Bees 2022

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
I started with 2 Italian Nucs three years ago. The end of that first year those 2 nucs turned into two double deep 10s and a double nuc.
The three wintered over just fine. Those three turned into (6) 10 frame hives 2-4 boxes high and a handful of nucs the second year. I gave (2) double 10 frame hives to my brother in Philly, did some splits to try to keep them from swarming, then crushed some queens and combined them in the late fall. That got me back down to 3 hives and 2 nucs for last winter. So far it looks like all five have made it and I already split one nuc. I should have some Queen Cells in the works, and can probably do some more splitting later this week and add a QC to the other half of the split hives if it looks like the extra room I gave them came too late.
 

Lastfling

Six Pointer
Here’s a good guide to activities around the hive(s) in March.

Dr. Buddy's Beekeeping Calendar for the NC Piedmont

MARCH

Brood nest expansion vs. swarm preps / swarms (last 2 weeks)

First week (> 60° mid-day):

Remove empty hive bodies and jar feeders from tops of hives if present
Quickly check brood, queen, and pollen stores
Exchange 2 – 4 central upper brood chamber honey-laden frames for empty comb to prevent overcrowding swarms from “honey bound” hives
Equalize (1 – 2 frames of) brood to boost very weak colonies
Clean bottom screen
Feed dilute 1:2 syrup via top feeder to stimulate brood rearing as necessary
Set bait hives to capture swarms and check frequently
During last 3 weeks (> 60° days):

Check brood and queen two or three times (once a week) for swarm preps
Check for reproductive swarm preps: brood nest reduction, nectar congestion (at the top of the nest), poor foraging and/or poor wax production, queen cell royal jelly / eggs / larvae, particularly in hives with an early Spring buildup, and if present, either
Cage and remove the captive queen, 3 frames of emerging brood, 1 empty and 1 nectar/pollen frame to a 5 frame nuc for 7 – 9 days, cut all queen cells out of the parent hive and then return the captive queen and frames, or
Make splits or nucs from those strong colonies with queen cells
Checkerboard by moving empty (not honey-laden) peripheral frames in from the outside to expand the broodnest, and o reverse brood chambers every 10 – 14 days
Add a super to strong colonies in preparation of the early nectar flow (Ornamental) without a queen excluder (initially), then
Put a queen excluder between the brood chambers and the super a week after the bees have put something in the super and are up there (making sure you don’t trap the queen up there if there are eggs!)
Enlarge the entrance or remove the entrance reducer completely

Blossoming: Maples to 4/2; Ornamentals and Fruit Trees, 3/13 - ; Dandelions (orange pollen), 3/18 - ; Redbud 3/30
 

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
Time of year doesn’t matter if you get good bees and good frames from an honest person. You could buy a hive in November if it has enough honey stores for them to survive the winter. You just won’t mess with them much till spring. You could have bought any of my hives on Christmas Day and they would have been fine. I would have only sold you three of them, cause I wasn’t sure a couple had enough stores to see them through, but a heavy nuc or heavy hive would have made it if it’s not loaded with mites.
I’ll disagree with a package being the easiest. A package of bees is a bunch of bees that have been pulled from different hives and but in a wire cage. They add a queen that the bees are not familiar with, in her own smaller cage and that’s all you get. If the queen is released into the bees before they get used to her, they will kill her. Packages a also prone to absconding with new beekeepers. They may just all up and leave. You will need to put them in a hive, but you won’t have any drawn comb to hold them there. If they decide they don’t like the box, they may leave and go look for a new home. It’s fine for keepers that have drawn comb, or you may block them in and feed them to allow them time to draw comb.

A Nuc is a small hive. It is established and viable. The bees have a queen that is already laying eggs and they are raising brood. All comb will be drawn and either have eggs, brood, pollen or honey. All they will be looking for is more room. You will want to put them in an 8 or 10 frame hive, and add honey supers as needed. There are other versions of hives also, but langstroth 8 or 10 frame hives are most common. You may choose a long hive, layens hive or some other version.
With the langstroth, your availability for parts from suppliers and resources from other keepers is much more at your fingertips.

