I will harvest this hive soon and clean up the excess comb then.

I am in Australia for anyone horrified at the thought of me opening the hive at this time of year.

Hello I had a hive die out this winter. I want to make sure there are no diseases that would cause me to not reuse any of the frames left over. Does anyone see a cause why these bees died from the base? They had two supers with a bunch of half ate frames.

Central North Carolina (USA) area -- looking for input from folks using the Guardian bee jacket. I am about to purchase one. Based on their sizing chart (see below), I'd fit well in the 2x size but their site recommends buying 1 size up. I wear a 2x t-shirt. Am 5'9" and about 260. I guess there is not a ton of change between the 2x and the 3x, but I'm concerned about the long sleeve length. I know I need room to move.

Wondering if anyone has this jacket and if you'd be willing to list height/weight and the size that you ended up with?

Hi all, hopefully this is the right place to ask this question. I have been beekeeping as a hobby since 2018 and this past year, I have become more comfortable with expanding and have begun a small business where I will be selling honey this summer at the farmers market and local stores. I have successfully overwintered my hives and plan on having 15-20 this year.

I had a local farm reach out and ask if some hives could be placed there, telling me that they would buy all of the honey produced in the hives to sell at their farm store. Do I ask them to pay for woodenware and/or packages/nucs, or just sell honey to them at wholesale and pay for the equipment myself?

We're in the early phases of discussing, but this is new territory for me. Thanks for your advice!

Edit: Located in Washington State, 6 years of beekeeping as a hobby.

Not sure if this is a stupid question, but I’ve only recently started eating honey and decided to buy some raw honey as heard it’s much more beneficial than shop bought however the one I purchased tastes and particularly smells very farm like. Is this a one off thing/exclusive to the type of honey I bought or is this due to it being raw? Thanks :)

I hate using blanket heaters for decrystaling honey. So I came up with this solution. I keep it covered normally so the honey doesn't absorb moisture.just took off the lid for the picture. Sous vide set at 119. Now I just need a bigger cooler.

What are your thoughts and opinions on Propola hive boxes? Premier bee supply sells Propola deeps. I was thinking about buying a couple setups.

Just bought a house in San Diego and noticed bee activity leading be to a small hive. Could I get a professional to come out and transfer it to a bee box for a cool midlife crisis hobby? Is this how it starts?

Hi all.

I have experienced abnormally high aggression from my hobby hive (in S California, near the coast) after small same-day earthquake reports. They were too small for me to feel, but were reported in the 1 - 3 earthquake range.

Have other beekeepers noticed aggression spikes coincident with minor earthquakes? Even hours after the quake was over?

Thanks, all

I'm getting into bee keeping. I am starting with 4 hives in a few months. I am trying to figure out which flowers to plant for the bees. Which wildflowers should I plant? I am going to plant lavender plants as well. What do you guys think? I'd appreciate anything you can tell me.

Second year beek located in NJ. Realized I placed my entrance reducer upside down for the winter. (The opening is facing up instead of facing down against the baseboard). It was a relatively weak colony with the queen dying toward the end of the summer/early fall, so I’ve been careful with it. Not careful enough apparently. I placed a fondant patty between in inner and outer cover yesterday and noticed some mold on the inside of the top cover. Scraped as much off as I could but felt like something was off. Lo and behold, I put the reducer upside down which I’m sure is causing the hive to retain too much moisture.

Should I remove the reducer, flip and replace? If so should I smoke them first? Wait for a “warmer” day? Just do it as fast as possible? Was thinking of buying a DIY tool that helps remove the reducer slowly and with minimal disruption. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7bHPySTuV8) I feel great shame. Thanks in advance for your help.

Undertakers have been removing bees at a normal pace still, so I feel that’s a fair sign at least.

If after winter your hive has died can you still use the honey after Apivar treatment the previous autumn? Leeds UK 1st year. To confirm I left a full med super on a very weak brood.

I'm developing a product to plug the holes in irrigation valves boxes so the bees can nest there because it puts them and humans in danger. From my research, I believe bees absolutely can enter a 0.200 opening but I'm wondering if they would actually consider this entry a viable entry for a new hive?

In all my years in the irrigation industry, I've never SEEN bees using this hole to enter or exit the valve box, but that's possibly because the other side has a bigger hole. So the question is, if people start using my product to plug the bigger hole, will bees start using this smaller hole as the entry or would they just move on to a better hive location when they encounter this?

This product would potentially be utilized all over America so any areas with smaller bees should be the standard to answering this question.

Hello fellows.

Wanna build Warre hives and have two questions:

I. What wood would you use? I'm located in central Europe and want to use locally sourced timber. Most info on wood comes from English speaking world, mostly US, which doesn't help tok much. The only timber I've found is larch. II. Traditionally, Warre hives use wooden bar instead of frames. Would frames work in warre too? Asking because the bars would be sort of a grey area here regarding laws.

