Bees 2022

Lastfling

Six Pointer
Made one split yesterday. Wanted to do another but couldn’t find the queen so moved on to more pressing things. I did get the grafted queen cells moved to mating nucs. I also determined the one swarm trap has caught one. I’ll move them to a box once the weather settles a bit and I see them bringing in pollen.

I over wintered 5 hives and want to try and keep the yard about that size.

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witler

Eight Pointer
Question: If I do a split in March, both hives do well. Can I pull honey at the end of the season, or should I wait until next year??
 
7mm-08

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
I’m sure you could get a little, but you’ll be feeding them syrup to replace it and get them up to weight for the winter. It also depends on what they were split to. Did you make two nucs out of a single deep, or break a tower down to (2) hives with (3)10 frame boxes each?

I took two nucs out of one of my hives last week, and I expect to pull spring and fall honey out of the parent hive. The two nucs will just need to grow.
 

Steelshot

Eight Pointer
Added a deep honey super to my biggest hive early this week. hopefully this little cold snap don’t mess up the trees blooming. Crazy a week +- means a ton of honey or making splits/ catching swarms. Good times
 
7mm-08

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
Had a couple hives with capped queen cells today. Found the queen in one and she was completely shrunken down. I tore down all but two cells and tried to pick up the queen. She flew off and hovered around me for a good 30 seconds checking me out. She finally landed on the hive stand, then she got the flat side of the hive tool. Not sure how that will work out, but they can’t swarm if they don’t have a queen. Fingers crossed.

Did it again to the second hive that was ready to swarm.

Pushed the queens down in three of the bigger hives and added queen excluders to clear the brood in preparation for the honey flow.
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Tarheeler

Tarheeler

Twelve Pointer
7mm-08 said:
Had a couple hives with capped queen cells today. Found the queen in one and she was completely shrunken down. I tore down all but two cells and tried to pick up the queen. She flew off and hovered around me for a good 30 seconds checking me out. She finally landed on the hive stand, then she got the flat side of the hive tool. Not sure how that will work out, but they can’t swarm if they don’t have a queen. Fingers crossed.

Did it again to the second hive that was ready to swarm.

Pushed the queens down in three of the bigger hives and added queen excluders to clear the brood in preparation for the honey flow.
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Yep without a queen to follow they ain't going far.
 

witler

Eight Pointer
Average Joe said:
I’ve wanted bees for awhile but decided to wait till I retired. Well retirement is coming up in June. What’s the best way for a newbie to get started? And does it make a difference in the time of the year?
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Not sure where in Central N.C. you are located.
But we use Bailey's Bee Supply in Hillsboro and the Farm Supply Store in Pittsboro.
Bailey's has Queens almost always when in season and Packages/NUCS in April/ May, they usually order extras.
Farm Supply Store only has bees for a limited time during April/May.
Hope this helps with your needs.
 
Infamous1

Infamous1

Eight Pointer
Both queens got out and were accepted. They are drawing out the frames nicely and carrying in pollen by the basket fulls!! As a side note my wife has took an interest also and has been paying them some attention.
 

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7mm-08

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
Apple tree. It’s just a small tree about 30’ in front of the hives. They also like the grape vines on the fence 15-20’ to the side.
 
7mm-08

7mm-08

Twelve Pointer
Had one two days ago I couldn’t shake out. They would fly before they hit the ground and regroup. I raised a box up to them and they crawled all over it but never went in. I brought it back down at the end of the day and was putting a brood frame in it and they flew off.
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FITZH2O

Old Mossy Horns
I’ve always found beekeeping interesting and it is something I’d like to do some day. I came across this video yesterday. He says he has been doing it for 3 years like this and is still experimenting with different designs. I thought it was pretty cool being able to see the combs through the plastic. There is a tree farm we like to go to in October for pumpkins that has a glass hive in the middle of their gift shop. The bees take long tubes from outside into it. Anyway, it’s a 30 minute video I found interesting.
 
Infamous1

Infamous1

Eight Pointer
Went in yesterday and both hives had everything drawn out and was full of brood in really good patterns. I went ahead and put a med box on. Top of both for them to draw out.
 
kyle7630

kyle7630

Twelve Pointer
How long would you guys wait before moving bees from a swarm trap to a hive? Bees have been in my bucket trap for 4-6 days now.
 
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