Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?  (Read 59833 times)

Offline The15thMember

  • Global Moderator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 4427
  • Gender: Female
  • Traveler of the Multiverse, Seeker of Knowledge
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #100 on: March 10, 2022, 08:54:07 pm »
Our high on Saturday is supposed to be 34F with a low of 15F!  Today was almost 70F, so I figured I'd better check on the girls before it gets cold, and give them a little extra food.  I found Queens Ravenna and Persephone today, and both their sugar rolls came up clean, although I didn't have quite enough sugar in Persephone's roll, so I'll probably double check them.  I gave both of those hives another box, as their amount of brood basically doubled since last week.  Queen Ravenna the Usurper is my new favorite!  Her bees are so gentle and quiet to work, I probably wouldn't even need a smoker, and she laid 4 eggs on the frame as I was holding it!  I've never seen a queen do that before, just move from one cell to the next without even acting like I was there; it was so amazing to witness!   
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 .30WCF

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1130
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #101 on: March 10, 2022, 11:00:45 pm »
Our high on Saturday is supposed to be 34F with a low of 15F!  Today was almost 70F, so I figured I'd better check on the girls before it gets cold, and give them a little extra food.  I found Queens Ravenna and Persephone today, and both their sugar rolls came up clean, although I didn't have quite enough sugar in Persephone's roll, so I'll probably double check them.  I gave both of those hives another box, as their amount of brood basically doubled since last week.  Queen Ravenna the Usurper is my new favorite!  Her bees are so gentle and quiet to work, I probably wouldn't even need a smoker, and she laid 4 eggs on the frame as I was holding it!  I've never seen a queen do that before, just move from one cell to the next without even acting like I was there; it was so amazing to witness!   
Sounds like one of my queens that seemed on me. I?m gonna need her back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline .30WCF

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1130
  • Gender: Male
What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #102 on: March 11, 2022, 04:00:27 pm »
Moved some stuff around, checkerboarded some boxes, put the deeps back on the bottom since they were mostly cleared out, and took a deep and split it into two nucs to raise their own queens, and left the queen in the two white mediums. Found a little virgin queen running around in the red single medium from a split a couple weeks ago. It?s gonna be cold and rainy the next couple days, but if she can make it through next week it will be in the 70s again.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
« Last Edit: March 11, 2022, 10:08:30 pm by .30WCF »

Offline Bob Wilson

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1100
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #103 on: March 13, 2022, 09:51:54 pm »
Yesterday, I finished assembling what frames I had left.  Selling nucs is seriously depleting my store. Now I will have to buy more.
Meanwhile we are past our untimely late freeze, and back to the upper 60Fs. I anticipate some feral swarms after this freeze and rainy last week.

Offline Oldbeavo

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1014
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #104 on: March 16, 2022, 07:29:50 am »
Bob
We never sell our hardware, if you buy a nuc from us the buyer brings his box to us and we load in the 4 or 5 frames of bees.
We do this about an hour from sunset, leave the buyers hive where the nuc was to collect the field bees. Then they take it home.

Offline rast

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 766
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #105 on: March 16, 2022, 10:18:37 am »
 Oldbeavo, not the norm here anymore, used to be a lot more "frame exchange" here. Way too many new beeks with no resources buying bees nowadays.
Fools argue; wise men discuss.
    --Paramahansa Yogananda

Offline Oldbeavo

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1014
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #106 on: March 16, 2022, 07:21:59 pm »
Rast
We don't do a frame exchange, the price of frames is in the price. So many newby BK's frames are poorly assembled that they are liabilities when put in the hives. Top and bottom bars coming off is the main problem.
We just keep our wooden nuc box. If people want to pick up a nuc of bees we put them into a corflute nuc and charge them extra for it.
Our nucs last season were $170 in your box or $190 in a corflute nuc.

Offline cao

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1678
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #107 on: March 17, 2022, 11:08:50 pm »
I finally got to go through my hives today.  My home yard had 22 of 29 make it through the winter.  Although one is still iffy as it is very small. My out yard had 9 of 13 survive.  After last summer's carnage from the SHB's, I will take those survival percentages.  I saw the start of drone brood between some of the boxes.  Still a couple weeks away from making any splits.  There are several of the hives that I added boxes to today.  Unfortunately, I saw more SHB's than I would like.  Spent extra time using the hive tool on them when I had the chance. :wink:

Offline Brian MCquilkin

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 192
  • Gender: Male
    • Ideal Honey Bees
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #108 on: March 18, 2022, 01:01:44 pm »
Had a few days in the 50 to 60 range, decided to add pollen patties and feed some dry pollen sub. Poped the lids for a quick look and evaluate colonies.
No more dead outs only 4 so far.
Despite my efforts the bees are doing great

Offline The15thMember

  • Global Moderator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 4427
  • Gender: Female
  • Traveler of the Multiverse, Seeker of Knowledge
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #109 on: March 19, 2022, 06:25:13 pm »
It was about as nice a day as you could ask for to beekeep, 70F, sunny, and a light breeze.  I redid Queen Persephone's hive's sugar roll that I didn't trust from last week, and it still came back 0%, so that's great!  Ravenna's girls have 1 empty queen cup and I saw 1 walking drone, so I'll be keeping an eye out for queen cells from here on out.  I also cut out their first section of capped drones, since I heard on a podcast recently that culling the first batch of drones can help with mites in the spring, so I'm giving that a try this year.         
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 FloridaGardener

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 548
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #110 on: March 19, 2022, 09:46:58 pm »
Rast
We don't do a frame exchange, the price of frames is in the price. So many newby BK's frames are poorly assembled that they are liabilities when put in the hives. Top and bottom bars coming off is the main problem.
We just keep our wooden nuc box. If people want to pick up a nuc of bees we put them into a corflute nuc and charge them extra for it.
Our nucs last season were $170 in your box or $190 in a corflute nuc.

