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Author Topic: drones in middle georgia.  (Read 9090 times)

Offline 10framer

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drones in middle georgia.
« on: February 07, 2013, 01:35:37 am »
i was expanding 2 of my 5 frame nucs into 10 frames today and saw a couple of drones.  first week of february sure seems early but here we go.

Offline RHBee

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2013, 03:03:36 am »
I've been looking for drones on my landing boards and haven't seen any yet. You're right though spring is here. I was counting on another month of preparation time. Looks like I'm behind the curve again.
Later,
Ray

Offline Joe D

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2013, 03:13:05 am »
Spring will be here before you know it.  I still need to make a few SBB.  Have finished several new hives and will put in frames tomorrow.  Good luck to you all.




Joe

Offline 10framer

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2013, 09:10:44 am »
i built 7 hive bodies 2 tops and 2 bottoms over the weekend.   this weekend i'm going to build 3 or 4 more hive bodies and a 3 or 4 more tops and bottom then start in on frames.  when it was 70 degrees the last two weeks of deer season i was pretty sure spring would come in a hurry.

Offline brushwoodnursery

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2013, 09:21:40 am »
I'll be making up more 8 frame mediums for honey supers this coming weekend. I only have a handful and want to be ready just in case. Got lots of activity!
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Offline brushwoodnursery

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2013, 09:22:28 am »
Any idea how much honey I can expect from a full 8 frame medium?
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Offline blanc

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2013, 09:31:50 am »
Any idea how much honey I can expect from a full 8 frame medium?
If a ten frame gets about 60 lbs you should expect about 48 lbs according to what I have read but the more experienced beeks could tell us better  :)
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The fear of the Lord is clean,enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea ,than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Offline brushwoodnursery

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2013, 09:38:06 am »
is that medium or deep? Sounds like a lot for a medium. (but, hey, wouldn't that be great!)
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Offline blanc

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2013, 09:47:51 am »
is that medium or deep? Sounds like a lot for a medium. (but, hey, wouldn't that be great!)
Well brush if it isn't it sures fells like it when I pick up a ten frame medium.  :-D Heavyyyyyyyyyy! Not getting any better with age either. CD Bailey told me he only uses mediums and I took his advice and I know why.
Blanc
Psalm 19:9-10
The fear of the Lord is clean,enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea ,than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Offline 10framer

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2013, 09:48:13 am »
that sounds about right.  we always ran 9 frames in our honey supers instead of ten.  you got more honey with slightly less labor when it was time to uncap the comb for extraction.  i think we rand ten frames when we produced comb honey though.  if you are going to make cut comb and have more than one colony pick the hive that produces the whiter burr comb.  german bees were know for really white cappings but most people claim they don't exist any more.  yesterday i went through the nucs i bought last week and the queens were pretty dark and one of the drones was black with thin gold bands at the joints of their abdomens so some of those genes are still floating around out there.      

Offline brushwoodnursery

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2013, 10:10:02 am »
Well, let's hope I need all these honey supers I just bought! Might even be able to pay off some of this expensive hobby!
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Offline 10framer

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2013, 10:17:35 am »
good luck.  i'd think you might have a couple of extra weeks to get ready up there.  after today the ten day forecast is for highs between 60-70 just about every day.  that's going to get things popping down here.

Offline Joe D

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2013, 11:21:24 am »
Its better to have to many than to few boxes ready.  I have 4 langs and a tbh, last year had plenty of supers not planning to get any more for now, but built 12 ten frame mediums just in case.  If a swarm comes by I'll be ready. 




Joe

Offline brushwoodnursery

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2013, 11:31:17 am »
I'm planning for swarms, too. Might also try a split this year.
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Offline Intheswamp

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #14 on: February 07, 2013, 12:45:34 pm »
Yelp, about 50 miles south of Montgomery, Alabama it seems that spring might get here EARLY.  After all of my swarm chasing last year I went into two of my three 8-frame all-medium hives yesterday to check them out.  One was three mediums deep with a full super of capped honey/syrup on top...I put a frame of capped honey in the middle of a super of foundation and set it on top.  The other hive was a two medium stack from a cutout early last fall...I thought it wasn't going to make it at first but when I looked yesterday there was brood up almost to the inner cover.  I removed a frame of capped honey/syrup from the side and put it in a box of drawn comb and placed it on top...I replaced the frame that I removed with a frame of drawn comb.