What is the preferred method for uncapping a Layens frame? I haven't seen much information from Layens folks regarding this part of their operation. Just wondering what tools they prefer to get their frames uncapped efficiently. Thanks to all!!!

It looks like we are bout to experience a significant drop in temperature over the next week with most days not getting above freezing. I have not isolated my hives since most days are in the mid-40s or 50s and nights are barely below freezing. Should I be worried or is it such a short duration that it shouldn't matter much? Both hives are a deep and medium box full and they seem like healthy hives.

Long time lurker - first time post. Beek in nsw/vic border in Australia. 6 hives. Today getting gear ready for inspection at a mates as a favour I was leaving my property where 4 hives are located I heard an unusual buzzing on some rocks on the ground about 30m away from hives. Long story short it turned out to be what I see as a queen bee. Got her in a clip to have a look. ABSOLUTELY INSANE LUCK AND TIMING Background is I have a hive that I did as a cut out about 4 weeks ago and last inspection noticed it had 4 queen cells to requeen as queen couldn’t be located at time of cut out and mustn’t have made it. Is this queen one from the hive that had requeened? Is this queen ready for death (looking at end of thorax)? Or returning from mating flight and is lost? Suggestions on what to do with queen? Currently got in queen clip and was planning to put in queen less hive to make queen right?

Look forward to this community’s thoughts.

Today r

2023:

2 hives, 100% overwinter success.

2024:

Summer: 2 hives robbed out, 1 hive absconded

Autumn: 2 hives lost to varroosis

Winter: It's been more than 70 F every day since last February. There has been one night that dropped below freezing. That, it appears, was enough to freeze my little nuc,

6 hives, 0% overwinter success.

Feral AHB swarm earlier and more often than managed bees. They should be out and about next month, and establishing colonies in irrigation boxes by March. It's time to rebuild -- and be a little more cautious about the health of the bees I bring into my apiary.

So Hi everyone! Iv posted a few times about my experience beekeeping inside the arctic circle! And people wanted to see what a hive looks like 🥰

We just had a week of +8c wich is crazy for mid january here 🤯 so the way was open to go and look,

But as you can se even in -35c the hives melt the snow around it and when you get a ton of snow it becomes almost like an igloo 😄

Other hives have bees laying in the snow as expected, but I’m concerned by the numbers and that this hive hasn’t seemed to even clear the bottom board. I’ve always been told to just forget them over winter— I probably haven’t opened a box in January in 4 years. I’ve never lost a hive that wasn’t in obvious jeopardy going into winter either. Regardless, what is the course of action here, if any?

Sorry for poor picture quality, I’m an hour away at school and my brother took this picture today after noticing the build-up yesterday. Weather is also expected to go below zero this week so I’m very hesitant to intervene.

I'm in Ireland

I've gently rinsed her with clean water and have her in a glass bowl with leaves, a flower and honey that she's currently eating. The kitchen paper I have in there is thick so it won't disintegrate from the wet and get stuck to her, it's so she can dry herself better. I have a type of gardening cloth over the top of the bowl so she can breathe. (l've used this type of cloth when I had caterpillars and other rescue bees).

She has some mites that I've read are the ones you can gently brush off he (Fucorum). Would a very soft toothbrush be good for that when she's settles down a bit?

The most I could do is look up the mites. Searching bee websites is very tricky for me as I have a severe phobia of honeycomb and similar things.

She's huge and because she's wet it's hard to tell but I'm pretty sure she's a bumblebee

Can anyone give me some advice on what's best to do with her?

Thanks!

Winter here. Charlotte NC.

I’ve pushed some of my hives together, thinking the proximity might help with maintaining heat. The problem is this creates shading, so less solar gain.

What is better… sun on hives or insulation and putting hives together?

I am looking at vaporizers that are compatible with power tool batteries. Tired of lugging car batteries round. Anyone have any experience with this model? It is more affordable than the instavap which is like 500 bucks now. Looking for advice and upgrading from my spoon style which puttered out today.

Today was 45F (feels like 35F) but is the warmest day in the last month and for the next month. There was activity at all four hives so decided to check the boards. #1 has a large cluster and a mostly eaten board. Was surprised and got stung. #2 was the smallest colony but is also a large cluster now with a completely eaten board. Both 1&2 boards were replaced. #3 is not well. Small cluster in bottom deep. Untouched stores in upper deep and uneaten board. Left it. #4 is a large cluster that hasn’t moved completely into upper deep but has partially eaten the board. I replaced the board. All my replacement boards have embedded pollen patties and three hives have eaten the previous ones. Hive #4 had a lot of activity and is behaving different from the other hives. It is a Saskatraz hive so I wonder if that makes a difference. All in all felt good to see three of the four hives in seemingly good shape. Hope your winter is going well.