The Honey Factory

[Egghead_Jr]

Yeah, these would be queens they produce.

Unless they banked queens over winter they likely won't be local queens. This year's color is green, red is last year. If a green queen then it's not local. MI won't have a new crop of queens until sometime in June.

 

[Sally PB]

Unless they banked queens over winter they likely won't be local queens. This year's color is green, red is last year. If a green queen then it's not local. MI won't have a new crop of queens until sometime in June.

Ah! Ok, I only remember a couple of the members talking about raising queens, so maybe they meant later this season.

I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions at the next meeting. I'm really hoping to split the colony.

I wish we had started with two, but hubby thought it better to invest the time/money into one and see if we could get them through the winter.

 

[Apis mellifera]

I wish we had started with two, but hubby thought it better to invest the time/money into one and see if we could get them through the winter.

Plan to have at least 3 or 4 hives with some combination of production and nucleus colonies, like the snow photo I posted. If a colony fails to requeen after a swarm or supersedure you have spare queens, eggs, and brood to get them back on track. I dont like buying bees and chickens so I always have a rooster and nucs. Bees are expensive and good Chanteclers can be hard to get.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

Plan to have at least 3 or 4 hives with some combination of production and nucleus colonies, like the snow photo I posted. If a colony fails to requeen after a swarm or supersedure you have spare queens, eggs, and brood to get them back on track. I dont like buying bees and chickens so I always have a rooster and nucs. Bees are expensive and good Chanteclers can be hard to get.

Bees are as bad as chickens, One day you look out your window and say, "where the hell did all these bees come from!?" I myself wanted no more than 3 but now with the strength of what came through the winter and ordering another NUC, which I should not have done before an early spring look-see, I'm looking at 6. Now I have to go into roadside honey sale to offset the cost of keeping them. Here's the funny part. With the size of our property according to state "regs" I can keep 40 hives with 1 NUC for every 2 hives. Fortunately I'm too old for that much work, also it would be irresponsible for me to let them build and swarm. I'm on the crux of a "dilemmer".

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

The packaged bees are due today, it is almost noon and i have not received a call from the local post-office.
USPS tracking shows that they have arrived in Jacksonville on Monday 25th and are »In Transit to Next Facility, March 27, 2024«. I'm getting nervous…

 

[Egghead_Jr]

They should be fine arriving tomorrow morning. Saturday morning might be pushing it for the syrup provided. I've kept bees in packages for almost two weeks by misting one side of the screen with sugar water once or twice a day.

You should call the post office to ensure they don't have bees there. A decade ago when I mail ordered package bees the post office covered them in screen somewhere in transit because they said bees were getting out. The short of it was the bees made the destination but the information was under the screen wrapping they made, nobody would open it to get the phone number.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

They should be fine arriving tomorrow morning. Saturday morning might be pushing it for the syrup provided. I've kept bees in packages for almost two weeks by misting one side of the screen with sugar water once or twice a day.

You should call the post office to ensure they don't have bees there. A decade ago when I mail ordered package bees the post office covered them in screen somewhere in transit because they said bees were getting out. The short of it was the bees made the destination but the information was under the screen wrapping they made, nobody would open it to get the phone number.

Did the bees make it?

I missed the post-office by a couple of minutes, they close at 4:40pm and i saw your message at 4:50pm. But i will give them a call tomorrow.

That all happened because i was too impatient: I set up both hives outside on Wednesday morning. Had i not done this the bees would have arrived by Wednesday noon…

 

[R2elk]

 

[Sally PB]

So... are those girls greeting each other, just passing by, or having an argument?

 

[R2elk]

So... are those girls greeting each other, just passing by, or having an argument?

None of the above. Bees don't have air traffic controllers. Head on collisions do occur.

I have been hit in the side of my head when I happen to step into the path of a bee returning to the hive.