Honey Bees
- Thread starter Peeps
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cavey
5 year old buck +
added another honey super on my strong hive.... The Ladies were a little grumpy when I was checking the bottom deep, I hadnt been out into the hive for a long time and Im thinking there is a new batch of guard bees that didnt recognize me being a nice guy just checking up on them. I got my first stings yesterday.
Question, if the hive is super strong 50,000 to 60,000 bees and is getting honey bound will the queen back off from laying I have capped and uncapped brood but wasnt seeing any tiny ones laid in the cells, with the number of bees in there maybe she did swarm out but I would have thought I would see a drop in bee numbers as she would take a bunch with her. I have some concerns that this one may swarm do to its size - maybe that happened or I lost that queen too
Its been a fun learning curve on these critters - my other hive which started strong and now has all but slowed to nothing seems to also now have gone queen less.
Question, if the hive is super strong 50,000 to 60,000 bees and is getting honey bound will the queen back off from laying I have capped and uncapped brood but wasnt seeing any tiny ones laid in the cells, with the number of bees in there maybe she did swarm out but I would have thought I would see a drop in bee numbers as she would take a bunch with her. I have some concerns that this one may swarm do to its size - maybe that happened or I lost that queen too
Its been a fun learning curve on these critters - my other hive which started strong and now has all but slowed to nothing seems to also now have gone queen less.
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Typically, if in a good nectar flow, and a lot of bees, the queen is not going to quit laying. But, I am speaking of bees here in the south. Our queens slow their egg laying in fall, as the hive prepares for winter. Maybe that is happening where you live. We have two more good months of honey.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
I had a thought the other day after being stung a few times pulling honey frames. What would happen if you sprayed yourself liberally with something like Nose Jammer the scent you can use deer hunting? Think it would mask the smell of the stings enough to keep the others from getting more riled up?
ksgobbler
5 year old buck +
Queenless hive has a different sound to it when you open the top. The bees are also very restless. Did you see any queen cells, especially on the undersides of frames while checking?
cavey
5 year old buck +
Their both Russian/Italian hybrids so I've been told they are prone to making supersedure cells and swarm cells. Both types are present a few filled but most uncapped and empty. I know about the queenless buzz but I'm too new to know the diff.... both hives have been very passive, the smaller hive started out strong (plastic foundation) but just petered out - doubled in size, queen was rocking, they got to 8 of 10 frames in each deep filled. Then I added the next; top deep hit 80% full and I added the med super. its 65% full of honey but they just have not filled out the rest of the deeps. I have a feeder in the top box and was giving them 1to1 sugar water to draw out comb but stopped once they drew out the comb in the super.
2nd hive was slow to start, is on wired wax foundation, but is now exploded in pop, guessing 50-60 K. I had been down for a bit and could not get out to the hives other than to just look at them and didn't get into it for over 2 weeks and it is full up - all boxes... good mix of honey pollen and nectar... but hives have capped brood looks better then just workers laying but there is no new little larva in either hive in the open comb and a lot of that has nectar in it. I did not see the queen in either, the small hive I should have seen her but the large hive is just packed with thousands of bees each frame was just smothered in bees and I needed to get to the bottom deep to do my mite treatment. The Hive was passive till I started pulling the bottom deep frames.
I only have a bottom entrance at this time and im guessing they were being a bit more protective... they roared up and even the smoke wasnt keeping them down... I got popped in the hand and you know what that can do - it was game on and i got hit in the same spot a couple more times - walked away for a bit and came back - they were still bump buzzing me, just the bees out of the bottom deep, others boxes which were crawling with bees were mellow.....
If the bigger hive had swarmed she only took a few bees with her... 3 wks ago all the open comb had little larva in them both hives.... if we had a few more months of good weather I would think of splitting the big hive and boosting the weaker one but again this is all new to me and my only goals was to get both hives through the winter alive...
2nd hive was slow to start, is on wired wax foundation, but is now exploded in pop, guessing 50-60 K. I had been down for a bit and could not get out to the hives other than to just look at them and didn't get into it for over 2 weeks and it is full up - all boxes... good mix of honey pollen and nectar... but hives have capped brood looks better then just workers laying but there is no new little larva in either hive in the open comb and a lot of that has nectar in it. I did not see the queen in either, the small hive I should have seen her but the large hive is just packed with thousands of bees each frame was just smothered in bees and I needed to get to the bottom deep to do my mite treatment. The Hive was passive till I started pulling the bottom deep frames.
I only have a bottom entrance at this time and im guessing they were being a bit more protective... they roared up and even the smoke wasnt keeping them down... I got popped in the hand and you know what that can do - it was game on and i got hit in the same spot a couple more times - walked away for a bit and came back - they were still bump buzzing me, just the bees out of the bottom deep, others boxes which were crawling with bees were mellow.....
If the bigger hive had swarmed she only took a few bees with her... 3 wks ago all the open comb had little larva in them both hives.... if we had a few more months of good weather I would think of splitting the big hive and boosting the weaker one but again this is all new to me and my only goals was to get both hives through the winter alive...
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
A little testy were they!
Stings are worse on the face than anywhere else. I have had a few attacks on me like that - not pleasant. Hate that for you.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
It took darn near a week for the symptoms of my stings to go away. Once the swelling went down I realized I had gotten stung by at leas 3 or 4 bees in the same spot. I think they all managed to dump the full load in as well.
I have had several events where I was stung thirty to forty times. As long as they dont sting me around the eyes, I do ok. But every now and then I will have one that stings me on the arm and I will have visual swelling - where 20 other stings didnt do anything.
They dont bother me much - but I still dont like it.
They dont bother me much - but I still dont like it.
