Okay I'll start the beekeeping thread (Page 140 of 154)
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I'd get rid of the feeder. They should be long past that. Also, and very importantly, the lid is propped way too high. The bees can't guard that much of an opening against robbing and pests. The thickness of a popsicle stick is plenty. |
"You know how butt ugly people are said to have hit every branch on the way down the ugly tree.
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
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Originally Posted By rcav8r: I'd get rid of the feeder. They should be long past that. Also, and very importantly, the lid is propped way too high. The bees can't guard that much of an opening against robbing and pests. The thickness of a popsicle stick is plenty. Thanks for the advice. It's been up to 104F in Idaho; "the books" say anything over 85 or so is cause for alarm. I'll close it down. And I won't replace the feeder now. But I wonder if I should narrow the entrance? I bet they have plenty of guard bees now. |
"The Creator may be seen in all the works of his hands, but none so clearly in the wise economy of the honey bee."
Make sure your veil is secure. You will never forget the thrill of a bee INSIDE your veil.
Make sure your veil is secure. You will never forget the thrill of a bee INSIDE your veil.
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Originally Posted By FrankSymptoms: Thanks for the advice. It's been up to 104F in Idaho; "the books" say anything over 85 or so is cause for alarm. I'll close it down. And I won't replace the feeder now. But I wonder if I should narrow the entrance? I bet they have plenty of guard bees now. The hive tries to keep the interior at about 95f, so it's close. Let the entrance be full open, since they should have plenty of guard bees. It's just that the opening you made on top with the lid is HUGE. Since you don't want to change out the feeder, I guess you aren't going to look at collecting honey this year? |
"You know how butt ugly people are said to have hit every branch on the way down the ugly tree.
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
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With the number of frames only partly filled so far, I wouldn’t even think of taking their honey this year. That being said, now is certainly time to start more treatment I bought apivar, then saw it should not be used while they are making honey, and to remove all supers. Fortunately I still had a full box Mite Away. The maker of that treatment says it’s ok to use with supers. That stuff is potent and do your best to hold your breath or be upwind. Maybe I will use the Apivar with my newer package bee hives, plus’s the two swarms and the split. Since they will not be producing enough honey to take, for the most part. Maybe get one frame out of the two package hives, each. |
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All right, I'll keep the feeder. How do you use an in-the-hive feeder? Top box, for ease of refilling I suppose. How do the bees keep from drowning in it? |
"The Creator may be seen in all the works of his hands, but none so clearly in the wise economy of the honey bee."
Make sure your veil is secure. You will never forget the thrill of a bee INSIDE your veil.
Make sure your veil is secure. You will never forget the thrill of a bee INSIDE your veil.
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Here is where I am now - eight hives. Most are doing pretty well. The one that had the laying workers is making a comeback (yellow). I moved the two swarms into their own boxes from the nuc boxes finally. The one I had in a bad location and will never put one there again. A couple hundred foragers and guards probably got left behind. Just too hot and they were not all going inside at night. The box was on the deck of my workshop, away from where any bears can get to them. Had a bunch of angry bees in there that night. So I stopped and went out before sunrise the next morning. Hot night and there still lots out, plus maybe foragers already out. They were not and still not happy bees - the ones looking for their home I will see if I can collect as many of those as I can, and take up to the new location. I brought their old nuc box/swarm box close to where they were and some have gone in. I did the first mite-away strip treatment yesterday. Three of the hives. That’s all the spacers I could find. Thought I had another but theres nothing to making some more of these things, other than time. I didn’t try the powdered sugar jar test, to see where they are currently as far as mites. I need to get some more nice sidewalk pavers. All the ones I see at HD and Lowe’s are only 24” sq. And build a couple more boxes for next season, plus one soon for the remaining small nuc box. That was a split from early may, that I thought up to a few weeks ago had failed to make a queen, and was going to let it go. Well it’s got a bunch of brood in all the frames, capped and uncappped. Still lots of milkweed for them, plus some clover. Trying not to mow to much and leave the clover for them. Attached File |
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Originally Posted By JQ66: Here is where I am now - eight hives. Most are doing pretty well. The one that had the laying workers is making a comeback (yellow). I moved the two swarms into their own boxes from the nuc boxes finally. The one I had in a bad location and will never put one there again. A couple hundred foragers and guards probably got left behind. Just too hot and they were not all going inside at night. The box was on the deck of my workshop, away from where any bears can get to them. Had a bunch of angry bees in there that night. So I stopped and went out before sunrise the next morning. Hot night and there still lots out, plus maybe foragers already out. They were not and still not happy bees - the ones looking for their home I will see if I can collect as many of those as I can, and take up to the new location. I brought their old nuc box/swarm box close to where they were and some have gone in. I did the first mite-away strip treatment yesterday. Three of the hives. That’s all the spacers I could find. Thought I had another but theres nothing to making some more of these things, other than time. I didn’t try the powdered sugar jar test, to see where they are currently as far as mites. I need to get some more nice sidewalk pavers and build a couple more boxes for next season, plus one soon for the remaining small nuc box. That was a split from early may, that I thought up to a few weeks ago had failed to make a queen, and was going to let it go. Well it’s got a bunch of brood in all the frames, capped and uncappped. Still lots of milkweed for them, plus some clover. Trying not to mow to much and leave the clover for them. How far did you move your hive? Conventional wisdom says "Less than a foot, or more than a mile." |
"The Creator may be seen in all the works of his hands, but none so clearly in the wise economy of the honey bee."
