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THE 2ND AMENDMENT / Re: Navy gun handling
« Last post by Terri Yaki on Today at 08:17:31 am »
LOL We were all over that on the 2A BB that I haunt. The armorer must have set him up.
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HUMOR IS A FUNNY THING / One for my friend GWW
« Last post by Ben Framed on Today at 02:03:39 am »
Jerry Clower and Women's liberation!

Short and to the point!

https://youtu.be/IR63U7_Y7Ik?si=B-LRsF83UIWJIP-r
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OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES FORUM / Re: Gold prospecting using a metal detector
« Last post by max2 on Today at 01:33:12 am »
Nice bit of Gold!
Maybe the mobile phone attracted it?

I'm 76 this year and still don't own a mobile phone!

I can remember party lines - you knew everybody in the village , and their business.

I also remember the time when I would carry around a heavy  6 x 6 camera and develop my own photos.

I remember milking by hand, extracting honey by hand...

Slower times but good times.
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THE 2ND AMENDMENT / Navy gun handling
« Last post by animal on Today at 01:14:39 am »
I can't stop laughing ...  :cheesy:
A Navy commander firing weapon...
Scope mounted backwards
Chicken winging with the stock way up high
Handguard looks like it's crawling out at the top, like its not seated into the delta ring ... maybe just an optical illusion in the photo though
Foregrip almost against the mag, might as well not have it on there and grab the mag well instead
dude looks like he's been chewing fingernails til they bleed
Selector on rocknroll with 2 hunks of brass in the air plus the above .... demonstrating "spray and pray" perhaps ?
or is it just the way navy guys qualify with a rifle ... if you can hit the open water, expert marksman!  :cool:

And what's with the hand on his shoulder from behind? Reminds me that I did the right thing when I didn't go in. :cheesy:

https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2024-04-11/navy-backwards-scope-photo-13528758.html
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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Follow the Bloom - 2024
« Last post by .30WCF on Today at 01:13:38 am »
And MiracleGro. Apparently they like that stuff. The last two times I?ve fed the stuff I sprouted, the bees came and drank all the blue water.

There are several 5-6 down in the cups, but you can see one here just getting ready to land in a tomato cup stage left.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Hi Jim, I did a quick sample engraving using my name and a bee image and engraved it into an old, black lid. The quality was excellent but when I looked under the lid, it looks as though it may have been a bit hot and marked the plastic seal. I think this could be reduced by either increasing the laser speed or reducing the power. This could be a good option on the tops of honey jars as the process could be easily set up with a jig to accurately engrave about a dozen lids at a time. I don?t think that white or gold lids would work as well as the surfaces would be too reflective. Good thinking Jim, this may be another way to make honey stand out and look a bit different to what is currently available.
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made a general check on things today and all looked fine. They're not building comb as fast as I expected them to but they are making progress.
Changed out the oil pan because it had just gotten too nasty looking to tolerate. Found out that I need to change something about it as the wood tray underneath the aluminum insert was full of water... no damage or discoloration though. Lots of dead hive beetles in the garbage now ... fresh oil and new pan for more to die in.

A good hour later, I was on the couch and noticed the cat was staring at me, moving it's head around and acting weirded out. After awhile, felt a little tickle on my shoulder .. a very small worker bee. It walked right onto my hand, so it got delivered back to the hive. They seem to do this kind of thing a lot, hitchhike into the house. Cat doesn't like it. Wife doesn't like it. Might have to get a bee suit after all, to make it easier to shed them. 
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Welcome to Beemaster, heartfarm!  What an amazing way to get your first bees!  :happy:

All of that background to ask-- how long do I have until the hive is "settled" and have to take strong considerations for relocating the hive?
If they have been in there for a week, they are basically already settled.  The general rule of thumb for moving hives is "3 feet or 3 miles". Bees visually memorize the location of the hive when they are first learning to forage, but once they have done so, they will leave the hive taking for granted that their memorized location is accurate.  (You wouldn't expect your house to move either!  :cheesy: )  The bees won't have trouble finding the new hive location if it's moved about 3 feet or less, but any farther away than that and the bees won't be able to find it reliably.  However, if you lock the bees in overnight, so none of the foragers get left behind, and move the hive several miles, everything will look so different that the bees will memorize the new location.  So unless your property is VERY large, moving them to another location will probably be a gradual process.  There are some ways to try and get bees to reorient to a new location, like putting a branch in front of the entrance to confuse them, the success of which is variable based on what I've heard, but I've never tried it myself. 

