I started two new beehives

[Sloppy Mexican]

My wife keeps bees, last summer a hive split and I had no idea it was hanging under a low branch.

I drove under it with my lawnmower when the assault occurred. I took over 100 direct hits to my neck, face and ears. It was a miserable night sweating that venom out.

my wife usually sucks the venom out for me.

 

[imprimis]

my wife usually sucks the venom out for me.

My first boss called it "getting detoxified".

 

[Sloppy Mexican]

Quick update for the board; I’ve added a third hive. This is a standard langstroth hive. I purchased a 5 frame hive nucleus that should have a nice head start.

I’ll be checking the top bar hives tomorrow now that the bad weather has cleared. Hoping to see some solid progress.

 

[Renegadenole]

Quick update for the board; I’ve added a third hive. This is a standard langstroth hive. I purchased a 5 frame hive nucleus that should have a nice head start.

I’ll be checking the top bar hives tomorrow now that the bad weather has cleared. Hoping to see some solid progress.
View attachment 19402

Love the stick entrance reducer on the langstroth, real old school. But the long hives look gay as shit. I imagine it’s something a person would see on tictocs.

 

[Sloppy Mexican]

Love the stick entrance reducer on the langstroth, real old school. But the long hives look gay as shit. I imagine it’s something a person would see on tictocs.

I’ll be sure to let my kids know you think their paintings look gay as shit.

 

[GarnetPild]

I’ll be sure to let my kids know you think their paintings look gay as shit.

Looks good to me! I have a question I'm sure you get asked all the time...how often do you get stung, and if you wear one, how well do the bee suits work? I'd love to get a hive one day, but am allergic to their stings. Never had a serious issue, but have had some wicked swelling at the sting site.

The earlier poster talking about hundreds of stings had me squirming, lol. I got stung 3 times on my face in junior high school, doing yard work. One eye swelled completely shut, the other about half. That was a scary sight to wake up & unexpectedly see in the mirror!

 

[imprimis]

Looks good to me! I have a question I'm sure you get asked all the time...how often do you get stung, and if you wear one, how well do the bee suits work? I'd love to get a hive one day, but am allergic to their stings. Never had a serious issue, but have had some wicked swelling at the sting site.

The earlier poster talking about hundreds of stings had me squirming, lol. I got stung 3 times on my face in junior high school, doing yard work. One eye swelled completely shut, the other about half. That was a scary sight to wake up & unexpectedly see in the mirror!

I have gotten stung several times through a bee suit. It's not a routine occurrence but does happen usually after the homeowner has tried on their own to kill the bees which pisses them off and makes them aggressive.

 

[GarnetPild]

I have gotten stung several times through a bee suit. It's not a routine occurrence but does happen usually after the homeowner has tried on their own to kill the bees which pisses them off and makes them aggressive.

Do you use smoke when collecting the honey, or tending you your hives?

 

[imprimis]

Do you use smoke when collecting the honey, or tending you your hives?

No. I'm not keeping bees. I'm eliminating them from structures. I own two pest control companies.

 

[GarnetPild]

No. I'm not keeping bees. I'm eliminating them from structures. I own two pest control companies.

I gotcha...think I mixed up posters. It was @Sloppy Mexican who had the hives.

 

[RHT 3]

We had 350 bee hives growing up. Hauled them all over Florida. Miami, Orlando, FML.

Very hard on your back, and do not miss getting honey off the hives, onto a truck, then extracting the honey. But got damn it made me tough.

As a certified OG beekeeper OP, I am happy for you.

But those first two hives are gay as shit. No offense.

 

[imprimis]

I gotcha...think I mixed up posters. It was @Sloppy Mexican who had the hives.

My preference is to remove the bees but few, if any, people want to undertake the expense. They just want the bees gone because they are stinging people or coming into their houses. I try to convince them to locate a beekeeper who will remove the colony. Unfortunately, there aren't many in Dallas. State law also has some restrictions on what can been done with bee colonies.

 

[Shaun52]

Quick update for your Friday morning. I inspected both hives yesterday afternoon and as usual, I was amazed to see how quickly bees work. Both queens had been released from their cages and were already actively laying eggs in the brand new comb. These are going to be good bees - they’ve already build a good bit of new comb since being introduced to a brand new hive on Sunday.

