Recent Posts

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: How are your Bees?

« Last post by AustinB on Today at 07:00:50 am »

After rolling through the past winters with virtually zero losses, I had some losses this year (about a dozen) about 50% of them were my fault due to some changes in my work schedule and availability that kept me from sufficient winter prep. We had a hard and prolonged cold snap here that was hard on the smaller nucs I was overwintering. That being said my other 30+ colonies are booming. We had an incredible yield of dead nettle this spring, which allowed the bees to buildup early and fast. Autumn olive just started popping a few days ago so its game on now. I'll be putting a 2nd outyard on a new piece of property that abuts a local orchard. My 10 yr old middle son has begun to work colonies and scooping swarms without gloves now, big deal for him Supers are going on, white wax and swarm control. The removals are starting to really pour in now, I have 6 lined up currently. Busy time of year!

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: How are your Bees?

« Last post by Ben Framed on April 23, 2024, 09:34:20 pm »

This is the first legitimate warm day we've had.  Great activity at the entrance of both hives.  Mesquite just starting to bloom.

Perfect timing! Take a look at when you reported Mesquite blooming 3 years ago! Thumbs Up!  👍🏻 (Wasn't this the year we in the South had the Big Deep Freeze in late February?)

Re: Crazy Spring Weather
<< Reply #1 on: April 19, 2021, 01:58:22 pm >>

The Mesquite are still alive and starting to leaf out.  What a relief.

It is still cold at night.

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: How are your Bees?

« Last post by Terri Yaki on April 23, 2024, 05:57:36 pm »

This is the first legitimate warm day we've had.  Great activity at the entrance of both hives.  Mesquite just starting to bloom.

What constitutes 'legitimately warm' down there? Anything over 100F? 

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: How are your Bees?

« Last post by FatherMichael on April 23, 2024, 05:56:16 pm »

This is the first legitimate warm day we've had.  Great activity at the entrance of both hives.  Mesquite just starting to bloom.

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: How are your Bees?

« Last post by FatherMichael on April 23, 2024, 05:53:44 pm »

I was talking about this the other day with friends.  This year was a mild winter with an early spring that had no major cold snaps.  Now we are getting the rains that are delaying some of the farmers from killing the cover crops to plant.  So, there is an eighty-acre farm with crimson clover and some other white flower blooming that I can see the majority of my bees heading that direction when they leave their hives.  I had one hive swarm almost a month ago.  Having 40+ hives make it through the winter, I made the first round of splits 3 weeks ago.  Almost time to check if queen is laying.  I made another round of splits about a week ago.  Even with those splits I have caught 6 swarms, 3 of them today.  As of today, I have bees in over 110 boxes.  They are full hives with multiple boxes all the way down to 4 frame nucs.  Right now I have all my stands full and have nuc boxes sitting all over the place.  And the bad thing is I still have 8 hives that I still need to inspect (they are probably the ones that swarmed today).

Wow!  You've been busy!

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: How are your Bees?

« Last post by gww on April 23, 2024, 05:16:36 pm »

I put wax moths in all my dead outs.

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EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS / Re: Frame width

« Last post by FatherMichael on April 23, 2024, 12:36:07 pm »

Thanks, Michael.

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: How are your Bees?

« Last post by cao on April 23, 2024, 11:23:47 am »

Would it be OK if I asked what you do with the honey?

Well, the sad thing is that I try not to harvest honey, but obviously you have to.  I got 40 gallons last year (could have taken more).  I still have about ten gallons left.  Most is sold to friends, neighbors, etc.  Over the years, I have several regular customers that buy a quart a month.  Some is given as gifts or can be used in trade.  Some is sold at craft shows.  I got about ten gallons of mead sitting in my basement.  I'm always looking to get rid of it.

One last use for the honey is feeding back to the bees.  I have not fed any sugar for going on 4 years now. 

Have you considered transitioning from a hobbyist beekeeper to a professional Beekeeper? Your Bees might be in great demand because You do not Treat for Varroa Destructor . Thanks for your reply!

I have thought about it.  The main drawback is that this is a one-man operation.  I have no sales staff. Know anyone who works cheap(free)?  I would like to sell more honey and bees but I really don't have the time to put into it right now.  Got too many pans in the fire.

As far as mites, I won't deny that my bees have them.  I just never looked.  I have had the occasional hive die going into winter with a large population and no bees found left in the hive.  I think that is one of the signs.  I have the luxury of not being limited to the number of hives I keep.   So, when I lose one, I make two splits.  Whether my bees are immune of varroa may just not be bad here, I don't know.  I suffer about the same percentage of losses as others in my area, so I don't plan on changing my ways.

I understand need the hobbyist with a couple hives in the backyard treating their hives.  A single loss is a big deal to them.  A single loss to me is sad but it also means I have an empty box to put more bees in.  

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EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS / Re: Frame width

« Last post by Michael Bush on April 23, 2024, 10:29:16 am »

If you don't put nails in from the edge of the end bar, you can just adjust a small plane just right and it takes about two swipes on each side of each end bar.

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EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS / Re: Frame width

« Last post by FatherMichael on April 23, 2024, 09:34:35 am »

Think I'll do that, since so many of my frames are now out of commission.  Just need to figure out a way to do it with intact frames.