with hive beetle larva and occasional wax moth larva.

I have my hives on metal stands now with 1" pipe legs sitting in tuna cans filed with oil. Many folks I know use grease on the stand legs, diatomaceous earth, cinnamon and various other concoctions for fire ants. No way I'm using a pesticide around my hives, see to many coming in full and land short, I also have a watering hole loaded with bees daily not 15' from my hives. I just use the cans and tolerate the ants for they good they do cleaning up any larva that fall out, works for me,

You will find that beekeeping is "local" and what works for some, doesn't for others, though the basics are the same.

Bradybuck, those are nice photos, queen appears to have been a good one at least last summer. Seems she would have got you to 2 boxes last year.

looking good,sir

Jess, just recalled an "insecticide" I have used with great effect that is labeled as organic, will still kill bees when wet, but has short field life and is ok for them when dry. Spinosad, have used it for several years, treating fruit trees, garden plants as a spray in late evening and also as a ant mound drench. Works as a contact spray and real effective on plant eating bugs,

Western, thank you for helping my people lol. You a good one Sir

Hey yo Bee'z! new name..again? lol irs, ex gf? reason? I'm not much help, just try to add what I've experienced with bee's, one hobby that is so similar for beeks, but each apiary can be different.

Slowly making progress…. Very slowly!

Got the raised beds done. Red honey suckle planted on the inside panels and star jasmine on the outside. All the fabric is done except a pass around the outside beds. Inside is ready for mulch on the beds and pea gravel on the paths. Bees should be delivered in the next 3-6 weeks.

Hope to have everything done within the next week or two….

The fabric in front will have 36 wild plums (to start) and creates a mowing buffer in front of the hives…




Ran out of clips to finish the last fabric run out the outside beds…




The six hives will be about a third of the way from the back it the wood ring facing S-SE on a 12’ long 18” tall stand. Wood chip mulch will be on the raised beds with pea gravel on the paths between the beds…



Made three entrances/exits to the hives…one on each side of the front and one center of the back (north side). The panels should provide a wind break, visual screen, and food for the bees…

That looks awesome SnakeWrangler!!!! I like your style, anything worth doing is worth doing over the top and not cutting corners…

Did you order complete hives or nucs?

Complete hives. Will have the stand, six boxes with five empty frames in each, and six five frame nucs….

This has been a ton of work up front but designed and built for minimal maintenance going forward….

All drought tolerant plants plus eliminating a large area from regular lawn maintenance

I appreciate the feedback and sorry I missed you responding to my post, things have changed a little since I posted that though lol, I’ve become hooked into this ride myself so I opted to up the game a little on the total number of langstroth hives to make it a little more interesting.

As far the mites I bought a InstaVap vaporizer to wage war on those evil little devils so we shall see how that works out and we did buy a nice refractometer to check the moisture content when we get to that point so for now I think we’re ok, that’s what I’m telling myself anyway .

There is a bee hive in my water meter NE of Canton that is going to get nuked tomorrow. Have to turn it off to do some work on the house. If anybody can get to it before the plumbers do it tomorrow they can have it.

Pretty much how it has to be done, spring nucs will go into regular equipment, or they will quickly outgrow a nuc box.

A lot of work for sure, so is it a bee yard with plants, or plants with a bee yard? Either way it will look great!

Those insatvaps are pretty new to the scene and BA too! I have one I use with my generator made in Canada that has been good, but those 18v sure look sexy and damn convenient for remote locations..

I'd start thinking on a full ipm program as far as using your Vap and alternating with something else, something that is more effective when bees have brood. . You'll want to treat around Aug so your summer bees can raise you strong overwinter bees OAV (Oxalic Acid vapor) Works best as a winter treatment when there is little to no brood. OAV will do a controlled knocked down at times, or at least steady the mite count until you can get on a better treatment for that time of year.

Good ones to look into just mind the temp protocols and application. Apivar strips ( synthetic, Amitraz), Formic Pro and apiguard is common and at the right time are great on mites

Set up for 4 new hives today, grafted 8 cells last Monday hoping for 3 and ended up getting 4 from a great queen. Will take a photo or two Wednesday when I pull the cells if any one is interested.

Working out to perfect timing, had 3 boxes close to swarm strength, q cells in one, so I was able to knock them back taking bees and brood for the startups.

I’d love to see the pics when you get some..

Ol Thumper
I dropped the ball Tuesday. Went out in just a veil. one of those Bishes flew into my t shirt sleeve and decided to have her Alamo in my arm pit. That one hurt for 2 days and got me all side tracked and in a hurry.

Did manage to get some painting help tho, did a heck of a job for his grandpa

I understand how that goes, tender spot to get hammered When he gets finished with those box’s send him my way please, I need some painted to…

A paste of meat tenderizer containing papain will take the pain of a sting away. The sooner the better. Works on red wasps even.

He isn't cheap! $5 and 2 lollipop suckers!, kid drives a hard bargain!
BTW, used blue to lavender and purple, bees see that color easy and it makes it easier for a new queen to locate her home after her mating flights. (That is the theory anyway)

I took a benadryl and that does the job for me, some spots hurt more then others for me, shots in the temple are a mofo too.

10 day old package of bee’s, they’ve been busy girls so far.

Had a hive in my water meter that the bee removal guy took care of the other day. I was surprised...in my years of helping dad with his bees I don't recall a hive being so docile without smoke.

Basic bee questions.

1. If you had 5 bee boxes. How much honey would that produce per year?

2. When you take out the frames to harvest the honey, where do the bees go?

3. How often do you harvest the honey? Once a year, twice a year ?

Looks like a big ole Italian style queen with nice bright license plate!

Tbar, my hunch just looking at the comb, is that is a small, new swarm setting up shop, usually pretty docile as they have little invested so far. Hives your dad had where probably much larger and had more reason to protect.

Basic questions with "it depends" type answers

1. Depends on if 8 frame, or 10 frame box to start, Also there are deep, medium and shallow boxes in either 8 or 10 frame configurations. then how many frames the beekeeper actually has in the box. Can also be effected by nectar source, humidity, beekeeper management and so on.

Rough average with all frames in the box 8 frame = deep 65lb, medium 30 not sure on shallow, never used one
10 frame=80ish medium 49ish

2. Your honey frames are in your "Supers" (boxes above the brood nest "brood boxes") Bees will go back down into the brood box's
Now if you need/want to take honey from a brood box, for lets say they are getting honey bound, you just replace it with a drawn empty comb or new foundation type frame.

3. Generally once after your local main honey flow, for many across the country, supers are pulled by end of June. This can be more a regional; thing as some parts of the country have longer and later fall flows and if they want that late dark honey for overwinter (some don't, especially in colder climates. Dark honey has more mineral and can bee a problem for bees that can't get out to pooh for 3-5 months)

Well my hive is not doing well. I think it’s just a matter of time. I did not see a queen, no eggs, a few capped brood cells but not much. Half frame of uncapped honey it looked like, a little bit of pollen.

Yesterday morning went and got a bee tree off a county road before the county burned it. Moved it to my BIL’s garden.

Hope they stick around….at least they won’t be burned up…..

