Okay I'll start the beekeeping thread (Page 153 of 154)
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Just a heads up for the beek's here. My wife is a relatively experienced beek, (bee keeper). Last Wednesday she was placing an empty hive out in her bee yard. She wasn't suited up since it was an empty hive and she wasn't getting into any of her existing hives. She's been stung multiple times before with no issues. She got tagged in the ear, came back to the house for a Benadryl and a pepcid and started going into anaphylactic shock. She got my attention, I grabbed my epi pens, she got one onboard ass I was calling 911. She's fine now, but it an eye opening experience just how fast things can go bad. She's at 9 hives currently and thoroughly enjoying bee keeping. She now carries an epi pen and when she goes out to work the bees I'll be suiting up, helping and doing overwatch. Semper Fi |
| Checked two of the hives this evening. Mainly to make sure the new queens were laying and didn’t have queenless hives and wait until I’m past the point of no return. First thing I noticed was that they seemed calmer than usual. Pulled a frame from the middle on both. Had my pen light and reading glasses to help see eggs. Didn’t see eggs but I always have a hard time seeing them if everything isn’t just right. Saw plenty of young larva that going by google are in days 4-6. As they didn’t take up half of the cell. Called that good enough. Didn’t want to get them stirred up or a reason to go crazy since none of the bees are the new queens yet. So I’m taking that as a win. |
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Checked two of the hives this evening. Mainly to make sure the new queens were laying and didn't have queenless hives and wait until I'm past the point of no return. First thing I noticed was that they seemed calmer than usual. Pulled a frame from the middle on both. Had my pen light and reading glasses to help see eggs. Didn't see eggs but I always have a hard time seeing them if everything isn't just right. Saw plenty of young larva that going by google are in days 4-6. As they didn't take up half of the cell. Called that good enough. Didn't want to get them stirred up or a reason to go crazy since none of the bees are the new queens yet. So I'm taking that as a win. |
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Originally Posted By killingmachine123: My bees are all so cranky when they don't have a queen, I can usually tell as soon as I get near the hives. I bet you're in good shape. Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Checked two of the hives this evening. Mainly to make sure the new queens were laying and didn't have queenless hives and wait until I'm past the point of no return. First thing I noticed was that they seemed calmer than usual. Pulled a frame from the middle on both. Had my pen light and reading glasses to help see eggs. Didn't see eggs but I always have a hard time seeing them if everything isn't just right. Saw plenty of young larva that going by google are in days 4-6. As they didn't take up half of the cell. Called that good enough. Didn't want to get them stirred up or a reason to go crazy since none of the bees are the new queens yet. So I'm taking that as a win. When I said calmer than usual, I meant not as mean as usual. Know it’s too early for the new queens genetics to be showing. Still had some guard bees stay after me for a good ways when I walked off while creating a big smoke cloud as I went. My other 2 hives are acceptable in their aggressiveness. Usually don’t get mad until I do something they don’t like and a couple puffs of smoke usually ends it. After I get 3 feet away they can careless about me. Didn’t get to check those two yesterday, and it’s supposed to rain this evening. Not really worried about them. When I checked them for the queen to be released. I went through the whole hive. Not knowing I should have just made sure the queen was released. Giving time for her to be accepted and not a reason for them to roll her. Didn’t find a single queen cell or cup in one. The other had a one that was starting, but the queen was still in here cage, had just enough candy on her end she couldn’t make it through. I released her. Hopefully I’ll either see eggs or young larva tomorrow depending on what the night time temps are going to be looking like the next few nights. |
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Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Well, I did a poor job of preventing swarms on 4 of my hives. They're queenless, although only one showed the remnants of open queen cells. Only one of the 4 appears to be hopelessly queenless. We'll see how this pans out for me. On the up side, 3 of my hives seem to be successful Demaree splits as of now. Hopefully they bring in a lot of honey. I'm still learning every time I go out, and I think I'm really hooked on this bee keeping business. What's better, my 8 year old son was feeding the packages which I installed yesterday. That really helped to free me up for the inspection of the established hives. Hopefully this becomes a family affair. That "I'm still learning" thing will never end. 
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: So I’m trying to make sure I have everything for when it comes time to extract honey. Little hung up on the honey buckets with the gate valves due to cost. What all is everyone using? Should I just order some of the valves and source food grade buckets locally and install them myself to save some change? Or use regular buckets and transfer it to a bucket with a valve for bottling. Figure I’m over thinking this per usual and plan on asking at the next bee meeting. I bought the gate valves separately and put them in the buckets. I only got two of them as I didn't have that many hives and could space out the extraction. I don't remember the size of the hole saw I needed but if you don't have those tools you have to figure that in. I also don't remember if it was you I told to put plastic down wherever you are extracting. If not, here goes: Buy one of those big rolls of plastic to cover the floor, and a roll of tape to tape it down. Get a pack or three of shoe covers from Harbor Freight. Plan to be diligent about taking the shoe covers off every time you exit the plastic covered extraction zone. You will thank me later if you cover the floor and keep that sticky mess off of the rest of wherever you are working. And if it is in a space where you have significant others who also use that space, it could save your relationship.  (Has anybody told you to not attempt extracting outside?) |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Curious what some of y’all’s opinion would be on this thought that I have. Went to a single deep on hives when I split this year and have my supers on. Flow hasn’t really started yet in my area. Only having one deep just hasn’t felt right in my gut. Even though a lot of people in the area only run one deep. Instead of adding another super. Would I be wrong for adding a deep instead and not try for more honey? My thinking is that there would still be enough time in the spring flow to give them the resources to build the comb up. Then decide in the fall flow if I want to go for more honey for myself or if they need it for winter. I'm not the one to answer about the boxes but I am absolutely SHOCKED that you don't have a honey flow yet in the deep south! 
