Bee Hives

[leechmann]

Well the bees were going nuts today. I know I'm new at bee keeping, and I know there's alot of things I haven't seen yet, but man, I'm saying all the bees were on the move today.

[Pickelfarmer]

you need to drill some holes in the front of those boxes leechmann. gives them more then one access point to the hive and if they can get in closer to the honey super it means a faster dump off and more time to go get more honey.

[leechmann]

Good news in the bee world tonight. I moved a frame of young larva and eggs to the swarm hive that I thought was queenless. Tonight, 4 days later, I found 3 capped queen cells on the bottom of that frame. I would sure like to separate one of those cells and place it in another hive that may be without a queen.

Picklefarmer, any ideas?

Also I place the 6th medium super on two of my hive tonight. Those tow hives are really doing great.

[Pickelfarmer]

Hey leechmann, It shouldn't be any problem pulling one of the queen cells out and putting it in another hive. just wait tell its capped over on the end and then cut it out and put it in the other hive. I'm not to sure the quality of the queen you will get raising one from a hive that has been queenless for so long but anything is better then nothing.

Good to hear your hives are making some good honey. Same here. I have 2 hives working on there 7th supper now. Keep in mind my hives are only 8 frame so it takes more boxes to store the same amount of honey as your 10 frame boxes . 7 of my 8 frame would be about the same as 6 of your 10 frame boxes.

The rest of my hives are about 4 shallows now. One is only working on the first supper. Its shaping up to be a good honey year.

[klecker]

My dad started a few hives this year and I belive he got a older queen in is pack. hive did great and then just died. He found 6 queen cells that had been hatched, or killed by one of the new queens. Four weeks later the hive is stronge and going like mad. the Second hive is just kind of going, gets going then slows down, then gets going and so on. Man I cant wait to retire and just fool around with this stuff. Its real fun to bring the kids up and learn/watch these little thing things do their thing.

Chad

[klecker]

Leechman,

you got them things right out side your sliding door?

[leechmann]

Yes Klecker, I have 4 hives on my deck. They don't bother anything. The dogs learned real fast about the bees. The way I got them placed on the deck, anyone that wants to observed, but is too nervous to stand out with the bees,can stay in the three season porch and only be a couple of feet away.

[Pickelfarmer]

My dad started a few hives this year and I belive he got a older queen in is pack. hive did great and then just died. He found 6 queen cells that had been hatched, or killed by one of the new queens. Four weeks later the hive is stronge and going like mad. the Second hive is just kind of going, gets going then slows down, then gets going and so on. Man I cant wait to retire and just fool around with this stuff. Its real fun to bring the kids up and learn/watch these little thing things do their thing.

Chad

Why wait tell you retire?? You could get a few hives and keep them in your spare time. Its really one of the most let alone hobbies that you could ever have. Do a little research and you will see how easy it is to keep bees. It just takes a lot of doing things at the right time of year.If you do what you need to do at the right time its all good. You could learn alot from leechmann on how to do it. He took the bull by the horns and look at how well he is doing.Just read all the posts on this topic in FM and you could learn enough to keep your own hives. Good to hear your Dad is back on track with his hives.

[leechmann]

Picklefarmer, did you happen to see the documentary on PBS last night, Silence of the Bees. It's an hour long show, that discusses CCD and all the other problems facing the honey bee. Very disturbing, but very insightful. Hopefully they are able to pin point what is going on and find a way to cure the problem.

[Pickelfarmer]

No I didn't see that. Sounds like an interesing show. I really don't know about CCD. I know that there is somthing out there that is going after the bees (Viris,Mites,molds, Cell towers ) but its been that way for many years. Ever since I can remember it has been one thing or another. I think that in the end it will be the proper breeding and less chemicals in the hive that will bring back the bees. For a long time bumble bees were no where to be found. They went through the same issues as the honeybees did. The only differnce is bumble bees didn't have a metaling beekeeper putting unnatural chemicals in the hive under the giese of trying to help the bees survive. Like I said, In the end the ones that survive will be those that have built up a natural imunity to these things that are being treated by beekeepers now.I guess we just have to hang in there and do the best we can.

[leechmann]

Well, I put boxes eight and nine on tonight. The bee hives are starting to look like the IDS building. Seems like the two hives located in town are out producing the others.

Picklefarmer, I had asked the RDO people to call me when they start spraying for insects on the potato crops. I have 3 hives approx. 1 mile away from a potato field. There is alot of things for the bees in that area, not sure they are going to the potato field. I'm not sure what I should do. Should I move my hives out of there, which would be quite an undertaking, or should I block the entrance the day that they spray, or should I not worry about it.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks, Leechmann

[Pickelfarmer]

At that distance (1 Mile) and if they spray according to the lable (Early morning, late evening) you shouldn't have any trouble. The spraying gets the bees if the hive is located within a close enough distance for it to drift into the hives. I wouldn't even bother plugging up the hive at that distance. If its at all possible I would ask them to make sure and spray later in the evening for that field. I think your fine.

I just added 12 more boxes to my 9 hives this afternoon. I have one thats stacked up 8 suppers high. I got long sticks that I use to prop them up when they get that tall. If you don't prop them up and a wind storm comes through they go over like dominos.Its NO fun picking up a bunch of hives that are p!$$ed off because they got knocked over.When I was in the biz heavy I once had a wind storm come through and knock over 350 hives out of 750.of course the next 2 days after were the hottest and most humid days of the summer. The bees were super angry from being knocked around so I had to wear all my bee gear along with a long sleave shirt and pants under my coveralls. It was not fun.

