The covers will be angled under the eave of the top cover on the center box. The bees will propolis the seam along the cover. I would probably use a piece of shingle underneath the covers and possible some HVAC tape along the seam.

Does that peak cover the top board, or is the space under it open to the hive? I'm concerned... I was always told that plywood should not be used in a hive, because it contains formaldehyde. I'm building a plywood precipitation-protection peak: there will be (some) ventilation between the top board and the peak to allow outgassing from the plywood to escape.

It is not open to the hive. They would for sure place a lot of burr comb in that space if it was available to them. Just an FYI, I have seen plenty of people build things out of plywood for their bees with no ill effects. Many people use plywood Nucs as well as temporary top covers with feeder jars installed. A lot of my Nucs have OSB bottom boards as well as migratory tops.

I just accepted what I'd heard... d'oh... but you're right,  bees will make hives in most any kind of structure without apparent ill effects.
I'm interested in your design, too.

It just occurred to me that most of my inner covers (purchased from Brushy Mountain, Mann Lake) are mostly constructed of plywood. Our locally produced inner covers (Humble Abodes) have Tempered Hardboard instead of plywood. I would imagine that interior grade plywood is GTG. Pressure treated is another story. Once my "Ultimate Hive Cover" is finished and tested, I will share how it works...

Well crap.  

Temperatures got up above feeezing and I went to give both hives some fondant.  The Nuc I bought last spring that was sourced out of Alabama died.  The tiny ball of bees that absconded in September are fine.  

This was exactly the opposite of my fears. I expected the Ohio bees to be struggling and the Nuc with 50 pounds of honey to be fine.  

I moved one super of honey over to the live hive from the dead one.  

I'm going to buy a Nuc from here for the spring.  No more southern bees for Ohio.  http://northernbeenetwork.org/

Sorry to hear that. I have a few questions if you don't mind. What where the cluster sizes in early/ late fall like? What did you do to prepare them for winter? What were the Mite Loads like? What treatments have you used and when? That is a cool website that you listed. I may have to become a vendor for Nucs and Queens on there.

I installed mouse guards to keep out the winter winds.  I added fondant above the brood to supplement the honey. The absconded hive was the size of a basketball with no honey to speak of in September when they left a whisky barrel on my porch. They just showed up 5 years ago.  No mites that I saw. I did get some hive beetles. I used oil traps to get rid of them catching perhaps 20 in each hive. The Ohio hive shrank quickly to slightly bigger than a softball.  

The Alabama hive was healthy and thriving until the cold snap.  It got down to 7 above.  They had no mites I saw. They had made at least 50 pounds of honey. I didn't rob the hive as it was a new Nuc this spring. I added fondant and beetle traps and only caught a few.  

I did move 40 pounds of honey over to the Ohio hive. I also added a big fondant cake.

how are you monitoring for Varroa? You said that you didn't see any. Are you using alcohol or a powdered sugar test?

No I just opened the hive and look.  I see no mites and the Ohio hive has a screen bottom. There are no dead mites there in the tray.

I'm new at trying to keep bees.  The Ohio hive lived in a whisky barrel on the porch. Not much you could do.

It's been pretty quiet in here lately. Anyone got their plans together for the upcoming season? I have been real busy planning and getting equipment ready. I also have on order 5 Queens from a highly respected beekeeper in Northern New York to add to my stock and create some more diversity in my apiary for breeding purposes.

Having two or more hives is always a good idea. It helps to have resources to draw from. We started the first year with two and split one giving us two and one Nuc going into our first winter. Unfortunately we lost them all. Now we have 11 and hope to make it through with at least 60%. I have the woodenware to increase to 20 production hives and 25-30 Nucs. hopefully I can fill almost all of them next season.

So after a delay of a couple of years (I may have even posted earlier in this thread about starting beekeeping), I finally asked for a hive kit for Christmas. Santa delivered! I have also signed up for a local bee school and plan on adding another hive setup before spring.

Awesome. Do you have plans to join a local bee club? It would be great if you could find a local mentor.

Yes, I have joined my county's beekeeper association: Plymouth County Beekeepers. Their school starts on 01/12. In the next few weeks the group will place orders for packages from Wilbanks Apiaries in Georgia. They have been getting the bees from them for the last 20 years.

I would ask around at your beeclub and see if any of the members will have 5 frame nucleus hives for sale. They are a little more expensive than packages but they do have their advantages. Either way we are here to help and welcome to an addicting hobby that has many benefits.

