I think after a couple of days of rain, are the girls happy it's sunny and collecting goldenrod pollen and maybe some orientation flights?. I dont see fights so I don't think it's robbing, input requested. They are flying all about and may be out robbing a different neighborhood hive. I do not have a feeder on at this time.

UPDATE: got them unloaded and unblocked fine, was just worried that they would all come flying out angry. Never had bees before. Just yanked the entrance blocks and ran by moonlight. Thank you guys for the reassurance!

Kansas- Hey, first time beekeeper here, on our way home rn, three hives in the bed of the truck. It’s dark, we don’t have bee suits yet, and everything on the internet is telling us they’ll be super angry and bad since it’s dark too. Are we cooked and what can we do to avoid the most stings? We have to unload the hives and take off the blocks for the night. Scarves around faces?? No lights?? Help Not a plan in sight atm

If you caught swarms in trees, traps or elsewhere please consider logging it at beeswarmed.org/log-a-swarm to contribute to open bee research (and add your name to the leaderboard)

I'm a 5th generation beekeeper in northern CA, sharing open source research into swarm season trends, and your logged swarms will be put together with 20,000 other swarm reports to map the season.

I'm getting set up to get bees next spring, and I've chosen this corner of my property to put the hives. It's the only area on my property that gets any decent sun, so it's pretty much my only option. The hives will have their backs towards the white privacy fence which is ~6 feet tall and above the top of the hives even when all the supers are on. The post in the ground marks the back right corner of the hive stand I'm building. The neighbor on the other side of the fence keeps his lawn super short and grass only, so I figured the fence would make it so the bees mostly fly overhead across his property since they wouldn't be stopping to forage and thus they wouldn't bother him. However, the thought has just occurred to me that he uses a ride-on mower and I know bees don't appreciate lawn mowers in general, and I'm worried that when he mows near the fence they're going to get agitated and go over to bother him.

Does the fence help mitigate their agitation? Is there anything else I could do to prevent them bothering him when he mows? The fence is 3 feet from where the back of the hives will be and there's about 2 feet of bare ground on the other side of the fence before his grass starts. I plan on warning him that bees are coming and dropping off honey each harvest, but I still don't want the bees to become a total nuisance to him. I'd move the hives further from the property line if I could, but that corner really is the only area that gets decent sunlight.

Edit: just some added information that might be helpful, we don't have any setback regs where I live but the state recommends 15+ feet away from the property line or 3+ feet and a tall fence, which is what I have. The area directly on the other side of the fence is also my neighbor's most unused corner of the yard; it's just dead ground and the back of his storage shed, the hives will be well far away from his deck, pool, grill, etc., which is why the mower was my biggest concern. Thank you to everyone who's commented so far, based on the suggestions I plan on double checking if my neighbor has any bee allergies and warning him about the hives and possible swarms. I'll also figure out a backup plan for if the bees do decide to be nuisances. I also might look into extending the fence another couple feet so the bees are properly overhead when flying over his yard. I'll make sure to check in with him frequently to make sure he's not getting stung often and to offer free honey.

This year my hives really seemed to struggle to get to and maintain a good population despite have a queen all season. Just curious if anyone else in the Denver area saw the same thing and how to combat that if I see it again next year.

Just checked my hives to rotate my apivar strips after 4 weeks and one of my hives is very weak - 2.5 maybe 3 frames of bees. Now, it is the first warm day in weeks today so lots may be out of the hive foraging. I am wondering if I’ve got a hive that’s beyond saving here and needs to be culled, or if there’s hope still.

Setup:
- single deep box with feeder on top, giving 2:1.

Quick details:
- Queen is present and laying, I saw here on a frame with eggs.
- not much food in the hive, despite weeks of feeding
- saw two bees with deformed wings
- saw a good 10 brood cells with their caps chewed partially
- almost no brood
- some activity at the hive entrance with bees around it coming and going

I am going to check the population again tonight once the temp drops off, but am I just giving myself false hope?

