Honey Bees

[H20fwler]

I'm still on for putting a hive in late this April and looking forward to it!

 

[Peeps]

We installed our 2 nucs on Thursday. Can't wait to see how they do this year vs last year when they started from scratch having to build all of their comb. This year both hives have built comb from last year so we are hoping for them to take off quicker. We are also going to make more trips up to keep the feeders full. I was going to plant buckwheat in one of my plots until we tried some buckwheat honey, the family hated the taste of it. It sure had a different taste to it. How is everybody else doing with their hives?

 

[Corey Peterson]

Exciting time of the year bees are flying and the apple / pear trees are almost ready to flower! I successfully over wintered my one hive from last year, and added a package on 4/8 and a nuc on 4/28.

 

[chummer]

I see my neighbor removed 3 of the 4 hives he had in my plot. The last one has some activity but there is a pile of dead bees so the other 3 must have died off this winter.

 

[Peeps]

My wife and kids went up to check in our hives today and do the first inspection of the season. They are making great progress and were ready for their second brood boxes to be put on.

 

[Bszweda]

What's the black tubing around the trees for?

 

[Corey Peterson]

What's the black tubing around the trees for?

They are Irrigation lines. Last year I had them on the ground but they were a pain to mow around so this year I'm stringing them up off the ground - a work in progress at this point.

 

[Peeps]

Hives were very active tonight

 

[Corey Peterson]

I was worried about my big have swarming so I split in half a week or so ago didn't slow the big hive down and the split is doing well too. Local bee supply got some Saskatoon queens in so I might do another split this weekend and try one out.

 

[Peeps]

Added on the honey supers today. Hopefully they keep plugging away.

 

[Corey Peterson]

Had a hive that I started as a nuc this spring swarm this morning. Luckily I was able to rehive it. There were a few frames in the original hive with capped queen cells so I split that hive in two. So what started as one hive this morning is now three crazy morning.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Are any hives near food plots?

Are any near areas sprayed with gly?

Any worries about herbicides?

bill

 

[Corey Peterson]

Are any hives near food plots?

Are any near areas sprayed with gly?

Any worries about herbicides?

bill

I don't worry much about gly but fungicides and insecticides can have a negative impact on bees.

 

[Peeps]

I don't spray gly on anything that is blooming or the bees are on. I do spry it in other stuff but you should be good as long as the bees don't have direct contact with it.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I love these little creatures

God's creatures

bill

 

[Corey Peterson]

Few videos of my bee keeping adventures this week. Got to watch a new Queen emerge today pretty exciting!

video of swarm starting

video of the where the swarm landed

video of a new queen emerging in the split

 

[TreeDaddy]

Corey,

What did you do with the swarm?

bill

 

[Corey Peterson]

Corey,

What did you do with the swarm?

bill

I brought a new hive to where the swarm was and transferred the bees into it - which wasn't too bad but kind of pain to scoop them up off the rock. Then I took the original 10 frame hive and split it into two 5 frame Nucs which is where I got the picture of the emerging queen.

 

[Peeps]

Harvested our first honey of the summer from one of our hives. This hive is doing great and we should get another harvest from it later.

 

[TreeDaddy]

What preparations do you make for winter in your region?

bill