Honey Bees

[Peeps]

Latest pics from past Sunday. 2nd box added to the hive of packaged bees. The nuc hive is really taking off.

 

[Tatersalad]

I have 4 hives now...my goal is to have them in each field on my property to help with pollination. I started with two but have managed to catch two swarms. Picture is one I caught last year. This year I harvested 80 lbs of honey.

 

[Peeps]

I have 4 hives now...my goal is to have them in each field on my property to help with pollination. I started with two but have managed to catch two swarms. Picture is one I caught last year. This year I harvested 80 lbs of honey.

Welcome to HT Tatersalad, where are you located. Our land is in far NE wi. We are planning on harvesting our first honey of the season next week.

 

[Tatersalad]

Peeps

Thanks for the warm welcome. My property (230 acres) is located in southwest Mississippi.

 

[Corey Peterson]

Welcome Tatersalad! Glad you're having luck with the Bees I'm running my first hive this year. Hope to run a few more next year. Are you guys doing any mite treatments in the summer? I'm getting ready to do an OAV treatment this weekend I'll post some pics if I can remember to take my dumb phone with me.

 

[Tatersalad]

Corey

I did the strips two years ago...but have not the last two years. My boxes have oil pans (cookie sheet filled with vegetable oil) under them so as you may know the bees pull off the mites on their own and when they drop them they fall in oil and die. its a natural alternative to chemical treatment. I was also told (and recall reading it on the mite strip package) that if you use the strips you shouldn't harvest the honey from the hive that year. I'm by NO means a bee expert...I know just enough to be dangerous and have had enough luck to manage to keep my four hives a live an well.

 

[Corey Peterson]

I'm no expert either this is my first year with bees! My hive started as a package and I haven't been able to get it overly productive IMO I'm just hoping to get it through winter at this point. I'll be using an oxalic acid vaporizer my hive doesn't have any honey supers on, but you can do an OAV treatment with the supers on if you put plastic or card board between the supers and the rest of the hive while you do the treatment. Great part about the OAV treatment is it doesn't harm the bee's or brood at all (which the strips can). If I get a high mite count on my sticky board (above 100) after the first treatment I'll have to do 3 more treatments spaced 5-7 days apart because most of the mites live in the capped brood. That's my plan as of now.

 

[Alpha Doe]

I can't wait to read this thread.

 

[Peeps]

Corey, we did one package bee hive and one nuc hive for our first try with bees. The nuc hive took off way faster then the package. The nuc has the second box of frames pretty much full of capped honey. We will be harvesting that honey next week and then putting that box and frames back on the hive so they can work on them again. We will prob experiment with trying to overwinter at least one of the hives but the bees we purchase in the future will prob be nuc hives instead of package bees. The whole process has been enjoyable for my whole family.

 

[Corey Peterson]

I agree nucs seem to be the way to go I'm going to order one or two for next year. Theres a beekeeper in VT that sells 8 frame over wintered nucs but they are pretty expensive $235 each some other local guys sell 4-5 frame nucs for 160-175.

 

[H20fwler]

Very cool thread, love bee's.
I've been kicking the idea around of putting in a colony for a couple years, just wish someone local could tend it I don't have the gear.

 

[Peeps]

My wife and kids did our first honey harvest of the season today. They ran out of jars do there is much more to put in hats tomorrow.

 

[Peeps]

 

[Corey Peterson]

Here are some picture of the OAV treatment I did this morning


Here is the vaporizer, and the Oaxalic acid (wood bleach available at any hardware store). It runs off a 12v battery so I just pulled my four wheeler over to hive and used it as my power source.



Loaded up and ready to smoke




I sealed up the entrance with an old shirt



I run a screened bottom board with a slot for a mite tray so this is where I inserted the vaporizer





Here is the mite tray with a sticky cardboard sheet used to count the mite drop post treatment

 

[CAS_HNTR]

Man I am jealous!

I started a hive this year and it was a resounding failure! They never really got going, then they seemed to look OK with larva and whatnot.....then I checked them a few weeks ago and there were like 100 bees in the hive! Not sure what happened!

 

[Peeps]

Here are the results from the 6 frames we harvested.

 

[Redarrow]

My dad, uncle and myself all have between 3 to 5 hives each. The key for us is making sure we leave enough honey for the bees over winter and we take the heavy weight tar paper for roofing and wrap our hives with the onset of winter. Absorbs the sun. Just make sure they get enough air.

Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk

 

[Corey Peterson]

Mite treatment update;
12hr check 13 dead mites on the sticky board
24hr check 28 dead mites on the sticky board

 

[Peeps]

One of our hives is queen less. Now trying to decide if we should grab another queen or if it is too late in the season. This is the hive we took the recent honey from.

 

[Corey Peterson]

One of our hives is queen less. Now trying to decide if we should grab another queen or if it is too late in the season. This is the hive we took the recent honey from.

That stinks - I'm assuming you found queen cells in the hive, and cant find the queen?