I’d strongly recommend two hives. One hive is a dead hive. If you have two, and one needs a boost, you can steal a frame or two from the stronger hive to keep it going. You will also, at some point accidentally crush your queen while inspecting. I’ve only done it once my first year, but I was able to supplement the queenless hive with frames of brood simply by swapping a frame every week or two between the hives until they raise a new queen.

I could go on for days about the benefit of having a resource hive.

This next sentence, I’m not sure which words to use.
Beekeeping is not easy, but it’s not complicated.
Or
Beekeeping is complicated, but it’s not hard.
It is a fair amount of work, but if you can read the hive they are telling you what they need.
 
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Time of year doesn’t matter if you get good bees and good frames from an honest person. You could buy a hive in November if it has enough honey stores for them to survive the winter. You just won’t mess with them much till spring. You could have bought any of my hives on Christmas Day and they would have been fine. I would have only sold you three of them, cause I wasn’t sure a couple had enough stores to see them through, but a heavy nuc or heavy hive would have made it if it’s not loaded with mites.
I’ll disagree with a package being the easiest. A package of bees is a bunch of bees that have been pulled from different hives and but in a wire cage. They add a queen that the bees are not familiar with, in her own smaller cage and that’s all you get. If the queen is released into the bees before they get used to her, they will kill her. Packages a also prone to absconding with new beekeepers. They may just all up and leave. You will need to buy them in a hive, but you won’t have any drawn comb to hold them there. If they decide they don’t like the box, they may leave and go look for a new home. It’s fine for keepers that have drawn comb, or you may block them in and feed them to allow them time to draw comb.

A Nuc is a small hive. It is established and viable. The bees have a queen that is already laying eggs and they are raising brood. All comb will be drawn and either have eggs, brood, pollen or honey. All they will be looking for is more room. You will want to put them in an 8 or 10 frame hive, and add honey supers as needed. There are other versions of hives also, but langstroth 8 or 10 frame hives are most common. You may choose a long hive, layens hive or some other version.
With the langstroth, your availability for parts from suppliers and resources from other keepers is much more at your fingertips.

I’d strongly recommend two hives. One hive is a dead hive. If you have two, and one needs a boost, you can steal a frame or two from the stronger hive to keep it going. You will also, at some point accidentally crush your queen while inspecting. I’ve only done it once my first year, but I was able to supplement the queenless hive with frames of brood simply by swapping a frame every week or two between the hives until they raise a new queen.

I could go on for days about the benefit of having a resource hive.

This next sentence, I’m not sure which words to use.
Beekeeping is not easy, but it’s not complicated.
Or
Beekeeping is complicated, but it’s not hard.
It is a fair amount of work, but if you can read the hive they are telling you what they need.

Sounds like some good information. Thank you for your input.
 

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
A Nuc is a small hive. It is established and viable. The bees have a queen that is already laying eggs and they are raising brood. All comb will be drawn and either have eggs, brood, pollen or honey. All they will be looking for is more room. You will want to put them in an 8 or 10 frame hive, and add honey supers as needed.
I may have made that sound surprisingly simple. For the first half of the first year, or possibly the whole first year, that is probably true. After that you have to be on your toes. It’s not a tense “on your toes”, but you have to be prepared depending on what your goals are.
They will get crowded and swarm. You can read this from the bees before hand and counter, you can do nothing and let them swarm. You’ll retain about half the bees maybe. You’ll not get the honey production you would have if you had kept them from swarming. Strong hives and yellowjackets will rob out weaker hives. You’ll risk going into winter with a weak hive with not enough bees or resources to survive.
 
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7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
What’s the best source of information on best practices with bees?
That’s kind of like going to the Deer Hunting forum page and asking what’s the best caliber/ or cartridge for Whitetail.
I’m a hobby keeper. I kind of act more like a commercial guy though. Most hobby keepers will be super compassionate and the bees are their pets, and they have names and this and that.
I like listening to a lot of people on YouTube and podcasts. Some because I align with them, and there are some fairly popular ones I listen to, just to reassure myself not to do what they are doing.
I like
“Two Bees in a Podcast”
Anything Micheal Palmer
Kamen Reynolds
Canadian Beekeeper’s Blog
JC’s Bees
and for dull entertainment, Kevin Ingin’s Beekeeper’s Corner. It’s kind of nerdy funny and interesting.

middle of the road, beginners, decent information is David Burns. He has lots of videos.