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By dave5339: Just a heads up for the beek's here. My wife is a relatively experienced beek, (bee keeper). Last Wednesday she was placing an empty hive out in her bee yard. She wasn't suited up since it was an empty hive and she wasn't getting into any of her existing hives. She's been stung multiple times before with no issues. She got tagged in the ear, came back to the house for a Benadryl and a pepcid and started going into anaphylactic shock. She got my attention, I grabbed my epi pens, she got one onboard ass I was calling 911. She's fine now, but it an eye opening experience just how fast things can go bad. She's at 9 hives currently and thoroughly enjoying bee keeping. She now carries an epi pen and when she goes out to work the bees I'll be suiting up, helping and doing overwatch. Semper Fi Thank God she's okay! 
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: I'm not the one to answer about the boxes but I am absolutely SHOCKED that you don't have a honey flow yet in the deep south! We have some coming in, just not the big flow everyone talks about. I’m in North West Louisiana Natchitoches Parish. Know some people in Desoto Parish are still feeding some. Mainly just clover and a few early things have bloomed. My persimmon tree by the porch is starting to get right. Could hear some in it a little while ago along with the clover under it. Last year it sounded like it was going to take off when the flow was on, so any day now. Down South it sounds like it’s on. My area has been in a big drought which is probably effecting it getting started. We are finally getting rain. Don’t think we got any rain that totaled more than a tenth of an inch from February to about 2 weeks ago. Rain seemed to split by the Texas line. Go to the south and North of us. Thanks for the tips on extraction. Going to get some boot covers from work. I was already planning on putting plastic down on everything especially the floor. Using the kitchen in my old house that’s now a big storage area. Need to dig up the water line reconnect it and fix the line going to the water heater. From what I’ve read I’m going to have fun fighting the bees for the supers that will be in the back of truck. Thinking about putting them in totes with a wet blanket over them. Going to extract into 5 gallon buckets and transfer to one with a gate when bottling. Only thing I’m trying to figure out right now is whether to buy a capping tank or make one. |
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: That "I'm still learning" thing will never end. Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Well, I did a poor job of preventing swarms on 4 of my hives. They're queenless, although only one showed the remnants of open queen cells. Only one of the 4 appears to be hopelessly queenless. We'll see how this pans out for me. On the up side, 3 of my hives seem to be successful Demaree splits as of now. Hopefully they bring in a lot of honey. I'm still learning every time I go out, and I think I'm really hooked on this bee keeping business. What's better, my 8 year old son was feeding the packages which I installed yesterday. That really helped to free me up for the inspection of the established hives. Hopefully this becomes a family affair. That "I'm still learning" thing will never end. |
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Originally Posted By killingmachine123: And it's one of the things I love about this so much. It's all fascinating. Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Well, I did a poor job of preventing swarms on 4 of my hives. They're queenless, although only one showed the remnants of open queen cells. Only one of the 4 appears to be hopelessly queenless. We'll see how this pans out for me. On the up side, 3 of my hives seem to be successful Demaree splits as of now. Hopefully they bring in a lot of honey. I'm still learning every time I go out, and I think I'm really hooked on this bee keeping business. What's better, my 8 year old son was feeding the packages which I installed yesterday. That really helped to free me up for the inspection of the established hives. Hopefully this becomes a family affair. That "I'm still learning" thing will never end. I feel like beekeeping is almost like my family’s love affair with cattle. You’ll never know enough about them. Along with everyone having their own ideas and opinions, on how to do things. Think too many people think it’s just get some bees and get honey. Feel like I’ve fell down a never ending rabbit hole and I’m just getting started. |
| Serious question, haven’t asked others yet. What is the best way to store boxes and frames when not in use. Mainly how do I keep wax moths and dirt daubers from making a mess of things. Saw the moth ball crystals with the different chemical for bee equipment. Was thinking just stack the boxes with frames on a bottom board, block the entrance and put a lid on. Already have a bunch frames I have to clean the foundation and rewax because of dirt daubers. |
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Serious question, haven't asked others yet. What is the best way to store boxes and frames when not in use. Mainly how do I keep wax moths and dirt daubers from making a mess of things. Saw the moth ball crystals with the different chemical for bee equipment. Was thinking just stack the boxes with frames on a bottom board, block the entrance and put a lid on. Already have a bunch frames I have to clean the foundation and rewax because of dirt daubers. |
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Probably going to try something tomorrow and see how it goes. Made the base for my new hive stand. Toted it out to the food plot so all I have to do is put the legs on and get it level. Took a minute to watch the two hives that are there. Things haven’t worked out to check those two for eggs or young larva to indicate the queen is laying. Noticed a huge difference in the number at the entrances. Didn’t get close enough to see if the bees going in on either one were loaded down with food going in or out. Have a feeling the one with the lesser number is being robbed and may be weak. Of course I’m going to do the usual swap a frame out with a frame of brood if it’s weak. But I’m thinking about making an entrance reducer with hardware cloth to keep some air flow with the warmer temps. See if I can reduce the area they need to guard and not cook the hive in the process. Definitely made the right call to not inspect today. Lightning just hit between the house and the hive, and the bottom just dropped out. |
