Beekeepers

[woods]

I moved mine from the wood line to right next to my house so they would get sun and help keep the small hive beetles at bay. It can be done.

yea, I don't want them next to the house. I'm dealing with hornets in the soffets. I kind of want them way over there, away from the house. We're doing chickens next year and I think we'll just trade eggs for honey with the guy down the road from me.

 

[Wheelin66bronco]

Both our hives are thriving, so we started looking for more boxes locally and came across a smokin deal on these Hoover boxes. They're 8 frame, but whatever it'll work.
So today we transferred both hives, moved a frame of brood up into the upper box, and added two honey supers.
Also gave them a good dusting of powdered sugar as a mite preventative measure.

 

[Wheelin66bronco]

We never take pictures when doing hive inspections, finally had our daughter take some today. We joined a local beekeeping and pollinator club . Generally not a fan of clubs, but I'm hoping for good beekeeping knowledge for our area.

 

[rockota]

We never take pictures when doing hive inspections, finally had our daughter take some today. We joined a local beekeeping and pollinator club . Generally not a fan of clubs, but I'm hoping for good beekeeping knowledge for our area.

Would be very interested in hearing your feedback. I’ve been avoiding the county bee club for the same reason, but I also know I Need to go.

 

[Wheelin66bronco]

Would be very interested in hearing your feedback. I’ve been avoiding the county bee club for the same reason, but I also know I Need to go.

Ya, we'll see. I was irritated from the get go.
They started off with "everyone needs to register their hives so the state can't spray herbicides with two miles of our houses" and "if all your hives are registered, it will keep commercial apiaries from dropping hives everywhere" but finished with "you need to use Roundup on the snowberry, and noxious weeds and then plant pollenators in their place".
Bitch, I'm not registering shit. If you think it's good to register with the state, but use Roundup yourself I'm done listening.
Get your fat ass out on your 2 acres and pull weeds.
Whatever, it's $20 to be in the "club" for a year. I want to learn as much as possible about keeping bees in our very diverse climate, then probably won't keep up our membership.

 

[rockota]

3 frames today. Probably 5 more that should be harvested in the next couple of weeks.

Took all of an hour. Equipment is correctly being cleaned up by the bees

 

[Wheelin66bronco]

One benefit of being part of the local beekeeper club is first shot at stuff when it goes up for sale.
As of last night we now have 5 hives. Local guy had to sell due to short notice move.
We picked up 3 hives in the deal, two really strong double deeps (he kept the full supers), and a small 8 frame from a split this spring that's ready for a 10 frame box.

 

[baldwin]

Pulled 19 medium frames today and extracted about 56 pounds of honey

 

[rockota]

Pulled 19 medium frames today and extracted about 56 pounds of honey

Nice! How many hives?

I’m worried about one of my hives… couldn’t find the queen, no brood that I could find an very little honey. Going to reach out to local apiary tomorrow for a looksee

 

[baldwin]

I have 10 hives but only had honey supers on 5 of them. Only 2 hives had filled the supers and I left the others.

 

[Pony_Driver]

Pulled 19 medium frames today and extracted about 56 pounds of honey

I pulled two frames from one hive and had to figure out how to get the honey out since I don't have an extractor. Made a mess, but it's good stuff.

 

[rockota]

I pulled two frames from one hive and had to figure out how to get the honey out since I don't have an extractor. Made a mess, but it's good stuff.

There’s a great ewe-toob video from”this old house” that talks about how to use gravity.

Even after 2 days, our wax is still dripping honey. Next time, I’m putting the wax out for the bees to clean up

 

[Wheelin66bronco]

Nice! How many hives?

I’m worried about one of my hives… couldn’t find the queen, no brood that I could find an very little honey. Going to reach out to local apiary tomorrow for a looksee

I've heard you can take a frame of brood from another hive, put it in your missing queen hive and they'll make a new queen. Probably the quickest route.

 

[Wheelin66bronco]

Got our three new hives setup at first light, the double deeps have 4 frames each of honey. We threw on supers, they'll have that super filled in no time. Clover is nuts right now.

We're going to pull 4 frames of honey from 4 hives next weekend. Our first time extracting honey, I'm sure it'll be a sticky experience.

 

[rockota]

I've heard you can take a frame of brood from another hive, put it in your missing queen hive and they'll make a new queen. Probably the quickest route.

That’s what I’m thinking. They were pissed off today, so I’m planning to do that tues or wed

 

[aczlan]

I've heard you can take a frame of brood from another hive, put it in your missing queen hive and they'll make a new queen. Probably the quickest route.

Needs to be fresh (very recently laid) brood.

Aaron Z

 

[Wheelin66bronco]

Same guy hadn't sold all his hives, despite others commiting to take them and then not showing up. Typical people anymore.
Soooo, we bought his last three. Two more double deeps and a single 10 frame.
On first inspection, one of them is completely honey bound, no brood or egg layden cells. He did tell us that a couple hives are on 3rd year queens so it's possible she stopped laying, or just honey bound. Swapped in a frame with eggs, see what they do with it, and gave them a few fresh frames.
We are out of boxes, so I whipped out a few. A deep, and 2 med supers. From scrap cedar I had laying around.
Also pulled 9 frames of honey, several boxes were honey bound, strong hives.
Borrowed a frame spinner, lots of golden goodness to come.