Make sure your veil is secure. You will never forget the thrill of a bee INSIDE your veil.
Make sure your veil is secure. You will never forget the thrill of a bee INSIDE your veil.
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Originally Posted By FrankSymptoms: All right, I'll keep the feeder. How do you use an in-the-hive feeder? Top box, for ease of refilling I suppose. How do the bees keep from drowning in it? I used an empty super at first. Just put two cups up there, sitting on the top cover. Then the telescoping cover over that. But when it was hot and dry last summer they were emptying those things in half a day. I was putting feed cups on a beam that also held some water platters (like you’d use on the bottom of a flower pot. Plastic, not terra cotta as those are porous.). But the bees would have a huge feeding frenzy on those cups, they would empty them in 15 minutes and then push them off the beam onto the ground. I’ve posted video of it here before. It’s crazy. Then I got some of the feeder troughs that take the place of two frames. They hold over a gallon, so you don’t have to keep up with it as often. Although it is more work to get to it. |
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Originally Posted By FrankSymptoms: How far did you move your hive? Conventional wisdom says "Less than a foot, or more than a mile." It was maybe quarter mile. I don’t have the luxury of friends or other property miles away to temporarily move a hive. It was just not good temperature conditions to do a move. But had to to give them more room to grow. They were out of room with the five frames in the nuc box. Loaded with brood, and honey and pollen I did put branches in front of the new hive entrance. Which is claimed to help bees make new orientation points to their new location. At least the number of bees there yesterday did not grow, much. |
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Originally Posted By FrankSymptoms: All right, I'll keep the feeder. How do you use an in-the-hive feeder? Top box, for ease of refilling I suppose. How do the bees keep from drowning in it? I use these.  Pricey but rarely do I get any bees that drown. I learned long ago that bees do not make good swimmers but they sure like to try. I have one for almost every hive. I did a big expansion this year after the losses from winter. So I had to buy more of the plastic inserts. |
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Originally Posted By DUX4LIFE: I use these.https://www.mannlakeltd.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/fd111_611_711_2.jpg Pricey but rarely do I get any bees that drown. I learned long ago that bees do not make good swimmers but they sure like to try. I have one for almost every hive. I did a big expansion this year after the losses from winter. So I had to buy more of the plastic inserts. @Dux4life Dux I looked at these last week. I was scared it would drown a lot of bees who crawled down the sides. Maybe that's wrong. I've never seen one actually working, so I was speculating. |
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: @Dux4life Dux I looked at these last week. I was scared it would drown a lot of bees who crawled down the sides. Maybe that's wrong. I've never seen one actually working, so I was speculating. The bees come up through the middle under the screen. You may get a FEW drowners, but not many. |
"You know how butt ugly people are said to have hit every branch on the way down the ugly tree.
