Honey Bees

[TreeDaddy]

agree with above

you have to be willing to spend a few hours/year to keep bees

i don't know ANY beekeeper who HASNT lost a few colonies over time

bill

 

[Corey Peterson]

Well what do we have here.... Swarm trap with what appears to be a really nice colony living in it! Headed back to get it at dusk and bring it home. My first time catching one in a swarm trap.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Corey,

Lets hear more about this

Did you build that?

What strategy do you use for catching swarms?

bill

 

[Corey Peterson]

Corey,

Lets hear more about this

Did you build that?

What strategy do you use for catching swarms?

bill

The swarm trap is just two 5 frame Nuc boxes screwed together to make a single cavity that holds 10 frames. I put a frame of old empty brood comb as bait and rest of it is filled with empty frames. Also sprayed some swarm commander lure inside, and rubbed the outside around the entrance with some old melted down junk wax from my solar melter.

As far as location is concerned I just keep an eye out for spots where I see lots of honey bees foraging and try them. The trap hangs off a branch about 5ft off the ground.

I’ll post some more pictures when I move the frames into a regular hive.

 

[Catscratch]

My buddy that does bee's keeps a trap out. I think he said he baits it with lemongrass oil.

 

[Booner21]

Started this year with 2 nucs looking forward to getting into it.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[ksgobbler]

Confirmed it today. No queen and the hive will be honey bound shortly. Anybody want to buy some deeps and supers?

 

[Corey Peterson]

Confirmed it today. No queen and the hive will be honey bound shortly. Anybody want to buy some deeps and supers?[/QUOTE

Well thats too bad but its still early in the year and queens are readily available now.

 

[Corey Peterson]

Moved the swarm into it’s new hive over the weekend. I only put frames in the top 5 positions of the swarm trap so they built comb on the bottom of frames that was a mess, but lesson learned. The queen was really dark colored and wasn’t marked so it could have been a feral colony I marked her before placing her in new hive. Also made splits with new queens I ordered. Up to ten queen right colonies now so hopefully the flow continues and I can catch another swarm!

 

[ksgobbler]

Well thats too bad but its still early in the year and queens are readily available now.

Im not going to sink anymore money into them. Already got all my stuff sold. 1 hour on facebook.

 

[Corey Peterson]

Im not going to sink anymore money into them. Already got all my stuff sold. 1 hour on facebook.

Haha well when you’re done you’re done. You certainly have to enjoy it to make it worthwhile doing.

 

[ksgobbler]

I am giving my dying hive to another beekeeper to combine with his hives or requeen. I just dont have free time like I did when I got into them.

 

[ksgobbler]

I am beeless as of tonight.

 

[Corey Peterson]

Swarm hive is doing really well love to see patterns like this!

 

[Peeps]

Was up this week and both of our hives look strong so far. Put the honey supers on both.

 

[Peeps]

Checked on both hives today and they were honey bound so we grabbed outa few frames of honey. Ended up with almost 5 gallons.

 

[H20fwler]

Lost three of four hives over winter, have split one twice this year.
One is doing OK..one is slowly coming to life

And one is doing FANTASTIC!

 

[Peeps]

 

[TreeDaddy]

^^^^^^^^^^
liquid gold

Do you process/spin your own honey?

bill

 

[Peeps]

^^^^^^^^^^
liquid gold

Do you process/spin your own honey?

bill

Yes, the kids sometimes help but usually it’s just my wife and I. We have a hand extruder that hold 2 frames at a time spinning as fast as you crank it. The wife uncaps the honey and I do the spinning.