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Author Topic: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?  (Read 76835 times)

Offline beesnweeds

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #780 on: May 05, 2024, 11:25:54 am »
Sadly, his hive is dying a slow death. He was considering just putting everything away until next year but it looks like I've talked him out of that.
The problem with that is laying workers can do a lot of irreversible damage to nicely drawn brood comb.
Everyone loves a worker.... until its laying.

Offline The15thMember

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #781 on: May 05, 2024, 12:47:27 pm »
The problem with that is laying workers can do a lot of irreversible damage to nicely drawn brood comb.
How?  Just by laying drones in it? 
I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led.  And through the air, I am she that walks unseen.

Offline beesnweeds

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #782 on: May 05, 2024, 02:40:37 pm »
How?  Just by laying drones in it?
Yes, if you let a laying worker hive linger, they will continue to raise drones.  Bees very rarely rebuild brood comb once it's reshaped for drones. 
Everyone loves a worker.... until its laying.

Online FatherMichael

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #783 on: May 06, 2024, 07:59:17 pm »
Scoped out a place to put a solar cellular camera.  I've wanted to see what chews on my hives and now have an extra incentive of watching a bait hive and Russian scion, though swarm season is probably over, since I saw our first pod of Kites.

Found a great place in the sun but it will need a post.  Trees have a tendency to shade out the sun. ;-)

My hives are spread apart in the yard, so may need multiple cameras or multiple places to hang a camera depending on the season.

What about a movable tripod that can be task specific?  Hmmm.
41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.

43 And he took it, and did eat before them.

Offline Bill Murray

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #784 on: May 07, 2024, 09:44:30 am »
So one of Marleys hive went queenless and Drone layer this year, after 5 weeks of installing Eggs/BAS, and queen cells they finally decided they were ready to accept a queen,good thing for them because she was ready to dump them and start over. This was her takeaway on the whole situation. If I would have dumped them day 1 and made up a new hive I would be further ahead with a lot less time. Out of the mouth of babes. 

Offline Ben Framed

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #785 on: May 07, 2024, 10:12:27 am »
😊
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline Bill Murray

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #786 on: May 07, 2024, 10:30:47 am »
I tried to tell her, but sometimes you have to work through it to understand.

Offline .30WCF

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #787 on: May 07, 2024, 01:03:49 pm »
Scoped out a place to put a solar cellular camera.  I've wanted to see what chews on my hives and now have an extra incentive of watching a bait hive and Russian scion, though swarm season is probably over, since I saw our first pod of Kites.

Found a great place in the sun but it will need a post.  Trees have a tendency to shade out the sun. ;-)

My hives are spread apart in the yard, so may need multiple cameras or multiple places to hang a camera depending on the season.

What about a movable tripod that can be task specific?  Hmmm.
A hand full of t-posts. Most antique/junk shops will have old tripods, but you could probably get them plenty cheap on Amazon and never leave the house too.


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Online FatherMichael

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #788 on: May 07, 2024, 06:41:14 pm »

A hand full of t-posts. Most antique/junk shops will have old tripods, but you could probably get them plenty cheap on Amazon and never leave the house too.

Thanks, .30.

I went with the Moultrie Edge Pro and a lithium battery instead of solar panel.

The t-posts are a great idea.
41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.

43 And he took it, and did eat before them.

Offline .30WCF

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #789 on: May 07, 2024, 08:10:11 pm »
I added a box to the tall hive and one to each of the two outside nucs. I?d add more to the other three 10 frame hives, but I?m out of frames.



The neighbor lost all their bees last winter, so I set the double medium nuc from the swarm catch on top of the neighbors box of deep foundation and will give them a few days to see if they draw some comb so they stand a better chance of sticking around.




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Offline The15thMember

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #790 on: May 08, 2024, 12:00:15 am »
The swarm finally had BIAS and a mated queen today!  Another Snow White daughter, christened Queen Ariel.  The flow has hit, and I can't believe how tall some of my hives are already.  I gave three hives two new boxes at once today, something I rarely do.  Having drawn comb laying around has made all the difference this spring, even with the early flow not coming in.   
I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led.  And through the air, I am she that walks unseen.

