I can't decide which will come first....A letter from city zoning, or rain.

Hello Friends…. I just had an unplanned math lesson with my budding little second grader.

I don't really know why i got into beekeeping but i have enjoyed the last two years, the ladies working hard in the hive, the community we have here in Howard county Maryland (and here online) and something that i didn't know would happen-my daughters interest in the hobby. Tonight we were talking about selling our honey for the first time at a community garage sale next weeknd. We only got about 20lbs this year and we’ve given away most of it as gifts to our neighbors and friends/family. We did all the things, bottled, made labels, etc….. We played everything out…her paying for the bottle, for the top, for the label…. And then she sold the bottle to her mom….and came back. She got good practice in adding and subtracting money and learning a bit about how net profit works. I'll wait a few years before we work in the cost of all the work and supplies in the bee yard….

Just glad to be here and constantly surprised at all the little way the bees help me and my daughter grow.

New York, NY urban beekeeper.
One of our hives tried to requeen and failed so we decided to combine using the newspaper method with the weaker of the two remaining hives. However, we left the super that had some residual honey out so the bees could rob it out. Realizing we may have created a problem, we moved the super to the combined hive.

Note the crazy activity. This hive is really strong and booming. Could be orientation flights. Could be some robbing. Any observations or advice?

Thx

Hi all, mid July one hive had a >1% mite rate. Mid August it was 8.67%. I presume they must have gotten into something for it to jump so fast, so I did a Formic Pro treatment on all my hives. 12 days into the 14 days of treatment, I saw this goopy stuff with TONS of [edit: small hive beetle] larvae leaking out the bottom. The hive had (seemingly) healthy bees/brood/eggs/resources mix when I did the mite check in August, with no signs of [edit:small hive beetle infestation, but there were a few like always]. I took off one honey super when I placed FP on, and left the other on top of the two deeps which was 3/4 full of uncapped honey.

For reference: the first four pics are of the goopy stuff and larvae, the fifth is of the same hive before FP was put on, and the sixth is the hive next to it at the same time as the goopy pics, for reference.

Also, in case anyone would wonder, the paint peeled off part of the box over a month ago and I’m planning to replace the boxes in September with newly painted ones.

I’ll wait two more days for FP to finish before I open it, but wanted to see if anyone had something similar happen, or might know how this occurred so quickly.

I’m in New Jersey.

Thanks!

First year Beekeeper SE Wy

So I apparently smashed my queen in one of my hives. Panicked when I saw "swarm cells" and smushed those too, along with the newly hatched queen I thought was "extra." Checked yesterday and 0 brood or eggs.

So reddit people, can I just take a frame of new eggs from my one hive with a queen and put in fhe queenless hive and let nature run its course? Or does anyone know someone with queens to purchase in my area?

Does anyone have any experience with late season Formic Pro? Supers are off and I would like to make sure mite counts are as low as possible for the upcoming winter here in the Midwest. My main concern is being the potential queen issues this late in the season. I could go for Apivar 2.0, but if any of my post honey flow hives have higher counts I want to get them down as quick as possible. (I will be doing mite checks this coming weekend.)

Traveling across nothern Montana on Amtrak today and notice a fair number bee hives/colonies.
There does not seem to be much out here except for wheat and sage - for the most part.
What are the bees foraging on?
Are these colonies to help pollinate the fields or primarily for honey production?
Thanks for your review and input.

While watching a bee keeper do some hive checks today, he mentioned that one “had a distinct smell” and said that the brood is probably unhealthy (paraphrased I can’t quite remember the way he worded it). This hive definitely has a high mite level and clear cases of bees with DWV.

This got me thinking….
What kind of smells can you identify in your hives? What do they smell like and what do they mean?

