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Posted: 5/8/2019 10:06:56 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Kitties-with-Sigs]
[#1]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By SSF556:
10 frame boxes Brood single box 3 empty frames Shallow 5 empty frames. Queen divider yes on 4x4 sitting on vertical cinder blocks I would lock them in and give them another box for brood chamber, PRONTO. Hopefully some other beekeepers will weigh in on the "lock them in" idea. That's kind of controversial. What I mean is I'd put my queen excluder on the bottom so she could not leave, and also give them plenty more room. When a hive decides it's leaving, sometimes it's really hard to change their minds. But it won't hurt to try. |
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Posted: 5/8/2019 10:16:34 PM EDT
[#2]
post to show new page?
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Posted: 5/9/2019 9:53:16 AM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: FWIW, I'm not from up north, but I agree with this "local queens are better" 100 percent, even though I had some sub-par results from using local queens in the past. The basic philosophy of it is something I believe in. I was on the very front end of the queen-rearing trend, and I think there were issues that had to be worked out. When I re-establish, I will be looking for good local queens, and I think it's worth it especially if I could get them in a nuc, already established. However I also completely understand that the budget is the budget. Keeping bees with a package queen is far better than not keeping bees at all. 
How fast are you in the wood shop? If you ordered, could you get a couple of deep boxes, top and bottom, together by the time they get here? Small breeding operations generally have the highest quality stock in your area and have done all of the work in selecting for desirable traits/ characteristics. Those queens generally perform very well and produce drones that are more suitable for future mating. If your queens display good traits, her progeny (drone line) will increase those alleles in the drone congregation area which helps those surrounding you as well. |
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Posted: 5/9/2019 9:08:15 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By cuttingedge: Although I would like to agree with you, the breeder in me says otherwise. I would like to see people successfully keep bees and while doing so, increase the good genetics in their area. Package queens are generally inferior and pumped out quickly to meet demands. I know a breeder that produces queens for a large package supplier and he claims that they only check approximately 10% in a yard of 500 to see if they are mated. If so, they are all caged regardless. It’s a quantity over quality approach. Small breeding operations generally have the highest quality stock in your area and have done all of the work in selecting for desirable traits/ characteristics. Those queens generally perform very well and produce drones that are more suitable for future mating. If your queens display good traits, her progeny (drone line) will increase those alleles in the drone congregation area which helps those surrounding you as well. I will choose for new people to get into beekeeping, though, hoping they will continue even if they end up with a bad queen. Sometimes a package is what folks can get. However, I will say that my hive failures came because of bad local queens, so there is another side to that story. I think choosing the local breeder carefully. I am pretty certain that not all of them have your level of education and professionalism. If I had the choice, I would always go local, assuming a good provider. But with no choice, I would still encourage people to start beekeeping with what they could get.
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Posted: 5/16/2019 9:32:04 PM EDT
[#5]
It was finally dry and warm enough to do some inspections yesterday. Hopefully after next week, the weather will be good enough that I can set-up our cell builders and start grafting as we are already behind with queen production.
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Posted: 5/17/2019 4:58:00 PM EDT
[#6]
Tomorrow is package install day
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Posted: 5/20/2019 9:39:44 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By cuttingedge:
Tomorrow is package install day
https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/294057/98B596D4-B546-466C-A4C0-1CBCB6066224-948274.jpg Are you increasing your apiary by that many hives? |
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Posted: 5/20/2019 9:58:07 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: That's a lotta bees. Are you increasing your apiary by that many hives? |
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Posted: 5/20/2019 10:00:56 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Kitties-with-Sigs]
[#9]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By cuttingedge:
We are setting up a third mating yard about 5 miles away. These will all be broken down to populate mating nucs for two separate yards. You are hoping for different genetic blends by moving the yard past the five-mile point? (Just a guess. I have no idea.  )
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Posted: 5/20/2019 10:02:14 PM EDT
[#10]
Finally got some nice weather for a few hours today so I set-up two of our six cell builders. Tomorrow is our first grafts of the season. We graft on Tuesday’s, Thursday’s and Saturday’s which gives us approximately 200 cells each week until we shut down in late July/ early August.