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Originally Posted By killingmachine123: I found one of my queenless hives has a new queen in it. The other three didn't. I took a frame of brood out of one of my queenright hives for those and hopefully they'll be able to make something happen with those. I’m assuming you gave them frames with 1-3 day old eggs to make a queen. What stage would you want to give a weak hive? Or would that depend on how many of what stages the frames in the weak hive has? Finally checked the two that weather hasn’t cooperated all week for me to check. One is definitely weak like I suspected yesterday. Only pulled 2 frames one was almost sold capped brood with some really young larva on the outer parts, probably in the second or third day in that stage. Had smoker problems due to my lighter deciding to quit and I didn’t pack it right. So I was trying not to get them stirred up without smoke available. Other hive is definitely strong. Almost couldn’t see the frames on the deep and plenty of bees in the super. Pulled two frames on it from the middle. First frame solid capped brood. Second frame was larva and eggs. Thinking about taking the super off the weak hive, and replacing it with a deep. Get them built up and not worry about harvesting from them. Had way more hive beetles than I wanted to see in both. Part of that is due to where they are, not in full sun near a wood line. Going to get some swiffer sheets to see if it helps cut them down. If the weather stays right I’m going to swap that super for a deep this evening, put the porch screen reducer I forgot on it and maybe some syrup. |
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Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Yes, I pulled frames with eggs/very young larvae. I'm hoping that goes well. My goal for this year is to keep all of my hives queenright without resorting to buying them. We'll see how that works for me. I really need to start making and banking my own queens. I’ve got a lot to learn before attempting to raise queens but I want to. Would like try crossing Minnesota and Pol-line. Maybe get a varroa hygienic and leg biter line going. When I decide to swap queens again I’m thinking doing half the hives pol-line and the other half Minnesota. Maybe the drones will get those genetics crossed naturally. |
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Got the weak hive taken care of. Swapped the super out with a deep. Trying out the 21st bee frames. Solid injection molded frames with so much wax it’s not funny. Had a bunch of forage bees come check them out while I was getting the box ready to take out there. Went with the 4.9 cell pattern. Got some of their drone frames to use when I wrap my head around using them for varroa control. Put some screen mesh on half the entrance. Added an entrance feeder with a full quart of syrup. Hoping they’ll prove my hypothesis right before the weekend. That it’s just a gap in the bees hatching. Whether it was something to do with replacing the queen or I did a bad job of ensuring enough of the right frames when I split it. On the super I took off I’m guessing there may have been less than 100 bees going by what my mite wash considers 200 and 300. Had only one spot on a frame they were trying to draw out. Almost the size of a mason jar lid. |
| Yesterday was the second beekeeper meeting I went to. LSU ag extension guy we deal with at work was there to present some things. Found out he’s a beekeeper himself. Along with being the one that has doing the introductory beekeeping classes. He’s working on trying to get a program setup to have a master beekeeper program set up in Louisiana. Along with something that’s really interesting to me though not beekeeping. A fire ant study not far from the office where there’s about a 2 miles of fence row that is just about nothing but fire ant mounds. Got on that subject because I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with fire ant mounds that are getting close to my hives. As all my usual methods have to high of a chance of getting the hives. All of the non poisonous methods have no effect. As of now I’m just doing what I can to help keep them from being able to get to the hives. Greased the stand legs with Vaseline and sprinkle cinnamon around the boxes. Not sure if the cinnamon will help but worth a shot. Sin the past I’ve sprayed dog bowls and pipes with Pam to keep them out of things so we’ll see. |
| Got a question regarding buckets for honey. Was reading that I need to use 90 mil food grade buckets as the usual 70-75 mil that I can get local may crack or bust from the weight of honey. Is this true or a thing to worry about only if storing for a long period of time? |
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My wife did three walk away splits just over a month ago. Yesterday turned out to be a decent day to check for Queens in the splits so I suited up to go with her and provide overwatch since she went anaphylactic the last time she got stung. Popped open the first hive and the queen was right there crawling around on the inner cover. Checked the other two splits and found good laying patterns and grubs. She was happy to see all three splits had managed to raise their own queens. Also saw a good amount of honey that the bee's had been putting up. Now that she's got nine solid hives going it looks like I need to get busy in the shop and start cranking out some more wooden ware for her. Semper Fi |
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Originally Posted By dave5339: My wife did three walk away splits just over a month ago. Yesterday turned out to be a decent day to check for Queens in the splits so I suited up to go with her and provide overwatch since she went anaphylactic the last time she got stung. Popped open the first hive and the queen was right there crawling around on the inner cover. Checked the other two splits and found good laying patterns and grubs. She was happy to see all three splits had managed to raise their own queens. Also saw a good amount of honey that the bee's had been putting up. Now that she's got nine solid hives going it looks like I need to get busy in the shop and start cranking out some more wooden ware for her. Semper Fi |
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Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Congrats. I've been having some trouble keeping queens in my hives this year. Out of inexperience and curiosity, is there a reason you are loosing queens? Like swarming or something going on in the hive like rejecting queens that you are trying to establish? |