Question, I have a sloped backyard which gets perfect morning sun and is an ideal place for a hive. Would it be wise to dig and area out to flatten and set a hive or should I get another location in mind.

You'll want to level it out or build a hive stand on the slope that makes it level.  The bees will naturally want to build their comb plum.  They will likely build weird comb if the boxes aren't close to plumb & level.  I keep mine tipping forward slightly hoping it manages condensation build up a little bit better than just having it randomly dripping on the bees and frames.  

I have a few questions for all of those that sell honey, bees and or equipment. Do you have a business/ apiary name? How do you advertise? Do you sell from your house? Anybody have products in stores?
We are thinking about taking this hobby to the next level and are going to be selling some equipment, Bees/ Queens as well as products from the hives (Lotion, Lip balms and some specialty honey). Any ideas on advertising would be greatly appreciated.

1. I did come up with a business name simply because I did register as a business.  Way to many sales on ebay/craigslist to hide.  Also allows me to buy materials at wholesale/tax exempt.

2. I sell from my house and build in my garage.  Sometimes I deliver if close/convenient/or large enough order.

3. I advertise on EBAY and CRAIGSLIST.  Need to finish my FACEBOOK page to reflect my items for sale.

4. I have several places that sell my honey that offered to display my hives and they would take orders or hand out my information.

Best is word of mouth.  Also I got a call from AMAZON last summer as they must scan ebay.  They wanted me to list on their site even though I suspended my EBAY ad.  I told them no-thanks.

Be ready to deal with people.  The face to face locals are great.  The internet...not so much.  I just re-opened my ebay store and the orders are starting.  I'm also getting calls from the craigslist ad.  

Do something no one else offers if you want to be successful.  You CANNOT compete with the large box internet stores that offer free shipping.  
1. For internet sales my thing is much much better quality.  I dovetail all of my joints in the boxes/tops/bottoms.  I also dado all of the bottom components instead of using multiple pieces assembled for the same component. All of my items have the joints sanded twice and then sealed with a sealer.  Then I spray them with a primer/sealer and 2 coats of exterior paint.  This makes for a real nice finish.  My joints stay sealed and do not give rot the opportunity to start.
2. For local sales I emphasize the above quality thing plus personal contact.  Each newbie that buys from me gets a 30 minute talk about the components( what they do/why they are there/how they work).  They also get my phone number for future questions. We also do an inspection on a local hive I keep in the yard for them to see what to look for.
3. For my nucs I have been giving a 1 year guarantee for the few customers that live very close(10-15 miles) if they let me do inspections and the follow my instructions.  

I have as class to help instruct next week Saturday and will be bringing in my hive components to go through with the new students.  Probable will generate a few sales there to.  

I also stand behind my products.  I don't give a life span per se but if a customer tells me that they had a box get bad earlier then they felt I will give them a new one without question.  I replaced a box last year but the customer has bought $3000 plus over the past couple years.  He simply said that he had a box getting bad on the bottom while he was out picking up another order and I gave him one with no questions asked.

I also am kind generous with freebies that don't cost much. My latest thing is buy 10 of anything and they get 1 free of that item.  

Post GOOD pictures in your ad. I still have the early crappy pics in my ads.  They don't show any of the updates or changes I have done over the years.  For example I noticed that a lot of the bottoms rot out where they sit on the concrete blocks over time.  I now nail 4 nylon feet that are 1/4" thick on the bottom and this keeps the bottom board from sitting on wet concrete year round. I tell people this when they buy but it is not on my ad.  It also helps to offer to build custom.. I get several orders each year for 8 frame stuff or something somebody saw somewhere.  Plus if its a good idea you may be able to incorporate the item in your inventory.

This is an example of the difference between my boxes and the ones from the box store. Attached File

DUX, thanks for taking the time to give out all of that information. It is very much appreciated. I am a little apprehensive about selling on eBay, Amazon yet but will consider it in the future. My main goal would be to sell locally at first especially with the bees and woodenware. The Lip Balms, Lotions and Specialty Honey will probably be sold locally as well in natural food stores but we will eventually sell through our website (yet to be developed). Craigslist will probably be good for selling bees and some woodenware so I will post our add soon. Our articles of incorporation just cleared with the state so we are "official" now I have spoken with a board member of a neighboring bee club about selling Nucs and Queens and he stated that their normal supplier is already sold out. He told me to let him know when I was ready to get the word out a out selling Nucs and he will send people our way. He thinks that I should be able to sell out really quick.