 
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Posted: 5/20/2019 10:04:31 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Gotcha. You are hoping for different genetic blends by moving the yard past the five-mile point? (Just a guess. I have no idea. ) |
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Posted: 5/20/2019 10:06:25 PM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By cuttingedge:
Yes. My friend and mentor moved to North Carolina so I am carrying his line here. They are a Carniolan/ Italian mix and have preformed VERY well for a lot of people. I am actually making headway into the complete pile my home/property became over the year I was helping with my mom and the aftermath of that. Fixin' to rebuild the henhouse and clean it out, and that's where the bee stuff is stashed. I just have to get to it. Maybe next spring. 
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Posted: 5/24/2019 9:59:13 PM EDT
[#13]
Maybe a stupid question, but this all new to me and I’m getting conflicting opinions.......
My new hive is doing well it seems (package installed one month ago), but my hive is lopsided. The bees seem to be on one side of the box.......they have six frames that they are working overtime on, but the four frames on the other side of the hive have zero traffic. Should I be manipulating the frames? Pulling one or two from the empty side and moving them over, pushing the colony closer to the middle? |
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Posted: 5/24/2019 10:25:41 PM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By fttam:
Maybe a stupid question, but this all new to me and I’m getting conflicting opinions....... My new hive is doing well it seems (package installed one month ago), but my hive is lopsided. The bees seem to be on one side of the box.......they have six frames that they are working overtime on, but the four frames on the other side of the hive have zero traffic. Should I be manipulating the frames? Pulling one or two from the empty side and moving them over, pushing the colony closer to the middle? |
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Posted: 5/28/2019 6:42:30 PM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By cuttingedge:
Yes, I would manipulate the frames so that the brood frames are toward the middle, surrounded by pollen/ honey frames and foundation on the outside. You can also put a frame of foundation right outside of the brood frames as they will draw that very quickly to give the queen more room to lay. We often do this in our colonies to get them to draw more comb. Are you still feeding? I am still feeding. Should I not be? |
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Posted: 5/29/2019 4:02:33 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By fttam:
Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it! I am still feeding. Should I not be? |
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Posted: 5/29/2019 5:51:52 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By cuttingedge:
Keep feeding until they have their second brood box drawn out or they stop taking it. 
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Posted: 5/31/2019 7:56:01 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By fttam:
Maybe a stupid question, but this all new to me and I’m getting conflicting opinions....... My new hive is doing well it seems (package installed one month ago), but my hive is lopsided. The bees seem to be on one side of the box.......they have six frames that they are working overtime on, but the four frames on the other side of the hive have zero traffic. Should I be manipulating the frames? Pulling one or two from the empty side and moving them over, pushing the colony closer to the middle? 
I think most of us manipulate frames regularly to get a box filled out. Bees don't necessarily cooperate on their own. CE's advice is spot on. Let us know how it goes! |
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Posted: 6/1/2019 10:01:10 PM EDT
[#19]
I moved the frames today, but the frames that they have built seem to have a really nice brood pattern. So far, so good.
I gotta get my electric fence going before the bears catch wind. |
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Posted: 6/5/2019 8:25:27 PM EDT
[#20]
Our first round of queens are in their mating nucs.
Finally nice enough weather for mating flights... 
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Posted: 6/7/2019 7:45:17 PM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By cuttingedge:
Our first round of queens are in their mating nucs. Finally nice enough weather for mating flights... https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/294057/DA6EEAE1-A84E-40A1-806E-945C267AEDC6-970081.jpg And y'all's dogwoods are just now bloomed? |
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Posted: 6/14/2019 11:22:28 PM EDT
[#22]
Long time for no replies in this thread.
Guessing everyone is just busy, but... Everybody's bees doing okay? |
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PA, USA
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Posted: 6/15/2019 7:48:48 AM EDT
[#23]
Just started this year.....1st package of Italians installed on April 22nd and 2 Northern raised NUCS installed a month later. All are on 10 frame deep 2nd brood boxes on now and going nuts lol. Have a 4 gallon top feeder on each hive and fill it up with about 2 gallons each of 1-1 about every other week. First time I saw the bees doing an orientation flight I thought they were being robbed
 . No sign of mites yet but going to treat with Apivar, and no sign of hive beetles here. Perfect looking frames and may even put a honey super on each but not harvest any for me so they can overwinter great. Nice and temperamental hives but I'm always going to use a bee suit and a little smoke.
