Honey Bees
- Thread starter Peeps
- Start date
Peeps
5 year old buck +
Funny story. After we processed our honey we took a couple frames back out to put back in the hive. I didn't smoke as I was just going to take the top off and slide the frames back in real quick like. This was several hours after we took the honey filled frames from the hive. Well as soon as I took the cover off all hell broke loose. The bees saw me and said, hey there's the bastard who stole our honey, let's get him. They attacked in a flash. I had me suit top on and blue jeans. I looked down and my jeans were covered in bees all trying to bury their stingers in me. Luckily my jeans were thick enough I was only getting small stings but then some got my ankles. When I took my jeans off I had probably 50+ stingers stuck to my jeans.
Corey Peterson
5 year old buck +
I also did my first extraction a couple weeks ago, and I've got a bunch more capped honey on the hives that I'll probably do in the next week or so. Also did a mite treatment and removed drone frames today.
Corey Peterson
5 year old buck +
I extracted another 2.5 gallons about two weeks ago. Been a good year I started with 1 overwintered hive, a package, and a nuc I'll be headed into winter with 6 hives most will winter in two deeps and a medium. Treated for mites with apivar this past weekend. Hopefully I'll have a good survival percentage this year.
Peeps
5 year old buck +
We are going to try to winter 2 hives this year. Our winters can be hard on the bees with experienced keepers suffering loses as well as the rest of us. One hive is extremely strong and the other is good so fingers crossed.
My advice on mites is as follows. Don't go the "natural" route and not treat. You may not think you have mites but in today's world almost every hive has some degree of mite infestation. When you start to see mites impacting a hive, that hive is already in serious trouble. These are hives that are set up to fail in early spring as they get weaker throughout the winter. Also watch for and trap hive beetles.
Start a scheduled treatment program and stick to it to get ahead of the problem. Your bees will thank you. Ideally do periodic tests and adjust your program accordingly. We treat in late spring and then again in late summer/early fall after our last harvest. I like MAQS.
My advice on mites is as follows. Don't go the "natural" route and not treat. You may not think you have mites but in today's world almost every hive has some degree of mite infestation. When you start to see mites impacting a hive, that hive is already in serious trouble. These are hives that are set up to fail in early spring as they get weaker throughout the winter. Also watch for and trap hive beetles.
Start a scheduled treatment program and stick to it to get ahead of the problem. Your bees will thank you. Ideally do periodic tests and adjust your program accordingly. We treat in late spring and then again in late summer/early fall after our last harvest. I like MAQS.
Corey Peterson
5 year old buck +
I typically just follow a treatment schedule although I periodically monitor mite drops via a screened bottom board / oil trap (which isn't terribly accurate). This year I treated late summer after extracting / removing the honey supers with apivar strips which are really easy to use but a bit expensive you just put a nail through a plastic strip and hang it in the brood area then return 42 days later and remove them. MAQS is handy if you need to treat while the honey supers are on assuming the temps are low enough but I've heard it can be tough on queens and brood so I've steered clear. I'll treat again with OAV around Thanksgiving, and probably again really late winter or early spring. OAV is super cheap once you buy the wand / .03ct per hive and very effective when there isn't a lot of sealed brood and you don't have honey supers on. I'm still learning as I go but at this point this is my approach. Six hives going into winter we'll see how many make it! I've also been feeding some 2:1 sugar syrup to make sure the weights are up - speaking of which I need to weigh my hives this weekend and make they are all up to weight. I'm shooting for 160+lbs for 2 deeps + a medium (minus the outer cover).
Bill
Administrator
Going to start again with I'm not honey bee guy.
Just curious what you do about European hornets could be called wasps. They look like yellow jackets but are 4 times as big. Maybe there not in the areas you have hives. I've never seen them in MO.
They attack honey bees on the east coast. I battle them in my yard with traps but it never seems to put a dent in the scouts that show up daily.
Just curious what you do about European hornets could be called wasps. They look like yellow jackets but are 4 times as big. Maybe there not in the areas you have hives. I've never seen them in MO.
They attack honey bees on the east coast. I battle them in my yard with traps but it never seems to put a dent in the scouts that show up daily.
tynimiller
5 year old buck +
I am highly allergic, but have always wanted to get into a hive or two just for overall health of the property and pollination impact. May have to reach out to someone local to maybe set up a hive or two...incredibly informative thread thanks to all for sharing.
Corey Peterson
5 year old buck +
I've never had any real issue with hornets they seem to hang around my house more than the hives. 1 vs 30,000 probably doesn't work out well for them!
TreeDaddy
5 year old buck +
If you are highly allergic to bee venom, I would not keep bees
Anaphylactic reactions are imminently fatal
respectfully,
bill
tynimiller
5 year old buck +
Right...I always have an epi-pen in vehicle or on me. Granted the worst case I had was from a hornet....but I've never wanted to "test" my severity again since that one stung me on the forhead and my eyes swelled shut for 4 or 5 days and breathing got tough initially...
Peeps
5 year old buck +
If you are going to have honey bees you are going to have to open the hives and work them. They are not aggressive but you will get stung from time to time. My stings have come from my own stupidity such as not putting on my suit or using smoke as I was in a hurry later during the day after we harvested their honey. I don't blame them as I would attack any asshole that opened my house up and stole my steaks and beer and then came back later that day too.
tynimiller
5 year old buck +
Right, yeah IF I ever decided to have them, suit and smoke would have to be a must everytime. No doubt.
Peeps
5 year old buck +
Wondering what all my fellow bee keepers do to winterize their hives. We reduce the entrances, slide in the tray above the screened bottom board to keep wind out, wrap the hive in roofing felt, add a candy/sugar feeder box with top entrance, insulate the hive top cap inside and out, tilt hive so condensation hopefully runs down walls and doesn’t drip on the cluster, mouse guard, and add wind break. I also was thinking of adding a quilt box.