Didn’t get a pic after I pulled the rags from the entrance. They weren’t pleased with road-trip and being closed up.

Does anyone have any history with the Golden Cordovan’s? We bought a couple complete hives and Im curious If you had any problems with them.

I have run several for probably 7-8 years, some times I'll have 6, right now I have 2 and then 2 others that are x's from others I had. Generally the calmest bees I've been around. Need plenty food as they build and brood a lot as well.

Great bee imo, but really just a blonde Italian. They are like Italians on steroids at times, like the traits are more expressed, The color is recessive so it wains from queens raised from them. I like them and order mine from a pretty closed apiary in N cali that has a real remote breeding facility. Several places sell them tho.

When did you check them last? any open brood/larva at all? How many bees do you figure?

I did the very same thing once probably 6 years ago. Super big bull mesquite from S Texas that was delivered to a mill up here. I ended up having to cut them out as they wanted the tree back lol

I appreciate the insight, I bought them for their color and the speed they supposedly build brood. I’m planning to experiment with these and try my hand at raising a few queens for the challenge of it at some point. I do have a question on these hives though, their complete hives with 4 frames of brood and a couple frames of honey so will I need to offer them food at first or simply let them do their thing and keep an eye on them? All of our nuc’s and packages are being fed but I’m unsure about these complete hive’s.

I’m a long ways from needing one but what do you recommend for an extractor so I can be on the lookout for one?

Reason I was asking, even tho that hive didn't expand like you'd expect, they may have tried to swarm, or supersede your queen. Any evidence of queen cells being broke down by the workers? Could be a new queen went out to get mated and didn't return.

If you have enough bee's and you're pretty certain there isn't anything nefarious going on ( suspect possibly a problem with Mites, or lack of nutrition for brood rearing and likely a poor queen) You can order a queen and get her usually within a few days

Depends on what you see and smell in the hive which way I'd go, given there is enough bees to take the hive further with a new queen.

Yeah, I like the color as well, it also goes back to what I said above, they generally do what Italians do but with vigor lol I've had some that lagged along, had a couple that blew up and swarmed even with half empty boxes. They use more food overwinter as well being a big, populace hive.

I'd feed them until they are settled in and you see eggs at least, longer if the flow is slow and you need foundation drawn. If they stop taking it, they probably found a good nectar source. It takes a lot to feed brood and draw comb, so I'd check them weekly to 10 days and make sure you see nectar in cells. You want them fed, but not to the point they become honey bound.

Are the "complete hives" 10 or 8 frame? 4 frames of brood and couple of honey, leaves you short unless you're using a frame feeder, or un-drawn foundation..

I'll come back this afternoon with some ideas for extracting and bottling or storage from my pov and what Ive done and seen, could be a longer post lol

Thumper, just an after thought, how many hives do you have, or will have soon? If you have nucs and they are good ones, they probably need to be in a brood box. Good queens can potentially burn up a nuc quick and swarm.

IMO, extractor will depend on budget, time and manpower you want to put into it, how many hives you may be extracting. I started this time like many and went crush and strain. Then caught a plastic 2 frame manual extractor 50% off so got that, worked ok for a couple years. It is labor intensive, so I modified the crank to use a drill motor.

There are two types of extractors, tangential and radial. The difference is in how the frame is placed in the extractor, tangential requires extracting one side of the frame, flipping it over and doing the other side (how my plastic one was).

One of the big names is Maxant, solid equipment and priced accordingly. I have the maxant 16 gal heated bottling tank, great quality for me.

I opted for a Lyson Optima 12 frame extractor for several reasons. Made in Poland not China, half the price almost of a maxant, I like the drain better than maxant's, have to tilt the maxant to full empty, has many good reviews. Also, maxant seems to always have a several month backlog as they build as orders are made. I had mine at my door from Betterbee in 3 days.

There was a brand from Canada, priced similar to maxant and was reported to be super solid quality but cant recall the name.

Crush and strain is the cheapest way to go and imo a press like the one, makes it pretty easy. I have this one for comb.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QMVZFBP?psc=1&ref=ppx_y
o2ov_dt_b_product_details

You'll find a couple seal-able, food grade buckets real handy, I have these and think they last longer than the tab style
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGKSV412?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Real handy and what I do for now is a 5 gallon honey bucket with gate valve and a 5 gallon 400 micron strainer, str8 from the extractor thru the screen and it's clean honey in the bucket that you can bottle from if wanted. (provided you've tested for moisture)

You can buy a gate valve for $10 and add it to a food grade bucket like the ones above
https://www.amazon.com/House-Naturals-Plastic-Gallon-Beekeeping/dp/B09QKMTFTG/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=honey%2B5%2Bgallon%2Bbucket&qid=1681869177&sr=8-7&th=1

Strainer, many use 5 gal paint strainers from lowes, I like these and they clean up great with a little warm water
https://www.amazon.com/Strainer-Filtering-Coatings-Silicones-Particle/dp/B01LZ2YCHM/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=honey%2B5%2Bgallon%2Bbucket&qid=1681869177&sr=8-9&th=1

There are several good brands and many made "over there", stainless and motorized is great if demand and budget work out. Start as well as you can and don't impulse buy without a little research and reviews.

https://www.betterbee.com/extractors/lyson-12-frame-radial-motorized.asp

https://www.maxantindustries.com/

All I got right now, will post more if it comes to me.

Couldn't get couple links to work

We’ll have over 20 next week but that numbers going to rise, everything is in 10 frame deeps including the new hives. I was referring to the purchased nuc’s but they were immediately put in the 10 frame deeps upon arrival. When I get some free time I’ll look into the extractors you mentioned but I won’t be doing anything manually that much I know, I’m of the mindset work smarter not harder these days.

On a side note I ticked off my first Hive today and got blasted in the temple and right below the ear today by 2 dive bombers lol, they got upset when I bumped the Hive right before dark and then walked in front of it way to close. They’ve all been really gentle but I’d get upset if someone about knocked my house over and then walked by the front door, revenge is a mother trucker when your on the receiving end of it..

Manually has it benefits since it is cheaper and works out well for few hives, even using a drill was better. Also works for many hobbyist as you can upgrade if it comes to that. But. I'm running with the Lyson and not looking back lol. If you have in your mind you need the best name brand outside of cost, Maxant has the 9f w/wo motor, That is the one I was considering before I went with the Lyson.

Yes sir, one end of those bishes aint to friendly

That is one reason I generally order queens, well out of the African gene pool. I have also had some open bred queens that where quite docile as well, much depends on the 15-20 drones they mate with. Also, small hives attitude can change as it gets bigger

I’ll check them out, I’m not so much interested in buying the best of the best but I’m a firm believer in buying quality stuff and not second guessing myself a year down the road. I learned my lessons years ago on buying cheap stuff so I cry once and buy once these days when I can.


How many hives do you have currently?

Right now I'm down to 12, fixing to be 15, was down to 6 last fall after bad news at the doc. Decided last spring to go further in and made good increase then in Sept after the doctor visit, I was sold off most, was up around 40 in two small yards And now I find myself doing it again as I need to try to get a few revenue streams going. The physical part is my biggest hurdle, but like you said, try to work smarter.

