honey bees and keeping them

[hex0rz]

Hmm, sounds like there are a few here that are gaining interest in this hobby more and more. I figure at the very least you guys could follow me as I post up occasionally about this hobby I'm pursuing as a career. It doesn't have to be just that. Anyone else here who keeps these insects post up on the progress and include some pictures too if possible and share this with others who can't or don't keep bees! Id like to see how each of us are doing around the nation and all the factors that come into play.

So, whose got them? My pictures are soon to follow.

A little bit about my experience:

- this is my second year of beekeeping and I picked up 2 nucs my first year. Built all of my own equipment. I went into fall with 4 colonies and they all died before spring. Big learning curve to overcome! This year started with 12 nucs and got them from a different supplier.

They are doing great actually and really enjoy these bees. More active and gentle. I should actually get honey this year. When I go out and do some tending I'll take some pictures.

[Hawkez]

I did this for several years with my dad. Unfortunately I developed a sever allergy and had to quit.  My father still has lots of colonies and makes a little bit off the honey he gets each year.  I have never lost the interest in bee keeping and I get the each every now and then to get back into--hoping that I have lost my allergy.  I'll be very interested in your pictures and posts.

[Mopar1973Man]

I went into fall with 4 colonies and they all died before spring.

 

Sorry to here that... Hopefully you learned how to protect them better. Are you staying in touch with LiveOak (Randy)? He seems to be doing really good.

[joecool911]

I've got one nuc now installed into 8 frame hive boxes. Have two boxes already as they filled one within 3 weeks.

I have another nuc coming mid May.

Kind of a mean bunch. Tried working with limited protective equipment and that didn't work out. I can feel them hitting my veil. So they are a bit aggressive.

Gotta start wearing my reading glasses under my veil as I cannot see the eggs or small larvae.

[AH64ID]

We have 52 colonies on our property, but they aren't ours. Some friends run a honey business and keep some of their bees here. It's been fun, and very educational. I try to tag along when they get tended to.

[hex0rz]

Hawkez, you can go into an allergist and they can give you desensitization shots. Allergies, gone!

I've only been on beesource for Any bee related things. I see live oak on there occasionally.

I've re strategize my approach and am confident it will serve me better. Plus these bees are a night and day difference from my first nucs.

I'm Very pleased with these bees I got. I'm hesitant about the queens though as they're California queens and they don't have the acclimation needed to survive winter. There is a a lady who has good queens in wa, but won't have Any until june. She's booked Out.

Did my inspections yesterday. So I have pics that I need to post. Soon!

[hex0rz]

I put out 250 lbs of sugar in a 1to1 solution with a bunch of other added stuff that's supposed to be good for the bees. I've got 12 gallons yet to be consumed and they are really cranking away at building up. I would say here in a week or so at least half of them are going to get supered!

I have never seen drones so big! They are like giants! They are about 2x the size of worker bees.

Edited May 5, 2015 by hex0rz

[Mopar1973Man]

Just for the learning curve I looked up drone to see what is was all about...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_%28bee%29

[joecool911]

Only good purpose of drones is to mate a queen. By fall all drones should be driven from the hive and die. The drones also die after mating. Leave it to the women to throw the men away after their needs are met.

[hex0rz]

Just for the learning curve I looked up drone to see what is was all about...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_%28bee%29

 

Pretty cool, huh? Bees are very interesting insects... I would like to learn more and raise preying mantis', too!

 

Only good purpose of drones is to mate a queen. By fall all drones should be driven from the hive and die. The drones also die after mating. Leave it to the women to throw the men away after their needs are met.

 

Queen rearing is a very lucrative aspect of beekeeping. You get bees with good genetics, you got it in the bag!

 

I dunno if I could ever justify an artificial insemination apparatus, but atleast a good mating yard would be in order. I think letting the bees do it naturally would be better, too.

 

...just in case your curious!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1_LhfK-VN4

Edited May 6, 2015 by hex0rz

[LiveOak]

Wow!  Where has the time gone? 

 

I have been working my behind off getting my bees ready for the nectar flow. 

 

I am running about 50 hives of various sizes and sorts currently. 

 

Earlier in the season I was chasing my tail finding hives that lost their queen and having to requeen them.  I think I finally have them all queenright or with a frame of wet brood so they can make an emergency queen to hold them over until they can make a fully developed queen. 

 

I lost a total of 9 hives during the Fall to early Spring time frame, most due to Nosema and some due to varroa mites which apparently after to talking with a number of other beekeepers who had FAR worse losses is not too bad. 

 

I am currently fogging my bees with mixture of FGMO, 5% thymol, and about 2 ounces of food grade wintergreen essential oil.  It is working but has it's limits.  I plan to transition to vaporizing with oxalic acid in the near future. 

 

We are in the middle of a MONSTER nectar flow currently but if we don't get some rain in the next day or so, the nectar flow will stop as we have not had any rain for over 10 days now. 

 

I have also been planting .25 acre honey bee friendly wildflower, yellow, sweet clover, vitex negundo, vitex agnus castus, and evodia danieli fields in various location on our farm.  I am staggering the planting in hopes of making the blooms last most if not the entire Summer into Fall.  Right now we have several thousand acres of black berries in bloom, white ladino clover is coming on, and tulip poplar trees are blooming.  I have hopes of a VERY good honey crop this season. 

