She's beautiful!

I hope, with the changes we are making, that I might can take you up on your offer of a queen or two to try down here, one day soon.

Bees do not draw out new comb once the days start getting shorter, unless you artificially encourage them to do so, with the correct sugar-water ratio, from all that I have understood.

Tell us about the timing of your issues...has it been midsummer or later?

I'm not even going to offer anything but encouragement, because y'all's  seasons are so different.  I understand, out there in the desert, that winter is a good time.

Here, I would tell you that you should not find much, if any, larvae this late in the season.  But this may not be "late" in the season for you.

What lovely honey!

I wish I could taste it.  If I'm ever coming through your area, I will ask to buy some.

 Never heard of such a thing!

I love dragonflies, but did not know they would predate honeybees.

Wow.

That's very cool.  

Sorry for the string of responses, y'all.  I've been away and am trying to catch up.

 Thank you!

Wow.  Never even thought about this.

Crap, now I will be praying for the beehives in the paths of hurricanes.

ETA:  I feel like I would want my hive anchored somehow beyond the augers.  They would be top heavy on those cinderblocks.  Dang.

Then again, the only augers I've experienced are the ones that are for dog tiedowns.  They didn't last long with our dogs, especially in rain-soaked ground.

will you tell what your instructions are, for others who might be in this position?  Comb honey is very popular here, but a lot of younger people don't understand it.

That's amazing.

In my experience, people chew the comb, but don't actually eat it, usually.

Is that what's happening here?

Or are people eating the comb in those upscale restaurants?

Awesome post!  Thank you Frank!

That always makes me kinda sad.  

That's a great testimony for good hive placement and management for particular weather.

If it's raw honey, it will crystallize relatively quickly no matter the container.

BUT your honey is not diminished in quality.  That's what it's designed to do.  It's how there was viable, healthy honey (thousands of years old) found in the pyramids in Egypt.

Just warm it gently (set it in sunlight is the best way).

You can put a pot of water on the stove on very low heat (warm level) and put the honey jar in there.  Very slowly let it warm and it will be liquid again. No loss of value.

If you heat it fast and hard, you will lose the valuable antibacterial and immune-building components of the honey.*  But very slow, gentle warming won't damage it.

*Some folks who heat their honey in advance, to prevent crystalization, will argue with this reasoning.

Yes.  We do what we can, where we are, to save the small beings in the world, so they can then save us.

You are going to have to jump in.  It's how you learn.

I actually started out using Boardman feeders....that's the hated feeder on the front of the hive that holds a fruit jar of sugar water.

Now anybody who uses those gets told "Nooooooo!!!! So BAAAAAADDDDD!!!"  Because they are supposed to encourage robbing and I think they probably DO.  They just didn't encourage robbing for me, since I kept my hive entrance closed down tight, kept the small opening on the opposite end of the porch from the feeder, and I was, probably, very, very lucky.   However, everybody around me used Boardman feeders at that time.

My other methods have been plastic baggies with slits (this was in an emergency situation and my bees didn't much like it, but it got them through) and a feeder that sat on the top bars inside an extra deep body that was placed on top of the stack.  It was a fruit jar of sugar water with some very small holes poked in the lid.  The size of the hole is pretty specific.  A six-penny nail maybe?  Three-penny?  Crap.  I can't remember.  (I'm sorry I can't remember exactly--but too small and the sugar water won't flow, too big and it runs out.)  This worked well, but it did result in a lot of extra crazy-wild comb in the extra available space that I had to clean up (not a hardship, since that went on my toast at breakfast for a few weeks ).

I have never used the frame-style feeders, because at the time I started, they were poorly designed and mostly good for drowning a lot of bees.   There have been many improvements since then. (I have no bees right now because I lost all my hives and have not re-started).

If I were looking at feeders now, I would go for a style of feeder that goes inside the hive (even in an extra box if necessary) and that is designed so it drowns as few bees as possible.

IMPORTANT! :Don't let feeder perfection stop you from ordering your bees.  You will NEVER hit everything perfect.  Here's why.

If you've read much of this thread, you will see that I tell new beekeepers, "Ask ten beekeepers, you'll get eleven answers."  There's a reason for that.

The reason for that is that when you take into account microclimates (from one bee yard to another, and even from the front of the apiary to the back, in some instances), beekeeping styles, races of honeybees involved, macroclimates, weather in any given year, temperament and habits of the beekeeper, and OH YEAH.....temperament, tendency to thrive, and attitude of any given group of bees (they are all individuals, sort of, so don't forget that) nobody, and I mean NOBODY IS BEEKEEPING IN THE SAME EXACT SITUATION.

Now then, you should pay a LOT of attention to the science of beekeeping.  But the "art" of beekeeping...reread.that graph above...that's where the "art" part comes in, and where paying attention, and getting help from a mentor will make all the difference in the world.  Analytical types have a lot of trouble, sometimes, with that art part.

Some of the stuff that works for your beekeeping mentor who lives down the road probably will NOT work for you.  That's normal.

Beekeeping is NOT all science.  It never will be.  I believe that with my whole soul, and I am a scientist at least in part.  Every bee colony is its own little culture.  And every beekeeper interacts with his/her group of cultures differently.  The only way to learn is to start, and figure it out for yourself.  You will never get it perfect, but you can get it really, really right.

I know that's not a lot of help.   Hopefully @cuttingedge , @Dux4Life and some others will be along shortly to recommend some of the new feeders by name.

That's pretty honey!  What's the flavor like?  I don't know about Mangrove, though I have always heard of it.

Aww, I'm sad to hear this.  I got some cypress woodenware from them at one time.  A garden hive and a solar wax melter, and they were once the ONLY source of small-cell wax foundation.

@CWO do you know why they closed?

Oh no.  Kelley is my supplier, and I loved that they were local.

I don't even HOPE that it will feel the same when I walk in there.

Not saying MannLake is less than excellent.  Just that competition is a GOOD thing, and local knowledge is best, and...well, darn. I loved the Walter T Kelley Comany.

Okay we need a local Kentucky beekeeper to start a company!

ETA:  I think we still have a Dadant branch in Lexington....unless I've missed something.  And I might well have missed something.