O agree on buy the best you can afford, within reason. If you have the budget for the lyson like mine, I think you be happy with it, but do some reading and make comparisons. I know there are a lot of "foreign" brands like on Amazon and ebay, but notice what the bee supplies carry. Dadant also carries it's own line of extracting eq as well. The lyson hit all the marks for me at the time and I like that it has a bottom side drain.

Had a few hives in the early 90's after varroa and before hive beetles, Was my grandfathers idea. When I was a kid, grandfather, uncles and my dad had a commercial bee and honey bottling business and sold to many grocery chains.

The young kids like myself built frames and older cousins made boxes after school as work class, Sundays we did a lot of bottling, I was the label putter on'er and hated it.

Ask my grandfather how many hives they had since we didn't do that much, he said under 1k, I know they also had to buy truckloads in drums from Texarkana,Louisiana and Texas. One of my biggest regrets was not taking an interest and asking him questions.

https://geneticliteracyproject.org/...8a7bd785136c677521c339&trigger=click

I haven't read it yet, but the title is intriguing.


The title is Do bees have emotions and dreams.

Been making progress….hope to be finished this weekend.

The “bee palace” is almost finished. Honeysuckle and star jasmine are in. Just have one small piece of fabric, a little more wood chips, and pea gravel on the paths to go. Still have to go dig up a bunch of dewberries off the roadside for the raised beds…

The oleander hedge is planted, fabric is down, and chips down…. Just need to spread the chips around a bit.


We will have four varieties of peach trees ((8-10 trees total) between the oleander hedge and the star jasmine screen. Also will have three or four varieties of cherry trees. Discussing with the nursery now. These will be planned very late fall or very early spring…



Still have to finish fabric around the grapes and figs.! Figs are doing really well. Most of the grapes and berries also. Once the fabric is down just add wood chips.



Late this summer and again early fall I plan to till about 3/4 of an acre between the oleander hedge and the street. This fall I will sow about a thousand dollars of wildflower seeds. Also want to dig a 60’ by 80’ shallow pond (2’ to 6’) for Lilly pads. Spitfire is opposed by I may overrule!

Once I have all the fabric down and chips in I will add a soaker hose watering setup.

Brood frame from one of my Cordovan's, she is a laying machine. I tried to use my table magnifying glass with the phone, not very good

Buy a new queen

Snake you’ve been a busy man but it will all be worth it when your finished and it looks great!!!

Looks outstanding Snake!! Your bees are going to thrive.

Sure does, he is putting in the work! Plants will benefit from the bees more than the other way around.

Snake, have you considered Dutch White clover in that field?, blooms will outlast nearly any flower and will be there all summer if it gets moisture, you can mow it as well.

I’ll look into that as well….thanks for the tip and kind words.

Got the fabric done about 10:30 this morning. Should be finished with wood chips in another couple hours. Then gravel for the paths, anchor strips for the edges of the fabric, and finally soaker hoses for the raised beds…..

Snake, a couple other plants came to mind you may want to consider, both nice for yard art and bees.

I have 6 of the blue vitex (chaste trees) my bees hit hem good while in bloom, I have been told they'll bloom most the summer if you cut back the spent flowers, but I haven't spent the time to do that.

Also have 4 Natchez Crape myrtle's, they flower all summer as long as they get a bit of moisture, my bees are on them daily. These where recommended to me by another beekeeper, he said he didn't have much luck with other colored myrtles.

Yeah, this gal is a 3 year old and on the block if she wasn't laying edge to edge yet

Checked a few hives we put packages in roughly a month ago and most have around 7 frames drawn out and doing pretty good, actually doing better than I’d thought by this point.

That’s awesome Thumper!



The plants will provide protection from a north wind so hoping that they both benefit equally!

You get your project finished yet?

I installed 4 packages on April 6th. And I had to already add an additional brood box to two of them. The other two will need one in a week or so .

The nectar flow is in full swing as my already established hives have honey suppers that are almost 1/2 full but not capped frames

My bees were hard at work today

Should be good times for bees right now - my 20ac field is covered in yellow-clover 6in thick - haven't seen it that thick in the 6yrs we've had the place.
In some spots the yellow-clover is a whole foot deep/thick!

Almost done…..






And found out today that our AG exemption was approved!!!!!!!!

Looks fantastic! Can’t wait for mine to get here….

You guys have been busy as well,, keep the updates coming in.

I’m picking up hives on Friday by myself as it turns out so this may turn into a chit show by the time it’s over

Congrats on the exemption Jess!

You're more than welcome to move that field over here! Takes a lot of acreage for bee forage and that would be a great start!!

You've never went anywhere before with a truck load of pissed wimmins? Wait until you get home and 50,000 of them have to go to the restroom

Been waxing foundation and making hive parts the days I can stay horizontal, actually been fun with these decent temp days.

Trying out HDO plywood for tops and bottoms, heavy stuff and SPEENSIVE!

I meant "vertical"

I’m glad you corrected that You sound about like me on most days.

Do you prefer the black over yellow frames for visual inspections in the brood box’s? Were running both to see what works best for us but I’m putting yellow in all the supers so their the same and are you running flat bottoms or screened?

Yes sir, posted and it wouldn't give me the edit button.

I have been using wax foundation since that is what I've always known, brood boxes for sure. I did switch to white ritecell for supers about 5 years ago with a few foundationless for cut comb if we wanted it mixed in.

I have been looking into plastic foundation on the smaller end of the cell size (5.2ish) and after a lot of reading and seeing what a few large beekeepers I respect are using, plus the trouble I had with the few hives I kept last fall with blowouts from brood frame extractions, I'm transitioning to black in my brood boxes. Premier brand, or now called Puracell, it was a toss up between that and Acorn and Premier offered free shipping over $150 iirc. I will still run one-2 wax frames for drone brood, I think this will help keep wacky comb to a minimum and make it easier to remove drone brood if and when I desire. Some beeks will use a couple frames with plastic foundation cut in half and allow the sides for drone brood.

Currently the only standard bottoms I have are hives I'm building and nucs. Never saw or heard of screened bottomed until I got back in. I have mixed emotions on mine. Some research indicates up to a 15% decrease in mites as they fall, but I have never had mine fully open. I just can't bring myself to do that since we go to all the trouble of putting bees in a box......Although 15% and added ipm for mites is a good start no doubt.

Cost also adds up as you grow, plus an added piece of equipment and imo, if you stay dead nuts on mite monitoring and treatments, it's an expense and maintenance issue I can grow away from. They are nice for monitoring hive debris, but also give a dead zone where I have had wax moths laying in the dead space. I generally clean mine and keep a coat of spray pam oil on the surface.

One thing I do use many don't, are slatted racks and will continue until I see a reason not to
Good description here to ponder
https://www.honeybeesuite.com/slatted-racks-everything-you-need-to-know/

That’s something I haven't ran across yet but it definitely makes sense, I’m an experimenter so I might give it a shot once I get a handle on everything I’ve got going. I appreciate the heads up

Yeah, may not fill a need for everyone, but I feel i get enough benefit from them.
Bee keeping is local, some things that work for me could be a pita for someone else.

Made two nucs from one very strong hive yesterday. I had two frames with queen cells that went into the nucs. The queens should emerge in 2-3 days. Each nuc has two frames of honey/polen and three frames of capped brood.





[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/G95VPnQUtUA[/video]

Were they swarming, or superseding? I'll take swarm cells from a good queen any day over supersedures (is that a word?). Good time of year to increase

It was from a walk away split. They made queen cells on three frames.

I got ya, the way it was worded, I took it as you pulled cell frames from the big hive. Probably my meds lol

harvested some honey already. Pulled two honey suppers and got a good amount of honey in a 5 gal bucket.

[video:youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/MS3Hu8cAUrM[/video]

Steve, that is awesome. looks like about 50lbs of nice light honey! Must be great resources around your hives

Just checked my hives today. They are filling at least a full frame every day per hive. I do have drawn comb in most of my suppers. But I’m also seeing new comb on all fresh foundations

I’ve only been keeping bees for 3 years and this is by far the best I’ve seen so far!

That is awesome Steve!!

Awesome. Brings back memories.

What kind of centrifuge are you using?

Do y'all replace your queens? If so, how often?

I'm using a 2 frame Maxant Extractor that I customized to handle deep frames. I welded up food grade stainless steel rods and attached the new baskets so they are facing the sides. Much more efficient at extracting the honey from the frames. I also made it so that I could use a cordless drill to power it. Hand crank if way to hard :-). With the cordless drill I can extract two frames in less that one minute of spinning.

I only replace the queens if they are slowing down. Sometimes that is every year but most times its every second year. And I also have let them raise there own queen especially with splits. AKA walk away split. I have expanded my Hives from 6 at the start of this year to 14 but I did buy 3 packages of bees. They were all put in brood boxes that had drawn comb from hives that died off over the winter. I got them started on April 6th and they all had a second brood box going in less that a month. I had two hive that were so strong that I have made multiple splits from them this year.

Having drawn comb makes a big difference. When I put a new supper on I always put mostly drawn comb in and 2-3 empty foundation frames in between the drawn comb frames. They have been drawing out those empty foundations in short order this year.

We have had a great year with minimal rain during the day so they have been able to forage all day. On days it rains all day the bees will stay in the hive and consume the resources in the hive. This year that had not been happening. Fingers crossed that it continues to go that way.

here are some pictures of what I customized on that Maxant Extractor

I got stung about 20 times this week and buried the D6 about 30 minutes ago so I’m not sure if I deserve a participation trophy or not but I’m drinking beer regardless.

Ouch. You’re having a bad week. You need a 6 pack😊

Good job on the centrifuge mods. When I used to help my dad with his hives I thought we changed the queen if the bees started becoming aggressive.

I hear aggressive bees bring in more honey

I don't know if that applies to all pissy bees, but Africanized bees are said to be productive, that's partly why we have that mess gene here anyway. They also have a propensity to swarm more.

Well shoot, you could have dropped it off here and let me learn while digging a pond and saved the hassle!

Nice job on the extractor Steve almost looks like enough room to have added 2 more med frame slots with room for a couple lg frames ta boot!

1000% agree on the drill motor add-on, hand crank is as bad as an old ice cream maker lol

I replace mine when I see the need, some may go same year they went in if they are slow to grow without any other glaring issue. My oldest queen rt now is going on 4 and she started off gangbusters this year, not sure if she knows it's time to build up and move on, I'd say I average 2 years out of most.

It’s time to check the pissy hives today, I sure hope they’ve calmed down or they might get sent to Valhalla or the best case scenario for them will be they get moved to a new location and all of them requeened.

Anyone have a recommendation for a quality table saw? I need to buy one to build some more box’s,

My bees continue to be having a great year. Had to add more supper’s yesterday. The second from the end has 3 full suppers and staring on the forth.

The 4 new packages I installed April 6th are already filling the second brood box’s. And I added a supper to one yesterday. I may make splits out of them soon

If they are still pissy you should just re-queen them. Pinch the old queen and add a new one in a cage. It will take about a month to see the change. But it will be the earliest way to change their disposition.

Good luck with whatever you decide

I did a ton of reading and went with the Dewalt DWE 7491 w/ rolling stand, had best overall reviews and fence was well rated.
https://www.dewalt.com/product/dwe7...-12-825cm-rip-capacity-and-rolling-stand

I also got the Dewalt dado set for it and it has been solid, make sure you get the proper blade/table plate.

I really would have loved a cabinet style so I could have added a cutting table, but room and about 3-4x's the coin. Been solid with anything I've thrown at it so far.

Dang, your in it this year for sure! have you figured out what source they are on?

There’s a wide variety of wildflowers in my field and surrounding fields. The weather has been perfect for the flowers this spring.

That is great, been slow getting much rain around here, but hopefully after this weekend it perks up.

Many flowers don't give up huge amounts of nectar at a time, or it isn't as accessible to Hbees, I have some arrow leaf clover that is almost too deep for them to get the nectar, butterflies love it. Your getting a stellar flow from something for sure, mesquite maybe? Mesquite would be a great one to have for sale too!

I have lots of mesquite all around my property and property around it. That’s likely why the honey is so good 😊

Oh yeah, if that's what you have, it's supposed to be top notch. I don't know much about mesquite flowering and which ones do, since I haven't been around acres of it with bee's, but it is known to be good quality.

Whats the moisture running on what you where able to extract already?

It tested at 16.1%. I’m going to test a few suppers Thursday to see if I can pull them. That way I can extract them and put the drawn out suppers back on.

Right now all I have left are frames that have no drawn wax. So they will have to expend a lot of resources to draw them out. I would like to do that later after June so I have them ready for next year.

I’m a metal man so woods not my favorite thing to mess with, I’ll check that one out though. My dad has a 10” Jet he said I can go get so I’ll see how big that one is before I buy anything.

A JET, no brainer there sir lol

That is a great moisture content, I got 16.5 last year in the drought, usually run 18ish.

I'd get drawn what I could while they're willing to draw comb. With the flow you're having, might as well get some drawn, much harder when its a poor run. I'd at least consider mixing a few un-drawn in after you extract a few.

Nice to be in your position tho lol

Yeah. The moisture was low on those suppers. Most likely because some of the frames were overwintered.

Also I believe there are more honey locust trees that are contributing to my abundant nectar flow. That’s may be why it’s so light in color and has a very floral taste.

I’ll definitely put some un-drawn frames mingled with the drawn frames. I’ve been doing that already and they have built out those frames in less than a week

If this flow continues it’s going to be an unbelievable year. I’ve had to check the suppers every 4 days and add boxes each time to one or two of my hives.

The rain in the Wolfe City area has been regular and mostly late day or night. So it’s not interfering with the bees foraging. Not like the past couple of years when we had weeks of rain causing the bees to consume stored honey as they were staying in the hives during the rain.

Look up honey locust, they don't produce much nectar, the "sweetness" is in the seed pod, The black locust is supposed to be a great, yet unreliable nectar source tho. Whatever it is, you got it lol

Moisture has more to do with nectar source, and weather conditions, The dry cold fronts we've been getting, probably helped a ton since nectar is about 75% water. As long as you keep it in sealed buckets, you'll be a bottling fool when its over.

Thumper, 1 tool I got that so far has been the "bees knees"! Track saw, I can break down 4x8 sheets without any help with this set up.

Festool's are top of the line, but I wasn't spending that kind of coin on a saw setup, I went with evolution track saw, also ordered a extra Wen 2 piece track.

https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Power-Tools-R185CCSX-Multi-Material/dp/B07T4CZP31

https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Power-Tools-R185CCSX-Multi-Material/dp/B07T4CZP31

Got into to some very hot bees in Palo Pinto County today, short video the homeowner took as I was gloved up. Bees went after the grand kids next door, ran the dog 1/8 mile down the street. Even bees carrying pollen where stinging, gave up on hiving them and put the hive down as it was in a 8" crawl space under the house. Took about 30 stings to the legs as I went basically for recon, but they had to be dealt with pdq.
Video really doesn't capture the whole thing, there where 1000's of bees out, some trying to get in the house, it was nuts

Dem gals was mad!

Dang. Those bees needed to be culled. Must have been very Africanized strain.

Yeah, they seemed a nice and erthing when I got there, as soon as i bent over to see how they where getting in, they started coming out, Used a shovel to dig dirt out from below the hole to see how deep the siding was and all hell broke loose, all I had was a jacket and gloves as I was just there to evaluate what I'd need to bring back for the removal.

They where beautiful bees and the foragers where carrying some of the largest pockets of pollen I've ever seem, just a shame, but those genetics need to die.

Had a chance to check one of they queens I grafted earlier in the summer. found eggs on the 9th, so looked in to see how she was doing and found 4 frames like this, will need to add another brood box soon as these will fill the box quick when they hatch.

Also got my 3 new cordovan queens from cali Thursday and got them in new boxes. Breeder said the color may have a bit more variance as they have added a hygienic strain this year, should be fantastic bees. Going to check if they where released early, then maybe I can get better photo

Were your queens released? Our requeened pissy hives with Cordovan’s are way calmer already thank goodness.

Yes sir. Put in at noon Thursday and they where all out Sat at noon, found the 3rd as she was laying. I was going to check that Sunday, but chance of rain,

Yep, sometimes all it takes is a good queen and things calm down, they where probably in panic mode when you got them.

The wife’s Flowhives are almost full, their filling the back of the frames now and should be capped in a few days. It’s actually pretty cool being able to watch the progress and how fast they can fill the frames.

Not sure if theses flowers are good sources for the bees. Anyone know if they are

The bees seem to be very busy



[video:youtube][/video]

Ok so I know y’all probably haven’t been really following some of my bee posts except for maybe Western..

But I got a package of bees last April/May.

They were extremely slow to draw out comb and despite my best efforts only got about 5.5 maybe 6 frames drawn before winter. Other than that they seemed fine just a small hive.

They survived coming out of winter but were in bad shape. I did an inspection early spring and had little hope, I didn’t see snd eggs or larvae, very little capped brood and very little supplies. I did a Formic acid treatment for mites.

I had written off the hive pretty much.

Well I kept an eye on them and was still seeing bees after 5-6 weeks so I gave them a super.

With rising temperatures I noticed recently some serious “bearding”

Check on them today and to my surprise they have almost filled the super with honey but it’s not capped.

I added a super, removed entrance reducer and placed nickels under the back of the top box for heat ventilation.

Will this help with the bearding and heat or should I think about a screened bottom board?

Hive is located where it gets morning and afternoon sun but shaded early evening.

Black or Brown eyed Susan, literature says they are a great source of nectar and pollen, but honestly I have never seen a bee on mine. I look throughout the day as some flowers produce early and some late and all I have seen is butterflies. Could be possible my bees prefer to drive further for groceries, but they hit the garden hard and it's 50' away

I use pennies, nickles, but mostly popsicle sticks towards the back side of the hive. I figure the convection when they are fanning outwards will pull air across the center of the hive (theory anyway) Strong hive and you can open it up to a 1/4 " .

Have you confirmed the queen is laying now and you have replacement bees being made? If so, then maybe things have turned around for you. I have had queenless hives and ones with virgins that seem to collect a lot more since they haven't the brood yet to care for. Usually its my virgin/young hives that will do this once they know they have a queen on the job

Thumper, I think you need an observation hive in the living room You'd love that, as long as they don't find a way out to the kitchen!

Whelp….I’m almost done.

Had hoped to be finished before we went on vacation but weather and work didn’t cooperate. Plants are all doing well. Got the stands for the hives done today before the rain hit. Tomorrow I’m installing soaker hoses across the tops of all the raised beds in a loop and then mounting two raised sprinklers on each side of the hives mounting them to the honeysuckle panels. I will put a “Y” with valves to the two system so I can either just soak the raised beds or broadcast water the whole area. It’s taken me a lot longer than I had planned but I like how it’s turned out…. Hope to have bees within the next week or two.

Each stand will hold two hives…



The inside panels have coral honeysuckle and the outside has star jasmine…. Plants are doing well and hopefully will be mostly filled in by the the end of summer…





Part of tomorrow’s irrigation system project….

Finally I am ready for the bees…..

Got soaker hoses over the raised beds and also mounted sprinklers so can water either way…

Looks good

You have everything stocked up to make them happy?

After seeing Bobs observation hive we’ve been looking for somewhere to build one, my wife wanted one in her office but her medical malpractice/liability insurance company didn’t like the idea very much at all but we will have one eventually somewhere around here with a sign that says break glass in case of armed intruders

Good lawd Thumper, think out of the box a little, Them bees are clearly "service bees", tell the ins company you've already ordered the 50k service bee vest...........

How’s everyone’s hives going? We’re about to start harvesting a little honey this week and get a payday to all the stings I endured so far this year

I noticed the they capped most of the frames. And wasn’t putting new nectar in so I pulled 12 suppers yesterday and extracted them today.

I’ll be putting the empty frames out tomorrow for the to clean them out before putting them away. Last year I captured a swarm in the frames when I did this 😊

That’s awesome Steve, how much honey did you get from those 12 supers?

The total was 347lbs. Not all of the suppers were full and I also had 10 frames with wax foundation that I’m going to use for cut comb. First time I’ve done that..

Put the comb honey frames in the freezer for now. I need to order boxes to put 4oz portions in

I had no idea you could do this.

You have to start with wax foundation or let them draw out the comb from a starter strip at the top

I havent hardley went in looking for honey yet, I know I have a few supers rtg, spent so much resources building hives, I don't expect too much.

Great haul Steve, I always just cut the comb to fit in whatever bottle I was using, price is still higher since comb is valuable, I know many like the Ross rounds, but geometrically that seems odd to me lol. I know several places sell the square sets as well

First frame of honey! 14 months in the making. I wasn’t really prepared to take the entire super but couldn’t help myself and just took one frame. So excited!

Looks great. Enjoy the honey 🍯

Brady buck that is awesome and some good looking color, go get the rest before they use it for food in this dearth unless that is your preference.

Beautiful frames of honey!!!

We’ve pulled a little more honey and found a couple today that tasted like citrus and even smelled like it. Any clue where that nectar came from? It’s an extremely light Golden color and I can’t seem to find the source of it. It looks nothing like the other honey we’ve pulled and doesn’t taste like it either. It’s the best tasting honey any of us have ever had and came from 2 hives out in the boonies down in the Red River bottoms. It pretty much tastes like it came straight from orange trees but it has me stumped, any clues?

It’s from locust trees. I get the same type of honey from my hives. Very citrusy and light in color

Your right it does taste similar to orange blossom honey

That would definitely make sense, this area is loaded with Locust tree’s,

Pulled about 80# from 3 yesterday, just a guess on the weight, had to move it in nucs since I'm not supposed to lift 30# or more.

Time to start working out a Mite treatment plan for August! Need clean hives to produce strong winter bees and those damn mites are likely outnumbering bee growth right now. Actually saw a live mite running around on a bottom board, so it's mite wash time for me.

I typically use oxalic acid vapor to treat my hives. I have one of those Lorombbee vaporizers

It takes less than a minute to treat each hive. I’ll treat them every 5 days for 4-5 treatments. I’m up to 19 hives now so this is the most cost effective option for me

I use OA as well, but as many have found, including myself, it has serious limitations at times. I have done the every 3 days for 7 treatments and that was stout. The per box allowed by the epa, has proven half the needed strength according to several universities.

Can't beat OA during low/no brood time in the winter when most mites are out of cells and exposed.

Bees were delivered today! All set up….

Looks great. You may want to consider adding a second brood box to help them manage the heat

Thanks. They have morning and evening sun with afternoon shade. In winter will have sun all day

Better pics off my wife’s phone…..

This is so cool.

That looks awesome Jes!!!!! Good job on the project…..

I started with the glass jar feeders like that and quickly went to buckets up top, when those girls are hitting the syrup they’ll have you filling them every couple days. Something to keep in mind moving forward but I’m just a dumb redneck bee rookie so take that with a grain of salt.

Thank you Sir! This is the hive setup I received from the guy I brought my bees from. They were hitting it pretty hard already. He said inside feeding helps prevent robbing whereas outside feeding can promote it. Still all very new to me and I have a long learning curve to go.

He’s saying that because of the “bearding” (bees collecting outside the hive) like they are in your photo.

That usually means they are having a hard time cooling the hive. Mine were bearding really heavily so I added a super and put nickels between the boxes at the corners on the back end. I will use popsicle sticks next time. They quit bearding completely when I did this.

With regard to feeding. If you’ll add an empty box on top of your inner cover you can put 4 jars of 1:1 sugar water in the hive. Just place 2 1x2 inch boards in there to stand them on upside down. Then of course place your top outer cover on top.

Checked the bee tree we moved to the garden this spring. Thoughts about when we should try to move them into a box?

Building comb outside the tree…

Also considering putting a piece of R panel over the tree and strap it down to the frame to give them more shelter

I’d attempt to get them in a box as soon as possible myself so they can be cared for properly and easier to maintain. I’ve learned a lot of hard valuable lessons this year already and the number one thing being pest/varmint control. I’m sure somebody with a lot more knowledge than me will chime in but the comb outside the tree will eventually be a target for a skunk and they’ll need to be treated for mites eventually since those things are a pain in the rear.

If you can place a hive with an interior feeder on the frame the tree is on,or very close, use a piece of wood for a bridge from the old to new. They will possibly move in if it's a better home. Or raise a queen and swarm. I'm thinking you don't have filled out frames to spare yet, but the foundation wax will kick in the instinct to build comb.
They can fly of course, but a bridge to walk may move them like a swarm does when the queen is hived.
I had fourteen hives at one time, decades ago. Mites weren't as prevalent then. My job started taking up all of my time, so the bees went to a better home.

Looks awesome Jess and welcome to the bee money pit amigo!

Would agree with the fellas on the feeders, 1 gal buckets are easier to maintain, just clean out the mold when you refill. 1 tbsp of bleach per gal of syrup will help with mold buildup. I have some hives on qt jars (small hives) and most on 1 gal buckets with seal-able lids. You want to get 2" or so top lid plugs, the use 2" commercial screen feed holes, or tint plugs (ones used in 5 gal paint buckets). Ste up this way you dont have to remove the lids to fill or clean, just pull the plugs, removing the lids every week and the seal will wear out.
Your guy did you good with the holes offset as well, most of mine are, this is to keep over fill, or over drip from running down where the queen and brood generally is, hive centerish.

And don't assume they are mite free, because they are not, so keep that in mind.

I like the idea of adding a box, just remember we are in the tail end of the season, they may not be as inclined to expand, but you can encourage it by feeding pollen patties and 1;1 syrup for some time. Generally we feed 2;1 late to allow them to store up resources for over winter get it dried and capped before cold weather, just need the right aged bees to produce enough wax.

If they are 80% built out, and building, they need another box, you're kind of in a tricky time of year, Bees generally do better a bit crowded as well, so 80% is the general rule you will hear. You can always down size going in to fall if you feel they will do better.

As far as the hive in the tree, I'd already have cut them out. did the same thing at a custom log home builders lot, they had bees in bull mesquite that they had trucked in from sw texas. Cut wide and just work thru it slowly looking for the queen or sign of her, they will ball up or congregate around her. Have a box set and ready to go, carefully cut the brood comb, and place it in an empty frame and use large rubber bands to hold it in, make sure they are orientated the same way they where, cells are slightly angled up. Comb with honey you can place in a clean bucket and keep for yourself

Shake as many bees as you can in with the brood combs you've placed in the new hive, if all the bees focused on the set up, you likly have the queen in the box, if not, look for congregating bees and pick up as many as you can gently and drop them in.

This time of year tho, you may start robbing frenzy and those bees may be a tad defensive, so smok'em like hell and move calmly as possible.

Make sure to make a video!

Sorry for the long response

jess, pollen patties wouldn't hurt if you want buildup and pollen dearth is there, it is here already. Just use small amounts at a time and monitor for hive beetles. You can note a short supply of pollen when looking thru the hives,

Open feeding Mann lake Ultra bee pollen sub in coffee cans, they are taking about 3lbs a day as all sources here are burned up. Trying to replaced numbers and getting ready to build strong winter bees soon.

“Mites Lives Don’t Matter”

Found bee’s with 2-3 mites per bee and we’re at war currently.. Any and all hives coming in will get treated upon arrival no questions asked moving forward.

Dang Thumper, I'd be on that like all those saying say! lol

I'd OA them and consider apivar rx asap since the heat is so high Apivar isn't cheap, but either is what you've invested.

Put fresh water out for my girls this morning…. They hit it hard all day long

Diatomaceous earth is good for ants, small hive beetles, and other insects.

Pelleted lime or just lime is good for small hive beetles. It changes Ph of soil and disrupts their life cycle.

Swiffer sheets - cut into 4 equal squares. Place in top corners of hive box. Great for controlling SHB's.

A mixture of Crisco "white grease" - 3 pound can, diatomaceous earth - 1 cup, few drops of eucalyptus essential oil, and a few drops of any food coloring is good for SHB's in the hive. Mix until uniform color. That's what the food coloring is for. Ensures good mix. Place in back corners of hive box - top and bottom.

Peppermint candies are reported to be good for control of SHB's as well.

SHB entrance guards work well for SHB's. But not cheap - $10.00 each

Beetle Buster Traps work well for SHB's. About $2.00 each online. Fill trap 1/4 to 1/3 with vegetable oil and some apple cider vinegar.

Wax moths - not much can be done. I set up one of those bug lights to help control them.

*** Strong healthy hives should NOT ever have issues with SHB's , Wax Moths , Varroa Mites , etc.

*** Ukrainian scientists have found that bees fed micro doses of Lithium are very effective on Varroa mites. But don't eat the honey!

*** They also found that Deep UV exposure , ~245nm , has been very effective. Kind of like a sunburn for the bees, but kills the mites.

Problem with Diatomaceous earth is you have to stay on top of it, it rains, better put out more, Have used it for years tho at various times, heck, the wife and I drank it each morning for a time with water or orange juice.

keeping your hives out of the shade helps as much as anything I've tried, last year the HB where thick, I've seen 6 so far this year across 17 hives.

Best, easiest thing I've ever used is swiffer sheets cut in half, then fold each half once and place on the short ends.

Know a lot use the beetle blaster with success and they are easy to use

yep.........my sister has about 25 or 30 hives and moved them to half a day shade................and a mister system some yards away. She says it doubled production..........but I dont know chit about bees.

I am thankful yall do this though................oh and my god she has the wildflowers on about 20 acres...........its really pretty to watch them and all the other polloinators and birds

Any you guys have any interest in a few cheap USED frames" , since I'm switching to mostly plastic foundation, I have a bunch. They work super good if you have one or tow to help keep comb from being built willy nilly, when they want to make drone brood. They will fill these with drone brood early and fill with honey later in year.
Most are wired and have the right bar at the top, some may have popsicle sticks up top as a guide. You'll want the hive pretty level tho.

I'm also considering making some nucs next spring if anyone may be interested.

I am planning on ordering Cordovan's where I have been getting them for years, I can raise my own, but there is a propensity for them to be HOT when open bred here. These cordovans are stupid calm. If any interest, or questions, just post.

Also think I have some new, un- assembled foundation-less frames, can't get them anymore like these since Mann lake bought out Kelly, they have the top bar cut for comb making would have to charge for these a couple bucks.

You know I’m in, just make sure their not a mite breeding farm

Ok Thumper, I'm thinking of doing 10 or so if anyone may be interested, could be a few more depending on resources I have. I'll post a link below where I get my Cordovans, yall may want it for your own use as well, remember they added hygienic strain this year so color may vary somewhat, I'll try to get some photos of the 3 I got from her this year, so you can see the color range. btw, hygienic is a good trait and a positive thing they have added to their cordovans.

Right now I'm thinking for thf and as long as folks wont mind possible a couple foundationless frames, around $150 your box to $175 with ez nuc box, but haven't worked it all out yet

Great folks and have one of the most isolated yards I'm aware of with cordovans, good when open bred imo.

http://www.pendellapiaries.com/

Popped the lids for the first time today. Had planned on doing it a couple weeks ago but started a new job a little over a month ago and been working 12-14 hours/day six days a week. Finally got a break this weekend and catching up on overdue projects/chores.

Did a basic inspection and added a couple Apivar Varroa Mite Treatment strips in each hive. Only pulled 3-4 frames from each hive and still found two of the six queens not really looking for them. Couple of hives had only drawn out and we’re using a couple more frames. One was doing really well with 9 1/2 frames and the rest were between 7-8 and just beginning to draw out comb on the last couple frames.

Plan to hold off adding a second brood box until next spring. Got too late of a start this summer combined with this heat slowed them down I think.

Still feeding sugar water every couple days and just added an Ultra Bee Protein pollen substitute feeding station.

Had someone here suggest that I put a ratchet strap over the hives to keep coons from opening them up trying to get the honey.

Thoughts?

Made two feeding stations….didn’t take them long to fine them. Anyone had a problem with coons, opossums, or deer bothering the pollen feeders? I put one on the side of the well house and another one the grape panels.

Jess, as far as straps, only reason I know some use them is to keep the lid down in high winds, I have had lids blown off twice in about 10 years here. I'm also not directly out in the open,

I have had coons, skunks, possums and a fox investigate my hives, caught the fox in a live trap and let him go. possums tried pulling the bottom plastics from the hives with screened bottoms, took care of that with the trap as well. Most the rest seem to clean up dead bees in front of the hives according to my TC, Skunks are probably known as the worst, as they will dry to get live bees at the entrance

My pollen buckets sit on the ground half the time and I've never had a problem with anything but ants a few times.

Only animal I've heard consistently taking lids off hives from other beeks is bears and they tear up the whole hive.

Have you guys ever had any issues with hogs? I have had a few that pass by my hives. They don't appear to be concerned with the hives but wondering if that changes when the hives all start getting full of honey.

I've got plenty of hogs at my place and have never had them ever mess with the hives.

I put a full red solo cup in each feeding station. By 3pm both were almost empty. Tomorrow morning I’ll put two cups in each….

Have them come through here, never had an issue, but can see the potential. Never heard on forums of them being a problem for others either.

SW, mine go through about 1-2 qts per day, to day and a half. Might want to monitor the feed stations combined with the hives and confirm you aren't feeding someone else's bees. I have had that happen several times and it can get expensive with less benefit.

I have mixed the sub into patties for inside the hive when I have strong pressure from outside bees.


Couple of notes,
Bees will generally store open fed pollen sub as they do natural pollen, pollen patties inside the hive get eaten as is and not stored

Right now our bees should be working towards making winter bees, so good nutrition and mite control, will go a long way in building a good over wintering hive

Harvested honey from two frames and got about 2.5 quarts. Honey is unbelievably good tasting. I did see a couple small hive beetles and orders the beetle blaster traps. Any advice on controlling SHBs?

Putting hives in full sun for most of the day helps a ton with SHB. Beetle blasters are common as well, I have used unscented swiffer sweepersheets with good results, that too is also very common. I cut one in half and fold it once, then place in a corner, front, or back. Bees will chase the shb in and the shb get caught up in the fine threads. Few bees get lost in the sheets is my experience.

I sure hated having to leave this massive hive to its demise because it was an extremely large hive with very gentle bee’s but I simply didn’t have time to mess with them on Friday. We’ve found 6 hives in the last week outside Melissa and collected all of them but this one. If anyone local wants any more we find shoot me a message.

Shoot Thumper, wish I was closer, I'd have just taken the stump portion with the hive until I had time to hive them

What Western said works! Back corners are best for some reason. Some add peppermint candies in the back corners. Swiffer sheets are best.

Trying get the ladies weight up for winter. ( When would you ever say that outside of bee keeping?)

Took a frame and a half of honey off my hive this fall and check out the difference in color. The flavors are just as different.

Fall(dark) Spring(light)

I wasn’t sure I liked the Fall honey but now I like more than the spring. The spring honey is very sweet and light while the Fall has a much stronger flavor that’s kind of hard to describe. When I first tasted it, it was very pungent. A little research said it could be from a number of different plants and most people leave it for the bees while others specifically want it and sell it.

After I took the entire 1.5 frames it actually didn’t keep that same original flavor I got from that first taste in that one spot .

While it has a stronger flavor it doesn’t taste sour or off putting. It’s very very good and I prefer it over the spring honey but both are amazing.

Interesting.

Bought 14 hives back in October. Been waiting for cold dry weather to move them. Got it done this morning

My late honey is always like that, in every aspect. Richer flavor and real unique when the horse mint is heavy

That's awesome Jess!!

Only thing I would suggest is trying to get all your hives in a common set up, meaning, to cut down on frame complications, would be easier to have brood in either all deep boxes and use the mediums for honey production. It's your call and will take some doing with that arraignment, but it will make your life much easier. Also will aid when you go to extract.

Most folks use a double deep set up for brood, some use a deep and 1 medium, then top with medium supers. Just seams easier to me when working in brood, or working supers, to be using a common frame when you may be swapping some for others.

In any event, good luck with your endeavor and keep it fun!!

Thank you Sir!

Planning to move every one to a two deep brood box with queen eliminator then 1-3 honey supers always leaving one for the hives use.

That is a great plan and will serve you well. You only need the queen excluder when using a super, or when you may want to isolate the queen to a box for some reason like doing an easy split.

I also would consider letting them store what fall honey they need to fill the nest, they will pull their overwinter resources from that allowing you to pull all honey supers for extraction.
If in winter and when they are in a tight ball, you could have 50 filled supers over them and they wouldn't be able to get to it, this can even happen if they are a frame or 2 away in the brood nest. In the fall they should be storing reserves and that is why many feed heavy syrup to help build overwinter reserves. If you get a fall feeding regimen down, they should be able to store most of what they need, then sometime after Christmas, Jan-March, on nice days, you can do a fast check and see who is light and who is fine and feed the ones that need it, worst times for starvation is generally early spring when they start brooding up, they will burn thru enough food you'd think you're raising 10 high school kids lol.

Fun thing is you can do various things as you go until you find what works for Jess and the Mrs. Bee's are pretty resilient and what works for you down there, will be a bit different then what may work here, or any where else in the world, the fundamentals are always the same though. Sometimes, less is more.

Going to have some nice inspection weather this week if anyone needs to do a checkup, hopefully the winds stay low.

I think I will make a quick look-see to check stores so I have a idea where I am headed into Spring. May even be a good time to do an OA rx if you didn't treat yet, heavy Varroa could really be putting a strain on bees by now left un-monitored.

Hello all, I have been seriously looking at getting a couple of Honey Flow setups for the backyard. You guys have way more knowledge than myself, is this a good setup for a first timer? Any input would be helpful, Thanks again.

Todd

Most people say they suck but the wife has a few Flow Hives and I think they’re pretty cool. You definitely still have to know how to take care of the bees but the harvest is idiot proof. Shoot me a text if you have any questions,

I will pick your brain at lunch on Wed, lol. I appreciate it buddy

Thumper, why splain it in secret?

I think most see them as a novelty, easy enough to Google reviews. IMO, you can get 2 hives and most of the equipment you need to start out for what 1 FH cost, not the Chinese knock offs, but the true Australian brand, if you get American foul brood, it will suck watching a grande burn in a fire pit!.I will digress to Thumper since they have some actual dealings with them tho.

In the end, it's whatever you feel up to, as Thumper said, it is still beekeeping and can be a fun hobby.

Well, my bees are bringing in a white pollen, way early and not sure what it is, possibly Juniper is all I can figure. Anyone else seeing pollen?

This is about 3-4 weeks early for here I believe, which means they will open the nursery early, so a need to really keep an eye on stores to avoid a starvation event. I guess I need to get out and look over the cedars and see if that is the source, usually its ash and juniper early around late Feb when weather is moderate.

Wasn't really expecting it, but bees look good thus far and ready to work.

I appreciate the feedback, I was looking at the genuine one. Seems pretty slick and would be easy to maintain for the backyard. Of course I am a first timer and it seems I have a bunch of research to do, thanks everyone again.

Westerns been stung in the head to many times so take that for what it’s worth He was texting me today giving me a hard time so I’m returning the favor lol He’s a solid source of information and has helped me on several occasions.

Honestly you just have to learn how to take care of the bee’s and the hive type really doesn’t but the Flow Hive types are pretty cool being able to taste the actual honey from different types of flowers and it’s not all blended together. We’ve got them as well as standard hives but if kids are involved the Flowhives are pretty educational being able to actually see the progress of bee’s filling the frames. It’s simply a learning process like anything else filled with ups and downs but well worth it in my opinion.

Don't tell thumper, but working on a plan to turn his wife exterior office walls into observation hives, will put his signature on it of course

Todd, you're doing the right thing, those are expensive and have a few more details to deal with, Thumper can give you advise, along with what you find online from other beeks. I would strongly advise going with no less than 2 hives though. Sharing resource (healthy hives only) will happen and having another to use may keep one from dying out, or getting way behind.

If "its "cute" for the yard is what you're after, there are quite a few fancy hives online, exterior isn't as important as the interior.

Good luck with what ever you do, it can be frustrating at times, but it is a fascinating thing working and watching bee's.

Ask thumper for his bee supplier info from one source

Any of you still in the bee bidness? Spring is around the corner!!

Well, Just what I thought. Went thru 8 hives and all but one going gang busters. 1 hive in particular already has drone brood, will likely have to knock that one back soon. 3 I found short of food. Next 6-8 weeks is when most hives die of starvation and I will have to get on it.

Several colors of pollen being stored, white, orange and red. Probably juniper elms and henbit

Most hives easy to work, great weather today.

In case one of you are interested.

Wont get my Cordovan queens until May 9-10th, so if any of y'all are interested in a nuc in late Spring, I will be putting 5 together.

So far this early Spring is looking good, actually getting some rain, so hopefully the nectar flows good for everyone.

Anybody have any bee updates? I had to euthanize my first hive recently but other than those evil bastids the rest are doing really well. The first harvest should be pretty early this year as well

Guess it's you and me Thumper lol

Bees have been busy

I kind of got sidetracked with some chickens, lol. Bees are still def on the radar though

Been planting an acre in wildflowers and fruit trees…..

Bees seem to be doing ok. Did loose a couple of hives over the winter.

Jess, find out why you lost those hives? You didn't have them very long

I think I got them started too late and they weren’t strong enough to make it through the winter.

A couple were weak going into fall even with feeding.

They should have been fine, could have been lack of food, or likely mite related. You can do a mite wash when that happens, good to rule mites in, or out, so you know if checking other hives is warranted.

I'm' in the middle of doing the same thing. Bought a late summer queen last fall from the only place that still had stock, I knew it could be a gamble. Over the last month of a few minor inspections, this hive got hotter each visit, culled all the drone brood about a month ago hoping to buy time and see if the attitude got better and not letting the drones spread a mean gene around.

Went out to check openings since it is getting warmer and those bishes lite me up, dealt with them all the rest of the day anywhere within 300', they tagged me about 20 times, stung Bella when she was on the porch, then the last straw was the wife getting tagged when she got home. Today, dry ice is on the menu...