Hi Brandon, you can freeze these to kill off any pest eggs or spores that might still be viable on there, as a precaution.
Yep sounds good!
Probably not, but check this with your bee class teacher. Your nuc should contain 2 full frames of honey and pollen, plus what’s in the arcs around the brood frames. Assuming there’s a good nectar flow on in your region, this will be enough of a pad to keep them going while they find forage in your area. If you are advised to feed, you’ll need to stay on your toes with swarm prevention.
Right
I haven’t used this treatment. It’s my understanding that thymol is pretty noxious to bees. Given what I see in the linked study I would indeed remove it.
I’d recommend checking out the info here on the forum and elsewhere on the web about oxalic acid treatment instead.
Awesome you’ll learn a lot and fast this way! Happy for you - good luck!
Well, 3 weeks into my do-over. I got a really healthy 5-frame nuc from a local honey company. The nuc was beautiful when I transplanted to my hive. I installed 1+2 empty foundation frames on the outer sides of the nuc, and I left the nuc undisturbed.
I restrained myself for 3 weeks from opening the hive and did the first hive inspection today. The 3 foundation frames have gone from completely bare, to COVERED with larva of all sizes, capped brood, and TONS of honey.
Now I need to figure out the ant situation. I found a sugar ant nest inside the top board and cleaned it out. I may need to rethink my limestone bricks as a support, so that I can put some kind of water barrier to keep the ants out.
i have a flow 2 and I put empty tuna cans under each leg of the hive. I then poured cooking oil into each can, and that has kept all crawlies out of the hive (the ones that don’t have wings, that is). The oil only needs a top up every 4 or so months.
Well, the bees grew so quickly that they were bearding in cool weather, e.g. when it was 68F in the morning back in May. I did some research and figured out that they were crazy over populated - probably just hours away from swarming. I added and 2nd box on top, and moved 1 of my original 8 frames up top. The bees filled out the new box in 3 weeks. They seem super healthy since then (added the 2nd box on May 20). I have been peeking on them almost every day, but I am limiting my hive inspections to every 3 weeks. Last inspection, I found hive beetles - the workers cornered them into a little prison, as usual, and I smashed all of them. I then added 2 beetle traps, filled with water this time, instead of oil last time.
Question - it has been very hot, as expected. Since about June 10th, it has been 95 - 105 F every single day. The bees are very active during the day, even now that all the wildflowers died. However, for the last ~3 weeks, they are bearding in the morning, even when it is 78 - 88 F (in the morning). They cover about 60% of the front area of the 2 boxes. It still gets blazing hot during the day. Should I been concerned about over-population again?
I’ve seen posts in this forum with hives that are 5 boxes high!!! I thought 2 was kind of the limit, but clearly not. Should I consider adding a 3rd box? It is already July, but it stays hot in Texas until 1st or 2nd week in October. Thanks!
Hi Brandon, my strategy for monitoring a colonies population is to have access into the roof. If I see a buildup of bees in the roof, it’s time to split the hive in some way.
I suggest to people with Flow hives to leave the hole in the crown board open, then lift the roof once a fortnight to monitor the population.
It is mid-spring now in Texas, and I have been monitoring my bee population since we got past the really severe cold in January (8 - 10 F, very unusual here). It was increasing steadily since I started checking in around February 20. However, I have seen bearding increase drastically in just a 2 day period, during which the high was about 80 F and low is 55 - 60 F. This is not hot at all, so I assume the bearding is because the population is increasing quickly.
When should I put on the honey super? I have a healthy 2-box hive now that I started last May, and that survived severe winter. If the hive is over populated, I figured the extra space of the flow hive would solve that. However, it is still a little brisk at night time, at least for the next week or so. Should I wait a week? I don’t want the hive to swarm. Forecast:
Ok, after looking at other people’s pictures of queen cells, now I am not sure.
What on earth is this? They have built these in several places since last November, and have been maintaining the shapes.
Kind of like a tapered peanut shell. They start out as smaller down-facing open cups and the bees build them downward until ready to be capped.
Up here in PA I’ve been in swarm prevention & management mode for the past 2 weeks, so I imagine it must be about that time for you! Definitely check thoroughly for signs of swarming before adding a super.
