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91
GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Follow the Bloom - 2024
« Last post by Caashenb on April 15, 2024, 01:55:22 pm »
vetch is all starting to bloom today.
92
CRAFTING CORNER / Re: Wax contamination question
« Last post by The15thMember on April 15, 2024, 01:19:20 pm »
I understand what you are saying Phillip but while we are under the bio security order we have no option. If we detect mites in a hive and once they get to the required threshold, we have to treat all hives in the apiary. We don?t have any choice in the matter. From memory, we have about 5 options here in Australia as far as treatments are concerned. We have a lot of beekeepers who are not registered and have very little idea about what is happening. Quite a few won?t do anything and will try to ride it out. They are the people who will eventually have nothing but in the meantime they will be a problem to anyone else in the neighbourhood. OAV is not registered and is illegal to use in Australia at this point. It may be an option down the track but not in the immediate future. Treating with honey supers on or off is another issue that I?m sure you guys all face as well.
I just looked it up and it seems like FormicPro and ApiGuard are both registered for use in Australia.  Both of these are organic, and I know FormicPro is safe with supers, I think ApiGuard is too.  I have used both, and personally prefer not to use either with supers on, just because both are very fragrant and I'm worried about the honey taking on the flavor of the treatment, particularly of the ApiGuard, as thymol has a very strong minty flavor.  FormicPro is a heavier treatment in my experience, whereas ApiGuard is pretty tame, although I have only used it once or twice.  You might want to do some research on those two if you are concerned about residual chemicals from the other treatments.   
93
GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Out of Reach
« Last post by The15thMember on April 15, 2024, 01:11:18 pm »
And if is a secondary swarm with multiple virgins, it is like trying to herd a bunch of cats.
That is basically what this has felt like, and there is definitely more than one virgin involved here, since there were two swarms, and the queen mother was split into another hive.  They are still on the tree this morning, but they are discussing the bait hive, so at this point, I think I'll just see if they'll decide for themselves and make it easy for me.  Then maybe we'll cut more of the tree off to try and prevent another swarm from landing at the same spot in the future.  My sister was thinking about removing some more branches anyway because she is going to plant some fruit trees nearby and doesn't want them shaded.   
94
THE 2ND AMENDMENT / Re: ATF EXPERT
« Last post by Michael Bush on April 15, 2024, 12:43:54 pm »
Over the years I've noticed that the majority of police follow the lead of the FBI.  So when the FBI was using a .38 special, that was the police handgun of choice.  When the FBI went to the .357, the 9mm, the .40/10mm and then back to the 9mm, they followed those.
95
Congratulations Terri on your first hive. I hope it fairs well!! Personally I would wait a week before going back in. Did you transfer them over to your 10 frame set up?
Thanks. They were in a medium nuc so I took a ten frame medium with me and put them straight into that there. I figured that they'd prefer that over two moves in a short period of time, plus I didn't have to shell out for their nuc box. I had two ratchet straps to keep things battened down and they worked fine, along with my driving skills.

Orientation is over and they are taking care of business bringing in pollen. It looks like a brown to burnt orange and I don't know where they're getting it from. I gave them a little less than a pint of 1:1 syrup and I'll see if they take it. I don't know if it's true but I heard it's helpful when they're building out comb and I have five empty frames for them to work on. If I don't see it going down, I'll pull it out. The seller reported that they were a healthy and productive hive but I don't know them well enough to rely on their word. Indications are good though. These hives have doors on the sides that come off for viewing but all you can see is the end frame on one side. At least I can open the top up and check the syrup without removing their top.

Oh, and my poor neighbor's been getting nothing but bad breaks lately. His last surviving out of seven hives seems to have gone queenless. Just a couple of weeks ago they inspected it and it had everything going for it. Lots of brood, lots of stored honey. He's going to try and get a queen ASAP to try and rescue them. If I had a full and healthy hive, I could cut him some eggs but I don't so I can't.
96
THE 2ND AMENDMENT / Re: ATF EXPERT
« Last post by Terri Yaki on April 15, 2024, 12:21:22 pm »
Police use whatever their department head decides but I don't know how they come to that conclusion. Around here, .40 S&W was in for a while but they've gone back to the 9mm in the last couple of years. I've been told that the 9 has improved to where it's almost as potent as the .40 but they didn't change the brass or the makeup of the guns so I don't understand that part. The last I heard, PA State Police (PSP) has been using DA, hammer fired 9mm Sigs. 9mm is cheaper, lighter and plenty effective for the hoodlums so I expect it should work well enough for the police. Beside, a wise man once said, "A 9mm will blow a man's lung out", so I figure that should stop a perp.
97
CRAFTING CORNER / Re: Wax contamination question
« Last post by cao on April 15, 2024, 12:17:30 pm »
The last few years I have been replacing old brood comb when I get a chance.  I had a lot of it after several hives were infested with shbs.  I either melted the down in a pot of hot water or put them in my solar wax melter.  I have several buckets of melted wax ready to coat new plastic foundation or to make candles with.  If I were to make lip balms or other cosmetic applications, I would only use the white wax capping off of freshly drawn comb.  I do not treat so the only chemicals that I worry about I the ones that the bees themselves bring into the hive. 

The old brood comb doesn't produce much wax and it is usually darker in color.  Some of that old brood comb will make some good fire starters.
 
98
TOP BAR HIVES - WARRE HIVES - LONG HIVES / Re: Larger Layens hives
« Last post by cao on April 15, 2024, 11:54:42 am »
I have both traditional hives and long hives and will continue to use both.  They each have advantages and disadvantages.  I am on that likes to experiment and try different things. 

The long hives were interesting to me because I had originally thought about a top bar hive but decided on a long hive because of the interchangeability of the frames. 

The traditional Langstroth hives I have consist of shallow medium and deep boxes anywhere from 3 to ten frame.   

One of the things people don't talk about much is from the woodworking side of beekeeping.  I really get a lot of enjoyment from building my equipment, even before I put any bees in it.  That is one advantage the long hive has Is that I got to design them the way I wanted.
99
THE 2ND AMENDMENT / Re: ATF EXPERT
« Last post by Kathyp on April 15, 2024, 11:45:10 am »
When the military made the very stupid choice to dump the .45 they went with the Beretta 9mm.  I don't know what police use, or if the military still uses that weapon.
100
GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Out of Reach
« Last post by cao on April 15, 2024, 11:31:24 am »
I have noticed that more often than not that when I have a swarm that is really hard to get in a box that there is virgin queen(s) involved.  If it is the primary swarm with the old queen, she seems ready to get in a box and start getting back to doing her queenly duties.  If it is a secondary swarm or a primary swarm with a tag-a-long virgin, it seems that no one seems to know exactly what to do and so they don't just march right into the box.  And if is a secondary swarm with multiple virgins, it is like trying to herd a bunch of cats.
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