Last Year I Started Beekeeping - So Exciting

[madamwlf]

When we checked a frame yesterday, they were drawing comb at the top of the frame. I will see what it looks like Saturday and go from there. Thank you for all the great information!

 

[chigger bait]

Nice honey frame and label! We live in the woods with a lot of poplar trees too ~ makes good honey. We just put a couple of hives on a local farm where there are a lot of locust trees nearby. I'm looking forward to getting some locust honey.

I'm hopeing that the late freeze that we had last week didn't kill the Black Locust Bloom.

Most of the foliage on the black locust around the house looks like it has frost damage.

Last year we didn't get any BL honey because of hail knocking the bloom off and a tornado in the area.

 

[chigger bait]

If there is only brood in the top box and not the bottom, it is OK to switch them. If you only move the frames and not the whole box make sure to keep them in the same order/direction as they were. It is best to have the brood in the bottom box, but that is not always possible without splitting the brood nest.

I agree with this statement.

I run my hives with two deeps.

As the season moves on and they move up and the queen is not laying in the bottom deep, I will rotate the deeps so that the majority of the brood are in the bottom and there is laying space over head.

The main reason I do this is to try to prevent swarming.

And Russians are swarmy as I have found out.

The two new hives I started last week from packages are Hygenic Italians.

They are not as aggressive as the Russians by a long shot.

I can change sugar water feeders with out fully suiting up.

But the Russians are no more aggresive that the bees we had on my home place in Virginia 40 years ago.

 

[sgtmom52]

I agree with this statement.

I run my hives with two deeps.

As the season moves on and they move up and the queen is not laying in the bottom deep, I will rotate the deeps so that the majority of the brood are in the bottom and there is laying space over head.

The main reason I do this is to try to prevent swarming.

And Russians are swarmy as I have found out.

The two new hives I started last week from packages are Hygenic Italians.

They are not as aggressive as the Russians by a long shot.

I can change sugar water feeders with out fully suiting up.

But the Russians are no more aggresive that the bees we had on my home place in Virginia 40 years ago.

We also have both Russians and Italians and have also found the Russians to be swarmy. One of our hive swarmed 3 times last summer. The Russians do tend to be a bit more aggressive too. You can tell which are the Russian hives when you get close to them!

I went out to the farms and checked the hives we put Italian packages in on Saturday. All 6 queens had been released and the bees were hard at work putting in nectar and pollen. I found 5 of the 6 queens and managed to catch and mark 4 of them. The 5th one didn't want to be caught, so maybe next trip. I hope the 6th one is still there and I just didn't see her. I will go back in a week to see if the queens are laying.

 

[chigger bait]

We also have both Russians and Italians and have also found the Russians to be swarmy. One of our hive swarmed 3 times last summer. The Russians do tend to be a bit more aggressive too. You can tell which are the Russian hives when you get close to them!

I went out to the farms and checked the hives we put Italian packages in on Saturday. All 6 queens had been released and the bees were hard at work putting in nectar and pollen. I found 5 of the 6 queens and managed to catch and mark 4 of them. The 5th one didn't want to be caught, so maybe next trip. I hope the 6th one is still there and I just didn't see her. I will go back in a week to see if the queens are laying.

My Italians have used 3 quarts of 2:1 sugar water in 2 weeks.

I started them on new undrawn foundation.

I have been off the last two days, but the weather has been cool and rainy this whole time so I haven't been able to go in and check to see how they are progressing.

The new swarm that I captured, I started them out on drawn out foundation that I had in my freezer to kill any wax worms or eggs.

They are on their 2nd quart of 2:1, so it looks like they are happy and content.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Julie, this all sounds like good news. And thank you so much for the Honey-B-Healthy recipe. We got most of the ingredients last night and plan on making our own. If we don't get our act together to set up swarm boxes, at least maybe we can spray our own hives before our new bees get here. Do you know how long the generic HBH keeps? Thanks ~Martha

 

[ThePigeonKid]

I need to buy a hive. I'm new to this, for the frames, do I just need one deep and one shallow?

 

[sgtmom52]

Julie, this all sounds like good news. And thank you so much for the Honey-B-Healthy recipe. We got most of the ingredients last night and plan on making our own. If we don't get our act together to set up swarm boxes, at least maybe we can spray our own hives before our new bees get here. Do you know how long the generic HBH keeps? Thanks ~Martha

I think the Generic HBH should last for a while. The only ingredient in the name brand that is not in the generic is Sodium laurel sulfate which is a degreaser that help the oils and water mix together which is also what the lecithin granules do. The name brand's shelf life is several years.
It is important to make sure that the solution is well mixed so that the oil & water does not separate. (Note: Thyme oil is also not in the name brand). It seems that the lemongrass & spearmint oils are the important parts as well as the lecithin for an emulsifier.

 

[chigger bait]

I need to buy a hive. I'm new to this, for the frames, do I just need one deep and one shallow?

I started with 2 deeps for brood boxes for each hive.

Some folks start with 3 mediums for brood boxes.

I will tell you that if you have any back or shoulder problems I would go with the mediums instead of the deeps, because of the weight.

Another thing is with all mediums you don't have to inventory all the different components for all the different types of supers.

Around here, I don't know of any one that uses shallow supers for honey production.

As far as I have seen, they all use mediums.

 

[sgtmom52]

I started with 2 deeps for brood boxes for each hive.

Some folks start with 3 mediums for brood boxes.

I will tell you that if you have any back or shoulder problems I would go with the mediums instead of the deeps, because of the weight.

Another thing is with all mediums you don't have to inventory all the different components for all the different types of supers.

Around here, I don't know of any one that uses shallow supers for honey production.

As far as I have seen, they all use mediums.