Honey bees

[ponytug]

Nice to see the bees and the gorgeous hives!

What's around the legs of the hive stand?

All the best,

Peter

 

[Hoot Owl]

LBBJ
If they have cells let them alone for 3 weeks. A lot of times the workers will ball the queen if she has not mated yet when disturbed.

 

[Hoot Owl]

Here is what I did today. Copied from beesource.

Today I tried something new to me. I set up 5 hives the way Bob Binnie does to start a nuc. It was 65* today and windy. I did deep inspections on 20 hives. I found swarm cells in 1 and made 4 splits with cells and extra frames from other hives in that yard. I will go back to those 5 and swap things around and add a double screen board under the nuc. I am looking forward to see how this turns out for me.
I also sold a bunch of medium box's for a friend of mine that is retired now at 84.
I bought 4 metal hive stands 12' long and 10 new bottom boards for me.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Nice to see the bees and the gorgeous hives!

What's around the legs of the hive stand?

All the best,

Peter

That was some grease to stop ants initially.

 

[rScotty]

Bees are nice. We have a fairly good number of wild bees in the area & enjoy seeing them thrive. They are not honey bees - mostly local native bees and some bumble bees.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Got all the swarm traps up this weekend... Now we wait.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Well it’s very early in the season here in Indiana. We had a colony bearding heavily and decided to do our first hive inspections. All colonies wintered on 10 frames. Some still had capped honey left. All had all 10 frames full of brood/resources. We added three fully drawn frames to each. It’s not even mid April and the colonies have 13 frames! The boxes were FULL of bees, packed.

 

[WM75Guy]

Just re-ordered honey from the honey farm I like about 45 miles away. Three 2# bottles at $16 each. Free shipping for orders over $45 dollars so no driving.

 

[Hoot Owl]

CloverKnollFarms​

Did you add a full box of frames? If not they will make a mess drawing comb how they want.
If you did add a box of frames pull the caped honey up and place the drawn frames beside the brood frames. The Queen will fill them up fast. Also check them once a week keeping an eye on honey supply's. Don't be afraid to feed them 1-1 sugar water as they grow. They will stop taking the SW when things are in full bloom.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

CloverKnollFarms​

Did you add a full box of frames? If not they will make a mess drawing comb how they want.
If you did add a box of frames pull the caped honey up and place the drawn frames beside the brood frames. The Queen will fill them up fast. Also check them once a week keeping an eye on honey supply's. Don't be afraid to feed them 1-1 sugar water as they grow. They will stop taking the SW when things are in full bloom.

You never really add a full box of frames in a
Layens hive. (There is only one box) Never have, never had any issues with them drawing bur comb. We also never manipulate frame locations, we let the bees sort it out. Also, we don’t feed sugar water.
In a Layens, we literally add frames at the far end of the hive as they need them. Then in mid October we harvest. That is the extent of the hive work.

Our frames are also 12”x15”… each one holds 10+ pounds of honey when full.

 

[riptides]

Following closely. Good luck to you all and please keep us posted on your progress and work.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Put a swarm trap up yesterday… No less than 8 scout bees flying in and out this evening.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Bees are in the box again today. Seems awful early this year, but the boxes are full of drones, so they are ready to make queens.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Lots of bees just guarding the entrance today. No swarm in the box, but a lot of interest.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Hoping to get out to till up an acre on our property to prepare it for a buckwheat stand to offer more forage for the growing apiary

 

[Hoot Owl]

Bush hogged about 1/4 acre today for a new queen mating yard. I will set up 3 - 12' stands tomorrow.
I have 14 virgin queens I am picking up on the 24 on my way home from Va. The queens are from Cory Stevens stock.
I am also going to start adding suppers to my hive since I will be goon just over a week.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

2 traps now have activity.

Time to get some buckwheat planted!

 

[wmfamily]

2 traps now have activity.

Time to get some buckwheat planted!View attachment 795183

Do you plant the buckwheat for the honey or primarily food for the bees? I know that when it starts its nectar flow the bees go crazy on it but I never cared for the flavor of the honey. Obviously the bees aren't as picky.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

It’s for bees and honey. Keep in mind the bees forage for miles, so this 1 acre patch will only be a small portion of the nectar they collect. It will likely simply darken the honey a bi… it will it be buckwheat honey per say.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Well, I think I’ve realized I need to stop expanding the apiary. Each apiary has an area they can forage… that area can only produce so much nectar. The more mouths you need to feed, the less excess honey there is available. If I add buckwheat, to the tune of 100 pounds of available honey, but add one more colony, that is a wash… as the new colony will consume that 100 pounds. I’d rather the existing colonies store up that resource.

Unless these colonies fill their boxes, there is no point in adding colonies.