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: @Dux4life Dux I looked at these last week. I was scared it would drown a lot of bees who crawled down the sides. Maybe that's wrong. I've never seen one actually working, so I was speculating. They enter the feeder through the bottom on the inside. And like rcav8r said they crawl down between the screen and inner part of the trough. There will be thousands of drowned bees if the top is left off OR if they gain access from the top. You must seal the top off somehow. I use inner covers with the feeder/vent hole in the middle. First thing I do is screen off that hole so if they get in between the inner cover and outer cover they can't get into the feeder. If the hive is perfectly level they claim the 10 frame version holds 4 gallons. I have had starving hives in late summer take 4 gallons of syrup within 24 hours. I am a believer in these things if you are a person that may not be able to feed on a regular basis. I don't have the time to check on jars every day or 2 since I am over 100 hives so these work well for me. I can mix a batch of syrup and spend 15 minutes feeding a yard. One yard a day doesn't take much time out of my schedule and I can be assured that they have the resources they need. After that it's on them to take care of the syrup. Next year my goal is to find a decent pollen substitute delivery system for my yards. Time to get away from the pollen patties in the spring. |
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I saw a pollen feeder that was a PVC tube with a cap on one end, and a reducer or rectangular gutter adapter on the other. Then hang that from something I will put some mesh screen over the open end, so I don’t end up with birds making a nest in there. And will probably hang it from the fence that I have around my garden. Put it just off to the side from the hives. I will finally put it up this weekend. Should be enough for my purposes Attached File Those pollen feeders that look like cigarette butt receptacles are pretty expensive, if you just have a few hives. Also hoping to collect some frames with honey too, from the established hives. |
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Originally Posted By DUX4LIFE: They enter the feeder through the bottom on the inside. And like rcav8r said they crawl down between the screen and inner part of the trough. There will be thousands of drowned bees if the top is left off OR if they gain access from the top. You must seal the top off somehow. I use inner covers with the feeder/vent hole in the middle. First thing I do is screen off that hole so if they get in between the inner cover and outer cover they can't get into the feeder. If the hive is perfectly level they claim the 10 frame version holds 4 gallons. I have had starving hives in late summer take 4 gallons of syrup within 24 hours. I am a believer in these things if you are a person that may not be able to feed on a regular basis. I don't have the time to check on jars every day or 2 since I am over 100 hives so these work well for me. I can mix a batch of syrup and spend 15 minutes feeding a yard. One yard a day doesn't take much time out of my schedule and I can be assured that they have the resources they need. After that it's on them to take care of the syrup. Next year my goal is to find a decent pollen substitute delivery system for my yards. Time to get away from the pollen patties in the spring. @Dux4Life Are you saying you add an extra inner cover.....so there is one below the feeder, and one above the feeder with a screen? The guy I am helping get started (I gave him all my equipment, so I am invested) has been feeding with jars in one of the "holds two quart jars" wooden feeders over the hole in the inner cover. This is less than ideal, but is better than a boardman. I'm always looking for good feeder options. He will buy what he needs, and the Amish bee supply guy down the road (which is freaking awesome to have, can I just say?)has these in stock. I was scared of them, but on recommendation, I will have him get some. We have four hives started at his place. If he loses them, it will be my fault cuz he doesn't know what he's doing, and I dont' have time. 
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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 DUX4LIFE: I use these.https://www.mannlakeltd.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/fd111_611_711_2.jpg Pricey but rarely do I get any bees that drown. I learned long ago that bees do not make good swimmers but they sure like to try. I have one for almost every hive. I did a big expansion this year after the losses from winter. So I had to buy more of the plastic inserts. 
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Originally Posted By cuttingedge: I usually use pail feeders and frame feeders during the season but I got some of these to try and have been impressed. Since none of my hives ever seem to stay level the corner access is awesome. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/294057/F117E5C6-9092-4C2C-B755-0EBE0693A524-2017478.gif @cuttingedge link for the ones you use? |
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: @cuttingedge link for the ones you use? Here you go! |
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: @Dux4Life Are you saying you add an extra inner cover.....so there is one below the feeder, and one above the feeder with a screen? The guy I am helping get started (I gave him all my equipment, so I am invested) has been feeding with jars in one of the "holds two quart jars" wooden feeders over the hole in the inner cover. This is less than ideal, but is better than a boardman. I'm always looking for good feeder options. He will buy what he needs, and the Amish bee supply guy down the road (which is freaking awesome to have, can I just say?)has these in stock. I was scared of them, but on recommendation, I will have him get some. We have four hives started at his place. If he loses them, it will be my fault cuz he doesn't know what he's doing, and I dont' have time. The feeder sits on top of the brood box. If you had an empty medium super(no frames) you would set that on top of your brood box and this plastic insert would fit inside of the super box. There is a flange all the way around on top of the feeder so it can't fall inside. Then you place the inner cover on top of the feeder and the outer cover on top of the inner cover just like normal. From the outside it looks just like a honey super. I paint my feeder boxes a different color so I can tell if it's a feeder or super. I know I said a medium super but in my opinion the medium is too deep. The bees will fill the area below it with comb and honey. I take a deep box and cut it in half(4 3/4" deep) and they will house 2 of the plastic inserts with close to the proper bee space. They changed the style an the 10 frame size a while back and I am not sure they changed the depth or not though. Currently cutting a deep box in half gives me the correct height. You do have to assemble the screen into the insert when you first get it. It comes with screws and a piece of pre-bent galvanized screen. |
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Speaking of prices, I'm noticing that it's cheap enough to buy frames with foundation now that it almost doesn't make sense to build your own frames if you have just a few hives. Is this true everywhere? Of course, my time has become more valuable due to work in the years I haven't had bees. So maybe it's not true across the board. |
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
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: Speaking of prices, I'm noticing that it's cheap enough to buy frames with foundation now that it almost doesn't make sense to build your own frames if you have just a few hives. Is this true everywhere? Of course, my time has become more valuable due to work in the years I haven't had bees. So maybe it's not true across the board. COMPLETELY building the frames, from bare wood, is very time consuming.  DIY Beehive Frames - Never buy beehive frames again |
"The Creator may be seen in all the works of his hands, but none so clearly in the wise economy of the honey bee."
