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.