Honey Bees

[TreeDaddy]

I have my swarm traps out but they haven’t started yet in my area but guys 40 - 50 miles south of me are getting quite a few swarms already

I've got 2 this year!
bill

 

[Bill Loser]

Thanks Coyote!

 

[H20fwler]

Another swarm this morning!

 

[fishin coyote]

I finally got my first confirmed swarm. Looks like they moved into a stack of empty boxes in the bee yard. About every 3rd or 4th bee was brining pollen in. Now I’ll just have to rearrange the stack . Gott love the ones you don’t have to transport.

 

[Bill Loser]

Can you attract swarms? I don't believe I have ever seen one around here, always wanted to get into bee keeping.

 

[fishin coyote]

Bill, the short answer is yes. All it takes is a box with some frames. I use old frames in old deep boxes. Bees tend to move into places bees lived before. If you don’t have any old frames you can use new ones and add a q-tip soaked in lemongrass oil. There’s tons of info out there on catching them.
Hers a couple pictures of some of my swarm traps

 

[SD51555]

Are these found swarms someone else's bees that just wandered off? Or are they reproducing on their own?

 

[fishin coyote]

They can be yours, someone else’s or ferals. Swarming is how they reproduce hives to repopulate areas with bees.
Most beekeepers try to keep they’re own hives from swarming by giving them extra hive space or splitting big hives into smaller hives but bees do what bees want so if they want to swarm it’s almost impossible to stop them.

 

[H20fwler]

Are these found swarms someone else's bees that just wandered off? Or are they reproducing on their own?

I think the two swarms I just found were probably from new young queens out of my hives. They were both within a 100 yards of my bee yard. My other hives were crazy active and still are so the new swarms are a nice bonus catch. I've been making splits all spring.

 

[Fryguy]

Yea I've been splitting too. Bees are booming. I just had to split a hive that was made from a split in early April. Guess I should have got another box on em sooner. Found capped queen cells in it already lol.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Do you requeen when splitting or just let the bees raise their own ?

bill

 

[Fryguy]

I did requeen 2 of the hives but as long as there a good strong colony I'll just let them take care of it. I had a couple hives that were testier than the others and those are the ones I put a different/new race of queen.

 

[Belo]

Fascinating thread. Has anyone here bought https://www.honeyflow.com/? Pretty expensive, but seems to make the process much easier. I live about 10 minutes from my small orchard so I would prefer something with a little less maintenance.

Also is it too late to start? My peaches and apples have already blossomed so I wouldn't have any benefit there but there are still plenty of flowering crops and trees.

 

[fishin coyote]

I would say anyone buying that stuff in the link is getting stung by more than just an angry bee. LoL

Belo, It’s never to late to start

 

[Belo]

I would say anyone buying that stuff in the link is getting stung by more than just an angry bee. LoL

Belo, It’s never to late to start

yeah price is crazy, but I hear that traditional beekeeping can be time consuming and maybe a bit of a hassle. I don't for a second suspect it wouldn't require some work, but life is a bit crazy to introduce another hobby that is time consuming.

I just found out my brother in law's wife's sister owns a bee business and they're out of nuc's for the season. I think i'm going to pick her brain a little over the summer. Read and youtube it some more so I can decide if I want to do this next spring... which I do :)

 

[fishin coyote]

Got a text from a guy I set up a few years ago who wanted to keep bees. Said he had a swarm in his backyard that he couldn’t get cause he had no extra equipment, did I want them. So I got up early this morning and got this 4-5lb swarm out his yard about 10’ from his hive. They were almost too close to the ground to get a deep under them but I managed. Been a slow year for me, this was only the 3rd swarm I’ve gotten.

 

[Mozark]

Pulled a super this morning, honey is lighter than usual for me. Very happy with the girls.

 

[fishin coyote]

Just finished up extracting, Got about 110-120lbs off of 2 hives. Should have been more the 1 hive had a full medium but it wasn’t capped yet so I left it. Now the long 5-6 week wait for goldenrod to start.

 

[KY wild]

57 pound average is better than I can do in Ky, nice year, congrats

 

[Mozark]

Bought a couple of nucs this spring of italian/carney cross, they have been absolutely stellar, almost done filling their second deep. Any one have long term experience with them?