The Honey Factory

[R2elk]

I just stick a piece of 3/4"x3/4" on top of the inner cover at the front and then put the lid over that. It prevents the lid from sitting down tight on the inner cover and allows great ventilation.

In my younger years, each super had a hole drilled in the front for ventilation.

 

[duluthralphie]

I just stick a piece of 3/4"x3/4" on top of the inner cover at the front and then put the lid over that. It prevents the lid from sitting down tight on the inner cover and allows great ventilation.

In my younger years, each super had a hole drilled in the front for ventilation.

I have about a 3 inch chunk out of the inner cover about where you have the block.
It is blocked in the spring with duct tape, I have had that off since mid May.

I do have some shims, I have considered using. I will put them in tomorrow, when I check my honey supers.

I wish I had your camera for the bees on the milkweed, it was amazing. Even my nearly deaf old ears could here the buzzing as I walked through the milkweeds.

The bees did not pay me any attention, they seemed way better behaved than those I offered Jerry.

 

[karenerwin]

My bees have to deal with humid nights here too...

you can prop up the back of the inner cover with something... a toothpick or something ... to get a bit more air flow... and that will likely allow a bit of air flow through the front and up out the back to help them enough...

or use what is called an “imirie shim”....

this is an old picture of a shim I cobbled together in the past out of 3/4” strips ...

I put three vent holes on them and let the bees close them down with propolis if they want less air flow

Normally I would have the holes on the back of the hive though... I don’t recall why I had them on the front in that picture... that is a feeder on top... so might have had to do with that... but normally I just put the shim under the inner cover

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Do you have any problems with skunks or anything bothering your hive with it being so low to the ground?

 

[OhZark Biddies]

Do you have any problems with skunks or anything bothering your hive with it being so low to the ground?

I’ve not had issues with that particular hive because it’s up here at the house...and I look at it daily... and (knock on wood ) we don’t have many skunks up here...

but I have had other hives in the past that were on stands or on concrete blocks where I would see tell tale scratch marks in front of the hive from skunks ... and maybe to a far lesser extent possums

That particular hive is in our ‘rock garden’ to the side of the house and is a bit too visible for where it is if I put it on blocks, so keeping it low and painting it that sage color was just to help it blend into the landscape...

I threaten to move it every year, but the bees do really well there and I don’t have to mow in front of it

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I have screened inner covers and screened bottom boards.
I use mediums for brood and honey supers. I put a metal queen excluder between the 3rd brood box and the first honey super. My husband and I drilled a hole for an upper entrance in the honey super.
They still sometimes beard up, so things happen...

 

[jerryse]

Morning . Ralphie I watched a Russian immigrant on a bee video . He explained the way they do bees in Europe and horizontal hives . He is big on locally adapted bees for winter survival . Interesting video . I will have to leave a link later .

 

[duluthralphie]

Morning . Ralphie I watched a Russian immigrant on a bee video . He explained the way they do bees in Europe and horizontal hives . He is big on locally adapted bees for winter survival . Interesting video . I will have to leave a link later .

i have seen him before, but I wonder how smart he really is, immigrating from Russia and then settling in Mo.



I was talking with my brother yesterday about taking my hives to his place for the winter. We talked about the need for local bees that are adapted to the long cold winters.
Also the chances of spreading disease or picking up a disease.

Those hives look interesting, I wonder how you would insulate them for our winters.

 

[duluthralphie]

Now that I watched it he makes some compelling arguments for the horizontal hive.

Maybe if I get lucky I will get one made this winter and have one next year. His traps look interesting, I wonder if they would work around here?

if I catch any of those sexy yellow bees, I suppose I could just deliver them to Jerry to raise.

I wonder how many of them you catch for each honeybee swarm you catch?

I still don’t understand why he moved to Mo though.

 

[duluthralphie]

I had my first successful aerial assault on my person today.

I went to watch my bees. They were extremely active, I thought to myself they looked agitated. In retrospect, they were.

I watched them from the side, then went to the front, I was outside the fence, about 20 feet, from the hive. One bee took exception to my being there and hit me with her stinger locked and loaded, ready to fire.

There was no warning, no bump just a hit!

She got me on my left eye brow. I have now had the Gwenth Paltrow beauty treatment.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I had my first successful aerial assault on my person today.

I went to watch my bees. They were extremely active, I thought to myself they looked agitated. In retrospect, they were.

I watched them from the side, then went to the front, I was outside the fence, about 20 feet, from the hive. One bee took exception to my being there and hit me with her stinger locked and loaded, ready to fire.

There was no warning, no bump just a hit!

She got me on my left eye brow. I have now had the Gwenth Paltrow beauty treatment.

Oh no! Your gonna be unevenly swollen. You need to go back out and get stung on the right side!