The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

Sad droopy face smiley.
Idk i dont do smileys

by the way Dude, how is the smoking going? Are you still reducing?

 

[Cynthia12]

Sad droopy face smiley.
Idk i dont do smileys

Here, I can help with that...sad droopy face..

Or, this one could work......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

I get goofy when I'm tired. I'll sign off now, and try to get some sleep!

 

[drumstick diva]

me too, goodnight Cynthia

 

[vehve]

Good night, Cyn and Diva! And morning here.

 

[getaclue]

chickadoodles, so sorry to hear about your fall. You're in my prayers.

 

[Latestarter]

Mornin here as well, like 3am... The dog woke me up to let me know it had started to rain

I don't sleep well anymore and I believe I was actually "out"!

<sigh> Oh well... I just heard a rumble of thunder, and that better explains why she woke me up... she does NOT like thunder at all. On the other hand, I rather enjoy a good T-storm... the more severe, the more I enjoy watching it. Mom Nature's wrath and all that...

So I just installed my bees today, you know, 70 degrees & sunny with a bit of wind, and now we're due for several days of cold wet weather... Maybe back in the 70s by Wednesday. Hope they're able to keep warm. Now I think I'll try to go back to sleep. I do tend to sleep better when it's storming...

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Sorry about the loss of your hen...

Guess when you own a bunch of critters, you're bound to lose one for a variety of reasons every now and then.

I have both deeps on because there are internal feeders to help them get a good start:


There's a notch cut out on both sides of the double feeder so the bees can enter underneath and get out as well. I didn't want to put it directly over the inner cover hole in case it leaked. I put the syrup can in there as well because it felt like 1/2 full. Couldn't see wasting it.

There is an (home made - used as an excuse to get a router and router table ) home made entrance reducer. You can also see the screw resting on the left block that I used to pop the cork from the queen cage and the extra marshmallow I didn't need. The bees were all over the cork... pheromones I guess. Made it a huge challenge to get it out without killing the queen in her cage w/the screw, or squishing the bees trying to get to her, or letting her escape while squishing marshmallow into the hole to replace the cork. Those queens are FAST!

I'll see if they even need the feeding and if they do I'll continue for a while or until they don't need it. I'll check to see that the queen has been released from her cage like Wednesday or Thursday depending on weather, and remove the can then and check the syrup levels and decide from there. Started out with no protection at all but when I banged down the first pkg to take the can out, the sheer #'s of bees was overwhelming so I put my veil on before I continued. No stings and we were all happy with the outcome Hope your one hive can come back. Probably hasn't been warm enough up there yet for you to even be able to open it up and check on them. You said you lost one of them...

Sounds like you listened to the training and heeded all advice. Good going.

Might be risky dude... I hear they don't like loud motorized equipment (like riding lawnmowers) and in your speedo, you'd be a heckuva target

Actually I do most of the mowing around here and they really don't seem to mind it that much, as long as you don't fling stuff into their hive. BF does the weed whacking and uses a 12 foot long extension in that area. That's hilarious to watch but he does admit they're calmer than he expected they'd be. He hasn't been stung yet.

@superchemicalgirl , you ought to contact the bee club where you took your course and see if you can get on the swarm list. Perfect opportunity to replace your deadout at minimum cost. and put all that drawn comb to work immediately!

I ordered a package but it won't be here until the end of May. Blue Team might be dead, now, too. I don't want to go out and check.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Bama, if you really want to raise bees get the book Beekeeping for Dummies. Your local club should have classes that you can take (they're usually a weekend or a couple hours a week for 6 weeks or so) to learn what to do and do hands on. If there's nothing in your area you can watch the ones about our area online... just remember our climate is significantly different than yours and when they tell us to paint our hive dark and put it in the sun to keep it warm they don't mean you should.

http://www.klcbee.com/school.shtml


The bees are a lot of fun, my garden was significantly improved with the addition of hives to my property. Even the neighbor had a bumper crop of wild blackberries. The honey I harvested, although not the main reason I got hives, is the best tasting honey in the world.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

Looks great! How come you have both deeps on with a package, though? Do you also have an entrance reducer on?


Had my first prolapsed hen today. Unfortunately her colon split when I was trying to push it back in. From what I've read though they don't really survive too well, so I guess that was for the best.

SCG sorry for your troubles.

Our very first batch of 4H birds we had one that had a prolapse as a pullet when she first began laying. That is actually how we found BYC as I immediately got on line to figure out what to do. I followed instructions that we found here, she did great! She continued to lay and never had another problem after she had some healing time. We discovered later that she was the one we had that laid Jumbo eggs so we figure her poor little body wasn't ready for that big egg the first few times.

Bee hives all installed What a trip! They're awesome!

congrats! They look great. I was no aware how complicated bee keeping is until I was reading here. I think I will just get honey from the local bee guy.

 

[chickadoodles]

chickadoodles, so sorry to hear about your fall. You're in my prayers.

Thanks getaclue I appreciate that. I will be ok. Nothing can keep me down long.