Honey bees

[m1garand762]

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

 

[Mrsig]

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.

 

[Alan W.]

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.

 

[hgut]

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

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

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.

 

[NorTracNY]

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.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

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.

 

[hgut]

LittleBittyBigJohn, what did the inspector say? just wondering​

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

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.

 

[scaredychicken]

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

 

[cqaigy2]

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.

Is that a bad? 2 varroa?

 

[cqaigy2]

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.

I sure like how the bees fill in that Layens frame.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I sure like how the bees fill in that Layens frame.

That’s the reason for the design. Bees aren’t meant to live on shallow langstroth frames. They fill 7-8 brood frames like this per hive, flanked by a full frame on each end. It’s brilliant.
Also, the heaviest thing you ever lift, is a 9 pound frame of honey. The rest of the year you don’t touch the hives.

 

[scaredychicken]

But you need a tractor capable of lifting about 1200 lbs, on a pallet with 4 hives

 

[IndyJay]

Our wild bees are going strong. They have been in a Catalpa tree in our yard since before we moved in 39 years ago.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Pulled a few honey frames today. Still quite a lot that is uncapped, so I left it behind. Need to go through 4 more hives!

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

LittleBittyBigJohn, what did the inspector say? just wondering​

No inspector. It was just me doing the inspection. I said, "This is no good. Hope it's not too late."

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Is that a bad? 2 varroa?

2 is not bad at all, if you are doing a Varroa test. But, to see them on a general hive inspection usually means there are a whole lot. I've always heard that if you see any at all during a regular inspection, the hive is already dead and they just don't know it yet. I hope that is not the case this time.

 

[cqaigy2]

2 is not bad at all, if you are doing a Varroa test. But, to see them on a general hive inspection usually means there are a whole lot. I've always heard that if you see any at all during a regular inspection, the hive is already dead and they just don't know it yet. I hope that is not the case this time.

Oh, i gotchya now, was thinking you did a varroa test with your inspection.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Went through two more hives today and found another 60 pounds of surplus…

We will probably pull a total of 130 pounds this year… most of it from our FIRST YEAR bees… these swarms were amazing.