Recent Posts

21

TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES / Re: Nectar management in a long hive

« Last post by Bob Wilson on April 21, 2024, 10:38:18 pm »

Tigger.
Sorry for the late reply.
It is true that I had difficulty with the deep long langs.
It seemed to me that the queen tended to stretch out her brood nest through 2/3 of the hive body, leaving only 10 frames or so of nectar, which never seemed to cure. The deep frames are only 9 or so inches deep.
Since then, I have been steadily moving towards Layens hives. I like the depth a lot better. They seem to give me all the best parts of a deep long langstroth, but without the problems. The colonies in them are building up nice, big populations, without the cramped quarters and resulting swarming, and yet they still have a lot of room for nectar. I will know more about Layens honey production at the end of this season.

22

GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by .30WCF on April 21, 2024, 09:57:44 pm »

I?ve had a queen from a split or something. I forget the details, but she was a drone layer. Could have been too early and cold, too much rain, late summer/fall.


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23

GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by The15thMember on April 21, 2024, 08:36:05 pm »

I may be off but I'm thinking that with the amount of time that seems to have passed, a queen made from the last eggs should have hatched by now, there is no other brood other than drone brood. If I'm wrong, then there is a queen but if I'm right, what is there?

Oh okay, I understand now.

And I don't know what you mean by a shakeout and we are worried about the success with this new queen cell as well.

A shakeout is when you remove the hive from the stand and shake out the bees. Then the bees will be forced to to beg into the other hives, who would only let in normal workers, not laying ones. But honestly, it was a dumb assumption on my part, since you were saying how this is his only hive.

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by BeeMaster2 on April 21, 2024, 08:10:51 pm »

It is possible for a laying worker to produce a viable queen cell/larvae. It doesn?t happen very often. More than likely it was in there from a larvae before it got too old.
You will probably not notice the larvae in the pollen patty until it is too late. When they hatch they are very small and would be hard to see from outside of the hive.
Jim Altmiller

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by Terri Yaki on April 21, 2024, 08:09:13 pm »

I may be off but I'm thinking that with the amount of time that seems to have passed, a queen made from the last eggs should have hatched by now, there is no other brood other than drone brood. If I'm wrong, then there is a queen but if I'm right, what is there?

And I don't know what you mean by a shakeout and we are worried about the success with this new queen cell as well.

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by The15thMember on April 21, 2024, 06:45:04 pm »

We found a lot of bees yet and apparently, a laying worker.

I would just like to point out that it is rarely a single laying worker.  Laying workers are kind of like ants, you don't have just one. 

There is one sealed queen cell on the bottom for some reason that we all wonder what it's about.

I'm not understanding what's to wonder about here.  They went queenless, so they made a new one.  Unless the thing that is odd is that they had a QC and laying workers.   

He installed the purchased queen and we noted where she was placed so we can go right to it next week.

If there were laying workers, did he do a shakeout or anything?  Because I'd be worried they won't accept a new queen. 

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by Terri Yaki on April 21, 2024, 04:29:47 pm »

Thanks! My hives have doors in the side that come off and I can look inside. Since there's only syrup and that little piece of pollen patty in the top box, I can see both pretty good. They taking syrup pretty good but that piece of pollen patty is untouched so I may as well just toss it. The beek that I got them from said that they weren't big users of pollen.

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Follow the Bloom - 2024

« Last post by BeeMaster2 on April 21, 2024, 03:53:23 pm »

I?m seeing High and Low Bush Galleries starting to bloom as well Black Gum (Tupelo) and a week ago I saw palmetto buds were starting. If this is the case all over this area then it will bee a repeat of last year and a very poor honey harvest.
Jim Altmiller

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by BeeMaster2 on April 21, 2024, 03:42:10 pm »

Unless you have it somewhere that you can check on it on a daily basis, I would not recommend leaving it in there. You normally want to give them just enough for them to finish in a day or so. It only takes three days for the SHB eggs to hatch and infest the hive. If the bees aren?t strong enough to carry them out of the hive as they hatch they can take it over. A better idea is to feed the bees the pollen patties somewhere close to the hive where, if they need it, they can use it. Unless there are no flowers available, during the winter, they won?t use it.
Jim Altmiller

30

HUMOR IS A FUNNY THING / Re: 30 years

« Last post by Ben Framed on April 21, 2024, 01:01:50 pm »

Good one!