I know this is difficult to hear (as we tend to ignore affirmations), but you are a treasure, Joe. You have made me a far better beekeeper with your insights. My deepest thanks, good sir!
Good advice Joe. I never thought of the smell of the paint causing the workers to kill the queen. Also on your mention of drones, I've had about 3 colonies that have had drones since around the end of Feb or the first of March. That is way early for my area. I am close to being about as far north as you. It was cold and the bees were still clustering but they had drones. One of your diversified queens has had a huge population all winter but has been building brood so hard and fast that are getting over populated and the dandelions are barely blooming. I started that hive in late fall and there have been tons of bees in there all winter. The box is running over with bees now. She has 3 boxes now. I don't want her to swarm out.I want split around May 1st but may have do it sooner.
The weather has been roller coaster for us down here in Texas. 80's in January and February, lots of early nectar and pollen. tons of early swarms, and then cold fronts in March, then back warm, then cold. It's hard to keep the girls in boxes and out of the trees with weather like this!
I've had no luck in moist wintered Tennessee with double screen boards. The heat rises and at 0-40° at 1700ft and rapid temp changes create more moisture on the inside. I had 4 screened boards installed this winter, and when it was time to check the bees after the cold snap, ALL my doubled hives minus 1, the bottom colonies froze, trying to get through the double screen to follow the heat. What the Hell?! This doesn't work every time everywhere, but that's what they all say to do. Luckily, I saved one in December, which went queenless and down to one frame already, a thousand or so. I babied them in my house all winter. They are quite fond of me, those winter girls. They jump on my hand and arms. They stand on their hind legs and play fight other bees. I have been their daddy for 3 months. Not one sting if I tried. Unbelievable. I stole a queen 2 weeks ago from another hive and added her. Still no issues with me opening and playing every day. I'm trying to touch the queen several times daily as well. I mean, like 5 times a day. She's still laying and the other hive requeened already. I'm sure this queen will come around shortly and climb onto my hand like the others. That overwintered queen will become my new mating queen. The goal is to have an entire apiary that knows me by my pheremone, visual appearance, and my voice, and they get passed from hive to hive as I move bees around and continue man handling these girls. I mean, I can push, thump, and grab these bees... nothing. In my kitchen, I can open the feed hole and look in. They usually just look at me, but many times, they fly out onto my hands and then climb back in the hole. Stupid pet tricks.
I no your a seasoned bee keepers and I know you’ve been using those blue sky boxes for at least 3years was wondering what you liked about them. I live in central Texas where the weather is a little warmer. Thanks
Just did some Demaree splits last Friday. Always hear to pull queen cells 8 days later, but weather is going to be 33 degrees for a low on Thursday/Friday. Would I be good to wait a few more days after for it to warm up? I'm in Southern IN.
I was expecting to have a swarm here in mid March like in 2020, but I haven't. Perhaps I'm getting better at management 😂. I did lose one split, we had a night get much colder than our forecast was calling for.
Queen candy is made of inverted or Karo syrup and powdered sugar. Make it dry enough so it's not sticky. It is used to put in the end of queen cage for slow release.
Dear Little Bit Honey Man, when I open the hive if bees are fanning at a very low frequency, when there is no particular reason to fan, in NorthEast this weekend, does that mean that they may not have a queen? I say that because I collected a football size dead bees that dies in one week, still lots of bees on top frames though. When I opened the hive I see abandoned brood from most likely to cold spells after 60-70s a few weeks ago in Buffalo NY. I also had to close up the bottom entrance to stop robbing. You seem to have a lot of experience without going too far into business side of bee keeping. low frequency fanning, I thought I saw it in the past when bees have queen problem, they lazily walk around etc. I am not saying they are walking around lazily this time since there is no nectar anywhere anyway.
The main thing is the temperature usually if it's in the 40s you're all right but that can vary if it's a real strong hive or weak hive strong hive can get by with doing earlier a week hive you got to wait longer
I quit marking, 2 out of three were disappear or killed, i was marking, leaving in a cage till it dried, setting on top of frames to let bees get use to her, then release and watch and she seem fine, but next inspection....no queen? 2 out of 3
You have alot of hives so you surely get a lot of stings . You need a helper to smoke the bees while you focus on all that work and a comfortable bee suit in my opinion. It sure would make it easier and more fun. ( in my opinion)
Thanks for the info Joe. This is something I personally experienced late last year. I've also heard other beekeepers mention it. @sawmillcharliesbeefarm Personally, I've decided to only mark the queens I raise or ones I want to remove later.