I know what you mean about the hives in town doing well. Theres alot more stuff in town blooming then a guy thinks. Apple trees other fruit trees, Flowers. Bees do good in towns. plus alot of people water more often then they do in the country so stuff that is blooming really seems to produce well. At least thats my theory. Who knows though..

[leechmann]

Hey thanks for the advise Picklefarmer. When you prop the hives up, do you prop the poles up into the handle cut outs on the boxes?

[Pickelfarmer]

Hey thanks for the advise Picklefarmer. When you prop the hives up, do you prop the poles up into the handle cut outs on the boxes?

Yep, just make sure that the prop is low enough that its on a box that is "Glued" stuck to the box below it. That way if the boxes do get pushed on in the wind they wont brake off from the box below it and fall over anyways.

[leechmann]

Thats sounds like a good idea. I spent some time today making a bee vac. It maybe helpful in catching swarms. It also may be helpful when it's time to collect the honey.

[klecker]

Originally Posted By: klecker

My dad started a few hives this year and I belive he got a older queen in is pack. hive did great and then just died. He found 6 queen cells that had been hatched, or killed by one of the new queens. Four weeks later the hive is stronge and going like mad. the Second hive is just kind of going, gets going then slows down, then gets going and so on. Man I cant wait to retire and just fool around with this stuff. Its real fun to bring the kids up and learn/watch these little thing things do their thing.

Chad

Why wait tell you retire?? You could get a few hives and keep them in your spare time. Its really one of the most let alone hobbies that you could ever have. Do a little research and you will see how easy it is to keep bees. It just takes a lot of doing things at the right time of year.If you do what you need to do at the right time its all good. You could learn alot from leechmann on how to do it. He took the bull by the horns and look at how well he is doing.Just read all the posts on this topic in FM and you could learn enough to keep your own hives. Good to hear your Dad is back on track with his hives.

Been watching you two post and think I may do it next year. My dad has been having so much fun. My kids like going up and checking it out. Dont want to steal the gramps and grandkid thunder but I think it maybe a good way do deal with a little stress.

[Pickelfarmer]

Theres no rule that you couldn't get a few hives and do a little competeing with Grandpa on the honey crop . I really would suggest that you get into it and maybe by the time you retire, you could tell your kids all the things they shouldn't do . Who knows maybe Grandpa could show you a thing or two as well. I really hope you do decide to go for it in the next few years. Winter is a great time for you to find info on the net(Other then the leech and pickel show ) and try learn as much as you can. Read and learn and you will see that its a really fun hobbie that can actually make you a little money in the long run. Good for you Klecker.

I forgot to mention,and I'm sure leechmann would agree, you will meet alot of nice and good people during your travels of getting into beekeeping.

[klecker]

I have been really thinking about it as I could have quit a few hives at my shop. I am not in a compition with gramps for the honey involed but the time he gets to spent with his grand babes looking at hives and such. My uncle always had a ton of hives and made a lot of honey, or so he says. He got my dad involved and I think it may be a good way to carry on the tradition.

[leechmann]

I would agree with the Picle portion of the leech and Pickle show. It's a great hobbie, and it can be what ever you want it to be. And I would have to say, I've met some very nice people along the way. Any questions that you may have just send them our way. If we can't answer them, we know where to look. I say go for it. It's very rewarding. The honey is just a little bonus at the end.

[leechmann]

I tried out my bee vac that I finished tonight. I noticed a hornet's nest, which was built under a big rock, earlier today. So, I took my bee vac over there and gave it a whirl. It sucked those hornets up like nobody's business.

[leechmann]

[img:center]

Here's a picture of the bee vacuum that I built. This will allow me to vaccum off the bees from the supers in the fall and also will also be very handy in catching swarms that are in hard to get at places. The vac just sucks the bees into the box, which has another box inside which comes out with the bees all in a screened in box. I made the inside box so it will fit inside a deep bee box so I can release a new swarm to it's new home. It works great, I tried it out on a hornet's nest yesterday and it really did a nice job.

The second picture shows the inside box as I pulled it out and set it on top.

[img:center]

[leechmann]

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Here's a shot of a couple of my bees hitting the sunflowers in my garden. You can see the pollen she is collecting on her legs.

[leechmann]

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Here's a picture of my two most productive hives so far this season.

[swamptiger]

Holy cow, leechman, you're really going to town..!

How much longer will the bees be active? Do the bees go all the way to the top from the bottom entrance?

Thanks, pickelfarmer and leechmann. This is a most interesting and informative thread.

(My grandpa always had 3 or 4 hives of bees on the farm when I was a kid - before I was old enough to really understand much of what it was all about...so this is very interesting to me.)

[Pickelfarmer]

Leechmann you beat me to it . For some reason I decided to pull out the camera and snap a few pics to post on here. So when I login look who else decided to do the same thing . Very good looking hives leechmann. Looks like you might hit 175-200 pounds out of one or both of those. Anyway Here are the pics I got this afternoon. one is of all my hives the other is a pic of Skunk damage. They sit out in front of the hive after dark and they tap on the entrance to get the bees to come out. Then they grab them quick and roll them in there paws to kill the bees. Then they eat them. They can do alot of damage in a short amount of time. Hince my other post in the Lawn Garden forum about how to get rid of skunks. When you see spots like the one in the second pic you know a skunk has been sitting there for a long time eating your bees. I think tonight he might be eating something that flys a little faster then a bee.....