Has anybody checked on their hives lately?
The weather here has changed significantly over the last 48 hours as it went from well below freezing to almost 50 degrees today.
I did a quick check down by the hives today and everyone was doing cleansing flights. The most active were all of my Nucs. Some of the bigger hives did not display as much activity. This is great news as this time last year, they were all dead. I know not to count on anything but am hopeful that most if not all of them make it. That would be great for me!

We must be on the same page as the hives I lost last winter were also gone by now.  I am hoping the mite treatments this year will be the remedy.  Many people around here are finding starved out hives.  I got scared and made more sugar cakes for the candy boards.  I felt that I had more than enough food in each hive but then felt that was being too cocky and didn't want to lose any hives to carelessness.

HobbitWife says that when the temps get above about 50 degrees, she sees a few bees buzzing around. Proof of life, at least!

 I hope that you are right and Mite treatments are the remedy. I was definitely on top of them this year. I just like you made extra Candy just in case but as of now have not had to use it. They all have a lot of it left. I am hoping for a brief warm-up in February when I will top them off with candy just for peace of mind.

Thats good news

Speaking of cold...We have had temps in the -20's, horrible winds and much snow this year, has anyone built an A frame type structure or open shed for their hives? Or, do those in extreme elements use other types of cover?

I'm in the process of building an A-shaped cover for my flat-topped top bar hive. Life keeps interfering with my plans however. HobbitWife has had severe pain from her auto accident, and a few days ago gave us a scare when she presented with heart-attack symptoms, mostly pain in jaw and racing heartbeat.

It wasn't a heart attack but an Atrial Fibrillation, which, while LOTS less significant than a coronary, presents its own problems.

So I will post pics when the "tent" is done.

I hope your Wife is feeling better.

Went last night to the Bee School expecting a couple dozen people. The count on deck was 134!

Wow, that's a good attendance!

She's much better, thanks. Took her to the ER (for the 2nd time) and they got her taken care of.

That's about what happens when our local master beekeeper holds a seminar! HUGE turnout and interest. $10 per person, plus you bring a dessert or entree.

Ah, thank you for the reply. I bought the lumber to start prior to this winter but, we got hammered and it will have to wait for the permafrost to melt.
Hoping the best for Mrs HobbitWife!

DUX, do you sell Nucleus hives? If so, how are you setting them up? Are you letting them make their own queen or introducing a cell/ mated queen? Approximately how long after setting them up are they ready for you to sell them?

Last year I took the queen out of the hive when I made the nucs.  Then the mother hive made a new queen.  I didn't like my results.  This year I am taking appropriate age brood out of the mother hive and letting the NUC make a new queen.  I don't remember how long it took for the nucs to be ready but I KNOW they were ready before I was.  They over populated the nuc in no time and there were days I had 3 swarms per day in my nuc yard.  
I believe the  mother hive will make a better queen than a nuc due to the fact it has more resources.  However the nuc yards that I have planned are 1/2 mile apart and I should have 50-75 nucs at each yard when they are at peak capacity.  This way I can check to make sure that all of the nucs have requeened themselves properly.  That should give me a great drone count in the area also, with better probability of the genetics I want(when I get the bees I want).
I will do another round of splits after the summer solstice and plan to take the queen out of the mother hive for that round.  
1. The mother hive gets a brood break in late summer when nothing is going on.
2. The population can decline for the 30 day period without harm.
3. The mother hive gets a fresh queen for winter.

Just a tweak on Mel's idea to see how it works.

We have a beginning beekeepers class coming up Saturday.  I am teaching the equipment block.  

Cutting Edge, How much are you charging for your nucs?  I went with $150.  I think they are up to $175 around here.

Going into my 3rd season with bees.  Started with one package and have built via a couple swarm captures and one trap-out to 4 hives.  I just found the other smaller beekeeping thread. I have not read through this monster.  I am posting this hopefully as some help to those struggling with SHB.  I read all of the old timers comments about keeping in direct sunlight and oil traps, etc.  I put these shims on 2 of my hives last summer and left the other 2 without.  By Halloween the 2 hives with shims were completely devoid of any SHB period.  I have zero interest other than happy customer.  If these can help you out, that is why I posted.  If already covered my apologies.