When you purchase a package of bees, which is a screen box with a can of sugar water for food (pic below), the newly mated queen comes in a separate cage to give the workers time to accept her as their new queen. This cage is small, about 1x3 inches and is sealed with a candy plug. It takes the bees about 4 to 5 days to eat through this candy and release their new queen. This gives them time to build new comb so she can immediately lay new brood eggs. It’s basically a natural time release. Pretty damn cool.
View attachment 18383View attachment 18384

Is it to late in season to start this?

 

[Sloppy Mexican]

Looks good to me! I have a question I'm sure you get asked all the time...how often do you get stung, and if you wear one, how well do the bee suits work? I'd love to get a hive one day, but am allergic to their stings. Never had a serious issue, but have had some wicked swelling at the sting site.

The earlier poster talking about hundreds of stings had me squirming, lol. I got stung 3 times on my face in junior high school, doing yard work. One eye swelled completely shut, the other about half. That was a scary sight to wake up & unexpectedly see in the mirror!

I haven’t been stung too many times over the years, and when I did I was in a hurry and made a mistake. The bees I work with are generally dry chill and just buzz around me while I work. I do light the smoker most of the time just to be on the safe side so I’m sure that’s part of the reason they are generally not aggressive. I also just wear a head veil, the jackets and suits are ridiculously hot.

 

[Sloppy Mexican]

Is it to late in season to start this?

Not with a nuc. The late cold snap we had delayed delivery.

 

[HunterPKP]

No. I'm not keeping bees. I'm eliminating them from structures. I own two pest control companies.

I used to sell pest control chemicals back in the day. You guys do pretty well.

What's the largest hive you've removed or had a beekeeper remove? My cousin had one removed from the attic of his cabin in South Carolina that they estimated had around 50-75k bees in it. Said it was massive.

 

[GarnetPild]

I used to sell pest control chemicals back in the day. You guys do pretty well.

What's the largest hive you've removed or had a beekeeper remove? My cousin had one removed from the attic of his cabin in South Carolina that they estimated had around 50-75k bees in it. Said it was massive.

Check this shit out!

 

[imprimis]

I used to sell pest control chemicals back in the day. You guys do pretty well.

What's the largest hive you've removed or had a beekeeper remove? My cousin had one removed from the attic of his cabin in South Carolina that they estimated had around 50-75k bees in it. Said it was massive.

Go back and read one of my other posts. It describes a massive bee hive I dealt with once. This one had more than 75K many bees. It was so big that once I started knocking down the ceiling bees went everywhere. I had to get my fogging machine and fog the apartment unit to kill them. If a beekeeper gets involved I don't hang around to watch although it would be interesting to see how they capture the queen.

 

[GarnetPild]

Go back and read one of my other posts. It describes a massive bee hive I dealt with once. This one had more than 75K many bees. It was so big that once I started knocking down the ceiling bees went everywhere. I had to get my fogging machine and fog the apartment unit to kill them. If a beekeeper gets involved I don't hang around to watch although it would be interesting to see how they capture the queen.

Since this seems like the crootn bee thread now, and you seem knowledgeable...have we figured out why bee populations have been droping so drastically in recent years? I remember hearing alot about that, but not sure I remember if it was known what the cause was.

 

[Cletusnow]

Now that Puppy has flown the nest, it’s time to restart one of my favorite hobbies. I just received two new boxes of bees with mated queens for my top-bar hives. These hives are different from hives most people are aware of, bought a kit and put them together. I also built the roof for each and had my kids paint an original design on each so the bees would recognize home.

I’ll try to keep the board updated on the bees progress. Here’s a pic of my setup.
View attachment 17995

Have an uncle that ships hives all over US for pollination. Builds his own boxes and buys queens online. Up to 600 hives at this point. My dad is getting into it as a hobby got his 1st hive couple months ago.

 

[imprimis]

Since this seems like the crootn bee thread now, and you seem knowledgeable...have we figured out why bee populations have been droping so drastically in recent years? I remember hearing alot about that, but not sure I remember if it was known what the cause was.

https://bee-health.extension.org/what-is-causing-the-decline-of-honey-bee-populations/

 

[GarnetPild]

https://bee-health.extension.org/what-is-causing-the-decline-of-honey-bee-populations/

 

[sclaw03]

More info on my newbee experience:

So I literally just left the post office. My original shipment of bees in March took over 6 days to get from Atlanta to Chas. So 90% of the bees were dead including the queen and crew.