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Out of inexperience and curiosity, is there a reason you are loosing queens? Like swarming or something going on in the hive like rejecting queens that you are trying to establish? Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Congrats. I've been having some trouble keeping queens in my hives this year. Out of inexperience and curiosity, is there a reason you are loosing queens? Like swarming or something going on in the hive like rejecting queens that you are trying to establish? I went for an inspection today and could tell right away they all had a queen. They were so much more gentle than the last time I was out there. I looked in the 2 or 3 hives which didn't have a queen still last week and they're good to go. I'm pretty pumped that I was able to get this working on my own. Next step will be making my own queens and banking them because I'd love to save time and get a laying queen in the hive pretty well right away when this happens. |
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Originally Posted By killingmachine123: I'm not really sure what the deal is with it. It seems like they make supersedure cells and do away with the queen fairly regularly out there. They aren't where I see most people saying swarm cells are located on the frames, and they're not all over like swarm cells either from what little I know. There doesn't seem to be a huge decrease in population when this occurs, either. I can only assume that the bees haven't read the book like we have. I went for an inspection today and could tell right away they all had a queen. They were so much more gentle than the last time I was out there. I looked in the 2 or 3 hives which didn't have a queen still last week and they're good to go. I'm pretty pumped that I was able to get this working on my own. Next step will be making my own queens and banking them because I'd love to save time and get a laying queen in the hive pretty well right away when this happens. Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Congrats. I've been having some trouble keeping queens in my hives this year. Out of inexperience and curiosity, is there a reason you are loosing queens? Like swarming or something going on in the hive like rejecting queens that you are trying to establish? I went for an inspection today and could tell right away they all had a queen. They were so much more gentle than the last time I was out there. I looked in the 2 or 3 hives which didn't have a queen still last week and they're good to go. I'm pretty pumped that I was able to get this working on my own. Next step will be making my own queens and banking them because I'd love to save time and get a laying queen in the hive pretty well right away when this happens. Not sure if this might help or have anything to do with what’s going on. The person I got my queen’s said to try and not go completely through the hives unless you have to until 45 days when the hive is 100% the new queen offspring. Said to try and minimize stirring them up to reduce a chance of them balling the new queen. Pretty much just check that the queen was freed from her cage, only pull enough frames to find evidence that she is laying. If they build a queen cell supposedly she would cut it. Seems to be working for me so far. June 5th is supposed to be my 45 day mark, and I’ve been ready to pull more than a frame or 2. Been lucky and the first frame I pull has either eggs or larva in their first day or 2 stage. I need it to quit raining so I can swap some undrawn super frames for some 21st bee frames. Don’t have a clue where they are taking the wax but I’m pretty sure they have removed the wax from them. |
| Looking like hive 4 is going to be my problem child. Looking like it’s wanting to go honey bound. Taken a good bit of the wax from the frames on the second undrawn deep wherever they wanted. Even though the bottom deep was drawn completely out. Which has me scratching my head. Hardly saw any early stage larva or eggs. Found two supersede queen cups. Just about every frame had capped honey in the upper corners. If the center and bottom didn’t have capped brood it looked like nectar. Hardly saw any young larva and not 100% that I saw eggs. Trying to wrap my head around what steps to take. |
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Not sure if this might help or have anything to do with what's going on. The person I got my queen's said to try and not go completely through the hives unless you have to until 45 days when the hive is 100% the new queen offspring. Said to try and minimize stirring them up to reduce a chance of them balling the new queen. Pretty much just check that the queen was freed from her cage, only pull enough frames to find evidence that she is laying. If they build a queen cell supposedly she would cut it. Seems to be working for me so far. June 5th is supposed to be my 45 day mark, and I've been ready to pull more than a frame or 2. Been lucky and the first frame I pull has either eggs or larva in their first day or 2 stage. I need it to quit raining so I can swap some undrawn super frames for some 21st bee frames. Don't have a clue where they are taking the wax but I'm pretty sure they have removed the wax from them. Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Congrats. I've been having some trouble keeping queens in my hives this year. Out of inexperience and curiosity, is there a reason you are loosing queens? Like swarming or something going on in the hive like rejecting queens that you are trying to establish? I went for an inspection today and could tell right away they all had a queen. They were so much more gentle than the last time I was out there. I looked in the 2 or 3 hives which didn't have a queen still last week and they're good to go. I'm pretty pumped that I was able to get this working on my own. Next step will be making my own queens and banking them because I'd love to save time and get a laying queen in the hive pretty well right away when this happens. Not sure if this might help or have anything to do with what's going on. The person I got my queen's said to try and not go completely through the hives unless you have to until 45 days when the hive is 100% the new queen offspring. Said to try and minimize stirring them up to reduce a chance of them balling the new queen. Pretty much just check that the queen was freed from her cage, only pull enough frames to find evidence that she is laying. If they build a queen cell supposedly she would cut it. Seems to be working for me so far. June 5th is supposed to be my 45 day mark, and I've been ready to pull more than a frame or 2. Been lucky and the first frame I pull has either eggs or larva in their first day or 2 stage. I need it to quit raining so I can swap some undrawn super frames for some 21st bee frames. Don't have a clue where they are taking the wax but I'm pretty sure they have removed the wax from them. |
