Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

MEMBER BULLETIN BOARD => GREETINGS/TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF => Topic started by: Beeright on July 04, 2019, 01:27:06 am

Title: Hello,new Bee Keeper from Texas
Post by: Beeright on July 04, 2019, 01:27:06 am

Just started and I need all the help I can get

Title: Re: Hello,new Bee Keeper from Texas
Post by: CoolBees on July 04, 2019, 01:37:04 am

Welcome. Ask away. You've come to the right place.

Title: Re: Hello,new Bee Keeper from Texas
Post by: BeeMaster2 on July 04, 2019, 06:25:13 am

Beeright,
Welcome to Beemaster.
Feel free to ask all and any questions. We love to answer them. Don?t worry if you think it was asked before we are here to help.
Jim Altmiller

Title: Re: Hello,new Bee Keeper from Texas
Post by: Donovan J on July 04, 2019, 01:22:32 pm

Welcome

Title: Re: Hello,new Bee Keeper from Texas
Post by: cao on July 04, 2019, 05:46:26 pm

Welcome  :happy:

Title: Re: Hello,new Bee Keeper from Texas
Post by: Bob Wilson on July 05, 2019, 09:49:30 am

Glad to have you. The forum is a great mix of LONG time beekeepers with huge experience, and newbies like us.

Title: Re: Hello,new Bee Keeper from Texas
Post by: Beeright on July 07, 2019, 11:21:45 pm

I have a Ranch in the central hill country of Texas, we have just put in 12 hives 2 months ago. in the brief time we have lost 1hive to wax months, two have swarmed and left in the past month. The two that swarmed seemed to be weak hives compared to the others. Could it have been a weak Queen?
Another question..I have read books and done the you tube thing but how do you know when to add the second hive?

Title: Re: Hello,new Bee Keeper from Texas
Post by: BeeMaster2 on July 08, 2019, 08:04:24 am

Beeright,
Was moths are the clean up crew. They do not take over unless the hive is very weak, usually after the bees have moved out. Sometimes they will take over areas of the hive that the bees are not able to protect because they have too much space especially with old drawn comb.
Add the next super when they have drawn out and started to fill 8 of the ten frames, the box is full of bees and you have a flow on.
Jim Altmiller

Title: Re: Hello,new Bee Keeper from Texas
Post by: ed/La. on July 08, 2019, 12:11:26 pm

You probably meant abscond not swarm. Weak hives are at risk of robbing. Once a hive gets robbed they abscond. A robbers screen helps. Easy to make. Also equalising hives helps. Some brood from strong hive transfered to weak hive. They need enough nurse bees to take care of brood. The queen might be fine just not enough nurse bees to increase population.

Title: Re: Hello,new Bee Keeper from Texas
Post by: Beeright on July 08, 2019, 07:05:12 pm

Thanks for the advice, I have 3 gallon feeders on top of the hives and they have done well. We had a rainy spring with tons of wildflowers this year  but by June they are gone so is this a time to start feeding again or do I wait until early fall