I enjoy the humor of Fredrick Dunn, but for some reason I don’t gravitate towards him. maybe subconsciously I see things differently, I’m not sure

Five Apple Farm is an NC Podcast. She is soothing to listen to, but I find myself losing interest and having some different opinions

Most of the rest I don't care for. Not that all of them have bad information, some do, but not all, but they don’t speak to me.

I don’t think anyone else is a failure, we just go different routs.
 

witler

Eight Pointer
YouTube to watch..Bob Bonnie, David Burns, Fredrick Dunn to name a few.

Most bee suppliers have Nucs and Packages available in April/May timeframe.

Major mail order suppliers are Mann Lake and Dadant, plus local shops. Agri Supply and Tractor Supply have limited supply of bee equipment.

Personally I prefer Nucs over Packages.
 

jhwilli2

Eight Pointer
Please rotate your mite treatments. OA is a great tool for beekeepers but there are many others. Just like with other pesticides, if the mode of action is not changed from time to time, the pest will become resistant. I treat three times a year. Once with formic acid, once with apivar, and once with OA.
 

Loganwayne

Ten Pointer
i havent been in my hive since last September... keep them at a buddies property and he said hes seen them out and about but havent had time to mess with them due to the flood, moving and fixing two houses. now most of that is taken care of i need to get into the hive, hoping they made it fine but who knows. I've lost hives with weather like were having where it gets nice and warm in the day for a couple days then drops 50 degrees and gets well below freezing, i think them breaking cluster then it getting cold really fast does a number on them
 

Lastfling

Six Pointer
Went thru my 5 Tuesday. Reversed 3 of the 5 as all were in upper box. The other two were in bottom well one was and one was half and half. Good brood patterns in all. Several drones wandering around along with capped drone brood. If weather stays warm I suspect an early swarm season. I’m going to put my traps out later today after an appointment. My only real concern was the number of small hive beetles seen. I squished a bunch, but numbers seem high for the time of year which can only bode ill for later in the year.

On another note - I’m the worlds worst queen spotter. 🥴. Yet, in the first two hives I saw her on the second frame pulled on both. Should of gone ahead and caged her and split. LOL. Will more than likely be the last time I find so easily.
 

navywolf

Six Pointer
I'm going through mine this weekend. I'm a beginner too (my second year) and my first year in NC so I have a lot to learn about the local weather and forage.
One hive managed to over winter and one lost it's queen while I was away on travel and died off.
 

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
Went thru my 5 Tuesday. Reversed 3 of the 5 as all were in upper box. The other two were in bottom well one was and one was half and half. Good brood patterns in all. Several drones wandering around along with capped drone brood. If weather stays warm I suspect an early swarm season. I’m going to put my traps out later today after an appointment. My only real concern was the number of small hive beetles seen. I squished a bunch, but numbers seem high for the time of year which can only bode ill for later in the year.

On another note - I’m the worlds worst queen spotter. 🥴. Yet, in the first two hives I saw her on the second frame pulled on both. Should of gone ahead and caged her and split. LOL. Will more than likely be the last time I find so easily.
I mark my queens just to keep track of their age, and to tell if I missed a swarm, supercedure or something and find a new unmarked queen.
I think marking them is a handicap for me when it comes to spotting them. I want to think the paint will pop and they will be easy to spot, but you still have to look for a queen, not the paint.
 

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
I'm going through mine this weekend. I'm a beginner too (my second year) and my first year in NC so I have a lot to learn about the local weather and forage.
One hive managed to over winter and one lost it's queen while I was away on travel and died off.
I’m sure you can split the one you have before long.
 