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Serious question, haven’t asked others yet. What is the best way to store boxes and frames when not in use. Mainly how do I keep wax moths and dirt daubers from making a mess of things. Saw the moth ball crystals with the different chemical for bee equipment. Was thinking just stack the boxes with frames on a bottom board, block the entrance and put a lid on. Already have a bunch frames I have to clean the foundation and rewax because of dirt daubers. The way I did it was to NOT stack the boxes on a bottom board. I laid out cardboard, stacked the boxes very high, and sprinkled the chemical on the cardboard. I would also put another layer of cardboard half way up the stack with more chemical especially if the boxes were full of comb or frames. BUT if you have any holes or broken or uneven spots on the boxes, use tape to tape them up. You want to keep the chemical in there. Put a hive top on the top. I left them that way all during the off season. Freezing is good to kill them but it won't keep more from coming in once you take them out to store them and I don't have a big enough freezer to do it. Once the weather gets warm wax moths move FAST. And it's a godawful mess. 
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Did measures this evening to hopefully rectify my nectar/honey bound hive. Kicking myself at the moment because I knew what I needed to do while I was messing with the hive yesterday. Guess I needed the reassurance I was going to do it correctly from some more experienced people. Did get some relief while moving some frames around when I spotted a white dot moving around a frame being my queen. Was a little worried something may have happened to her. Also spotted some eggs thank god which I’m surprised considering I wasn’t looking and mainly trying to move some frames around. Girls only would come after my hand when I would reach across the box to grab the other side of the frame. Seemed to be after my hive tool then my hand. Definitely can tell the new queen’s genetics are nicer than the old one. The handful of bees that were buzzing me left me alone after I got 2-3 steps away instead of staying after me while smoking and walking half a mile down the road. ETA:realized I have made a mistake with my brood boxes by doing monkey see monkey do. The two deep hive that I rescued out of the field and is now my four hives had the metal frame spacers for 9 frame. Of course did Monkey see monkey do and have been spacing 9 frame and put the metal spacers in the brood boxes. Not sure if I should slowly rectify this a couple frames at a time over the Summer in the boxes currently in use. Or just go to 10 frames going forward. Of course going to leave my supers 9 frame to have the wider comb for uncapping. Haven’t seen any comb problems yet since I picked them up October of 2024. |
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Did measures this evening to hopefully rectify my nectar/honey bound hive. Kicking myself at the moment because I knew what I needed to do while I was messing with the hive yesterday. Guess I needed the reassurance I was going to do it correctly from some more experienced people. Did get some relief while moving some frames around when I spotted a white dot moving around a frame being my queen. Was a little worried something may have happened to her. Also spotted some eggs thank god which I’m surprised considering I wasn’t looking and mainly trying to move some frames around. Girls only would come after my hand when I would reach across the box to grab the other side of the frame. Seemed to be after my hive tool then my hand. Definitely can tell the new queen’s genetics are nicer than the old one. The handful of bees that were buzzing me left me alone after I got 2-3 steps away instead of staying after me while smoking and walking half a mile down the road. ETA:realized I have made a mistake with my brood boxes by doing monkey see monkey do. The two deep hive that I rescued out of the field and is now my four hives had the metal frame spacers for 9 frame. Of course did Monkey see monkey do and have been spacing 9 frame and put the metal spacers in the brood boxes. Not sure if I should slowly rectify this a couple frames at a time over the Summer in the boxes currently in use. Or just go to 10 frames going forward. Of course going to leave my supers 9 frame to have the wider comb for uncapping. Haven’t seen any comb problems yet since I picked them up October of 2024. One of my mentors taught me to use 10 frames in the supers until the bees get the parameters of the comb set up, then space them out. Basically let them draw out the frame then space them out and they can make the comb deep. That helped with burr comb and wild comb going every which way between the frames. But of course you can't really do that with the spacers. I ended up not using the spacers as I added boxes but they sure did make it easy to set the frames in there without fussing over the spacing. I think that's a good thing to know about if you have a hive that tends to make a lot of crazy comb. Only some of my hives did that. |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: One of my mentors taught me to use 10 frames in the supers until the bees get the parameters of the comb set up, then space them out. Basically let them draw out the frame then space them out and they can make the comb deep. That helped with burr comb and wild comb going every which way between the frames. But of course you can't really do that with the spacers. I ended up not using the spacers as I added boxes but they sure did make it easy to set the frames in there without fussing over the spacing. I think that's a good thing to know about if you have a hive that tends to make a lot of crazy comb. Only some of my hives did that. Thanks, for the advice. I have one of the orange handled spacer tools. May go to a 10 and use it to go 9 after they have it drawn out on the supers some. Have some extra 9 frame tabs. Planning on taking one with me to work and using it as a template. To make some guides with the same distance, but 2 frames all the way to 8. So as I start shaving comb on frames down and putting them against each other. I’ll have something to keep the space right on the frames left to do on the next inspections. Feel like I made several mistakes this season and is why my supers are not getting drawn out. Or at least the supers on the hives I didn’t swap out to a deep. One that I swapped the super for a deep because it seemed