It's addicting. Now I can smell the honey and wax scents when I get close to the hives. I'll sit down about 5 ft from the entrance with my fiancée and just watch the bees come and go. She sells at craft shows so hopefully next year I can sell some honey to offset the initial costs. Been reading this forum for a while, thanks for all the great help! |
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Posted: 6/15/2019 11:35:12 PM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Crazycamper123:
Just started this year.....1st package of Italians installed on April 22nd and 2 Northern raised NUCS installed a month later. All are on 10 frame deep 2nd brood boxes on now and going nuts lol. Have a 4 gallon top feeder on each hive and fill it up with about 2 gallons each of 1-1 about every other week. First time I saw the bees doing an orientation flight I thought they were being robbed . No sign of mites yet but going to treat with Apivar, and no sign of hive beetles here. Perfect looking frames and may even put a honey super on each but not harvest any for me so they can overwinter great. Nice and temperamental hives but I'm always going to use a bee suit and a little smoke.
It's addicting. Now I can smell the honey and wax scents when I get close to the hives. I'll sit down about 5 ft from the entrance with my fiancée and just watch the bees come and go. She sells at craft shows so hopefully next year I can sell some honey to offset the initial costs. Been reading this forum for a while, thanks for all the great help! It sounds like your'e doing everything right! Do you have a beekeeping club/association to help you? I have one bit of advice. Be very careful with the Apivar. Follow the label directions and don't leave it in too long. Leaving it in won't help you, and will definitely contribute to mite resistance. If I could say one thing to all beekeepers, it would be, "Get that treatment out of your hives on time" and that will help bees, and beekeepers, everywhere.
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Posted: 6/16/2019 9:55:20 AM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Crazycamper123:
Just started this year.....1st package of Italians installed on April 22nd and 2 Northern raised NUCS installed a month later. All are on 10 frame deep 2nd brood boxes on now and going nuts lol. Have a 4 gallon top feeder on each hive and fill it up with about 2 gallons each of 1-1 about every other week. First time I saw the bees doing an orientation flight I thought they were being robbed . No sign of mites yet but going to treat with Apivar, and no sign of hive beetles here. Perfect looking frames and may even put a honey super on each but not harvest any for me so they can overwinter great. Nice and temperamental hives but I'm always going to use a bee suit and a little smoke.
It's addicting. Now I can smell the honey and wax scents when I get close to the hives. I'll sit down about 5 ft from the entrance with my fiancée and just watch the bees come and go. She sells at craft shows so hopefully next year I can sell some honey to offset the initial costs. Been reading this forum for a while, thanks for all the great help! |
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Posted: 6/16/2019 7:28:49 PM EDT
[#26]
@cuttingedge Do you have any queens for sale at the moment that can be shipped?
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Posted: 6/16/2019 10:24:01 PM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By mr2143:
@cuttingedge Do you have any queens for sale at the moment that can be shipped? |
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PA, USA
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Posted: 6/17/2019 2:31:26 PM EDT
[#28]
Powdered sugar test, numbers are very low right now so probably don't need to treat just yet. A few broods before fall for sure though
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Posted: 6/17/2019 10:58:25 PM EDT
[#29]
Mine seem to be doing great, but for whatever reason will simply not draw comb on the outermost frames. They’ve moved up into a second brood box but I have no clue why the frames on the outside get no love.
Beyond that they seem good to go. |
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Posted: 6/17/2019 11:57:14 PM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By fttam:
Mine seem to be doing great, but for whatever reason will simply not draw comb on the outermost frames. They’ve moved up into a second brood box but I have no clue why the frames on the outside get no love. Beyond that they seem good to go. |
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Posted: 6/18/2019 9:33:56 PM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By fttam:
Mine seem to be doing great, but for whatever reason will simply not draw comb on the outermost frames. They’ve moved up into a second brood box but I have no clue why the frames on the outside get no love. Beyond that they seem good to go. |
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Posted: 6/30/2019 3:14:55 PM EDT
[#32]
Wife and I just got our first harvest. We pulled a total of 10 frames from 6 different hives. Got 2.5 gallons of honey.