Make sure your veil is secure. You will never forget the thrill of a bee INSIDE your veil.
Make sure your veil is secure. You will never forget the thrill of a bee INSIDE your veil.
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Originally Posted By FrankSymptoms: COMPLETELY building the frames, from bare wood, is very time consuming.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH6tD89iDtMI’ve been buying mostly assembled frames from when I started. They’re just too cheap, relatively, not too. The kits are not bad, and don’t take long to assembly. But I don’t think there’s enough of a price advantage No way would I want to make them from scratch. At least not now. Too much set up time with all the different saw cuts. That pretty much when I found out about Mann lake I do make all my boxes, bases, and telescoping covers. The only other thing I buy are the queen excluders |
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I do make my own layens frames, not hard since I made some fixtures for the router and drill press. But Langstroth frames? I'll buy kits and assemble them with titebond III and pneumatic stapler. I'm moving away from plastic foundation though, since I'm getting more into horizontal hives (in addition to the layens), and I feel the bees need to make their own passages in those kind of setups, not just clipping corners like the plastic foundation. I'm also going more towards wiring and installing wax foundation, but I'll still do prewired foundation when I have some. I think it's just easier when it comes to recycling frames to have the wired fames than wired foundation, in my limited experience. |
"You know how butt ugly people are said to have hit every branch on the way down the ugly tree.
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
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Originally Posted By cuttingedge: Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: @cuttingedge link for the ones you use? Here you go! Blythewood Bees also sells the Ceracell feeder trays Maybe their price is better, but shipping is not in that price https://blythewoodbeecompany.com/collections/hive-maintenance/products/ceracell-top-feeders-1-feeder-in-beekeeping I bought some of these last year but did not use them yet. Didn’t have enough super boxes. I went with the troughs that replace a couple frames in the deep boxes instead, last year. |
My issue with cutting and making your own frames is warpage if you don't get the grain right. Actually I started using these  https://www.acornbee.com/product/acorn-one-piece-plastic-frames/. As much as I resisted them my supplier gave me no other choice and I was in a bind with customers wanting for their orders. Back in the 70's( @Kitties-with-Sigs do you remember that far back?) the plastic 1 piece frames and foundations were junk. The new ones from Acorn are really liked by the bees. Time will tell about durability but for now the bees love them. I am using double waxed, they also come in single and triple waxed.
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Has anyone ever had a mated adult queen just move to a new hive, on her own? Last Sunday I did my inspections and removed the mite away strips from three of my hives. I noticed on that came from a new package this spring was in bad shape. Not many bees left, little to no brood. But the marked queen was there. I planned to move a couple frames with brood from other hives in there last night to give them a boost. So I open up that hive , and there are almost no bees left in there. No dead bees in the bottom. No rotted brood. Just gone. Also no moths - or hornets - it looks and sounds like absconding. I didn’t use the varroa treatment here yet because the manufacturer says they have seen that happen on some weaker hives. But ai never thought the queen and maybe other bees would just jump over to a nearby hive box, that is already occupied by a good population to boot. So I start working my way through the hives , and putting some feed troughs inside the deep boxes, as there’s not much blooming right now. Just a little bit of clover left I get to my orange box. This was the only original queen from the four packages I started with in 2020. She was a pretty good queen. A consistent layer. Maybe not always the most prolific. I get into the top deep box. Not much honey there. And no new brood. So I go into the bottom deep box - no brood there either, at least very little uncapped brood. And no sign of the blue queen. And then I spot a queen with a white mark on her. I did not make any attempt to requeen this hive at all, in the last year and a half. Attached File What the heck is going on here! She and maybe what was left of her hive must have moved over (it was just the next box over, but the front porches were 180 degrees opposite between these two. Now I’m wondering , if she is a mated queen, would she be able to fly even that much? And has anyone ever seen that happen? A bit sad seeing that 2020 queen gone. I know they only live 2-3 years. But was neat to see her doing her thing, the last surviving 2020 queen - I saw her just this last Sunday in there walking around a frame, after I removed the mite away strips and spacer . So this queen moved in in just a couple days. (I never stack on top other boxes when I do my inspections). I thought I had more honey too. I know I did, but wasn’t able to collect it back in June due to working longer hours for strike duty They must have consumed at least 3-4 super frames. And a couple in deep boxes in the last month. |
