New Hobby: Bee Keeping

[massphatness]

It opened right to Cold Sores & Genital Herpes ... go figure

[bonjing]

[markem]

Mickey Dees is also into bees!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=lng4n3FI7SQ

[CigarNut]

Very cool!

[massphatness]

We pulled the honey supers off a couple weeks ago. I think I got over-excited about our honey haul from earlier in the year, and I put three supers on after we had extracted instead of just going with one and adding as needed. The bees ended up working a little bit in one box, a little bit in another and a little bit in the third. As a result, we only ended up with about 12 lbs of honey. Most of the frames were only partially built out. No biggie. I don't know what I would have done if had gotten a lot more honey anyway.

The previous couple years I haven't done a fall feeding and thought I'd give it a try. I know the bees haven't starved out the past two years because there's been a good amount of honey in the frames when I've popped them open in the spring. Had the colony died of starvation, there wouldn't be anything in the frames. Still, better safe than sorry. The feed is a sugar syrup in the ratio of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. (Interesting tidbit: a container of water weighs about the same when it's filled with sugar; not exact but close enough to make the syrup.)

At a 2:1 ratio, the syrup promotes honey production which will give the ladies extra food stores for the winter. In the spring, the ratio is 1:1, and that promotes brood rearing. No idea why.

I'm using an entrance feeder. The feed drips into it & the bees crawl in to slurp up the sugary goodness. Will be interesting to see how quickly they go through it.

[IBQTEE1]

Very cool. Thanks for the update.

[icehog3]

Slurping up sugary goodness.

Bees got a good life.

[BigAsh]

Originally Posted by icehog3

Slurping up sugary goodness.

Bees got a good life.

.....though short-lived at Casa Stolo....

[AdamJoshua]

is it keto-friendly?

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by BigAsh

.....though short-lived at Casa Stolo....

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Littleton?

[markem]

Originally Posted by icehog3

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Littleton?

Whoa! Major shrinkage.

[357]

Hey Vin, any colonies make it through the winter? I'm 0-fer again. I had 5 going into fall, 1 I was certain had no chance but I didn't want to go through the trouble of combining it with another. All but 1 was dead by December 1st. That one died before it warmed up in late January. I don't have any packages on order yet. I might take this summer off.

[AdamJoshua]

Bee killers!!!!


You two are like the NYC of covid for bees.

[357]

Originally Posted by AdamJoshua

Bee killers!!!!


You two are like the NYC of covid for bees.

True but, it's not just us. Northern states lose 30-80% of colonies annually thanks to Varroa mites and the 2-3 dozen pathogens they introduce to the bees, not to mention the parasitic feeding itself damages them.

Northern bees hatched in October have to live until April or May before they can bring in new pollen and nectar, which is needed to raise new brood. Southern "winter" bees only have to live from Nov/Dec until Late Jan or Feb. So they suffer the same parasitic problems but their winter bees don't have to survive as long so their losses are much less. At least that's the prevailing theory.

My friend who has been keeping bees in Michigan since the 70s told me losing 1 of 20 colonies was unusual, worthy of inspecting to see if you could find out why. Once varroa mites showed up everything changed.

[357]

Hey Vin, I wanted to resurrect this thread to see if you have any bees this year. I took 2020 off then had them again for 2021 but got super busy with the prep and sale of our house. My neighbor finished things up for me, harvested what there was and still has a few of my hive boxes.

I was hoping you had bees for 2022 and might be willing to share some news/pics. Once we find a place to settle I'll be getting my hives out of storage to start up again.

[AdamJoshua]

Originally Posted by 357

Hey Vin, I wanted to resurrect this thread to see if you have any bees this year. I took 2020 off then had them again for 2021 but got super busy with the prep and sale of our house. My neighbor finished things up for me, harvested what there was and still has a few of my hive boxes.

I was hoping you had bees for 2022 and might be willing to share some news/pics. Once we find a place to settle I'll be getting my hives out of storage to start up again.

The bees started committing suicide in the truck on the way to Vin's as soon as they realized where they were heading, better to do it quick and get it over with.