 

[Thefishguy77]

So I had my swarmy hive go queenless about a month ago. Swapped out a fresh brood frame, with no bees on it, from my other hive and they did what they do. Now my 2nd hive looks like shit. Hardly any brood and almost no activity. They also look like they got attacked. Along with now building random comb in between some frames WTF hapoened, this has been the slow and steady hive from the beginning

 

[Roktoy829]

It may just be a weak hive from the beginning. They will build extra comb in the damnest places.
Appears to be some larve in there. I would consider down sizing the hive, if you can. Feed them sugar water. Maybe a pollen patty.

 

[Thefishguy77]

It may just be a weak hive from the beginning. They will build extra comb in the damnest places.
Appears to be some larve in there. I would consider down sizing the hive, if you can. Feed them sugar water. Maybe a pollen patty.

I took the 2nd deep off the slow hive and condensed anything that looked to have resources on it into the main deep box.

My hot hive appeared honey bound from being queenless during the peak pollen time.
My bees hadn’t touched the outside 2 frames on the top deep and had a empty side frame on the bottom box. So I was able to put one full honey frame on the bottom outside and fit 3 empty frames in the 2nd deep in the middle of it. Then the queen excluder and the totally empty 3rd deep. That should fill both 1&2 boxes completely with honet. There should be decent pollen for the next 6-8 weeks. As long as we keep getting a few morning every now and then where is cool and dews heavy. Before fall actually decides to show up. The fire weed is full tilt right now along with a lot of wildflowers.

Did a sugar shake on that hive and found zero mites so thats kinda cool. Couldnt find the queen on the slow hive so no shake for it.

Let me know if I fucked up please.

 

[Roktoy829]

I would say you did great. The hive you think is queenless, is there larve like i thought I saw? If so, you may have young queen and they are hard to see. They will run for the shade.

Did you see any hive beetles?

 

[baldwin]

I inspected 10 hives this morning. It's been about 4 weeks since I harvested honey and was last in the hives. Opened 1 and all I saw was wax moth everywhere. No dead bees, so I guess they absconded sometime in the last 4 weeks. We are heavily in the summer dearth. Saw very little brood in all the boxes, but did see brood so I know I have queens. One box was packed with bees, but saw no evidence of the queen. Put a pollen patty on that hive and will check again in 2 weeks. May have to buy a queen. We haven't had rain in over a month and temps have been 100+ for the last 40 something days.

Put out a community feeder last night after dark and this morning the bees had already found it.

Make sure you all are providing a water source for the bees. They need a lot of water to help control the heat in the hives. Surprisingly, a good amount of new beekeepers overlook this and it is critical.

I hate this time of the year in Texas. Makes beekeeping miserable.

 

[baldwin]

What are you getting for a pound of honey in your parts? I'm selling mine at $14 a pound and so far no one has batted an eye at that price.

 

[Wheelin66bronco]

We're selling for 16oz bottles for $15.
Not sure if we're going to sell quart size jars yet.

 

[Thefishguy77]

I would say you did great. The hive you think is queenless, is there larve like i thought I saw? If so, you may have young queen and they are hard to see. They will run for the shade.

Did you see any hive beetles?

I actually dont think that one, the one I condensed to a single deep, is queenless as there was some, very little, brood and they aren’t pulling queen cells. So maybe a very new queen? Or mayban old queen from the beginning with the NUC? I did not see any hive beetles but I am new this year so all I have to look for is based on pictures. I am a hands on learner first and foremost.
Can I over work a hive? Like can I open it back up again and look every few days? I dont see why not but again I’m brand new.

 

[baldwin]

Can you overwork a hive? I think that is a matter of opinion and if you ask 10 beekeepers you'll get 10 variations of answers. I believe you can, every time you open the hive and pull frames you are disrupting their environment. I would say give them 7-10 days between inspections. And, a good friend of mine says one should not open a hive unless one has a specified reason for doing so. She says to ask yourself, "Why am I opening this hive? What am I trying to determine?"

 

[Roktoy829]

Baldwin is dead on. There is no sense in going in a lot, unless you have a issue with a hive. I tell people, let me pull the roof off of your house, then move the furniture around.
You are going to get pissed and eventually leave.
I have cut holes in top covers, so i can place feed jars directly on the hive. It also allows me to look in the hive and get a better clue of whats happening.

 

[Thefishguy77]

Baldwin is dead on. There is no sense in going in a lot, unless you have a issue with a hive. I tell people, let me pull the roof off of your house, then move the furniture around.
You are going to get pissed and eventually leave.
I have cut holes in top covers, so i can place feed jars directly on the hive. It also allows me to look in the hive and get a better clue of whats happening.

I used to say the same thing when I did reef aquarium maintenance. Stop fucking with it outside of whats needed. One of the many reasons I ask. Because bees are very similar to reef aquarium, regarding the nuances.

This thread has been a huge help so far. I cant believe its almost time to start winterizing the hives.

 

[baldwin]

We are in a bad dearth in NTX right now so I have already started feeding syrup about once a week and dry pollen all the time. I have some hives that are honey bound and I need them to eat that so the queen has room to lay.

 

[Wheelin66bronco]

We are in a bad dearth in NTX right now so I have already started feeding syrup about once a week and dry pollen all the time. I have some hives that are honey bound and I need them to eat that so the queen has room to lay.

Do you not checkerboard frames around to make room for her to lay, or remove a frame or two of honey?