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Originally Posted By JQ66: Has anyone ever had a mated adult queen just move to a new hive, on her own? Last Sunday I did my inspections and removed the mite away strips from three of my hives. I noticed on that came from a new package this spring was in bad shape. Not many bees left, little to no brood. But the marked queen was there. I planned to move a couple frames with brood from other hives in there last night to give them a boost. So I open up that hive , and there are almost no bees left in there. No dead bees in the bottom. No rotted brood. Just gone. Also no moths - or hornets - it looks and sounds like absconding. I didn’t use the varroa treatment here yet because the manufacturer says they have seen that happen on some weaker hives. But ai never thought the queen and maybe other bees would just jump over to a nearby hive box, that is already occupied by a good population to boot. So I start working my way through the hives , and putting some feed troughs inside the deep boxes, as there’s not much blooming right now. Just a little bit of clover left I get to my orange box. This was the only original queen from the four packages I started with in 2020. She was a pretty good queen. A consistent layer. Maybe not always the most prolific. I get into the top deep box. Not much honey there. And no new brood. So I go into the bottom deep box - no brood there either, at least very little uncapped brood. And no sign of the blue queen. And then I spot a queen with a white mark on her. I did not make any attempt to requeen this hive at all, in the last year and a half. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/319879/6617F46D-6EF5-49E7-91FA-E2F6E0A783FD_jpe-2023713.JPG What the heck is going on here! She and maybe what was left of her hive must have moved over (it was just the next box over, but the front porches were 180 degrees opposite between these two. Now I’m wondering , if she is a mated queen, would she be able to fly even that much? And has anyone ever seen that happen? A bit sad seeing that 2020 queen gone. I know they only live 2-3 years. But was neat to see her doing her thing, the last surviving 2020 queen - I saw her just this last Sunday in there walking around a frame, after I removed the mite away strips and spacer . So this queen moved in in just a couple days. (I never stack on top other boxes when I do my inspections). I thought I had more honey too. I know I did, but wasn’t able to collect it back in June due to working longer hours for strike duty They must have consumed at least 3-4 super frames. And a couple in deep boxes in the last month. That's interesting! This is an odd year to say the least. I did a split a few weeks ago and never found which hive kept the queen( left eggs in both), Went out to check on them and when I lifted the feeder I saw a small ball of bees about the size of a golf ball. I figured a wasp or bumblebee got inside. Upon examining it there was a queen in the midst. I caged her and did an inspection. Found another queen contently laying on one of the frames. Both looked to be young queens. Checked my other hives and all were queenright. The last hive had brood above and below the excluder. Ain't sure how that happened. Only found 1 queen in it. Placed her below the excluder after a good scolding. |
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Originally Posted By DUX4LIFE: That's interesting! This is an odd year to say the least. I did a split a few weeks ago and never found which hive kept the queen( left eggs in both), Went out to check on them and when I lifted the feeder I saw a small ball of bees about the size of a golf ball. I figured a wasp or bumblebee got inside. Upon examining it there was a queen in the midst. I caged her and did an inspection. Found another queen contently laying on one of the frames. Both looked to be young queens. Checked my other hives and all were queenright. The last hive had brood above and below the excluder. Ain't sure how that happened. Only found 1 queen in it. Placed her below the excluder after a good scolding. Odd year indeed. We have a new bee supply company just down the road from me. Amish guy, but very knowledgeable, nice guy. He has a huge demonstration hive in his retail space, with a full ten frames visible from both sides. And two queens. He says it's the first time he has seen two queens working in one hive, but there you go. I have to wonder, just thinking out loud, if this is some kind of adaptation to the higher pressures hives are facing in the past few years. All things adapt. I know I have heard of a hive with two queens before, but it was a very rare thing. And here we are, talking about all of a sudden, three of us have seen it on this one forum (a very small sampling of beekeepers, as far as the beekeeping world goes). On a side note, I got stung about 20 times today, and that is my first experience with getting a lot of stings at once. One or two, yeah, but they were Mad. At. Me. My buddy who hosts these hives on his place had not gotten the entrance reducers out (he's brand new and had health issues, and I had not had time) so I went today to work bees.....Good news....nice-looking queen in the weak hive, but I don't like her pattern, and on the bottom board I found some larvae....I mean wax moth larvae. I did not see any in the comb, but I could have missed it. Bees were quite docile and it is the weakest by far of the hives, so we may have a problem I didn't see. Going to do a mite check tomorrow. But anyway, went to remove the entrance reducers on the three strong hives. Glued shut. I had on dark colored pants (I know better than this) and have stings on my legs and the worst one.... right smack on my butt cheek. Ow. 
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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
I hit a milestone in my beekeeping career last week. I was marking and clipping some queens and while I was positioning one between my thumb and index finger, she got me right on the tip of my finger. I handle thousands of queens each season and have never gotten stung by one before.  
