Last Year I Started Beekeeping - So Exciting

[sgtmom52]

My girls have been bringing in some beautiful pollen this week. They are getting a lovely white pollen I think from my Sweet Autumn Clematis.





Small Hive beetles on the inner cover. Nasty little buggers!!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Good to know what hive beetles look like. How do you get rid of them?


Nice looking pollen from your bees!

 

[sgtmom52]

Good to know what hive beetles look like.

The larva look like little white maggots that can move pretty fast across the frame. A strong hive will keep the beetles confined to the inner cover or the outer frames. In a weak hive the larva can really get into the frames and foul the honey and brood. If the infestation gets really bad a hive will abscond. These beetles are all over the US now and as they can fly great distances they are becoming a real problem. I smash any that I see and have beetle traps in my hives in late summer / fall when they seem to be the worst. The beetles lay the eggs in the hive where the larva grow until they are ready to pupate. They then crawl out of the hives and drop to the ground where they burrow in to pupate into adult beetles.

 

[sgtmom52]

Good to know what hive beetles look like. How do you get rid of them?


Nice looking pollen from your bees!

Hive beetles are a pain to kill as anything that kills them can also kill the bees too. There are commercial beetle traps you can buy that fit between the frames and you fill them with vegetable oil that the beetles drown in. There are also home made traps that use shortening & boric acid to kill the beetles. Caution needs to be used with these as boric acid will kill bees to. Here is a video from the "Fat Bee Man" that shows how to make them.

 

[chigger bait]

Iron weed and golden rod are blooming here in East Tennessee now.

The girls are working it hot and heavy.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Our beekeeping habit has been for me to do the research, buy the equipment and take pictures. The boys' are responsible to suit up and check (usually after much nagging). The nagging has apparently lost its charm as I can NOT get the boys to check the hives. So today I put the suit on for the first time and THIS is what I saw..... Any guesses as to what is going on here? This is a shot of the weakest of our hives, there is only one super with very few frames filled, the frames that are filled have uncapped, black comb!. ummm why black?

I really think we lost the queen.

 

[sgtmom52]

Our beekeeping habit has been for me to do the research, buy the equipment and take pictures. The boys' are responsible to suit up and check (usually after much nagging). The nagging has apparently lost its charm as I can NOT get the boys to check the hives. So today I put the suit on for the first time and THIS is what I saw..... Any guesses as to what is going on here? This is a shot of the weakest of our hives, there is only one super with very few frames filled, the frames that are filled have uncapped, black comb!. ummm why black?

I really think we lost the queen.

Your black comb is older comb. Wax starts out pale and as it ages (especially brood comb) it naturally darkens ~ no worries. Was that hive started with a purchased nuc?

Did you see any eggs, larva or brood? Queens often slow down or stop laying in late summer / early fall but need to start laying again in fall to hatch out the "winter bees" which are the ones which will overwinter the hive. As it stands that hive will not survive the winter in PA. They need to have 2 boxes with drawn out comb filled with about 60 pounds of honey to make it through the winter. If that were my hive I think that I would combine it with one of my other hives this fall then do a split in the spring. I would also recommend starting to feed them now.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Yes, this hive was a started split. Whew!! was pretty worried about that! Thank you Sgtmom!!

We combined it with the other hive that is only one super so far, putting a piece of newspaper in between the supers. We waited until dusk to do this so that most of the bees would be in the hives.

The hives are not taking feed right now. I think it's because they are in the middle of a field of Golden Rod. I'll feed them through the winter, though.

 

[sgtmom52]

Yes, this hive was a started split. Whew!! was pretty worried about that! Thank you Sgtmom!!

We combined it with the other hive that is only one super so far, putting a piece of newspaper in between the supers. We waited until dusk to do this so that most of the bees would be in the hives.

The hives are not taking feed right now. I think it's because they are in the middle of a field of Golden Rod. I'll feed them through the winter, though.

Good job! Beautiful field of "bee food"

 

[galanie]

I have a question. So far, I've yet to get any bees. But I'm building a Top Bar Hive. There are bees available locally but here's my problem: You have to buy the physical hive and all. How to transfer to a top bar hive? Please don't ask me why I want to do that. I do, and my question is how, or if it's no feasble, tell me that too and why. Thanks!