Offline Ben Framed

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #791 on: May 08, 2024, 02:01:12 am »
Good job Reagan!
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Online Terri Yaki

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #792 on: May 08, 2024, 08:58:15 pm »
The swarm finally had BIAS and a mated queen today!  Another Snow White daughter, christened Queen Ariel.  The flow has hit, and I can't believe how tall some of my hives are already.  I gave three hives two new boxes at once today, something I rarely do.  Having drawn comb laying around has made all the difference this spring, even with the early flow not coming in.   
That does sound great, congratulations.

I have a question...tomorrow, or Monday? Last Wednesday, I checked my hive and shared my video. Consensus was to go back, rearrange frames and add a brood box, which I did on Friday. Weather here will be suitable for hive inspection tomorrow (Thursday) or next Monday. I'm leaning towards a tomorrow inspection but don't know for sure. What do yous recommend? Yeah, I'm asking several beeks for opinions.   :cheesy:

Online max2

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #793 on: May 09, 2024, 04:05:45 am »
I have been cleaning up old boxes, cut some FD back to 1/2's and have plenty of frames ready for nuc's come Spring.
We are at the other end of the season here!
I got some painting in between showers.

More to do

Online Terri Yaki

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #794 on: May 09, 2024, 02:40:23 pm »
Like a kid at Christmas time, I had to take a peek. Here's hive inspection #3. I only switched one frame around but if yous think I should have done more, let me know. It looks to me like they are doing well here...but what do I know? :cheesy:

I still don't know how to combine them into one.

Part I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaT6KY3ooxc

Part II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOLxYJW4q4w

Offline The15thMember

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #795 on: May 09, 2024, 04:12:49 pm »
I only switched one frame around but if yous think I should have done more, let me know. It looks to me like they are doing well here...but what do I know? :cheesy:
No, I think what you did made sense given how much they had drawn.  I'm a little surprised by all that burr comb.  Does anyone who uses foundation know if that is normal?  I'm foundationless and I don't have trouble with them doing that unless they are in need of more space.  I'm just wondering if they are a little bit resistant to the foundation, or perhaps they are drawing drone comb down there because the foundation is stamped for worker comb.  If they just keep redrawing that, you can leave it if you want.  In my experience, it's unlikely they will stick it to the floor or anything like that.  (I use shallow frames in medium boxes regularly, so they often draw out the underside of the bottom bar on those frames.)   

This isn't something everyone does, but it's my personal preference to inspect a multi-box hive in reverse order, starting with the bottom box.  When you work top down, you end up smoking all the bees down into the bottom box, which is then very full and difficult to work.  Also the bees are calmest at the beginning of the inspection, so that is when I want to be deep in the brood nest and have the hive most disassembled, as opposed to at the end of the inspection when everyone is starting to get irritated that that hive is still open.  Just an option to consider. 
I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led.  And through the air, I am she that walks unseen.

Online Terri Yaki

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #796 on: May 09, 2024, 04:48:54 pm »
That all sounds good and some of that burr comb on the lower frames was there last week and I didn't remove it. They didn't leave me any with honey this round. :( When I was done, they were hanging out on the porch like they were bearding, probably because they were crowded into that lower box. With they way they're growing, I expect I'll need to add another brood box next week.

Thanks for reviewing it.

Offline Bill Murray

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #797 on: May 10, 2024, 10:40:10 am »
Didnt watch the whole vid. It is for Drones. The plastic foundation is not stamped for larger Done cells unless you use the green frames. If you keep on top of it and keep scraping they will eventually build it on the plastic. If not they will keep drawing it between the frames, because they want that amount of drone comb. Approx 20%
« Last Edit: May 10, 2024, 10:51:45 am by Bill Murray »

Online Terri Yaki

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #798 on: May 10, 2024, 11:17:22 am »
There was a good bit of drone brood on a couple of frames but thanks for the insight. Next time I'll pay more attention to how much drone brood there is and where it's located. The drone cells looked larger to me than my neighbor's did. My neighbor also suggested that I get the frames up closer to the camera so they can be seen by viewers.

Offline Ben Framed

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Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #799 on: May 10, 2024, 11:21:48 am »
Bill I watched a video of one of the Commercial Beekeepers, (I can't remember if it was Bob Binnnie, Ian Steppler, or someone else), where he and his team used at least 'a' drone comb in each colony. I do not remember hearing him say whether or not this was removed at a later time. Nor do I remember
during the 'time' of the making of the video if there was one used in 'each' Brood box.   
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.