A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[sgtmom52]

Quote:
Sorry to hear of your losses

We started the winter with 7 hives and lost one very early (beginning of Dec.). The one we lost seemed to be one of the strongest going into the winter. We are going to open it soon and try to figure out what went wrong. We feed all out hives with sugar syrup in the early fall and had fondant on top of all the hives over the winter so they had plenty of food. I fear that I may have done something to harm the queen in when I removed 2 frames for a day to put in my observation hive for a talk I did the first week of October. I took the frames from the edges and intentionally didn't take the queen. It was a warm day and shouldn't have been a problem, however that is the only hive we lost this winter. On the up side we will be doing splits to replace that hive and plan on starting at least 3 more including a top bar hive (for fun) that DH built over the winter.

 

[BookWorm243]

Hello,
I have been thinking about getting into bees. I didn't know where to get started. So glad I found this thread!

 

[Talihofarms]

Any one in the Midwest check their hives yet?

I lost 3 out of 36. I guess thats not so bad, this has been one of the worst winters.

The 3 hives I lost were all Italians.

No losses from the Carnies or the Russians.

Any others experiance higher losses with a certain breed of bee?

 

[CATRAY44]

I am so excited to have found this thread on here! I have a Top Bar hive coming soon and my bees are ordered. Newbie here and so glad you all are here!

 

[j egger]

I own 2 hives and i'm getting to more this year. they are the coolest animal (since chickens) I've ever had.

 

[NevadaRon]

Quote:
I'm a newbie and was planning on getting Russians because in my research I read that they were more cold hardy.

 

[cheraboo]

The backyard hive is dead. Looks like the bees starved. I feel so bad. It's a learning experience.

 

[BlackBart]

last summer

 

[jettgirl24]

I'm planning on keeping bees at our new house and I have to say, it's very overwhelming to learn about. I decided to sign up for the class at Seattle Tilth in a couple of weeks but I'm still going to do research before then. I'm looking at different supplies and it appears that the most common types are Italian and New World Carnolian bees. Which of these is better for a beginner?

 

[HathawayHens]

We just got our first hive, but we got a swarm from a friend and are checking to see if they "move in" or not. It is exciting!