weak had started drawing the comb and would probably be drawn out judging by it going honey and nectar bound. Lots of lessons learned and noted in my journal. Like putting supers on too early and to requeen earlier than I did. Feel like the brood break hit my other hives at a different time and it’s effecting my foragers at the moment. Had planned on adding my second deep after I got a super drawn out. Going forward second deep then supers. Learning from my mistakes and rolling with it. A lot of people in my area are not seeing signs of the flow in their hives. Yet I’m seeing commercial guys with 3 or 4 supers on hives to the north and south of us. They did get a lot of rain we didn’t in March and April so I’m guessing the drought has caused some problems in my area. Giving my supers a couple more weeks. Do the drop of sugar water on the inner cover to see if they are interested in it or not. If not interested leave the supers. If they go after it throw the deeps on and make a yard feeder 100 yards away depending on what their food stores look like. Get them built up and ready for winter and split them in the spring and have 8 hives. |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
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KY, USA
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Thanks, for the advice. I have one of the orange handled spacer tools. May go to a 10 and use it to go 9 after they have it drawn out on the supers some. Have some extra 9 frame tabs. Planning on taking one with me to work and using it as a template. To make some guides with the same distance, but 2 frames all the way to 8. So as I start shaving comb on frames down and putting them against each other. I’ll have something to keep the space right on the frames left to do on the next inspections. Feel like I made several mistakes this season and is why my supers are not getting drawn out. Or at least the supers on the hives I didn’t swap out to a deep. One that I swapped the super for a deep because it seemed weak had started drawing the comb and would probably be drawn out judging by it going honey and nectar bound. Lots of lessons learned and noted in my journal. Like putting supers on too early and to requeen earlier than I did. Feel like the brood break hit my other hives at a different time and it’s effecting my foragers at the moment. Had planned on adding my second deep after I got a super drawn out. Going forward second deep then supers. Learning from my mistakes and rolling with it. A lot of people in my area are not seeing signs of the flow in their hives. Yet I’m seeing commercial guys with 3 or 4 supers on hives to the north and south of us. They did get a lot of rain we didn’t in March and April so I’m guessing the drought has caused some problems in my area. Giving my supers a couple more weeks. Do the drop of sugar water on the inner cover to see if they are interested in it or not. If not interested leave the supers. If they go after it throw the deeps on and make a yard feeder 100 yards away depending on what their food stores look like. Get them built up and ready for winter and split them in the spring and have 8 hives. I think you're doing great! The thing is, what works for one may or may not work for another. Aside from the hard science of beekeeping, the "art" of keeping bees is just that, in my view. I think it's why "ask ten beekeepers get eleven answers" is still true even now when we've learned so much more than we knew 50 years ago. There's also the fact that we sometimes don't know what we think we know, in the science of it. We may think something is happening for one reason, and we're dead wrong. (I'm using the "we" in a larger sense here. I don't know nuthin' much, really and am behind on the hard science too.) Getting mentors, trying things, and keeping journals is a HUGE plus for you. Hive logs is something I tried to do but I was so bad at it. It gets complicated once you start swapping boxes around to help a weak hive, splitting hives, combing hives. I admit that I scrambled just to get the basics done sometimes. |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: I think you're doing great! The thing is, what works for one may or may not work for another. Aside from the hard science of beekeeping, the "art" of keeping bees is just that, in my view. I think it's why "ask ten beekeepers get eleven answers" is still true even now when we've learned so much more than we knew 50 years ago. There's also the fact that we sometimes don't know what we think we know, in the science of it. We may think something is happening for one reason, and we're dead wrong. (I'm using the "we" in a larger sense here. I don't know nuthin' much, really and am behind on the hard science too.) Getting mentors, trying things, and keeping journals is a HUGE plus for you. Hive logs is something I tried to do but I was so bad at it. It gets complicated once you start swapping boxes around to help a weak hive, splitting hives, combing hives. I admit that I scrambled just to get the basics done sometimes. Thanks Kitties, I’ve been going at it as it’s like cows. We all have our own ideas on how to do things and what our goals are with them. Would like to eventually get into selling mics and raising queens. Plan on going forward trying to get VSH and leg biter genetics in my hives. Current queens the guy had been breeding for the VSH and it sounded like he’s spent a good bit on breeder queens trying to get what he was looking for with the VSH gene. With the logs I actually have two of them. One is strictly about the hives what I observed, any measures I did for a problem, the outcome and important information given like the requeening process with timeline for the hive to be 100% hers. Second one is similar but has my rambling ideas and questions to ask others. Guy not far from me I met at the field day and has been coming to the local bee club meetings is wanting to get into bees. He’s going to come inspect a hive with me next weekend. Was asking me if I could be his mentor. Looked puzzled when I told him I didn’t have enough experience to be someone’s mentor but would be more than happy to help get him started and lend a hand when he needed it. |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
Joined:
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Posts:
53488
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KY, USA
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There you go. Already paying it forward and that's what I love so much about the beekeeping community. It is my wish to start again, if I can get even two ducks in the same pond. My ducks will never be in a row. I have accepted this. 