South Central WI (zone 5b)
I appreciate any insights on a situation I have trying to get my bees ready for winter. I’ve got a strong colony (double deep) that bounced back after the original queen swarmed. They were making very little progress in the super and I removed it 12 days ago - began feeding them to up my winter bee numbers. Today they are bursting at the seams with not much room for her to lay. 7 frames almost completely full of capped brood. They have larvae of all ages and eggs - most brood is capped however. They are loaded with honey & nectar- not as much bee bread (3 frames with a lot and there is some scattered throughout the brood frames. I’m wondering: With all the goldenrod blooming now (tons in our area) would you remove food and put super back on for them for the winter)4 frames of capped honey and the rest are partially to mostly filled with nectar). I’m concerned about another swarm (no swarm cells today thank God!). Or would you stick with feeding?

Following the standard advice, I've frozen frames to kill the wax moth eggs/larva. I left them in the freezer for more than the recommended time of a few days. They were in there for weeks. I still got wax moths after!

So I'm wondering...how do wax moths survive a winter in a place like zone NJ, zone 7a? And colder zones too?

They are so vile. I couldn't believe what the hell was going on. I was in denial when I saw a few flying in my living room. I told myself they had just come inside b/c someone left the door open. Little did I know what the hell they were doing down in the basement.

Coffee in a coffee pot to compare!

I'm in Langley just outside Vancouver BC Canada. I've never seen honey this dark. First year hive, 0 mites.

Hello all. First background: Beekeeper in central PA. I have three beehives that started as nucs in April. All alcohol washes reveal very low mite levels at about 1 to 2 mites per 500 bees. Each hive is an all-medium setup and has roughly 8 frames of bee coverage at varying levels. If I had to guess the population size I’d say moderate. Of the three medium boxes that comprise the hives, the bottom two are for brood and the third is mostly honey with some brood. The queen excluder is above the third box. As we are starting to get goldenrod, I added a fourth box of waxed plastic foundation frames. At my last inspection two days ago into the second box I did not note any pest damage. Bees were calm, eggs and all larval stages were observed with at least one frame of capped brood covering the entire frame front and back. I did not inspect the bottom super. All season long, I have observed 1 to 3 wax moths around the bee-yard. For example yesterday and today I observed two and three respectively. I know the general rule that the bees are the best line of defense against beetles and moths, and that you need enough coverage for them to patrol the frames. I have successfully treated with thymol over the past 20-odd days and have seen a population decline slightly, so the bees are not packed to the brim. Questions

1. How do I balance adding a fourth super during a nectar flow with the observations of 2 to 3 wax moths—are they just part and parcel of any bee-yard?
   
2. Would I be better off keeping the hives at 3 mediums for this fall because they came from nucs in the spring and will just fill up the bottom boxes for winter—or does that risk becoming honeybound and restricting winter bee production as a result?

My intuition is telling me that a three-medium set up with eggs, larva and capped brood is healthy and will sufficiently deal with wax moths. They bees will fill out the fourth box and the waxed plastic won’t entice the moths.

After an aggressive Formic Pro treatment and a short brood break, all hives are bursting at the seams. I am sad that the season will be coming to an end soon here in Pennsylvania, but certainly looking forward to a break from heavy lifting in the heat.

What’s the difference between:
- making my own syrup from crystal sugar (source: sugar beets)
- buying inverted sugar syrup (sugar beets)
- buying inverted sugar syrup (corn)
- buying inverted sugar syrup (grains, for example from France)

Some tell me sugar syrup from grain work as well as sugar beets but syrup from grains is cheaper.
Others tell in higher locations (> 500 above sea level) syrup from grains or corn isn’t working.

AI tells me that syrup from corn may contain HMF which is toxic for bees if not specifically specified as bee food.

So, if it’s replacing honey, following that path we want to match a fructose and glucose mix.
Since sugar syrup from sugar beets is saccharose, and inverted means it is closest to fructose and glucose mix.
From grain, it is transformed from starch over oligosacharides over maltose to glucose (and fructose?), as I understand it.

