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

[mpape067]

Place you hive in a a spot where you will get sun. In a way they are like chickens when the sun comes up they go to work. If you want them to fly high when they leave the hive, construct a flyway. I have privacy fence and chain link surrounding the hives, on the chain link I put some nylon netting so when they leave the yard they are about 20 feet in the air.

 

[Happy Chooks]

We placed ours where it gets morning sun, but late afternoon shade. (no shade in winter because it's by an oak and it loses it's leaves in winter) We get quite hot here in summer (up to 115), so the afternoon shade helps. We're on 5 acres, so no neighbors really. I painted the hive white because that is what we had - any light color will do. No fencing, though eventually, when we have more hives, we may need to fence them. My dog does a great job of running off daytime predators.

 

[Happy Chooks]

For you experienced beekeepers, how do you know when you need to split your hive? I'm assuming I won't need to do it this year, as my hive was installed last spring. But I'm looking forward to next year, and what I will need to do. I'm getting ready to add the honey super this week.

 

[Deb B]

For you experienced beekeepers, how do you know when you need to split your hive? I'm assuming I won't need to do it this year, as my hive was installed last spring. But I'm looking forward to next year, and what I will need to do. I'm getting ready to add the honey super this week.

Well, one sign to split it is if you start seeing queen cells..... but you really don't want to wait until that happens!

If the majority of your brood frames are full of brood/honey/pollen and there are lots of bees around, then you should consider splitting, especially if it's early in the season and the nectar flow hasn't yet arrived or is just coming on. Otherwise, they are liable to swarm on you if they feel they have run out of room.

If you want to keep a strong hive for honey production, you might just split off 3 frames into a 5 frame nuc with some extra bees shaken in for good measure. Make it a mix of eggs, larvae, capped brood and at least on frame that's mostly honey. Add in two empty frames to the nuc. If you make sure that there are eggs in there, they will make their own queen (or you can purchase a queen to add). Add drawn foundation back to the original hive to give the queen a place to lay. If you don't have any drawn comb and there's a strong nectar flow, you could add undrawn frames and they should draw them out pretty fast.

If they seem really crowded, you should split off more frames.

If you do see queen cells, one "trick" you can try is to move the queen with the split into a nuc and leave the queen cells in the original hive. That fakes the bees into thinking the swarm has taken place already and then they might not swarm on you. Eventually, you'll need to requeen the nuc.

 

[Happy Chooks]

There's so much to learn! Thanks for the response!

How do the bees not go back to the original hive when you split?

 

[tmoore8595]

There's so much to learn! Thanks for the response!

How do the bees not go back to the original hive when you split?

All the field bees will go back to the old hive, but the nurse bees will stay with the brood you put in the new box. Shake in some extra nurse bees and they should do just fine. You will not see much activity at first because all the bees that stay will be nurse bees, (1 to 21 days old), and have not started flying yet. As the nurse bees get older they will begin to fly and become field bees but they will stay with the new hive because this is home to them.

 

[SunnySkies]

Wanted to paint the hives today and get them set up later this week, but it's SNOWING. Again.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Okay, that makes sense, thanks!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Wanted to paint the hives today and get them set up later this week, but it's SNOWING. Again.

We're getting a rainstorm for most of the rest of the week. So I will hold off putting the super on until after the storm.

 

[AWlowry]

supers already???