 

After my experiences buying bees, this season was the final straw.  I am going to start raising my own nucs and queens.  Buying package bees has become so expensive that they cost nearly as much as a nucleus colony.   I think I can raise my own bees MUCH MUCH cheaper and of MUCH better quality.  I have purchase 40 complete nucleus colony hives for next season.   I plan on trying to over Winter as many nucs as I can so I will have early nucleus colonies for sale until the drones are out in March.  Then I can start stealing frames for brood, honey, and pollen to build my own nucs and let them make their own queens.

 

Nice looking boxes of bee Hex!  Best of luck this season.    

[hex0rz]

Wow, live oak! That's allot of nectar flow! I assume you only have one out yard? I'm hoping to get to around that 50 hive mark asap as well. Then I can start trying to do pollination contracts.

I can't remember where you are. North our south? If your north you should really take a look at lauri Miller's queens. I'm going to try and buy a couple from her to get some acclimated queens.

Glock on beesource did a from fogging run and found it helped for a while then stopped. Now he does OA too. You should try the dribble method or what I've got designed. It's stupid easy and you can vaporize a hive in seconds. I can vaporize my 12 hives in less than 10 minutes.

Look at a product called complete bee. I'm going to order a gallon of it myself and 1 gallon is supposed to treat 200 colonies! It doesn't treat varroa, but it does them well for allot of other things. The nuc supplier I bought my bees from uses complete bee and they said they only suffered a 3% loss this year.

They own over a couple thousand hives...

Did a hive inspection yesterday and tastes like something has come into bloom! Had a grape like flavor. I did not super them yet but it should be getting darn close to being that time! Dandelions are starting to fade out and the thorn apple and various non fruiting trees are blooming.

Won't be long until the clover stars coming in.

Nuc production with queen rearing was my first intent keeping bees. But if I can hit that Mark to load a semi down with bees, then I can send them around and do some rearing at home with some other hives. Then when I get the bulk of hives back, make splits and sell over winter nucs.

Live oak, you Must include pictures!

[LiveOak]

I will have to remember to take some pics next time I am out with the girls. 

[joecool911]

I think I lost my queen. Lots of drones and worker population is low. Backfilling brood nest with nectar. Things not very orderly.

[LiveOak]

I think I lost my queen. Lots of drones and worker population is low. Backfilling brood nest with nectar. Things not very orderly.

 

Do you have any capped or uncapped (not drone) brood?  If not, look through the frames very carefully to verify there is NO queen.  If no queen is present, you can either buy a queen and put her in the brood nest area of the hive or if you have another hive that DOES have a queen, look through that brood nest and find the youngest frame of wet brood, preferably with unhatched eggs you can find.  Remove it taking GREAT CARE to ensure the queen is NOT on the frame you remove and replace that frame with another empty frame of drawn out comb or an empty frame with foundation.  Place the frame of brood you just took from the other hive and place it in the middle of the brood nest area of the hive with no queen.  It will take about a month for this hive to make a queen.  If they find an unhatched egg and begin feeding it royal jelly, it takes about 16 days for the queen cell to develop and hatch.  The queen will remain inside the hive for upto approx. a week and then begin going on a series of mating flights, as many as a half dozen or more.  Once she is fully mated and does not get eaten by birds on her mating flights, she will come back to the hive and take here place as queen. This takes about 31 days. 

 

If you can buy a queen, this process is shortened to about a week. 

 

My apologies in advance if you already know this and are an experienced beekeeper.  It really sucks and is a pain in the *** when losing a queen.  Sometimes it is difficult to tell right away. 

Edited May 12, 2015 by LiveOak

[joecool911]

No apologies necessary, my first year. The drones are out of control. But there is a frame or two of capped brood, but have not seen a queen. The capped worker brood has a nice full pattern, but not much of it. I was doing well with population increase and added another brood box. Then a super. I am using foundation less and they started out drawing drone comb. Not just a little, but whole frames. I've been going through the hive weekly. I'm thinking I should condense the hive back down.

[LiveOak]

No apologies necessary, my first year. The drones are out of control. But there is a frame or two of capped brood, but have not seen a queen. The capped worker brood has a nice full pattern, but not much of it. I was doing well with population increase and added another brood box. Then a super. I am using foundation less and they started out drawing drone comb. Not just a little, but whole frames. I've been going through the hive weekly. I'm thinking I should condense the hive back down.

 

Is the brood you are seeing drone brood or regular worker brood. Regular worker brood once capped is flat and has a brown to golden brown flat paper like cap.  Drone brood once capped has a bulging bullet shaped cap.  If you have no queen, you may have a laying worker.  A laying worker is a worker bee that has ovaries but can only lay unfertilized eggs which will be drones.  You will have to inspect the brood you have to determine which it is.  If it is all drone brood, you most likely have a laying worker and need a queen.  If it is not drone brood, you have a queen in there somewhere.  Some queens can be VERY elusive and difficult to find. 

[joecool911]

No I have some worker brood.

[LiveOak]

Sounds to me like you still have a queen in there somewhere.

[hex0rz]

I'll jump in! It's unfortunate you only have one hive. Makes things difficult. Try and find someone with queens asap if your queen less.

When you open the hive you should notice a difference from when you had the queen. They will be me agitated and runny. They even buzz louder than usual.

Look at a brood frame and look for eggs. If present, the queen was there within the last three days. If larva are only present and no eggs, it's been more.

Backfilling the brood nest could be a factor of many things and not just queenlessness.

Don't be worried about full frames of drone comb being foundation less. I have multiple frames like that. They know what they are doing. When drone rearing is done they will backfill.

Being able to Look into the cells and see what's going on really helps. If your queen less, And have laying workers you will see multiple eggs laid in a cell haphazardly. A queen will lay a single egg and in the center perfectly.