Honey Bees
- Thread starter Peeps
- Start date
The property down the road has about 6 hives. The owner had a solar electric fence around them last year because of the bears. It must of not worked because now he has all 6 hives on a trailer with a thick metal cage(looks like a giant dog kenel) surrounding them. I also saw over the winter he burried his hives with all kinds of branches. Is this to keep them warm or just hid them from preadators?
I would guess a wind break
fishin coyote
5 year old buck +
Had smaller after swarm in the yard today after work unfortunately they were 50-60’ up a maple tree. Hopefully they find one of my swarm traps
Troubles Trees
5 year old buck +
I lost my bees again this year :( It happened the same way last year and I think it was because of mice but I am only guessing. The bees were active after warmup so I pulled the wooden stopper (for a lack of a better word) that keeps mice out throughout the winter. A week later I have mice poop in the entryway and half eaten bee carcasses. It could be just a coincidence and maybe they either died from disease or mites, or maybe even swarmed the entire hive away? I am guessing here as a rookie beekeeper.
Do bees defend their hive if a mouse raids the hive? I suppose it is also possible that a mouse got in and did all the damage at night when temps were between 30-40 degrees and the bees are lethargic.
Do bees defend their hive if a mouse raids the hive? I suppose it is also possible that a mouse got in and did all the damage at night when temps were between 30-40 degrees and the bees are lethargic.
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
What do the hive body and frames look like?
The damage you describe may have occurred post mortem
Did you go into the winter with adequate honey stores? Was there honey present when you opened the hive?
how did you monitor/treat for mites?
Seems too early for moths/beetles ,etc
Doesnt sound like skunk,coon,bears,etc
Maybe post a pic or two
As in habitat work, we learn most by examining our failures by tree,hive necropsy
bill
The damage you describe may have occurred post mortem
Did you go into the winter with adequate honey stores? Was there honey present when you opened the hive?
how did you monitor/treat for mites?
Seems too early for moths/beetles ,etc
Doesnt sound like skunk,coon,bears,etc
Maybe post a pic or two
As in habitat work, we learn most by examining our failures by tree,hive necropsy
bill
Troubles Trees
5 year old buck +
I will take pictures when get a chance to open the hive up and post them here. I started with a fresh nuc last year from a local beekeeper but they had 2 1/2 boxes out of 4 full of honey from the previous bees work when I put them in their new home. I didn't harvest any honey last year because I didn't want the new bees to start with empty frames so if I were to guess I would say they had plenty of honey going into winter and from their activity they seemed to be doing fine. I probably should have put some hardware cloth on the entrance and get rid of the wooden stopper so the hives are mouse proof year round if that is something that can be done without adverse effects on the bees?
I don't like messing with the hive, I know some people inspect their hives every few weeks but I am trying to just let them do their thing and pollinate my stuff with the bonus of some liquid gold for personal consumption. I would rather not treat with chemicals unless I have to but I will if it keeps me from starting over every spring.
Peeps
5 year old buck +
Our bees didn’t make it through the winter and we are taking this year off from bee keeping. But I did see someone else’s or wild bees working my apple trees yesterday. It’s fun to watch them work. I’ll miss sitting drinking a beer just watching them come and go from the hive.
Attachments
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
Disappointed not to bring back a hive full of bees and brood from the cutout. There was a little bit of pollen scattered throughout but no honey or nectar, looked like the colony starved out. I froze all of the comb overnight to kill any mites/pest, I will try to reuse some of it to bait swarm traps. Sucks...trying to save something and being too damn late!
Last edited:
rocksnstumps
5 year old buck +
See the pollinators and especially the honey bees are working over the goldenrod that really started to bloom about a week ago by me. Not the extra busy crowd like last year when a fella about 1 mile away was keeping a bunch of hives behind his barn for someone but still good to see. Goldenrod gets alot of attention on my place and I actually have quite a bit of it from fallow pasture ground. Too rocky and the side of a hill so it gets to be al natural for the most part. Found a new bug that had to look up and seems like one of the good insects. Goldenrod soldier beetle.
Not sure what prairie mixes have in them for late summer blooming but bees definitely like this stuff later in the summer.
Not sure what prairie mixes have in them for late summer blooming but bees definitely like this stuff later in the summer.
Seems like an odd time of year to loose a hive, somehow I managed. Went through a bad drought in June and July, everything was brown and crispy. Looks like this hive might have been robbed out, which would explain the tiny swarm I caught late last month, absconded the next day.
fishin coyote
5 year old buck +
Got the fall harvest spun out today. Approximately 250lbs out of 6 hives that were all swarms from this season. I’ll get a final weight after straining and cleaning out the capping tank in the next couple of days
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
We pulled off five supers yesterday afternoon from six hives. Not as much as I would have thought this year from that many hives but better than last year. A couple hives just seem to be getting along and nothing more.
Two years ago we had twice as many supers in fall.
We are only five years in on our bee project so still pretty new at it.
They are just for fun and to help pollinate the fruit trees so I’m happy just having them on the farms, honey is just a bonus.
Will be spinning them out in the next month or so, the honey will makes some great gifts for friends and family.
Two years ago we had twice as many supers in fall.
We are only five years in on our bee project so still pretty new at it.
They are just for fun and to help pollinate the fruit trees so I’m happy just having them on the farms, honey is just a bonus.
Will be spinning them out in the next month or so, the honey will makes some great gifts for friends and family.
Just curious why you dont filter straight from the extractor