It was a good experience and went without any issues. |
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Posted: 6/30/2019 8:47:30 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By SSF556:
Wife and I just got our first harvest. We pulled a total of 10 frames from 6 different hives. Got 2.5 gallons of honey. It was a good experience and went without any issues. How’d you recover the honey? Do you have an extractor? |
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Posted: 6/30/2019 9:45:33 PM EDT
[Last Edit: SSF556]
[#34]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By fttam:
That's awesome. How'd you recover the honey? Do you have an extractor? 
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Posted: 7/1/2019 9:37:18 PM EDT
[#35]
I'm back, hanging my head in shame. I lost both hives this spring.
I'm moving to Idaho, and it bothers me that I DON'T see a lot of honeybees. I do see some wasps and yellowjackets though. I wonder if the dearth of bees is due to farmers spraying pesticides? Anyone in Idaho who can brief me on this? I'm moving to the middle of farm country, in Weiser. I plan to build a couple of Langstroth hives this winter and have them ready for spring. |
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Posted: 7/1/2019 9:42:27 PM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By SSF556:
Wife and I just got our first harvest. We pulled a total of 10 frames from 6 different hives. Got 2.5 gallons of honey. It was a good experience and went without any issues.
Best honey you will ever eat. 
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Posted: 7/1/2019 9:44:21 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Congratulations!
Best honey you will ever eat. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Originally Posted By SSF556:
Wife and I just got our first harvest. We pulled a total of 10 frames from 6 different hives. Got 2.5 gallons of honey. It was a good experience and went without any issues.
Best honey you will ever eat. |
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Posted: 7/1/2019 9:44:50 PM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By FrankSymptoms:
I'm back, hanging my head in shame. I lost both hives this spring. I'm moving to Idaho, and it bothers me that I DON'T see a lot of honeybees. I do see some wasps and yellowjackets though. I wonder if the dearth of bees is due to farmers spraying pesticides? Anyone in Idaho who can brief me on this? I'm moving to the middle of farm country, in Weiser. I plan to build a couple of Langstroth hives this winter and have them ready for spring.
We have all been there. Not one beekeeper I know has not lost hives. Good on you for planning to get going again. Look up the beekeeping associations and get into those as soon as you get moved. Even if you have to drive a bit, it'll be worth knowing the issues in that region. Every place is different. |
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Posted: 7/1/2019 9:45:57 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By SSF556:
We did it by hand. Used a hot knife and a 5 gallon bucket with multiple filters. https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-5wLthWb/0/d9f6b933/L/i-5wLthWb-L.jpg https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-xJ5NGPP/0/539b31b0/L/i-xJ5NGPP-L.jpg And I love your kitchen. If you ever feel like showing more of it, I'd love to see it.
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Posted: 7/2/2019 9:11:07 AM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By SSF556:
We did it by hand. Used a hot knife and a 5 gallon bucket with multiple filters. https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-5wLthWb/0/d9f6b933/L/i-5wLthWb-L.jpg https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-xJ5NGPP/0/539b31b0/L/i-xJ5NGPP-L.jpg |
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Posted: 7/2/2019 9:12:17 AM EDT
[#41]
We’ll be doing our first extraction on Thursday if the weather holds. Hopefully I’ve done an adequate amount of research although it seems pretty self-explanatory.
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Posted: 7/3/2019 1:41:58 AM EDT
[#42]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By mr2143:
We’ll be doing our first extraction on Thursday if the weather holds. Hopefully I’ve done an adequate amount of research although it seems pretty self-explanatory.