The seller, Barnyard Bees, was awesome and they sent another full package to me in their April gathering. This time, with the exact same shipping, as well as the exact same packaging, it took less than 24 hours. They were mailed on a Mon and were in the hive by noon on Tues. Not a single dead bee in the entire bunch. From what I can tell the hive looks to be thriving. Queen was out in 4 days. They seem to be absolutely draining the top feeder as well as having a ton of traffic through the front opening. Another week goes by and there was already some capped brood. I was able to spot the queen working even though I only pulled a couple of the frames up from side.

Barnyard Bees said their claims for this usually fail. I tried to do my part showing up as an angry customer towards the post office w/ both of the packages side by side to let the post office know this was 100% on them. The reason I was up there today is bc the post office sent me a letter yesterday saying they needed to examine the package or they'd just deny the claim. So I was up there immediately to let them know how it was 100% on them.

So I wanted to give a shout out to Barnyard bees bc they did right by me and I hope the claim goes through so they don't have to eat that loss bc I'm sure my package wasn't the only one to get screwed like that:

 

[Renegadenole]

More info on my newbee experience:

So I literally just left the post office. My original shipment of bees in March took over 6 days to get from Atlanta to Chas. So 90% of the bees were dead including the queen and crew.

The seller, Barnyard Bees, was awesome and they sent another full package to me in their April gathering. This time, with the exact same shipping, as well as the exact same packaging, it took less than 24 hours. They were mailed on a Mon and were in the hive by noon on Tues. Not a single dead bee in the entire bunch. From what I can tell the hive looks to be thriving. Queen was out in 4 days. They seem to be absolutely draining the top feeder as well as having a ton of traffic through the front opening. Another week goes by and there was already some capped brood. I was able to spot the queen working even though I only pulled a couple of the frames up from side.

Barnyard Bees said their claims for this usually fail. I tried to do my part showing up as an angry customer towards the post office w/ both of the packages side by side to let the post office know this was 100% on them. The reason I was up there today is bc the post office sent me a letter yesterday saying they needed to examine the package or they'd just deny the claim. So I was up there immediately to let them know how it was 100% on them.

So I wanted to give a shout out to Barnyard bees bc they did right by me and I hope the claim goes through so they don't have to eat that loss bc I'm sure my package wasn't the only one to get screwed like that:
View attachment 19560View attachment 19561View attachment 19562

David at Barnyard Bees seems like a good guy from watching his YouTube channel. Glad he made it right. Hopefully the PO does as well.

 

[grizzle]

Newbee here as well. Just started two nucs, two weeks ago. Purchased from Bob Binnie up at Blue Ridge honey company in Lakemont, GA. Great guy with a lot of experience and stories once you get him started. His YouTube channel is worthwhile- covers everything from bear fencing to wooden ware manufacturing, etc. recently did a video on apitherapy for his shingles.

Have had to add second deeps already. Both grew to seven frames in under a week, and the supers should go on this weekend. Hope to catch the remainder of the current flow.

 

[HunterPKP]

Luckily, it looks like bee populations have stabilized. Here's an article from 2020.

No, we aren't losing all of our honeybees. And neonicotinoid seed coatings aren't driving their health problems—here’s why

The meme targeting neonics with the not-all-that vulnerable honeybee as their symbol is a powerful fund-raising tool for activists.

geneticliteracyproject.org

 

[imprimis]

Luckily, it looks like bee populations have stabilized. Here's an article from 2020.

No, we aren't losing all of our honeybees. And neonicotinoid seed coatings aren't driving their health problems—here’s why

The meme targeting neonics with the not-all-that vulnerable honeybee as their symbol is a powerful fund-raising tool for activists.

geneticliteracyproject.org

When the issue of bees dying due to use of neonicotinoids was first raised many states went on a banning frenzy. Neonics are very good pesticides and are based on nicotine chemistry. Nicotine was perhaps the first pesticide used to kill insects. (Cigar smokers who keep their cigar butts can make a nicotine tea out of them--similar to making sun tea-- and spray it on plants and whatnot. It's fully organic but not very long lasting.)