Loganwayne

Ten Pointer
I mark my queens just to keep track of their age, and to tell if I missed a swarm, supercedure or something and find a new unmarked queen.
I think marking them is a handicap for me when it comes to spotting them. I want to think the paint will pop and they will be easy to spot, but you still have to look for a queen, not the paint.
i honestly stopped looking for the queen. just looked for good brood pattern and all ages of brood and if it looks good back in the box.
 

navywolf

Six Pointer
I’m sure you can split the one you have before long.

I looked in on the last weekend and put the last of the winter sugar patty I had. The hive is definitely doing well. I'm sure you're right. I need to read up on doing the split so I don't screw it up.
 

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
i honestly stopped looking for the queen. just looked for good brood pattern and all ages of brood and if it looks good back in the box.
That’s often what I do if I don’t actually need to see her. I’ll check a few frames for brood, tip the box and look for swarm cells and move on.
If I’m stealing brood for a different hive or making a split I’ll usually find her first.

Sometimes without actually knocking a hive back I’ll take a frame of pollen from one hive, a frame of honey from another hive, a frame of eggs from another hive and a frame of capped brood from two other hives and stick them in a nuc box. All frames keep whatever bees were on them when I pulled them. You either need to inspect each frame to be sure you didn’t put all 5 queens in the nuc or find her in each hive first to be certain.
I like doing that to build a new hive, and all the donors don’t even know they are missing anything. If things are getting out of hand I’ll cut one in half or thirds.
 

Tarheeler

Twelve Pointer
I currently am running 15 hives of mutts lol I also agree there alot of good and bad info on YouTube. Check me out on Taylorboys outdoors > >I try to upload a couple times a week. I try to rotate between apivar apiguard and oa depending on time of year. My Dad got me started and we share the fun. Do a few cutouts and swarm traps. I also have a few thay are busting at c the seams
 

navywolf

Six Pointer
I’m sure you can split the one you have before long.
When temp wise is it good to make the split? We've been in the high 60s and even 70s here, but at night its typically 40s.
I want to make the split, but don't want to risk loosing my queen in the process. She's built a hive of incredibly docile bees. It was a nice change from my first two hives.
 

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
The text book answer is when you see lots of drones in the hives.
I’ve got drones. I’ve already split one. I’m letting them raise their own queen. It’s nice and warm here, but if there is a cold snap in a couple weeks she may not be able to get out to mate well. If that’s the case I have enough brood to let them try again.
If you buy a mated queen then you should be safe, except for I hear reports of the early queens not being mated all that well if the producers are trying to get some queens out the door too early.
I may get a poorly mated queen back, but they can supersede her or I’ll have more splits later an can crush her and add a cell for a faster turn around.
 

navywolf

Six Pointer
Gotcha. I had hoped to do the split today. While it is very warm 70s, it is also very windy. So I'll have to wait a couple days to get past the rain expected tomorrow.
I appreciate the help. I've got so much to learn.
 
Does the honey in the hive need collecting? I ask because I know I will not use a lot for myself and have no plans on selling any. My main purpose for wanting to keep bees is their importance to our eco system and decline.
 

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
Does the honey in the hive need collecting? I ask because I know I will not use a lot for myself and have no plans on selling any. My main purpose for wanting to keep bees is their importance to our eco system and decline.
Then you may want to support native bees. Mason bees are easy to set out nests for.

I don’t think bee decline is as big of an issue as people make it out to be. Numbers are easy to skew or misinterpret. There also isn’t a great way of keeping records, since any recording is done based off one’s own perception of how their hives did.
I’m not so sure we aren’t doing more harm than good. I try not to keep a bunch of hives. Honeybees are pollinators, they are not native here. There are other species bees, butterflies and all kinds of other pollinators that will be crowded out if an area is crammed with large yards of honeybees. They do boost production for sure, but I’m sure there has to be a cost involved somewhere else. Almonds and other produce would not be as productive for the farmers without them, but that’s based off unrealistic percentage gains since bees became popular in migratory pollination, which as with any shifting baseline, is now the norm.
Keep a few hives for fun. Take a little honey. They are actually better off if you don’t take too much. Spring honey flow gets them through the summer derth, fall honey flow gets them through the winter. Take a couple frames for home use, and you will do much less supplemental feeding if you haven’t robbed all their stores.
Bee decline kind of feels like a scam to me. I can’t keep my hives from growing, which is what you want if you are making honey or selling bees. If I left them alone, they would cast a few swarms, some amount would succumb to the environment, pests or disease, some amount would thrive and cast more swarms, and the cycle would repeat itself in perpetuity. Just like they do in the wild, at a more natural and sustainable population, and without crowding out other native pollinators. The cost however would be the price of almonds, blueberries, apples, canola and other produce that has become dependent on them since the baseline shifted.
 