That is what many of us call crazy comb. It happens frequently in foundationless and plastic foundation frames, when the bees aren’t clear about the bee space, or they don’t like the surface, so they get creative. It can also happen if you space your frames a bit too far apart.
Hi Brandon, I read that @Eva is in the middle of swarm prevention right now. Bees don’t take too much notice of max & min temps when it comes to getting ready to swarm. The main criteria in my view is the lengthening of the days, coupled with an abundance of available pollen & nectar.
Bare in mind that the bees that issue with the swarm fill up on honey. That honey will allow them to keep warm until the scouts hopefully find a suitable nesting place before the honey in their stomachs runs out,
I think that every new beekeeper should learn how to “read the brood”. That is the difference between worker, drone & queen cells. Also learn timelines, which is also helpful.
During the spring buildup, depending on the strength of the population, they say that a queen can lay up to 3K eggs per day. With that in mind, it’s easy to see how a population can rapidly grow. Allowing for mortality, & based on a frame containing 2K bees, that represents an increase of 1 frame of bees per day. By halving those numbers, that still represents a frame of bees added to the colony every 2 days.
Thanks. I put on the honey super on Sunday, so it has been 5 days now.
There were some scouts in the first hour scoping it out, but when I got back from a trip last night, it was completely full of bees. They look like they are going thru the pre-production cleaning phase of all the cells. The interesting thing is that this morning, it was a nice breezy 70F at 6:45 AM, and even with 50% increase in living space, they are still bearding!!!
So I guess the population was and still is growing very rapidly. Surely, I don’t need a 4th box (which would be the 3rd brood box)? I have seen pictures of hives that have 4+ boxes.
You might want to consider a slatted rack. It helps a lot with bearding, by giving the bees “hang out space” in the hive. There they can fan to circulate air, but not get in the way of the work going on. I believe that Mann Lake has them. I love mine, and they work like a dream in summer!
Your setup is really nice looking…but very dark in color for Texas sun. The slatted rack @Dawn_SD suggested will help, but unless you’re willing to paint it a light color I’d definitely add a shade cloth or umbrella over your hive.
Thanks, it’s under a bunch of tree cover and gets some shade. The bees are bearding again, since the highs in 85 - 90F now. So I torched my screened bottom board last night and will swap out the solid bottom board this week.
I did quite a bit of inspection of the middle box last night and found pure gold thruout the entire box, every frame.
I am completely new as well. But I’m just waiting on my hive to arrive Much the same I bought a flow but I bought a flow 2+ with some extra to make it my own.
From what I have seen on ye olde you tube, you melt the wax in a crockpot then brush it on your frames first and then put them back in your hive they are ready to go.
I’m guessing you’d fill up the ant resistant legs and the um… beetle layer thingy as well to keep out nasties.
Hi Nick. I am a novice beekeeper at best, but my experience last year was that ant granules around my limestone base was sufficient. I did not use the flow hive or extract any honey last season (except 1 spoon!). I spent the whole season building a healthy hive.
Now that the hive is super healthy and pumping out honey like crazy (just as of last week), I have ants back. As I’ve seen bees crawl on the ground occasionally (this is not usual and they probably stuffed themselves with too much honey), I have reservations about having something poisonous on the ground.
Oh and for the frames, I have used both foundation frames purchased from a bee store, as well as empty wooden frames. I have had mixed results with foundation frames. Some they have built and maintained for the last year. However, there are 2 frames which the bees barely deposited wax and definitely not enough to resemble comb. This went on for 4 months, and I finally pulled them out on April 20 and replaced with empty wood frames.
Hi Brandon, after reading your reply, I couldn’t help but wonder if the bees would have completed & filled the foundation frames the same as they filled the empty frames. My reason being that the bees were in, then coming out of winter during that 4 month period you talked about. Then as spring progressed, the strength of the colony increased, then during a honey flow the bees needed somewhere to store honey, so they utilized the empty frames. You’ll notice that the comb in the empty frame is mostly drone comb, whereas they would have built the foundation in all worker comb.
you’ll learn a lot and fast this way! Happy for you - good luck!
They have built these in several places since last November, and have been maintaining the shapes.