Clarks Beetle Blocker Shim

Thanks for the info,
Letting the parent or "Mother Hive" make their own queen usually works out pretty good. As you stated they have the most resources of young nurse bees as well as nectar and pollen. If given a frame of the appropriate aged larvae, they should produce the most viable and desirable cells. All of the early splits that I made last year, I let the Nucs make their own queens. Timing is very important as you need to have a good drone population as well as decent weather. Too cold and brood gets chilled. All of my summer splits got mated queens that I purchased specifically for genetic diversity. One or more of those will be this years breeder queen(s). I also have queens on order from Michael Palmer in NY and i have a friend up here that breeds Russians but has a few Buckfast queens that he got last year. He and I will be trading cells this year to increase the genetic diversity in our programs. I was thinking for my first round of Nucs to sell, I would be splitting up my over-wintered Nucs and letting the daughter colonies make their own queens. Once they start taking off, the weather should be getting warm enough for grafting and I can start a batch of cells for my second round of Nucs to sell. Like you, I make my last round of splits in the summer and will use mated queens for half and cells for the other half.
I am charging $175.00 for Nucs, they bring equipment and we place into their equipment here. If need be, I have about 25 cardboard Nuc boxes for those that want to pick them up here and install at their house.
For those, I am charging $185.00
Most of the competition here is selling Nucs for anywhere between $165 -$170
They are all selling with purchased southern queens that arrive with packages. Mine will have Northern bred queens and brood of their heritage. I am just getting my feet wet this year and don't plan on selling more than 20-30 Nucs. Whatever does not sell will be used to make more for next year.

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought I would check in.

I live in central TX, near Ft. Hood. When I started posing as a beekeeper in 2015, I found a local gentleman who was willing to take me under his wing. Over a few months, he brought 5 weak colonies out to my place along with the hives. He also started a beekeeping group that is surprisingly strong. There are a lot of elderly folks in the group which equates to a ton of experience in this crowd.

When I wasn’t traveling last year (about 50%), I tried to keep “my bees” alive by feeding and combatting hive beetles, wax moths, and wasps. Ultimately all died. And, so did my mentor. I scraped out all the hardware, ran the plastic frames through the dishwasher and lightly hit all the woodenware with the blow-torch. There were no visible bugs left when I was done. At that point, everything just sat in my garage for a long time while I tried to figure out what to do. I still didn’t see any more bugs come out of the pile.

My wife is supportive of this hobby. So, I ordered 5 packages to pick up in April 2017. Before then, I plan to finish jigs to build new hive bodies, frames, and then actually put them to use. As it turns out, my friends are also supportive. One took me duck hunting last week and pointed out this colony that needed to relocate.



Now, I know that it isn’t the optimal time of year to relocate a colony. But, looking at the close-up, I could tell there was basically no food left. I didn’t expect them to survive the winter. We’ve had several days of freeze and had more weather on the way. So, they could die on the deer feeder, or I could try to save them. Between Thursday when I first saw them and Saturday when I picked them up, the colony looked about 20% smaller based on how close they extended to the edge of the comb.



So, I used a hot knife to cut away the outer combs and set them aside. The inner combs, I cut pretty close to fit the frames. I had one frame of empty comb, 2 frames with bees on one side, and a fourth frame with bees on both sides. I will eventually add the other comb into frames. I strapped the hive close and put the hive box into a big cardboard box. My wife taped it closed for the 45 mile drive home in the bed of my truck. I had already taped the entrance reducer in place and closed, so I knew they weren’t going anywhere.

At home, I just put the box on the front porch of my office (a detached building) under the overhang and opened it up. Even after removing the tape from the entrance reducer, they were slow to move. The temp was still below 50 F, so I didn’t expect much. I did make up some sugar candy and added that inside a medium super above the main deep. It was while giving them food that one finally stung me. Of course, I chose to not wear gloves and paid the price. Oh, well.

On Sunday and Monday, there were some flying around, but still not much foraging going on. We have had storms, and it got cold again. The weather will be nasty another 24 hours, or so. Thursday is expected to get back into the 70s, so I plan to move them to the apiary early morning that day. At this point, I think their chances of surviving the winter are significantly higher than a week ago.

Oh, and I checked inside the feeder barrel. All I found were about 100 wasps. After I finished with the honeybees and had everything loaded, I unloaded on them with some hornet/wasp killer. They didn't survive the winter.

Quick question about oxalic acid (fumigation type) treatment.

We've had some really warm days lately. The girls have been out and about. Should I wait until it cools off a little, so they are all home to get treated, or can I do it whenever, since there shouldn't be much brood this time of year, and just accept that I won't get them all?