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Originally Posted By cuttingedge: I hit a milestone in my beekeeping career last week. I was marking and clipping some queens and while I was positioning one between my thumb and index finger, she got me right on the tip of my finger. I handle thousands of queens each season and have never gotten stung by one before. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/294057/AECD967C-A62D-4FC1-98E3-920C3FD7DD57-2027672.jpg https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/294057/D94E6D43-ACCB-48A7-82C1-5C7219CD5336-2027670.jpg That girl was jealous I guess. Queens arrived safely. Re-queened 4 hives and made some splits. The 4 hives I re-queened seemed docile enough with the new ones. The candy is about half eaten and the bees seem calm around them. |
A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!!!
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Originally Posted By cuttingedge: I hit a milestone in my beekeeping career last week. I was marking and clipping some queens and while I was positioning one between my thumb and index finger, she got me right on the tip of my finger. I handle thousands of queens each season and have never gotten stung by one before. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/294057/AECD967C-A62D-4FC1-98E3-920C3FD7DD57-2027672.jpg https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/294057/D94E6D43-ACCB-48A7-82C1-5C7219CD5336-2027670.jpg @CuttingEdge, I've never heard of a queen stinging. Apparently she didn't like your handling technique.  Were you able to still keep her okay? Or did you lose her in the process? BTW....if you have queens available, I don't know how realistic it is to consider requeening a hive in KY at this point, but I would be interested. |
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
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
Joined:
Feb 2007
Posts:
46175
EE: 0% (0)
KY, USA
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Originally Posted By DUX4LIFE: That girl was jealous I guess. Queens arrived safely. Re-queened 4 hives and made some splits. The 4 hives I re-queened seemed docile enough with the new ones. The candy is about half eaten and the bees seem calm around them. @Dux4Life what technique did you use? Did you smash the old queen before the new one arrived? I've heard "smash her and smear her on the hive so they know" and Jeez.....I have a hard enough time killing the old queen. I've heard, "kill her and leave them a couple of days before you introduce the new queen, so they are really wanting a queen when she goes in there." I've heard a lot of different things. Been a long time since I had to do this, so interested in any thoughts from you and/or CE. |
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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Just a few random photos from my bee yard They are finally using the pollen feeder I made for them It was hot today, partly cloudy (typical SW Pa day) and they were really active Attached File I also placed the frames I took for extraction. Let the bees clean the rest off Attached File What the heck upside down after I uploaded! I think I got about a gallon + by volume. I used my Simple Harmony decapper. Worked great. My Dad would’ve got a kick out of that thing. So much nicer and cleaner than all the scrapers etc. I will post some photos of the honey in the bottles later this week. Letting everything drain out and settle out before it’s bottled. Was figuring on getting twice that much back in May, but sometimes events are not in our control and work takes center stage. |
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: @CuttingEdge, I've never heard of a queen stinging. Apparently she didn't like your handling technique. Were you able to still keep her okay? Or did you lose her in the process? BTW....if you have queens available, I don't know how realistic it is to consider requeening a hive in KY at this point, but I would be interested. Although it is rare to get stung by a queen, it has happened to two other queen breeders that I know. The queen is safe. She was caged and introduced into a nucleus colony. Queens stingers aren’t barbed like a workers stinger so it is easily removed from soft tissue like our skin. This is what enables them to sting other queens and survive as they do to virgins when they emerge from their cell. It hurt but it wasn’t any worse than getting stung by a worker. I think it was just that it shocked me as it had never happened before. |
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Originally Posted By DUX4LIFE: That girl was jealous I guess. Queens arrived safely. Re-queened 4 hives and made some splits. The 4 hives I re-queened seemed docile enough with the new ones. The candy is about half eaten and the bees seem calm around them. Glad they arrived in good shape 
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Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: @Dux4Life what technique did you use? Did you smash the old queen before the new one arrived? I've heard "smash her and smear her on the hive so they know" and Jeez.....I have a hard enough time killing the old queen. I've heard, "kill her and leave them a couple of days before you introduce the new queen, so they are really wanting a queen when she goes in there." I've heard a lot of different things. Been a long time since I had to do this, so interested in any thoughts from you and/or CE. These were splits that ended up queenless, either due to failed mating or the old queen having an untimely death. If there is a laying worker I prefer to add a frame of brood to add some pheromones to slow down the laying worker and then place the queen cage in the hive. I usually lay the cage down on top of the frame and observe the reaction of the hive. Many times You can tell when they either like her or will reject her. Nothing is set in stone but it seems when they are curious and start prodding around on the cage they seem to accept the new queen. I've seen bees get really mad and try to attack them through the cage also. My experience has been that they do not accept the queen then. I usually go back through the hive just to see if I missed the queen. Another thing I do if I feel they are queenless but I am not sure is add a frame of eggs. They should try to start a queen cell if they are in need, No queen cell and they are probably queen right or have one out on mating flights. The brood pheromone will also suppress the laying worker's desire until a new queen can be installed. I also try to add some syrup to the hive when I add a new queen. |
A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!!!