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Posted: 7/3/2019 11:11:38 PM EDT
[Last Edit: FrankSymptoms]
[#43]
And now for something a little different. For all you DIY fans:
This guy has a SWEEET method for making the box joints!  Failed To Load Title At 0:02, directly under his left index finger, you can see a tab he's glued to the guide, which is responsible for the speed of his production. |
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Posted: 7/4/2019 10:46:52 AM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By FrankSymptoms:
And now for something a little different. For all you DIY fans: This guy has a SWEEET method for making the box joints!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRL0Usxcwvg
At 0:02, directly under his left index finger, you can see a tab he's glued to the guide, which is responsible for the speed of his production. I use the cross-cut sled method. If anything, my joints are too tight. Nor does my dado blade cut that quickly, and it's not dull either. cutting one by one does get old quick. There are gang-cutting methods out there, but I find keeping the boards aligned can be a pain, even with clamps and stuff. Someone markets a fancy jig for cutting several at once that takes care of that, but for $350 (IIRC), I'll cut them one by one. |
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Posted: 7/4/2019 9:13:33 PM EDT
[#45]
Extracted a little over 7 gallons from 25 super frames. Great experience. I used a 600 then 400 micron filter and have heard that letting it sit a few days elminates a lot of the finer particles and air bubbles by letting it rise to the surface. Is 24 hours adequate for this?
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Posted: 7/5/2019 10:07:52 AM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By mr2143:
Extracted a little over 7 gallons from 25 super frames. Great experience. I used a 600 then 400 micron filter and have heard that letting it sit a few days elminates a lot of the finer particles and air bubbles by letting it rise to the surface. Is 24 hours adequate for this? I only go 400 micron myself, strain it from excluder to filling bucket, then to bottles. This takes awhile, plenty of time for air bubbles to rise, and bottles get filled from bottom of bucket anyway. |
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Posted: 7/5/2019 1:31:17 PM EDT
[#47]
Received city beekeeping permit #1 today.
Now if only the queens will finally take. Gave up on them raising their own, got to the point of laying workers. Dumped all the bees in both hives elsewhere in the yard, and got a couple of queens. Will check on them Saturday. Keeping the corks in, just in case. 3 of the other hives in another location are doing OK. One is uncertain right now, it had queen cells of unknown age last friday, and on Wednesday, one of the cells was chewed through the side, so hopefully they have a queen recently hatched. Also added 2 frames of brood, since I thought the numbers were a bit low. At this point, if it looks like it doesn't have a queen, I'm just going to combine with the other young hive. |
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Posted: 7/6/2019 12:21:07 AM EDT
[#48]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By rcav8r:
Received city beekeeping permit #1 today. Now if only the queens will finally take. Gave up on them raising their own, got to the point of laying workers. Dumped all the bees in both hives elsewhere in the yard, and got a couple of queens. Will check on them Saturday. Keeping the corks in, just in case. 3 of the other hives in another location are doing OK. One is uncertain right now, it had queen cells of unknown age last friday, and on Wednesday, one of the cells was chewed through the side, so hopefully they have a queen recently hatched. Also added 2 frames of brood, since I thought the numbers were a bit low. At this point, if it looks like it doesn't have a queen, I'm just going to combine with the other young hive. That dumping everybody out and letting them sort themselves into some kind of order....I like that approach, but never took it to that extreme. |
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Posted: 7/6/2019 8:17:31 AM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Very interested in how the requeening goes for you. That dumping everybody out and letting them sort themselves into some kind of order....I like that approach, but never took it to that extreme. so dumped the hives in other parts of the yard. The workers just crawl around for a day or 2, while the gatherers head back to the hive. I had a frame of brood/larva from other hives added to each hive also. I will check on the queens this afternoon and see whats up. I did not remove the cork over candy just in case. |
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Posted: 7/6/2019 5:14:51 PM EDT
[#50]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By rcav8r: You probably know this, but the theory is that if eggs are being laid, the hive thinks it's queenright. Get rid of the laying workers (can be more than one), and in theory they think they are queenless again. There were a couple of hours between dumping and introducing new queens, I'm not clear if that helps clear any pheromones that might be present. so dumped the hives in other parts of the yard. The workers just crawl around for a day or 2, while the gatherers head back to the hive. I had a frame of brood/larva from other hives added to each hive also. I will check on the queens this afternoon and see whats up. I did not remove the cork over candy just in case. |
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