Thread: Beekeeping

Fed my bees today and found 2 box's ajar. One empty covering the feeder pail and the other some empty comb awaiting a new batch of bees a week from next Monday.

The electric fence was in one piece but loose and saggy on one corner....

Bears would have tore the heck out of it but maybe Raccoons?

The hive that I am more worried about took 1/2 gallon of feed in a week and the stronger one ate it all.

One is Carnolian {spell?] and the other is Italian. Maybe that is the difference?

So much to learn!

Originally Posted by 32t

Fed my bees today and found 2 box's ajar. One empty covering the feeder pail and the other some empty comb awaiting a new batch of bees a week from next Monday.

The electric fence was in one piece but loose and saggy on one corner....

Bears would have tore the heck out of it but maybe Raccoons?

The hive that I am more worried about took 1/2 gallon of feed in a week and the stronger one ate it all.

One is Carnolian {spell?] and the other is Italian. Maybe that is the difference?

So much to learn!

Was it two legged raccoons?

I have sugar water in to feed and one of my hives is flying like it is summer. They have been bringing pollen in for weeks but really no nectar flow yet. The honeysuckle will probably bloom late next week or early the following week. Then the black locust will come in and I am hoping for a good flow.

A few random bee pictures from today....











I had to make my critter fence bigger to fit 4 new colonies due in a week or so.

only 2 of the hives are active at the moment.

Only a few very small flowers in the area at the moment.

I thought my wife took a picture of them and she thought I did...

Tim

Wow

8 hives! I think that will be a lot of work and honey.

I had one of my hives swarm today. I saw it and they landed on a log near my apiary. I put an empty nuc with bait lure on it and they are going in. When I built the wooden ware for my original two hives I built a total of 4 sets so I have a new hive set up and will transfer them over later today.

What does that mean; they got pi$$ed off & trashed their own place?

Originally Posted by 32t

A few random bee pictures from today....

Only a few very small flowers in the area at the moment.

I thought my wife took a picture of them and she thought I did...

Tim

I was wondering if these RED arrows show a few of the bees bringing back pollen

Originally Posted by cudarunner

I was wondering if these read arrows show a few of the bees bringing back pollen

Yes, I was just thinking I should have shown that and you save me the work.

The wax that I gathered while cleaning bridge comb etc. last weekend. Not much and it is the first filtering so it still has a fair amount of impurities in it. I will save a bunch of these before I final process it.

At this stage it would work fine for lubing a drawer slide but I wouldn't want to use it for a salve...