buzzzzzzzzzz new adventure

[Lisak1]

It's a real science you have going on there!

 

[addy1]

It's a real science you have going on there!

They surprise us with new ways to mess with us. We really thought the hive had gone queenless. What they did was replace their queen, she flew out got mated, and flew back into the wrong place to start her queen life.

 

[j.w]

The bees will think up something new and exciting for you to figure out and fix again I'm sure! They have to keep you on your toes. Just think of all the knowledge you are gaining to share w/all the newbie bee keepers

 

[TAHOE]

I ended up with a super with about 6 frames full of honey from my nuc, only 20% capped so i left it. Just found out i couldve harvested it, but I'll use it for back feeding.
Like you, last 10-12 days no eggs or larvae in my package hive so I pulled a frame of eggs/brood from other hive last night. Hopefully they make queen and i can save that hive. I'll requeen in spring if they make it, i didnt like either queen from nuc or package, both are very sporatic layers.

 

[addy1]

That happens, we had a few bad queens that we bought. We started letting our hives re-queen themselves. If we see a supersede going on we make a note and let it roll. If we find swarm cells we harvest a few and start a small nuc. That way we have a spare queen if we need one down the road or have a bad one laying. It appears that our home grown queens do the best and FREE!

With the honey, buy a cheap hydrometer you can test the open cells for moisture level. We pulled some that were too wet, after three days in the house with the AC running the moisture dropped below 18%. It is a very valuable tool to have.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=garden&field-keywords=hydrometer+for+honey

Feed the one you are re-queening. I stick a bottle of sugar water 1/1 on it when trying to get them going. Also some pollen patty if your pollen supply is low, ie. nature.

 

[TAHOE]

Well, I made a rookie mistake, first frame i pulled had queen cells that i cut out...crudely. then as i got deeper, I realised i had no new eggs, guess they knew what was up and i screwed up their plans. I can hope now they make new queen with the frame I put in.

I was at our county fair this week with the bee association booth, got to use a refract today to check the honey projects. I used one of those 25 yrs ago when I was a QC tech with the Kroger company making jelly. Need to order me one.

I started feeding last week, but last night I saw a bunch of pollen. Only thing i know that is in bloom is farmer's soybeans. I may stop feeding if they keep putting honey away.

 

[addy1]

I balance the feeding, we have a few hives that are packed with capped honey, some that almost zero nectar/honey. When I feel the box you can tell if it is full of nectar/honey. We also pull 3-4 frames in from the edge to check if it is capped and or full of nectar. If so we leave them be.

We do a every other week or so feeding so they don't overload with nectar and honey and want to do a late swarm

We have some that without feeding they will starve. They are bringing something in, but not much. Here we have some nectar this time of year but not much.
This year the farmers around us are doing soybeans, the bees do get some nectar from them depending on the type of soybean. They are not blooming yet.


Keep a eye on the hive, they will make a queen if the frame had real young larvae or eggs. If the larvae was a bit older they will do a emergency queen.

Also add brood if they are low on bees, if you can, from your other hive. She needs time to grow, mate , start to lay and your hive will start getting really light on bees. The amount of nurse bees drives how much she lays when she starts.

 

[addy1]

I went and picked up our fair entries. We did good considering I got it all ready two days before the fair started. Sort of forgot about it this year.

We usually sale honey at the fair but not this year, we don't have a abundance due to all of the rain.
chunk honey

creamed honey

comb honey

 

[Tula]

Wow, you swept the 1st prize categories !! I bet the creamed honey is tasty

 

[addy1]

Wow, you swept the 1st prize categories !! I bet the creamed honey is tasty

Not quite, there are other categories.

The creamed is excellent. We sell more of it then liquid honey quite often.

 

[j.w]

Well done thou good and faithful bee servant

 

[Tara]

That's just brilliant congratulations. Next time I'm ever in MD I'll have to buy some, it looks so good.

 

[addy1]

Be happy to give you some!

 

[Lisak1]

I can attest to @addy1 's honey being DELICIOUS! Good job on all the blue ribbons!

 

[addy1]

Wish it didn't cost so much to ship things.