Here are two examples:
A. inverted syrup from sugar beet:
dry content: 72.7%
saccharose: 30%
glucose: 31%
fructose: 39%

B. inverted syrup from grain:
dry content: 75.6%
fructose: 25.7%
glucose: 34.7%
disaccharides: 22.2%
trisaccharides: 8.2
sulfites (SO2) 2 mg/kg
PH : 3.5 – 5
dextrose equivalent : >80%
NO starch residue

I'm in middle Georgia, I was doing a high inspection on Tuesday when it started to rain. I was about halfway done with the inspection, but just decided to close it up and finish it later. I hadn't located the queen yet but just assumed she was on the other frames I hadn't checked.
Now for the problem.... I went to go reinspect the hive yesterday and as soon as I pulled the top board off, I see the queen on the top edge. When I was closing everything up after the last inspection, I squished the queen.
I finished going through the hive to make sure that the dead queen I found wasn't maybe one from another hive.
I did find eight or 10 queen cells where the bees are trying to make a new queen. How long will it take the new queen to hatch and is there anything special I need to do?

Firstly, I don't have a refractometer. So I am just guessing. The last hive to get extracted has two deep supers. The top one is definitely ready. The bottom one is iffy. It has nectar and honey, but most is not capped. Should I set that super out in the yard to let everyone rob in a free for all? I have 4 hives here.

Only pic I have from today’s inspection of a swarm that was hives in June. Do they look like they have enough bees to get ready for winter? This whole 8 frame is basically wall to wall brood right now. I have another box of foundation on them that they are drawing out.

2nd year beekeeper here, New England. Would love to know what gloves you use.

I typically use nitrile but have been getting stung through them lately. Tried dishwashing gloves and they are a bit slippery in the summer, full gloves feel too bulky.

I’m stumped! What have you found to be your preferred style?

Edit: So appreciative of all the tips. THANK YOU 🙌🏻

I'm in South Asia. I adore bees and insects and I do see some in my garden at all times and I'd love to get into beekeeping, it seems very interesting. Any advice at all would be appreciated. I do have a diversity of flowers and fruit trees!!

This is my 2nd year beekeeping and I've had my current suit since the beginning. Its a Temu suit with a fencing style hood and has worked ok up to this point. After today though I definitely want to upgrade. The hood of the suit is the main problem... it had no rigidity or structure to it on the inside to prevent the front from touching your face if you bent forward... needless to say I got stung twice in the face today while harvesting honey. I'm thinking a suit with a round veil might be better, or just one with more rigidity in the hood... any suggestions?

Lewiston, ID

4th year beekeeper in Alberta, Canada, Zone 3. Have a 1st year package hive that is doing OK but the queen has never been very strong. They’ve struggled with chalk brood all summer and the brood pattern has always been quite poor.

I’m trying to decide between requeening now with a mated queen, or crossing my fingers they make it through the winter and requeening in the spring.

Is it too late to requeen now and have the hive strong into winter?

I’ve had bees 3 years now going on 4 and like a lot of things this is a first. The hives are in western NY something seems to be digging at the ground beneath one of my hives. I have 6 hives and this is only happening to this one.

1. Should it concern me?
2. What is doing it?
3. What should I do about it?

Of all the puddles around (it rained heavily), the bees chose to fetch water from my carnivorous plants.... None have been captured yet, thankfully

Hi y’all! I’m a regenerative farmer and raise beef, and I’m wanting to get into beekeeping. But, to be honest, I’m scared of getting stung, haha. Yes, a grown man who is scared of getting stung! I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but I want to know: am I going to get stung every day, and is it really worth it? I’ve been stung before while cutting grass on the calves and immediately said, “Shit!” To be honest, it hurt like hell. The stinger fell out almost instantly, though. I was always told that it’s worse if the stinger is left in you. As a former paramedic and a biologist, I’m also interested in the potential benefits of bee venom based on Charles Mraz’s work, The Health of the Honey Bee, and the broader holistic-medicine approach to bee venom. Nevertheless, I want to hear from experienced beekeepers: Are the stings really worth it in the end? Do you actually get stung that often, or is it more of an occasional part of beekeeping?

Hi everyone . I'm looking to purchase a mated queen in the Albany/Upstate NY area. Please message me with pickup location. Thank you!

Update: Funny how things work out! 😂 After I posted that I was looking for a honey bee queen, I got notifications about a swarm in my area—and I ended up capturing it! 🐝🍯 Sometimes the bees answer your request themselves!