The link, Common Organic pesticides found "acutely toxic" to Honeybees, was an interesting read. Lots of people are jumping on this organic bandwagon of essential oils use. They too, as the article describes, have their own issues. Lots of people embraced the use of organics without question due to the fearmongering they heard much the same way they have embraced the Wuhan Charlie propaganda.

 

[Joe Kings]

Shit man Ive had my kids going around looking for these and bashing them apart bc bees sting and are a nuisance. So youre saying we shouldnt have been doing that all these years? Great

 

[Peach-head]

I'm amazed at the lack of beekeepers who want to harvest bee colonies. Most people just want bees that invade their homes to be killed. They gag at the costs to remove the colonies containing bees or removing the honeycomb after they have been killed.

You don’t understand why people don’t want a honey bee colony in their walls?

edit: nevemind I get what you’re saying.

 

[Sloppy Mexican]

Sunday evening thread update. I checked the two new hives today and have mostly positive results three weeks in.

Each hive has new comb on about 7-8 bars. The combs vary in size, but each had a nice capped brood pattern, some pollen and even some capped honey. The brood was what I was after, seeing that tells me the queen is active and my hive populations will start to grow rapidly.

One hive had some cross-comb which is the real shortcoming of the top bar hive. Since this is brood comb I decided to leave it alone since I won’t ever harvest honey from these bars. The trials and tribulations of beekeeping right there.

 

[Cre8ive]

Any time I can incorporate a Farley gif, I do so!

As well you should sir. It reminds people that they are not living in a trailer down by the river eating government cheese!

 

[Renegadenole]

Here’s a pic of my hives. The second one from the left came out of winter queenless. I gave them two chances with a new queen but they wouldn't accept her. Been ornery as hell too. I shook them out in the field today. Will need to beg their way into one of the other hives or freeze in 30 something degree weather tonight. The one on the far left is a new nuc. The other two are skrong.

 

[Sloppy Mexican]

View attachment 20817
Here’s a pic of my hives. The second one from the left came out of winter queenless. I gave them two chances with a new queen but they wouldn't accept her. Been ornery as hell too. I shook them out in the field today. Will need to beg their way into one of the other hives or freeze in 30 something degree weather tonight. The one on the far left is a new nuc. The other two are skrong.

Looking good! Where are you located that it’ll be 30 degrees?

 

[GarnetPild]

Looking good! Where are you located that it’ll be 30 degrees?

It didn't get 30-something degrees here in low country South Carolina, but it was 44° at 7:00 this morning. I bet alot of places north of here were in the 30s. Fucking ridiculous for mid-May.

 

[Sloppy Mexican]

It didn't get 30-something degrees here in low country South Carolina, but it was 44° at 7:00 this morning. I bet alot of places north of here were in the 30s. Fucking ridiculous for mid-May.

I’m in Mobile and we had some high 50’s. Pretty crazy.

 

[Renegadenole]

Looking good! Where are you located that it’ll be 30 degrees?

West Central Ohio. We had a solid frost Tuesday morning. Forecast starting to turn though. Finally.

 

[Renegadenole]

I plan to split my two strong hives later this month. Might try rearing my own queens for the first time as well.
It’s a fun hobby. I wind up with way too much honey. Wife sold a couple 5 gallons on the Facebook deal. We give a lot away to friends, family and tenants.
Traded some for half split back in mead. Made some mead of my own as well.

 

[GarnetPild]

I plan to split my two strong hives later this month. Might try rearing my own queens for the first time as well.
It’s a fun hobby. I wind up with way too much honey. Wife sold a couple 5 gallons on the Facebook deal. We give a lot away to friends, family and tenants.
Traded some for half split back in mead. Made some mead of my own as well.

How was the mead? Never had that before.

 

[Renegadenole]

How was the mead? Never had that before.

It was okay. Pretty sweet. I enjoy more of a dry red wine. I’ve made my own mead that was dry but it’s not very compelling over a grape based wine. Just my 2 cents. The females in my family tend to love it though.

 

[Renegadenole]

Pic from just a couple hours ago. I added a second brood box to the nuc. The third box above the top board is for a feeder.
You can see the blocked entrance on the second hive. Some bitches are still trying to get back in. Most have assimilate to other hives.