New Hobby: Bee Keeping

[massphatness]

Mike! Holy crap - been a long time! Who knew you were a bee keeper!

Was concerned about the bees rejecting the queen initially, but I found her in three of the first four inspections I did. She's marked with a yellow dot on her back, so I know it's her.

Thanks for the info on how cells are reused.

[Tio Gato]

Simply amazing Vin! Please keep the pics and vids coming. It's wicked pissa!

[yourchoice]

I find this thread very entertaining and can't wait for the updates. Good stuff, Vin.

[Mikepd]

Vin- good to hear they all like her, keep the photos coming and when some honey is ready, I'd love to try it.

[shade]

Hey Vin. Great shots of your frames. Your queen is really laying a nice brood pattern, and she's really phat to boot.

What I find fascinating is how quickly the bees get their house in order, from drawing comb, to gathering pollen and nectar, and raising brood.

I had a swarm come and take residence in an empty three box hive two weeks ago. Checked on their progress Sunday, and they had already filled two boxes with honey!! Timing is everything I guess. In our location we were in the middle of a tulip poplar, and locust bloom when they arrived. Seems they know what to do and when to do it, and the girls got me three times in my hands. Felt great!

[bonjing]

Who needs guns when you have bees!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEteC_M1154

[shark]

Then you have dipshits like this:


Man facing 10 felony charges after allegedly stealing thousands of bee hives



Police believe Tveretinov stole around $875,000 worth of bees



A California man has been arrested on 10 felony counts of possession of stolen property this week after cops say he stole thousands of bee hives worth nearly $1 million.
Pavel Tveretinov was booked into the Fresno County Jail on Monday by sheriff's deputies who allege the Sacramento man stole hives from California as well as other states over the last few years.
Investigators also believe that, in addition to keeping some of the bees himself, the 51-year-old sent some of the approximately 2,500 stolen hives to farms in multiple states, where renters paid him fees in exchange for the borrowed pollinators.


All told, police believe Tveretinov stole around $875,000 worth of bees over the last three years.
Tveretinov was initially booked into the Madera County Jail with a bail of $10,000 in April. He later posted the necessary bond and was released.
"[Investigators] found stolen bee hives at two other locations in Fresno County," the Fresno County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Facebook. "It is believed Tveretinov is responsible for stealing these hives during the last three years from various parts of California. He would then redistribute them to different places in California, as well as other states, and collect money for the rental of the hives."


All of the charges against Tveretinov are related to the allegations he stole beehives.
His bail was set at $67,500.
The hives that police say they've recovered belong to Buzz Beekeeping of Springfield, Mo. The company, like many other out-of-state beekeepers, contract with California growers to help with the pollination of their crops.
Almond trees are most popular for this service in the Central Valley.
Detectives have contacted several owners of the hives and made arrangements to return them.


One victim traveled all the way from Montana to collect his bee boxes. That man, beekeeper Lloyd Cunniff, told KGPE-TV he was all but financially ruined when his bees vanished from a California orchard in 488 beehives he had taken to California to pollinate almond trees.
Cops say this remains an ongoing investigation and detectives continue to work to identify other victims and return their property to them.




https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...s-of-bee-hives

[Don Fernando]

I have a blackberry plant in my garden and its humming with bees now. There are regular size bees but also a few huge ones. What's the difference (obviously the size!), different breed?

[massphatness]

My guess is different types of bees.

In my yard, I see bumble bees, carpenter bees, and yellow jackets in addition to my honey bees.

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by massphatness

My guess is different types of bees.

In my yard, I see bumble bees, carpenter bees, and yellow jackets in addition to my honey bees.

Can we get the honey bees to kill them all by mid-July?

[AdamJoshua]

Originally Posted by icehog3

Can we get the honey bees to kill them all by mid-July?