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By killingmachine123: I'm going to make up some oxalic acid pads in the morning and install them in my hives. I've had really good luck with them over the last couple years in addition to other treatments. Out of curiosity how much work is actually involved in making the pads, and is there any difference in it vs Varroxsan.? |
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Out of curiosity how much work is actually involved in making the pads, and is there any difference in it vs Varroxsan.? Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Originally Posted By killingmachine123: I'm going to make up some oxalic acid pads in the morning and install them in my hives. I've had really good luck with them over the last couple years in addition to other treatments. Out of curiosity how much work is actually involved in making the pads, and is there any difference in it vs Varroxsan.? |
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Originally Posted By killingmachine123: One just dissolves OA in glycerin and the soaks the sponges. 60sqin per box and I'm off to the races. It doesn't take long to make them, and they're in there for a long time. I haven't used Varroxan so I can't comment on any differences there. I especially like the sponges for the winter. Originally Posted By killingmachine123: Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Originally Posted By killingmachine123: I'm going to make up some oxalic acid pads in the morning and install them in my hives. I've had really good luck with them over the last couple years in addition to other treatments. Out of curiosity how much work is actually involved in making the pads, and is there any difference in it vs Varroxsan.? Thanks I had seen a reel were some guys in Australia were making strips with the OA. Believe they were using brown paper towels could be wrong. Did an actual full inspection of hives 1&2 this evening. Since the hive is now 100% the new queen. Been raining every evening this week and supposed to rain all weekend. Saw the queen in hive 2. Gotten lucky a few times and she would be on the first frame I pulled. Been noticing that her white mark has been looking more and more worn. It was completely gone today. Number 2 hive’s frames looked really good. They’ve stripped the wax off all the 21st bee super frames and I’m not sure where exactly they used it. This was the second set of super frames they have done this to and they’ve only been on a week and a half. Hive one looked good queen was on the 3rd frame I pulled. Didn’t get to see her long. Didn’t feel I had a good hold of the frame and rested it between two frames until she bailed and dove off into those frames. Didn’t want to take a chance of injuring her repositioning my hands. Still haven’t shown any signs of attempting drawing comb on the super and the frames looked like they had plenty of wax and the burr comb I had smeared on them. Did remove the excluder to see if it makes a difference getting them to start drawing it out. Need there to be a break in rain this weekend to check the other 2. Bottom dropped out as I started walking to them with a zero percent chance of rain. Hoping to see something in the super on #3 you could see where they were trying to start drawing comb off the foundation and it’s been looking like we might be getting a decent flow finally. #4 my problem child hive. I’m just curious what it looks like since somehow it decided to try and hoard all the nectar in a 2 mile radius in the deep. Hopefully moving frames around has done the trick. |
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Originally Posted By killingmachine123: You're a lot better at spotting queens than I am. I'm always happy to just see eggs and then I button it back up. Eggs are what I have trouble seeing. Yesterday I was surprised to see them without having a magnifying glass and or my bifocal safety glasses on. I don’t always see the queen, just gotten lucky here lately and them being marked is usually what I see first. One that has cleaned her mark off I only spotted her so fast because she is huge, blondish tail with a black tip. When I say huge she seems to be bigger than the other queens for whatever reason. After dropping a frame and smashing the queen on my first hive back in covid. I’m very cautious if she’s on a frame I pick up. |
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Beyond happy, super on hive number 3 was completely drawn out and full of nectar. ETA: looking at my notes. I had sprayed some sugar water on hive 3’s frames on the last inspection and had not on the other two. Maybe that is the trick I’m missing with the other ones. |
| Thinking about doing away with my hive that went nectar bound depending on how they look this weekend. Partly because I feel they’ve gotten weak where they won’t make it and it’s bad defensive, which I know is probably due to their abundance of resources. Do you guys think I would be screwing up by dividing its two deeps among my other 3 hives to help start their second deeps? Original plan was to use single deeps this season and add the second after the spring flow. Not go for a fall harvest to get them built up for winter. Have a different plan for next spring since I’ve learned from some mistakes this go around. |
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How’s everyone’s spring looking so far? Looking like I’m going to have one maybe two supers of honey. All from one out of 3 hives. Does anyone have a recommendation on a holster of some sort to go over a bee suit. Had 3 things pop up on me on two of the hives only one I’m worried about even though it wouldn’t do anything to me. Deer blew at me as I was walking up, baby fox I originally thought was a cat walked right by me, and a coach whip was at my truck when I got back to it. So I’m thinking I may need to keep something on me incase of a cane break since they are definitely moving. |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
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KY, USA
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: How’s everyone’s spring looking so far? Looking like I’m going to have one maybe two supers of honey. All from one out of 3 hives. Does anyone have a recommendation on a holster of some sort to go over a bee suit. Had 3 things pop up on me on two of the hives only one I’m worried about even though it wouldn’t do anything to me. Deer blew at me as I was walking up, baby fox I originally thought was a cat walked right by me, and a coach whip was at my truck when I got back to it. So I’m thinking I may need to keep something on me incase of a cane break since they are definitely moving. Do you have bears there? I'm clueless about the dangerous stuff in your region. Wild boar? Cats? Gators? I just googled "What is a cane break?" I got nothing useful other than a thicket.