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7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
Gotcha. I had hoped to do the split today. While it is very warm 70s, it is also very windy. So I'll have to wait a couple days to get past the rain expected tomorrow.
I appreciate the help. I've got so much to learn.
I went I’m mine today. It’s in the 70s, partly cloudy and windy. They were a little pissy, but they will be ok. I wanted to see if they were drawing out the new foundation I added, or if they decided to build swarm cells. They are just starting on the foundation, and I didn’t see any cells. At a quick glance. I went in the three strongest hives and just checked the bottoms of the boxes. I didn’t actually pull any frames. Had I needed to split to prevent a swarm, I would have.
 
Then you may want to support native bees. Mason bees are easy to set out nests for.

I don’t think bee decline is as big of an issue as people make it out to be. Numbers are easy to skew or misinterpret. There also isn’t a great way of keeping records, since any recording is done based off one’s own perception of how their hives did.
I’m not so sure we aren’t doing more harm than good. I try not to keep a bunch of hives. Honeybees are pollinators, they are not native here. There are other species bees, butterflies and all kinds of other pollinators that will be crowded out if an area is crammed with large yards of honeybees. They do boost production for sure, but I’m sure there has to be a cost involved somewhere else. Almonds and other produce would not be as productive for the farmers without them, but that’s based off unrealistic percentage gains since bees became popular in migratory pollination, which as with any shifting baseline, is now the norm.
Keep a few hives for fun. Take a little honey. They are actually better off if you don’t take too much. Spring honey flow gets them through the summer derth, fall honey flow gets them through the winter. Take a couple frames for home use, and you will do much less supplemental feeding if you haven’t robbed all their stores.
Bee decline kind of feels like a scam to me. I can’t keep my hives from growing, which is what you want if you are making honey or selling bees. If I left them alone, they would cast a few swarms, some amount would succumb to the environment, pests or disease, some amount would thrive and cast more swarms, and the cycle would repeat itself in perpetuity. Just like they do in the wild, at a more natural and sustainable population, and without crowding out other native pollinators. The cost however would be the price of almonds, blueberries, apples, canola and other produce that has become dependent on them since the baseline shifted.

Very interesting! I am glad to hear from a real bee keeper that things aren’t as grim as they are made out to be. Looks like I have more research and learning to do. Sounds like you are right with just supporting the native bees in my area.
 

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
Very interesting! I am glad to hear from a real bee keeper that things aren’t as grim as they are made out to be. Looks like I have more research and learning to do. Sounds like you are right with just supporting the native bees in my area.
Oh, I’m not a real beekeeper. I have some bees, but I break about 50% of the rules real beekeepers set as gospel.
You can look at it as the common number I hear thrown around is, 30% of some keeper’s hives die every year. Bees decline by 30%+\-. Sounds pretty bad, how can I lose 30% every year and succeed?
Now let’s do a word problem. If Jimmy has 10 hives, and he loses 3 of those hives over winter, how many hives does Jimm……..oh, wait! If the other 7 hives each split at least one time, two times,or maybe three times, how many hives does Jimmy have? Even if all those don’t make it, some are weak and get combined back together, you still come out ahead. That scenario is more about people making bees over making honey. You don’t split as readily if you are trying to grow a hive 10x the size of a natural hive to get the most honey out of it. But even so, if you built a grossly oversized hive, you have to compress it down to something that you can over winter. You can break that hive into multiple hives at the end of the season, add a mated queen or combine them in a nuc yard and still have grown in numbers. Sometimes you just have to pull bees out of a honey hive to keep them from swarming. If you don’t have a hive that needs the boost, you build a nuc.
 
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