Well, Tom, I just read this article, seems there are some cockroaches that might well pollenate flowers, you could raise those then have them fight the bees, winner takes all.

link to story

[CigarNut]

Originally Posted by AdamJoshua

Well, Tom, I just read this article, seems there are some cockroaches that might well pollenate flowers, you could raise those then have them fight the bees, winner takes all.

link to story

Way to bring us all down, Adam! Cockroaches! Reall??

[AdamJoshua]

Originally Posted by CigarNut

Way to bring us all down, Adam! Cockroaches! Reall??

Well I am in FL and it's pollen related!

[AdamJoshua]

Interesting article on bee population and the little tidbit that every three bites of food, van Engelsdorp said, is directly or indirectly pollinated by honeybees, who pollinate about $15 billion worth of U.S. crops each year. Almonds, for instance, are completely reliant on honeybee pollination.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...are/348418001/

[massphatness]

Been a couple weeks since I put the second brood box on, and I wanted to check the progress on it. You can see in the video below that the girls are busy working on the frames, but I was a little concerned to see the uneven comb that's being built. Look at the blob of comb creeping up between the second & third frames. That shouldn't really be happening with the types of frames I'm using. They should be drawing out comb from the frame instead of building free form.




My concern turned to a bit of panic when I tried to lift the top box off in order to inspect the bottom box. The bees had attached comb between the frames in the two boxes, and as I lifted the top box, frames from the bottom box started to pull up with it. A little sample of what I'm talking about in the video below.




This isn't a situation I was prepared for; nor was it one that I had even heard about. Placed a call to a bee keeper in the area, and he was able to talk me off the cliff.

My basic issue was one of frame spacing. The ten frames in the box need to be packed tightly together. I had inadvertently left some space, and the bees did what bees do when confronted with open space: they filled it.

The remedy was fairly involved, and unfortunately was very much a two person job that didn't allow for photos & video. Basically, Grace tilted the second hive box slightly so I could get a hive tool in to push the frame in the bottom box down, breaking the comb as I did so. Once I negotiated that over each of the affected frames, the top box lifted easily off of the hive. Then while Grace applied copious amounts of smoke to both me & the bees, I scraped the broken comb from the top of the frames in the bottom box to dissuade the bees from recreating that situation.

Once the bottom box was cleaned up, I worked on breaking up the free form comb in the top box to the extent where it allowed me to pack the frames closer together. Now wholly sure that part worked, but I'll do another check in a couple weeks and report back on the progress.

[icehog3]

Hope you have it fixed, Vin. I don't want pissed off bees in July.

[CigarNut]

Pissed off or not, the bees will find you, Tom!

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by CigarNut

Pissed off or not, the bees will find you, Tom!

I will fear not the bees. I will embrace them. Figuratively, of course.

[Mikepd]

Vin looking good! That comb up top is such a beautiful pure white, that'll be packed with honey before you know it (maybe even before July). Don't fret over the attached combs and free form, like your other keeper friend said, too much space. You may want to get a very wide thin metal putty scraper to fit the width of the hive. You can make a tool too with some dowels and piano wire in place of the scraper. If propulous abounds they'll likely rebuild between the boxes again. As far as the free form comb, if it really is a pest, just cut it and rubberband or string into empty frames. I like the string because the workers will chew it and remove it once all the comb is reattached to the frame. They are pretty smart typically and after a few corrections to them, they'll learn to do it your way so the comb doesn't continue to get disturbed.

How's the queen doing? Any queen cells yet in the bottom box? Also is your queen still relaying eggs in the hatched brood comb? If you find some cells before hatching you might be able to split off a small group into a second hive if you were daring enough!

Be happy you didn't get a flow hive if you ever were thinking of it, there seems to be an issue where queens are passing their queen separator and laying brood in the mechanical comb meant for honey and rendering it an overly expensive plastic frame.

[IBQTEE1]

Love the pants in the socks. I remember wearing mine like that in middle school. Vin looks like you are bringing it back.