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Originally Posted By cuttingedge: Although it is rare to get stung by a queen, it has happened to two other queen breeders that I know. The queen is safe. She was caged and introduced into a nucleus colony. Queens stingers aren’t barbed like a workers stinger so it is easily removed from soft tissue like our skin. This is what enables them to sting other queens and survive as they do to virgins when they emerge from their cell. It hurt but it wasn’t any worse than getting stung by a worker. I think it was just that it shocked me as it had never happened before. Interesting. Stings are a thing when you keep bees, but I try to keep them to a minumum. Just never heard of a queen stinging. Glad you were able to be steady and keep her safe!  I'm not that steady when something hurts me.
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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
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
Joined:
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Posts:
46182
EE: 0% (0)
KY, USA
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Originally Posted By DUX4LIFE: These were splits that ended up queenless, either due to failed mating or the old queen having an untimely death. If there is a laying worker I prefer to add a frame of brood to add some pheromones to slow down the laying worker and then place the queen cage in the hive. I usually lay the cage down on top of the frame and observe the reaction of the hive. Many times You can tell when they either like her or will reject her. Nothing is set in stone but it seems when they are curious and start prodding around on the cage they seem to accept the new queen. I've seen bees get really mad and try to attack them through the cage also. My experience has been that they do not accept the queen then. I usually go back through the hive just to see if I missed the queen. Another thing I do if I feel they are queenless but I am not sure is add a frame of eggs. They should try to start a queen cell if they are in need, No queen cell and they are probably queen right or have one out on mating flights. The brood pheromone will also suppress the laying worker's desire until a new queen can be installed. I also try to add some syrup to the hive when I add a new queen. Thank you! Really good thoughts on the way the hive reacts. I have the same experience with observing the hive's reaction to the queen cage. But.....if you have an active queen but do not like the results, how do you handle that? How do you handle "removing" her and the subsequent replacement? It is the removal process I'm wondering about, as I think the weak hive I have might be solved by requeening (and adding some workers---they are weak enough I think they need some, but not so weak as to think I cannot save them.) |
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: Thank you! Really good thoughts on the way the hive reacts. I have the same experience with observing the hive's reaction to the queen cage. But.....if you have an active queen but do not like the results, how do you handle that? How do you handle "removing" her and the subsequent replacement? It is the removal process I'm wondering about, as I think the weak hive I have might be solved by requeening (and adding some workers---they are weak enough I think they need some, but not so weak as to think I cannot save them.) Best is to kill her and leave her in the hive. Wait at least 24 hours and then introduce the new queen. You may want to block the cage entrance for a day or 2 to give them a bit longer to release her. If you feed them some syrup while doing this it may help her by adding more to their "to-do" list. An observation I have seen is once honey comb is broken open many bees seem to focus on collecting it above all other duties. It is just another thing to take their mind off of the strange bees we just introduced. Just my opinion and I can't say for sure that it does anything to help with the introduction but since we are in a dearth it should ease some of the tensions in the hive. |
A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!!!
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I've heard of mother/daughter hives before, usually supercedure, but not like that. The mother queen eventually leaves in most cases. |
"You know how butt ugly people are said to have hit every branch on the way down the ugly tree.
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
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Anybody have thoughts on dealing with wax moths in a situation where you are trying to save the hive? I've had wax moths only in hives that were devastated beyond saving. Either freeze the combs and give them to another hive or burn them, if it's a dead hive and a huge enough mess. I'd like to try to save this hive, but am hesitant to give them more bees from a strong hive, because I feel like that's throwing good bees at an unsalvageable situation. I did not see moth larvae in the comb, but if it's on the bottom board, it's in the comb.  |
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: Anybody have thoughts on dealing with wax moths in a situation where you are trying to save the hive? I've had wax moths only in hives that were devastated beyond saving. Either freeze the combs and give them to another hive or burn them, if it's a dead hive and a huge enough mess. I'd like to try to save this hive, but am hesitant to give them more bees from a strong hive, because I feel like that's throwing good bees at an unsalvageable situation. I did not see moth larvae in the comb, but if it's on the bottom board, it's in the comb. I just set them out in the sun. The wax moths will abandon the foundation shortly. Freezing them works equally as well. If the hive is really weak add resources from another hive after removing the bad foundations. I try to save most hives unless they are less than 2 frames. Once cleaned up AND additional resources have been added many "lost causes" work out. |
A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!!!