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Do you have bears there? I'm clueless about the dangerous stuff in your region. Wild boar? Cats? Gators? I just googled "What is a cane break?" I got nothing useful other than a thicket. Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: How’s everyone’s spring looking so far? Looking like I’m going to have one maybe two supers of honey. All from one out of 3 hives. Does anyone have a recommendation on a holster of some sort to go over a bee suit. Had 3 things pop up on me on two of the hives only one I’m worried about even though it wouldn’t do anything to me. Deer blew at me as I was walking up, baby fox I originally thought was a cat walked right by me, and a coach whip was at my truck when I got back to it. So I’m thinking I may need to keep something on me incase of a cane break since they are definitely moving. Do you have bears there? I'm clueless about the dangerous stuff in your region. Wild boar? Cats? Gators? I just googled "What is a cane break?" I got nothing useful other than a thicket. Cane break is another name for a timber rattler. Other snake I have to worry about is a cottonmouth. I’m in Northern Louisiana we have gators but they are usually in ponds or bigger bodies of water. Not a critter I’m generally worried about. Have plenty of hogs, have a boar that keeps rooting around the hives in the field. All the typical predators coyotes, cougar, every once in a while a black panther that supposedly doesn’t exist in our area, bobcats, and foxes. Last year we had 3 sightings of a black bear which is the first I’ve ever heard of them in my area. Plenty of them in other parishes. Last year was the first hunting season for them in the state and was a lottery for tags. |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
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Originally Posted By runs_with_scissors: Cane break is another name for a timber rattler. Other snake I have to worry about is a cottonmouth. I’m in Northern Louisiana we have gators but they are usually in ponds or bigger bodies of water. Not a critter I’m generally worried about. Have plenty of hogs, have a boar that keeps rooting around the hives in the field. All the typical predators coyotes, cougar, every once in a while a black panther that supposedly doesn’t exist in our area, bobcats, and foxes. Last year we had 3 sightings of a black bear which is the first I’ve ever heard of them in my area. Plenty of them in other parishes. Last year was the first hunting season for them in the state and was a lottery for tags. There's a class on herbs of the southeast I would love to take in Northern Louisiana. But I'm scared of the critters down there.
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: There's a class on herbs of the southeast I would love to take in Northern Louisiana. But I'm scared of the critters down there. Which town is it at and I can probably tell what the worst thing you might come across is. You can message me if you want so we don’t hijack the thread. Just to keep it on bees. Did varroa mite washes today. Definitely will be doing a round of treatment when I take the supers off. Which might be sometime this week. One hive that put honey in a super is starting to cap it. Average of 1/8-1/4 capped on all frames. Trying to figure out when to feed. Put a small squirt of sugar water on the inner covers near the bees on it. Only one or two were even interested in it and wasn’t immediate. So I assume it’s not the derth period yet. All the hives with supers only have a single deep. They have plenty of frames with honey and pollen. What is everyone’s opinion on going ahead and feeding when I put the second deep on?Thinking do what I can to get them to draw out the new deep and frames before the temps get too hot for them to build. Which will be within a couple weeks easy. Also got a bottle of Honey B Healthy to see if it helps any or at least keep the syrup from spoiling as fast when I do feed. |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
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KY, USA
I think the Honey B Healthy stuff is probably half bullshit and half really good stuff.  I'm serious in that I think the hype is one thing. But I believe it helps the bees. Is it a miracle? No. Does it give them a boost? I think so. Please let us know what YOU think of it. It's hard to tell when so many factors play in. But a beekeeper who watches his/her hives does notice things and I believe what they notice has significance. |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe