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