We're getting a drenching this morning.  Looks like we'll be in the upper 60s low 70s for a few days with more rain Monday and Tuesday but the middle of next week cools off a little...highs in the low 60s and lows down in the mid 30s.  We'll see what it does.  It does seem that the bees are building up a good bit.  Pollen and some nectar coming in.  I didn't see any drones yesterday, though, but didn't do a full inspection, either.

Ed
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American blood spilled to protect the freedom and peace of people all over the world.  320,000 USA casualties in WWI, 1,076,000 USA casualties in WWII, 128,000 USA casualties in the Korean War, 211,000 casualties in the Vietnam "conflict", 57,000 USA casualties in "War on Terror".  Benghazi, Libya, 13 USA casualties. These figures don't include 70,000 MIA.  But, the leaders of one political party of the United States of America continue to make the statement..."What difference does it make?".

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Offline 10framer

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #15 on: February 07, 2013, 04:29:29 pm »
are you in lowndes county ed?  do the harrell's still raise queens down there?
same forecast for us.  i saw some ball clover in bloom in town today, i'd think it would be coming on strong down your way right now. 

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #16 on: February 07, 2013, 05:27:28 pm »
Howdy 10framer.  I'm down south of Lowndes in Crenshaw.  I'm now famliar with the Harrells but I will check with my mentor and see if he knows them.  Seems back in the early to mid 1900's that Lowndes, Crenshaw, and Butler had several queen and package producers in the area.  Norman is still up around Ramer, though for a while I understand the operation was thought to have stopped operating.  I know that two years ago they were at the Alabama Beekeepers Association meeting in Montgomery and were off loading a pickup truck load of wax to Rossman.

Intersting that you mentioned Lowndes...I'm heading up to Ft Deposit (south end of county close to the county line with Butler) this Saturday to look at two colonies in the wall of a house...wonder if they could be survivors from some of those old breeders or maybe from the Harrells...who knows. :)

I was at the Honey Bee Symposium in Auburn last weekend and I saw what looked like white dutch blooming along with some of that low growing yellow clover (got scads of that around the house, too).  So far wild mustard, henbit, camilias are all done, dandelion,...  I'll have to look around the house tomorrow and check on other clovers.

Ed
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American blood spilled to protect the freedom and peace of people all over the world.  320,000 USA casualties in WWI, 1,076,000 USA casualties in WWII, 128,000 USA casualties in the Korean War, 211,000 casualties in the Vietnam "conflict", 57,000 USA casualties in "War on Terror".  Benghazi, Libya, 13 USA casualties. These figures don't include 70,000 MIA.  But, the leaders of one political party of the United States of America continue to make the statement..."What difference does it make?".

"We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism."..."The press is our chief ideological weapon." - Nikita Khrushchev

"Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they wont come to yours." - Yogi Berra

Offline Intheswamp

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #17 on: February 07, 2013, 05:32:03 pm »
Any idea how much honey I can expect from a full 8 frame medium?
I've seen it mentioned that a frame of honey equals a quart.  Most quarts weigh a little less than 3 pounds...more like around 2.8 pounds.  Just figuring the rounded off 3 pounds that would work out to 24 pounds of honey per 8-frame.  That figured pretty close for me last year.  I only made honey off of one hive but it yielded three full 8-frame supers and gave me right at 75 pounds of honey.  I hope to start a nuc or two off that hive this year. ;)

Ed
www.beeweather.com 
American blood spilled to protect the freedom and peace of people all over the world.  320,000 USA casualties in WWI, 1,076,000 USA casualties in WWII, 128,000 USA casualties in the Korean War, 211,000 casualties in the Vietnam "conflict", 57,000 USA casualties in "War on Terror".  Benghazi, Libya, 13 USA casualties. These figures don't include 70,000 MIA.  But, the leaders of one political party of the United States of America continue to make the statement..."What difference does it make?".

"We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism."..."The press is our chief ideological weapon." - Nikita Khrushchev

"Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they wont come to yours." - Yogi Berra

Offline 10framer

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #18 on: February 07, 2013, 08:51:22 pm »
henbit is blooming in phenix city but the bees are about halfway between columbus and macon and things seem a bit behind out there.  seems like the normans had a web site that was inactive when i checked it a couple of years ago.

Offline brushwoodnursery

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Re: drones in middle georgia.
« Reply #19 on: February 07, 2013, 09:28:26 pm »
24 pounds of honey per 8-frame.

Ed
Ed, is that medium or deep?
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