So I talked to someone on the phone responding to my ad for nucs. I love that more people are interested in BK.  But it's really hard to help them, when they resist reading.  75% of people I sell nucs to don't read and learn the hive parts before buying, even tho I email them what they need to bring, to pic up a nuc.  They end up having to borrow some of my equipment just to get their hive home.  Once I had a girl show up with a knockoff flow hive assembled wrong, no  brood frames, no entrance reducer/ratchet strap....wearing a swim top and skirt, and no veil.... but wanting a lesson on how to inspect?  :shocked: I had to give extra frames  to fill the box, and explain, no, you can't just  turn the tap and honey comes out...you have to give the brood a place to live, to have a BK license, they must live on frames...

Some people gripe about buying a wood nuc/carry box for $25, and a strong colony or overwintered nuc for $150.   Before coming out, they are emailed free online beekeeping lesson, handouts on equipment, feeding, inspecting, and hurricane proofing...but they don't want to read, they want to have it explained to them.  I wish I could be as firm as you are Old Beavo, because for me, selling a nuc is many, many hours of time invested in each person.

Offline .30WCF

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1130
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #111 on: March 20, 2022, 12:36:03 am »
...wearing a swim top and skirt, and no veil...

selling a nuc is many, many hours of time invested

Doesn?t sound that bad to me.



Offline Oldbeavo

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1014
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #112 on: March 20, 2022, 08:55:28 am »
Don't worry FG, I quite often come in after a nuc pick up and say to my partner, there goes another nuc on a suicide mission.
Yes i did do the multi hour bees course, for no money, and no girls in swim suit tops, but now the best i do is have some foam rubber strips to block the entrance to the flow hive and some duct tape to keep the whole thing together.
Does the pet shop do puppy training, no, sells you the pup, a bag of dog food, a collar and a lead. Thankyou and whose next to buy a gold fish.

Offline FloridaGardener

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 548
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #113 on: March 20, 2022, 11:31:11 am »
Ha!  @.30WCF - her "Fabio" boyfriend was there.

I prefer to think the bees would swarm out of the flowhive broodbox and propigate in the wild.  I like to think so anyway.  I've been breeding from the best feral strains from extractions & "black swamp-bee" swarms.  I've rescued and/or propigated over 100 small colonies.  I've never treated for mites, beyond dusting with powdered sugar one spring. So I hope they'll survive...just perhaps not with the nuc buyer.

I do have to give hats off to the 25% who actually have taken a real online or in person beekeeping class, who knows WHY I can assure them there is a laying queen, and shows a true interest in the amazing science of bees.

And to keep up with the original thread --- what I just did in the beeyard -- a friend who does extractions just pulled a colony out of a soffit with 7 queens, 6 virgins.  He couldn't use them all so he gave me two and I made up more 3-frame nucs.  The temps are 50 at night and 75 daytime, I sealed up the screened bottoms and they should be warm enough to make it if the queens don't get disoriented/lost.  It's swarm season here.

Offline .30WCF

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1130
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #114 on: March 21, 2022, 07:11:57 pm »
Moved some bees around

Worked on painting and rotating out some of the boxes that need paint

Added two more supers on a couple hives

Went to the store and got a yellow paint pen, some OA and 50 frames and plastic foundation.







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline The15thMember

  • Global Moderator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 4427
  • Gender: Female
  • Traveler of the Multiverse, Seeker of Knowledge
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #115 on: March 24, 2022, 07:07:48 pm »
I cut out some more drones today, because I noticed that the bees redrew the drone comb I cut out previously as worker comb.  It's leading me to wonder if the queens are only laying as many drones as they are because the some of the comb is drone-sized cells that had been filled with their winter stores of honey.  We'll see how they redraw these sections.     
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 .30WCF

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1130
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #116 on: March 24, 2022, 10:02:44 pm »
Built frames today. No fancy jig, but 10 frames with foundation in under 10 minutes isn?t a bad pace for the amount of hives I have.

https://youtu.be/NR7wKAxvNVk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline Bob Wilson

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1100
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #117 on: March 24, 2022, 11:26:40 pm »
I hived a swarm today. Dumb bees.
Smaller than a volleyball ball, bigger than a soft ball.
I baited a box and put it against them. Do they go in? No.
I shook them in the next day. Do they stay? No.
The day afterwards, they leave.
They perch on the oak tree limb for another two days, through wind, and cold, and rain. They scoff at my box.
I brushed them in the box again today, 5 days after they first swarmed, and added some syrup. Will they stay? Who knows? The bees will do what the bees want to do.

Offline .30WCF

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1130
  • Gender: Male
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #118 on: March 24, 2022, 11:32:40 pm »
I hived a swarm today. Dumb bees.
Smaller than a volleyball ball, bigger than a soft ball.
I baited a box and put it against them. Do they go in? No.
I shook them in the next day. Do they stay? No.
The day afterwards, they leave.
They perch on the oak tree limb for another two days, through wind, and cold, and rain. They scoff at my box.
I brushed them in the box again today, 5 days after they first swarmed, and added some syrup. Will they stay? Who knows? The bees will do what the bees want to do.
Did you give them a frame of larvae?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline The15thMember

  • Global Moderator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 4427
  • Gender: Female
  • Traveler of the Multiverse, Seeker of Knowledge
Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?
« Reply #119 on: March 24, 2022, 11:59:15 pm »
Did you give them a frame of larvae?
Animated 30 is right, that will make them stay.  They can't resist those cute hungry babies.  :grin:
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.