Very nice yard. What do you use to control the weeds?
Is that bench cast concrete? Nice job.
No @busso the bench is made from treated 2x4’s total of 8, 2" x4" x8’ with 3 coats of Valspar Duramax Semi-Gloss Exterior White Paint. The stands are 1.5" Black Gas Pipe painted Yellow. They are 2 feet in the ground and 21 inches above, set in concrete, mound up to help deter SHB and Ants.
1 Like
Another Video update of my Hives
I have one colony with two queens both laying,
Only one colony was strong enough to benefit from the April Nectar flow, I am hoping that atleast 5/6 colonies do well in the summer flow.
2 Likes
So the tees did it again and painted some fun boxes; this time the mountain scene like one of the hives from Flow that we saw several years back that we loved, and one that looks like a bee itself which makes me laugh whenever I see it. We are now up to 14 hives thanks to a swarm spring that is going crazy here in southwestern Ontario Canada. Daughter drew retrieved a swarm from the neighbours cedar tree this morning. I started out with a plan of just having 2 hives, now I have 6 Flow Hives and 8 Langstroth hives! I doubled my apiary from last year to now in a blink-- I suspect I’m addicted to beekeeping!
8 Likes
I love those hives!! Especially the ‘bee itself’ one 
2 Likes
It is nice to see hives painted other than white for a change Tim.
When the chairman of the board and I decided to move to a warmer climate and so sold my 250 hives she was happy that I was going to slow down. Then I regarded myself as only semi-commercial, an addicted enthusiast in bee keeping.
When we had settled in up in Queensland and I had some spare time and decided to set up a few hives I had to promise the limit was four hives. Fortunately Maureen never wanted to go to the apiary, it was my domain, so she didn’t wonder why 4 hive takes up so much of my time.
You are so right Tim, bee keeping is so very, very addictive. I’m glad it is not just me!!!
Cheers
5 Likes
that was the answer to my question I did not ask yet. Amazing, I added the flow super and for the first time they are putting honey in and in less than 2 weeks have capped one side. The observation side. So I will study further but now I know to remove the frame to make sure both sides capped. Is there any hurry to remove the honey? thanks in advance.
2 Likes
Your unasked question is “Should I remove the Flow Frames to check they are fully capped on both sides?” YES, there is no other way to know.
What you can see thru the side window should only be used as an indicator as to if you should remove the frame from the hive to look at both sides. I only extract a frame that has 80% or better of the cells capped, unless you have a refractometer and prepared to sample enough cells to get an accurate average about the water content.
There is no need to extract a capped frame, it won’t ‘turn bad’, and you only need to extract when all the frames are close to being ALL CAPPED and so the bees can become bored, build comb in the roof or bridging comb between the frames to store honey. In that situation the hive is “honey bound”, bee’s can’t decide to stop foraging as there is no more storage room in the hive. The bees can become a bit hot to handle till you extract frames. I never extract all of the frames, I leave two as a reserve for the bees in case of a sudden dearth.
Cheers
5 Likes
I seen to have this issue of lack of equipment so as we are having a hurricane bearing down on us I see a swarm in this infamous swarm tree. So as I prep for the storm I run to catch. You see a 10 frame box on a 8 frame base with cardboard to close the gap. I shook them into that box and closed it with some desk doors I had they were going in and out and then I see more balled up under the porch and I gather them and put them into the cardboard NUC. Then the day of the storm I see more bees hanging out and so I grab this cooler that I had set up for a “red neck A/C” with a hole in the top and pvc exits. I dumped the remaining bees into that locked them down and waited for storm. So they are all now in the cooler soon to be transferred into a box. My apiary is growing now 6 colonies thought you would like my fun. Ok enough 
2 Likes
Batten down and stay safe with the hurricane coming. I like to always have lots of spare bee gear, I have about 15% of spare gear to my hive numbers. It sounds a lot but I can replace boxes, base boards, frames and roof on hives so I can take them out for painting or replacement.
Cheers
1 Like
I’m new to bee keeping and set up my hives with new bees on May 23rd, so I’m rapidly climbing Red Hot Chili Pepper’s previously posted graph of bee keeping overconfidence. I’ve got the hives facing east, down a steep little slope that hopefully will block some of the icy winter west wind. Just in the distance, in this photo, is a small river that gives good access to water. Now, in August, the river banks are filled with wildflowers and the flow hives are filling with honey. I flowed two frames over the weekend (can I use flow as a verb?) Wow, remarkably different taste than store-bought honey. I did have some troubles with leakage, maybe caused by some uncapped cells at the bottom of the frame? I think the left hand hive swarmed, because a month ago, it was way ahead of the right hand hive but now it seems way behind. Otherwise, so far so good–6 pounds of honey and zero stings.
3 Likes
Sorry, as a newbie, I’m only allowed one photo per post, but this one is the classic flow hive pin-up picture of the first harvest.
4 Likes
I keep ordering I have 2 complete boxes on their way now I have a spare, lots of frames and I sneak in little at a time. Spending too much bee money and hubby wants to see some $ coming back LOL
1 Like
Sadly, it’s not a glam shot of the hives and the boxes are all mixed up… I have two flow frames and boxes which have been assembled with help from family (enthusiasm won over attention to keeping the parts for flow hive 1 and 2 and the standard box separate ) so it’s a bit of a mix match of boxes. My plan is to put them in the correct configuraton by the end of this summer.
But… my bees are healthy in the sun with the bottlebrush flowering - & the bottlebrush couldn’t be closer to the hives !!!
… view from the south west… the hives will get little shade from the blistering summer sun and I’ll have to provide some shade if needed. So far it very good… now we’d like a little honey. Fingers crossed
and may the weather gods be with us 
3 Likes
Very innovative and it does the job.
1 Like