Last Year I Started Beekeeping - So Exciting

[Blarneyeggs]

X2

x3!! I am just LOVING all this information! and complete with movies too??! How wonderful!

So we are STILL waiting on our first NUC. Although DH got a call from our 'bee guy', who said that he had trouble deciphering my hubbies many phone messages, and we are still on the list, so maybe bees soon.....? I have a split coming from a different source at the end of May. I sure hope the first bees get here before then, I was planning on being ready and a little experienced before I had to drive to DE and pick up the second order.

Oh, SGTMOM, This may be a silly question, but Is there a Queen in a swarm?, or do you have to re~ queen each swarm you catch?

 

[sgtmom52]

That is fascinating. Details please. What do you do with the box afterwards? Is it just an empty box or is there a few frames in it with foundation? Someday I would like to catch swarms.

Sorry I didn't get back to you last night ~ I had to go to my Beekeepers' meeting.

There is nothing in the box but bees. We just take it back and dump it into a hive like you would a package.



Quote:
No questions are silly if you don't know the answer.

There is a Queen in the swarm. When a hive builds up and needs more space it "decides to swarm" It starts the process about 2 weeks before they actually swarm. The bees start to build queen cells along the bottom of the frames ~ there could be just a few or a dozen or more. When the queen cells are almost ready to caps the workers put the queen on a diet to slim her down so she can fly. Once the cells are capped the queen and roughly half of the bees in the hive swarm, leaving the rest in the hive. This is a primary swarm. Sometimes as the new queens hatch more bees and a virgin queen will also swarm. This can happen multiple times greatly reducing the population of your hive. Usually beekeepers don't like their hives to swarm as it can reduce to eliminate you honey production for that season. You can requeen a swarm, however swarms queens are usually pretty healthy and I leave them alone.

Swarms are amazing things and it is fascinating to be standing in the middle of one while they are flying. You can also amaze bystanders with how easily you can handle the bees with no protective clothing as they are very calm and rarely sting while swarming.

This is a video of one of our hives swarming 2 years ago. We put up a bait hive and the bees actually went into it!

 

[Sooner]

I would like to know how he changed the suction in order to make it less powerful. I am assuming that the box is sealed to allow the suction of the vacuum to work through it.

Details please!!!

 

[sgtmom52]

The bee vac box is a 3 part box. Part one where the bees end up has a plexiglass panel so you can see the bees. Part two is 1/8" hardware cloth and part three is the suction chamber. The 3 parts get latched together with foam weather stripping between to help make them secure & air tight.



On the bee chamber there is a large hole with a swivel cover which is where the hose and wand attach. The smaller swivel cover on the right is to adjust the air flow. There is also another hole in this chamber where the hose attaches that goes to the shop vac. The shop vac pulls the bees into the first chamber where they are stopped by the hardware cloth. You have to be careful to use minimal suction as not to damage the bees. We have 2 of these boxes, so we can switch them if there are a lot of bees. You don't want to over fill and squish them or have them overheat in warm weather. Once the bees are in the box we remove the hose, close the swivel cover and remove the suction chamber so the bees have the open hardware cloth for ventilation.

There are many different plans for bee vacs on the internet.

 

[madamwlf]

So I got the top feeder on today. In and out. Made sure I was real quick. Also used some Bee Healthy mix. wow, does that smell good. Reminds me of Lemon Heads. I'm sure some of you remember that candy.

 

[sgtmom52]

So I got the top feeder on today. In and out. Made sure I was real quick. Also used some Bee Healthy mix. wow, does that smell good. Reminds me of Lemon Heads. I'm sure some of you remember that candy.

Good job! I love the smell of the Honey B Healthy! Lemon and Spearmint ~ Yum! I do remember Lemon Heads.

Tomorrow we are moving swarm #2 out of the nuc and into an 8 frame hive and taking a look at swarm #1 to see how they are coming along. We also need to check one of the hives that is planning to swarm on us ~ hopefully we can stop them before they take off on us.

 

[CSWolffe]

Well, I picked up my first package of bees yesterday, and got it installed into my Warre Hive. This did not go nearly as smoothly as I had hoped. I can't wait to start watching my new industrious little pets get to work!

 

[Kay56]

We just picked up three nucs for our new hives yesterday. We aquired these from a gentleman who has been bee keeping for 35 years.....unfortunatly a very heavy thunderstorm popped up in the middle of this and caused quite a bit of anguish to all involved. The three hives seem to be doing ok this morning though.....whew!

 

[chigger bait]

I just got through checking the 2 new hives that I installed 3 weeks ago today.

Both hives have 4 fully drawn out deep frames full of both capped and uncapped brood.

One hive is drawing out the comb on both sides of the 5th frame and the 2nd hive is the same but has just now started drawn out on one side of the 6th,

The queen in the swarm hive has started laying in both sides of 3 frames of drawn foundation.

All my brood boxes are deeps.

The other established hives are starting to store in the honey supers.

I've saw them working wild raspberries and wild blackberries here on my property.

The majority of the raspberries are in petal fall and the black berries are just now opening up.

If the we get the right amount of rain, then there is going to be a large crop locally.

 

[madamwlf]

So here is my hive. I can not for the life of my figure out how to right the picture on this site. If anyone is wondering, the pool behind the hive is their watering hole. It has about 100 tennis balls in it and about 5 inches of water. Just enough water to float the balls. The bees land on the tennis balls and get water. Got the idea from someone in the bee class. I've even seen my bees drinking from it.

I got a lot done today. Bee hive #2 was painted and is ready to go. We still have to get a stand built for it. Friday should be when the new arrivals show up. Can't wait.

Question: How long does it take bees to realize the top feeder is food? And how will I know when they are no longer taking syrup? Thanks!