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PSA... To all of the new beekeepers that think their hives are queenless... Make multiple checks and if broodless, make sure the new queen is not on mating flights. Last Friday/Saturday I added 4 new queens to queenless hives. All were recent splits...All looked to be queenless for over a week... All of the old brood had hatched. One hive seemed content and thus I felt they had a queen in waiting. The others were acting nervous. I went back every other day to see if the queens had been released and today found that only 1 had. The others were still in their cages with a little bit of candy left in the tube. Probably will get released tomorrow or tonight. Being the nosy beekeeper that I am I checked on this hive to see if they kept her or not since they were down to 2 frames of bees in an 8 frame nuc box. After I removed the 2nd frame I saw fresh brood(either I had a laying worker or I missed a queen). Looked a little closer and found 2 workers escorting the new queen out the door in a much nicer way than I dreamed of. I caged her up and looked again. Bingo, They were waiting on their queen to finish her mating flights. I am shocked they didn't kill this queen. Well, I will see if the next hive will take her... Also I am not sure this was the hive that was waiting on their queen to return. |
A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!!!
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
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Originally Posted By DUX4LIFE: PSA... To all of the new beekeepers that think their hives are queenless... Make multiple checks and if broodless, make sure the new queen is not on mating flights. Last Friday/Saturday I added 4 new queens to queenless hives. All were recent splits...All looked to be queenless for over a week... All of the old brood had hatched. One hive seemed content and thus I felt they had a queen in waiting. The others were acting nervous. I went back every other day to see if the queens had been released and today found that only 1 had. The others were still in their cages with a little bit of candy left in the tube. Probably will get released tomorrow or tonight. Being the nosy beekeeper that I am I checked on this hive to see if they kept her or not since they were down to 2 frames of bees in an 8 frame nuc box. After I removed the 2nd frame I saw fresh brood(either I had a laying worker or I missed a queen). Looked a little closer and found 2 workers escorting the new queen out the door in a much nicer way than I dreamed of. I caged her up and looked again. Bingo, They were waiting on their queen to finish her mating flights. I am shocked they didn't kill this queen. Well, I will see if the next hive will take her... Also I am not sure this was the hive that was waiting on their queen to return. I have just quit trying to see the queen for the most part. It's nice if she shows up, but I just look for eggs and brood anyway. If I don't see those, I start looking harder. ETA: And I will say....when I last kept bees, I did not wear reading glasses. Now, I can't see much of anything close up without them. Managing reading glasses and a bee veil....that's a learning curve. The joys of getting olde. I have yet to see eggs. I know they are there, because if there is six-day-old larvae, there were eggs there when I last looked.But....can't see them. Nope. Can't.
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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
|
Originally Posted By DUX4LIFE: PSA... To all of the new beekeepers that think their hives are queenless... Make multiple checks and if broodless, make sure the new queen is not on mating flights. Last Friday/Saturday I added 4 new queens to queenless hives. All were recent splits...All looked to be queenless for over a week... All of the old brood had hatched. One hive seemed content and thus I felt they had a queen in waiting. The others were acting nervous. I went back every other day to see if the queens had been released and today found that only 1 had. The others were still in their cages with a little bit of candy left in the tube. Probably will get released tomorrow or tonight. Being the nosy beekeeper that I am I checked on this hive to see if they kept her or not since they were down to 2 frames of bees in an 8 frame nuc box. After I removed the 2nd frame I saw fresh brood(either I had a laying worker or I missed a queen). Looked a little closer and found 2 workers escorting the new queen out the door in a much nicer way than I dreamed of. I caged her up and looked again. Bingo, They were waiting on their queen to finish her mating flights. I am shocked they didn't kill this queen. Well, I will see if the next hive will take her... Also I am not sure this was the hive that was waiting on their queen to return. Good advice! We usually make our splits from queen right colonies by adding brood frames above a queen excluder. Come back the next day and the frames are loaded with young nurse bees. We remove the frames and places them into their new boxes (usually nuc boxes) and then add a queen cell or mated queen depending on the time of year and what we have available. When working with virgins, we either direct release right after they hatch in the incubator or we add them with attendants into a candy cage. When we do this we like to go back 8 days after making the splits and check for rogue emergency cells prior to installing the virgins in the candy cage. I have found this increases acceptance significantly. After that, we check back in two weeks to check queen status. Virgin queens can be tricky to find amongst a large population of bees. Shaking the bees through a queen excluder can help. |
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Aren't virgin queens usually small enough to fit through an excluder? I've seen my share of virgin queens, they're usually just a little longer than the other bees, but no larger otherwise. |
"You know how butt ugly people are said to have hit every branch on the way down the ugly tree.
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
Well, the dumbass tree done drilled you in the butt and laid eggs in ya." -RJinks
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Originally Posted By rcav8r: Aren't virgin queens usually small enough to fit through an excluder? I've seen my share of virgin queens, they're usually just a little longer than the other bees, but no larger otherwise. They do not normally fit through a queen excluder. |
Okay I'll start the beekeeping thread (Page 140 of 154)
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