Honey bees

   / Honey bees #1  

m1garand762

Gold Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Messages
466
Location
ohio
Tractor
kubota
How’s your bee’s doing? We have had a bumper crop of honey this year and I caught 2 swarms on Saturday. I’m a little worried about the new arrivals longevity this year because it’s getting pretty late for them to store food. I have my feeders out and they are busy little bees but the season is running out really fast
 
   / Honey bees #2  
I have been trying to get some one for over a year to put some on our land I have made over 300 phone calls and no one has extra bees to start a new hives in Central Florida.. I have orange trees, black berry & raspberry patches heavy wooded & pasture land.
 
   / Honey bees #3  
My son lost his hives over the winter. Had a swarm move into one of the hives this spring and they seem to be doing well.
 
   / Honey bees #4  
Our bees are doing really well, you just caught 2 swarms, wow they best be getting to work fast, not much time left, I hope for the bee's sake and mine we have a mild winter in Ohio
 
   / Honey bees #5  
Mine are good. I have 2 hives that are doing awesome. 1 that I will be re-queening in the spring. The current queen is just not productive enough. I did end up loosing 1 hive a month or so ago. Went queenless and I couldn't get them to make a new queen or accept a queen. Finally gave up after about 6 weeks and combined what was left with a stronger hive. When I did that I finally found a tiny virgin queen and smushed her. I feel like it's too late to split it back out this year.

My mentor suggested keeping a couple nucs ready to go for situations when I need queens or resources to combine. I think I'll do that next year too. Shooting for 6 hives and 2 nucs next year. Hopefully I'll get good crop from 2 hives next summer.
 
   / Honey bees #6  
Take some frames from a strong hive to help the recently caught swarms. It will certainly be difficult to get them built up for the winter. I'd suggest trying to get them to fill just a single deep in Ohio and feed them during the winter.

It's been a very good year here for honey production.
 
   / Honey bees #7  
I had a bad inspection Monday. I saw 2 varroa mites in my weaker hive during the inspection. I had treated with OA about 6 weeks ago. Must not have done it right. I put Apiguard in all 3 hives yesterday. Hopefully it's not too late.
 
   / Honey bees #9  
We have seven hives, four were early swarms. They have had a great year! We will be pulling about 200 pounds of honey in a couple weeks, which will leave each colony 35+ pounds each for winter. These brood frames look beautiful. Have the new shop up and running, building traps and hives to expand next year.
 

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   / Honey bees #10  
for about 10 years, my wife was an Apiarist. She had to let that go due to deteriorating health a few years ago.

at one point we had 85 hives in the "bee yard" on our property, for the winter

she caught 5 swarms (3 from friends properties) one year

I miss those days, and the truck that we had at that time
 

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