Thread: Beekeeping

I was visiting a friend on my way to check my bees today and realized that I forgot a marshmallow to release the queens.

I thought that it doesn't hurt to ask.......

His wife tried hard to hide her laughter and gave me 3/4 of a bag. They are getting ready to move/downsize and I ended up with a truckload of stuff. Archery targets were the main goal but ended up with a turkey fryer and marshmallows to boot.

One queen was still in her cage and I removed the plug and replaced it with a marshmallow. The other queen was gone.....

I only had one extra super handy to add to one of my 4 packages but need to get in gear and get more ready for the other 3.

I find this bee keeping so very interesting. My younger brother started trying to raise bees just last year. I remember him telling me that when he got his bees that the Queen was in a separate package and that there was a Mini Marshmallow 'Plug' that she would eat through and then join the 'hive' as this allowed the 'hive' to accept her.

While he lives out in an area where wheat is king and very little flowers and such, his hive survived our hard winter so they must have to travel quite a ways to find the pollen to make enough honey to survive that winter.

With that said, about 2-3 weeks ago I rode my Harley up to visit him and his Horse Chestnut Tree and his Lilac Bush were both in bloom and were 'BUZZING' with activity/but I doubt that would be enough to provide them for the winter.

I have always liked flowers but since I have had the bees I have found that I am paying much more attention to when and where they bloom.

Wet paint!



Painted up 6 of the used supers and assembled 60 frames to fill them.

Gonna let the paint dry and install the foundation tomorrow.

Originally Posted by 32t

Wet paint!

Painted up 6 of the used supers and assembled 60 frames to fill them.

Gonna let the paint dry and install the foundation tomorrow.

As it's well known, I'm ignorant about bee keeping. However wouldn't it be better to let the paint dry longer so that the fumes would dissipate more? Just wondering.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

As it's well known, I'm ignorant about bee keeping. However wouldn't it be better to let the paint dry longer so that the fumes would dissipate more? Just wondering.

I only painted the outside and if you look close the frames and the inside are not. That is where the bees are.

The foundation is the wax pattern for the bees to form their comb on. Maybe not to a bee but the paint will be dry to the touch for me tomorrow so I won't transfer it at least in human senses. Actually it is already.

I may not need these box's this weekend but I needed them ready in case I do.

I'm aware that the inside of the boxes are never painted (I believe that the bees do that with some natural material).

I was just thinking that if the paint's fumes were at a minimum that the bees would be more attracted to their new homes.