My plan is to move the frames they are building on (now 7 days) into this "new" hive being delivered after they've been in there for about 3 weeks total. The new hive is already painted white and may fare better in weather (sun, monsoons, some light snowfall). Is that wrong?
 
White is a great color for a hive, and unless you lived in an extremely cold climate it would not be a problem (and honestly, I've seen plenty of beekeepers in Alaska and far northern Canada with white hives too).  I have hives in all colors.  The only thing I'd be concerned about would be black. 

Do I need to, or is it better to keep them in the existing super (proper super just not painted) and just set that on the new bottom board/stand, and add the medium on top of that?

It should be easy to transfer the frames into the painted deep when it arrives if that is what you prefer.  I'm assuming your climate is very dry, so there would also be likely no issues using that unpainted box for a season.  Even in my extremely humid climate, I have a friend who doesn't paint his boxes, and they hold up okay.  If you'd rather have them in the painted box though, you can just transfer the frames they are on to the new hive on the new stand, and I doubt they will have any serious trouble as long as the location remains the same.  The difference in the height of the hive could confuse them for a few hours, but they should get the hang of the new entrance quickly enough. 

I ordered a kit from Dadant that includes a 10-frame deep super and medium shallow. I'm waiting for the hive stand and queen excluder. Right now I have them in a clean "temporary" deep super I had in the barn, and am still looking for the best location. We are rural, 5000ft high desert and sometimes winds of 35mph so am considering building an adobe wall long term for windbreak. I have pasture and orchard 0.1 miles from the house but lots of variables with cows, irrigation and critters so am considering ample space uphill nearer the house. Right now I have the hive set on boards with cinder blocks just inches off the ground (all I had available) just outside our courtyard wall under a mesquite bush with weight on top of the cover.
         
Just to put your mind at ease, nothing about this setup sounds problematic to me in the least.  I keep my hives on cinderblocks permanently (I use 8 frames, so they get tall fast).  Also, just a quick correction on terminology.  There are 3 Langstroth box depths: deep, medium, and shallow.  A super is a box of any size placed over the brood nest as space for the bees to store honey. 

Congrats on becoming a beekeeper!  Please don't hesitate to ask us any and all questions you may have.  We never get tired of talking about bees here on Beemaster.  :happy:
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I'd say to keep it in the same location - sounds like a good place.  When the new hive box comes, put the caught swarm in the "temporary" deep on top of it.  Eventually, the caught swarm will move down into the new space.
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Hi! Thank you in advance.
I caught a swarm last weekend and borrowed a bottom board from a neighbor until my hive parts came in and am feeding them. This all happened quickly and I wasn't quite prepared. The swarm basically surrounded me for about 60 seconds and then clustered on the ground so I took it as a sign to step into gear :smile:

I ordered a kit from Dadant that includes a 10-frame deep super and medium shallow. I'm waiting for the hive stand and queen excluder. Right now I have them in a clean "temporary" deep super I had in the barn, and am still looking for the best location. We are rural, 5000ft high desert and sometimes winds of 35mph so am considering building an adobe wall long term for windbreak. I have pasture and orchard 0.1 miles from the house but lots of variables with cows, irrigation and critters so am considering ample space uphill nearer the house. Right now I have the hive set on boards with cinder blocks just inches off the ground (all I had available) just outside our courtyard wall under a mesquite bush with weight on top of the cover.

All of that background to ask-- how long do I have until the hive is "settled" and have to take strong considerations for relocating the hive?

My plan is to move the frames they are building on (now 7 days) into this "new" hive being delivered after they've been in there for about 3 weeks total. The new hive is already painted white and may fare better in weather (sun, monsoons, some light snowfall). Is that wrong? Do I need to, or is it better to keep them in the existing super (proper super just not painted) and just set that on the new bottom board/stand, and add the medium on top of that?

thank you!
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