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

[Happy Chooks]

Hubby carefully inspected the tree cutout hive today - found two capped queen cells! So we did not get the queen during the collection last week, but they are making their own. We also stole a frame of brood out of the strong hive to help keep a supply of new bees until the new queen assumes duty.
And we got ants. Going to try cinnamon and get the hive stands built, so they end up higher than the current pallet.

Terro works too. Put it on the ground and the bees don't bother it. Last year I had the ants build a nest between the inner and outer cover. The bees kept them out of the hive though.

It's my first year beekeeping too: got my nuc April 6. They're not working normally, though. The original five frames are just loaded with nectar, pollen and something capped; but I'm not sure I have brood. The girls are not drawing out comb on the new foundation. It's a concern, as I will be away for a few days and won't be able to intervene in some way to troubleshoot them. Ugh, wish I knew more about what to do for them. As for getting nailed on the eyelid, I got it on a fingertip two days ago and am still swollen and hot there--but your eyelid!!!

Did you see any eggs? Eggs are the first thing you want to look for. As long as the queen is laying, there's not much else for you to worry about at this point. It takes a lot of energy for them to build comb. If you have had cold weather, they may not be wanting to expand yet. Make sure they have plenty of sugar water while you are gone.

And yeah on the eyelid. My eye is swollen pretty much shut. I can force it open, but otherwise it stays shut.

 

[Happy Chooks]

For Bugseye:

Capped honey. It is capped flat.


Capped brood. This is older brood, younger brood is lighter. It is more rounded on top. Drone cells are at the bottom and look like bullets. I was specifically taking pictures of the queen cups at the bottom of the frame, but you can see the brood above.

 

[3goodeggs]

Happy Chooks, You are lucky it was the lid and not the eye. (difficult to use the word lucky there, but it could have been much worse)
My husband bent over some flowers to inspect a wild bee, and a paper wasp nailed him on the top of the head. He dropped like a sack of rocks.We were not sure if he needed to go to the hospital or not.But I had the epi pen on the ready. He turned purple.It was alarming.
He got over it. Is it bad that I mentally compute the cost of the ambulance and the odds that he'll recover?

Good to know about the ants. A group of bull ants are overly interested in one hive.
And we have a raccoon overly interested in the ants... it might get real messy real quick.
We have a live trap for the coon, but I was not sure what to do about the bull ants.
The bees won't be affected because the don't get down on the ground where the bait is?

 

[1muttsfan]

I had a friend over when adding my new package to the hive, and she shot some video - so here is how an amature does it

[VIDEO]

 

[Happy Chooks]

Happy Chooks, You are lucky it was the lid and not the eye. (difficult to use the word lucky there, but it could have been much worse)
My husband bent over some flowers to inspect a wild bee, and a paper wasp nailed him on the top of the head. He dropped like a sack of rocks.We were not sure if he needed to go to the hospital or not.But I had the epi pen on the ready. He turned purple.It was alarming.
He got over it. Is it bad that I mentally compute the cost of the ambulance and the odds that he'll recover?

Good to know about the ants. A group of bull ants are overly interested in one hive.
And we have a raccoon overly interested in the ants... it might get real messy real quick.
We have a live trap for the coon, but I was not sure what to do about the bull ants.
The bees won't be affected because the don't get down on the ground where the bait is?

Another beekeeper mentioned Terro to me. I tried it and he was right, the bees don't bother it. Maybe not enough sugar content?

I had a friend over when adding my new package to the hive, and she shot some video - so here is how an amature does it

Looks fine to me. Nice video.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Respect the honey bee.
​

 

[3goodeggs]

!!!!
Goodness!
Is your husband making you wear a shirt that says, "Really, It was a bee, Really!"

 

[Happy Chooks]

He laughed when he saw me this morning and asked if he was getting arrested today.

 

[1muttsfan]

Bwahahahahaha!

Ok sorry OWWWW!

 

[Bugseye]

Major OWWWWW!

Hurts to look at it.