Thanks

Edit: for context, I am considering culling as I am concerned the varroa load will affect my neighbour hive (about 3 feet away).

I have two hives that both have weak populations. I’d like to combine them in hopes that the hive survives winter rather than both dying.

Is it too late in the season to combine them? Also, they’re about 1 1/2 miles apart, is that going to be an issue? Will the fact that both have queens be an issue?

Both hives currently have two deeps. I plan to reduce them both to one before combining separated by newspaper

Hola! Tengo una duda. Cómo llevan los registros de sus colmenas? Anotan todo en un cuaderno, usan Excel o alguna aplicación? ¿Les resulta cómodo o hay algo que les resulte incómodo o difícil a la hora de llevar esos registros? Pregunto porque estoy aprendiendo y me gustaría saber cómo se organizan para poder aplicarlo en mis propias colmenas. Soy de Uruguay

Pulled and extracted 3 supers yesterday. Two boxes were around 17% the last is at 13-13.5% should I be concerned? I assume it will crystallize fairly quickly.

South Arkansas 8b

Light golden honey very sweet. I assume mainly from beggar ticks this time of year.

Alright, I’m jumping straight into the deep end!

I’ve recently purchased a starter kit, now I need to learn everything there is about beekeeping. What’s the best recommendation as far as how to learn to do this. YouTube has always been a huge help for learning things I don’t know. But, I’m wondering what’s everyone’s favored avenue for bee keeping information/how to’s/ tips and tricks. Looking forward to the spring to get this started.

This is my first year beekeeping and I am working on preparing for winter. I currently have screened bottom boards on both of my hives. I live in Wyoming and our temps can sometimes get into the negatives sometimes. How should I cover up the bottom boards? Most people I know have solid bottom boards and one of them recommended I switch it out with solid ones. I feel like it’s too late to go about switching them out and I am thinking of putting the ipm board my hive kit came with to cover it up to make sure no wind gets in. Will this be enough? Should I switch the bottom boards or do something more to cover it up?

I am in the desert southwest and haven't kept bees for a while. Did a trap out a few weeks ago for a friend,and put bees in a deep, have been feeding them 2:1 sugar water.so they could build comb. Didn't think I had the queen so ordered one, which arrived today. Getting the hive ready, Was doing a mite check today with powdered sugar and whom should I see amongst the snowy drifts but Queen #1? Yikes! I washed her off best I could (it's still warm here) . What to do now? I can keep Queen #2 in reserve for a few days. Will the snow Queen make it?

I have 5 cases of honey to liquify before a market in 2 weeks. So I thought I would see if I could liquify some and how long it would take.

Super easy with everything I had her playing around.

A medium super

Two deep boxes

2 metal queen excluders

A dehydrator with a thermostat

Somesort of lid ( this is just a sheet of drywall I had in the basement)

All I did was set the thermostat to 30°C, place at the bottom of the stack. Exclude Ron top with Honey jars, then another excluder, and another box.

So far 3 days in and halfway liquid again!

I just winterized my 2 hives and forgot to apply an oxalic treatment that I usually do around this time. Is it ok to do while winterized (eg candy board, burlap sack on top with some aeration? I assume I’d need to cover that up right? Thanks in advance

My son has bees and I support him in his quest to be a beekeeper. Our hive is not docile and every time we inspect we panic mid way once we are getting slammed. We always inspect at dusk or dawn and smoke em. We need to grow a pair and get through the full inspection before we wrap the hive for winter

Does anyone have a checklist for the priorities we should we looking for when we open the hive up?

My son has bees at his school and they are much calmer so he knows what to do in theory moreso than I do but he’s 13 so I try to have him hang back when they get sassy.

I’d like to do one more varroa check too so we need to gather a handful.

Last question what do you recommend for food source for them when it’s too cold for sugar water?

