Honey Bees

[TreeDaddy]

Wanted to say thank you to all of you for your advice on my lost queen hive, it has recovered nicely.View attachment 37849

I would say so!!!!!

beautiful

God's creatures

bill

 

[TreeDaddy]

I've been allergic to them since I was a kid, put me in the hospital once.
When we decided to add bees to the farm I went to an allergy Dr to check about finishing my shots, though I never finished them.
After the hospital overnight my parents took me for weekly Dr visits for increasingly larger bee venom shots.
Back to the present, I had blood drawn and the Dr said it didn't show I was allergic to bees now, but to keep an epipen with me just in case.
Last spring I had one nail me right behind the ear and of course no epi.
It takes a good 20 minutes to drive myself to the er and even then my eyes were only a little swollen.
They gave me benadryl and a good scolding for not having my epi, but still, the first time since I was 8 or so I didn't have to take an epi shot.

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Merle,

Carry the f***in pen!!!!!!!!

bill

 

[River-X]

My wife and I were just talking about getting into the bee hive thing. We have occasional swarms around here, once had a massive blob of them on the back bumper of my truck out of nowhere.
what would be a really good resource that you guys would recommend for us to learn the ins and outs? I will be searching the internet for some but if anybody has a particular reference that is real good, I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[TreeDaddy]

My wife and I were just talking about getting into the bee hive thing. We have occasional swarms around here, once had a massive blob of them on the back bumper of my truck out of nowhere.
what would be a really good resource that you guys would recommend for us to learn the ins and outs? I will be searching the internet for some but if anybody has a particular reference that is real good, I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Chris

Beekeeping for Dummies Howie Blackiston

The Backyard BeeKeeper Kim Flottum

First Lessons in Beekeeping Dadant Publishers

These will get you started

Be forewarned: Keeping bees is every bit as addictive as planting trees/habitat management

bill

 

[River-X]

Thanks TreeDaddy. The addictive nature of the hobby is what scares me the most about getting into it. LOL

 

[Mozark]

Haven't seen any activity out of this hive in the last month, temps are in the mid forties today, so I decided to have a look. Hive seems to be doing good, got my first sting of the year out of the way.

 

[Bill Loser]

At 40 they arent out of the hive are they?

 

[Mozark]

At 40 they arent out of the hive are they?

No activity today. Last monday was in the sixties, all the hives were fairly active except this one.

 

[TreeDaddy]

forecast here calls for temp in 60s this week

Activity in the apiary ( and this thread) should start to pick up

bill

 

[Angus 1895]

I don’t own bees ,

but I love to make blackberry/ raspberry mead!

 

[fishin coyote]

Some of mine were flying today, cleaning out the dead. It was sunny and in the upper 30’s. There were a few hundred dead bees on the snow pack in the backyard.

Hopefully it stays cold and they don’t break cluster. The next 4-6 weeks are critical as far as survival of winter goes

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Noticed activity in all the hives today. Good to see them out and about. Red maples have flower buds showing.

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[rtaylor]

Weekend was in the 50's so we popped the top and added pollen patties. Hopefully they will brood up early and I can make splits twice.

 

[Mozark]

Sunny and mid sixties, very windy today. Pulled off the quilt boxes ( shallow with pillow case full of pine shavings) and left them with a feed shim and sugar bricks. All four hives have made it so far, happy with the size of the clusters.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I noticed the queen excluder

How many use them?

I stopped using them and have not noticed any issue with brood in supers,etc

bill

 

[fishin coyote]

I use them as needed depending on the hive, some queens want to continually move up and others will stay down. I use the excluders more on swarms or cut outs to keep the queen in the box until she starts laying.

 

[Mozark]

I use them on all the hives. I work so many hours, it just doesn't leave me a lot of time for everything else. I can look through the supers or take them off a little quicker not having to worry about her being up there. For me it is simply a time saver, I don't have to stop and scan everything looking for her.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Getting these ready to go...... caught 5 last year!!!

bill

 

[TreeDaddy]

Any thought on spring management of Varroa mites?

Anyone doing counts,Rx,etc?

Also, how did everyone's colonies do over the winter?

Spring time is the BeeKeeper's "deer season" for excitement

bill

 

[SwampCat]

Any thought on spring management of Varroa mites?

Anyone doing counts,Rx,etc?

Also, how did everyone's colonies do over the winter?

Spring time is the BeeKeeper's "deer season" for excitement

bill

I lost one hive this past winter - so far. It was a swarm that showed up late summer in an old abandoned hive and never built up very strong. I am not out of the woods yet - we had off and on warm weather through the winter and bees coming out in mid winter get active and eat their food stores, start building numbers, without a good nectar flow.

I dont do anything for varroa. No chemicals in my hives. I suffer about 10 to 15% hive loss each year.