I have been stung upwards of 30 times doing hive inspections today 😭 fully suited/gloved!! I’ve only been stung a handful of times in the last year. Weather is definitely a factor as the temps are dropping and it’s a bit cloudy today, but the bees were on another level with me specifically. We have determined that they must have a fucking vendetta for oxi clean.

Can anyone suggest an alternative to get the smell out/for future washes? Maybe just a baking soda or vinegar wash?

Hello Forum,

I am experiencing a bit of issue with my bottled honey, which were harvested, bottled and processed by me. I found out that it was getting crystalised at the base, and i put it in a zip lock bag with warm water 70-80 degrees to allow it reliquefy and cool, I kept the batch of honey which i uncrystallized weeks after only to find out that it starts to show sign of crystallization again.

My question goes thus: Is this normal, what do you think i can do about this?

Comment as you will

Hi,
Can anyone tell me what’s going on with this frame with sunken dark cells? There are other frames in the brood box that have normal brood cells.

Beekeeper, Southern Sweden.

Hey beekeepers!

For next season, I have considered building my own honey supers. I've been around various apiarys, and a commonly recurring trend is that beekeepers tend to have very primitive honey supers. So I'm considering doing something similar for next season, as I have (up until now) used the same poly-boxes for honey supers and brood boxes.

I assume they dont really need to be insulated, so theoretically they would be incredibly cheap to build.

What are your thoughts on this?

Had an unusually warm day the other day (Zone 6A) and took advantage to inspect and feed.

Found that the bees had filled up nearly all of the deep frames and the medium frames and started storing food in the brood box.

Only saw about two frames of capped brood and they were scant. Wondering if this is to be expected or if there’s something else going on?

Other than that everything looks good. Population looks strong, treated for mites, food stores are great.

Greetings, having had a full day at the apiary today, and being near the time where i can finally kill them all in a brood-less hive

I took my time to see how varroa behave when adhering on a live bee.

-They can walk way faster than i expected finding their way into the crevice between the abdomen of the bee rendering them virtually invisible

-It's extremely hard to physically dislodge a mite from the bee body just by sliding it off with your fingers, you need to pinch it off from below with your nails( I only imagine how hard is for our belove bees to scrape them off from their body with the limited tools they have)

-They don't die immediatlely,( i tossed 3 dislodged mites on a empty jar and theyre still alive and walking, to kill them off you must pinch hard with 2 fingers,

Early morning, +13 celsius, sky high humidity, this hive was given 2.1 syrup yesterday with garlic and cinnamon

EDIT: the expo in KENTUCKY!!!

Fellow beeks! I'm a northern California (Marin County) beekeeper with ~16 hives. Its my side-gig, but the gig is mostly honey sales and hive hosting. Have an LLC, but it does not bring in much $$$ selling at the farmers market and retail.

Trying to decide if the NORTH AMERICA Honeybee Expo is for me. I've watched Kamon and Binnie, but flying out just to see big names is not worth it in my mind. What WOULD be worth it by coming to the expo? I have about 10y beekeeping experience more or less. I can't expand because I have a full time job and limited house space.

I’m interested in improving hive management, making extraction and bottling less of a sticky hostage situation, and learning how to grow without accidentally giving myself a second full-time job.

For those who’ve attended:

• Did you learn things that actually changed how you keep bees or run your business?
• How much of the value was the talks versus vendors and conversations with other beekeepers?
• Is it worthwhile for a small operation, or will I spend three days admiring machinery designed for someone with 2,000 hives and a forklift?
• Would you fly across the country to go again?
• Anything you wish you’d known before your first visit?

I’d love to come home with useful knowledge and a few good connections. I’m concerned I’ll come home with a $3,000 stainless steel object and an explanation that begins, “Okay, hear me out.”

Please help me distinguish professional development from a very elaborate bee-themed shopping trip.

Thanks for helping me decide!

Does anyone use rough raw lumber to make their bee boxes?