So, if y'all remember, I had barren hives in February- bees yes, brood, no. Had patience and checked again in March. Bustling! I saw eggs, larvae, and capped brood in both hives. Just checked again today and did a mite test. Mites, yes. I need to treat. But I couldn't find either queen, and both hives looked about like this. Could it be the mites? Both hives had plenty of active bees. North Alabama, US.

A beehive formed in a small trash can in my backyard, it was on the underside of the lid. The hive has been removed, the trash can is gone now. But there are some bees coming back to my yard. How can I deter them? I have cleaned the backyard thoroughly, the lawn is cut down as much as possible, the patio and walls have been sprayed down with water & dawn dish soap then sprayed with vinegar. But there are still some coming back to the area that the trash can was. What can I do to deter them? Also, these bees seem harmless - they did not try to attack anyone when being removed but I have 3 dogs and children so I’d like to prevent another hive from forming just in case.

Noticed one of my hives this morning had several brood remnants and dead bees being cleaned out. Any thoughts? Southeastern PA. Thanks!

Got called to re-locate a small swarm yesterday

Any idea what species these are?

I live in Northern Illinois, and lost all 3 hives this winter (2 dead out, 1 absconded). No clear reason for the 2 dead outs. I’m starting fresh this season with 3 nucs, expecting they will arrive ~May 1.

1. Should I do an early mite treatment (did apivar last year in September)? If so, what is best?
2. I have 10 frames of capped super honey from last year that I didn’t extract from the non dead out hive…should I put them over the new nucs rather than sugar water to get them going?

Thanks!

https://www.beekeeper-suit.com/ultra-breeze-bee-suit/

Something has my spider senses tingling that this isn't a legit website or deal, considering the actual retail price of this suit is $250+... anyone ever shopped here? The phone number is also tied to a liederhosen website 🤣

Thanks,

We have an observational hive at the library I work in, in rural Utah. Is this normal behavior? I've seen this a few times now and I'm not sure if I should worry or not.

So I’m getting my first 3 nucs on may 6th I’m feeling fairly confident, I have a loose plan of how I want my bee season to go and all my equipment is prepped and waiting. But I’m a little conflicted about when I should do my first varroa treatment. I’m maybe thinking 3-4 weeks after getting them setup, do you guys think that is long enough to let them get established? I don’t want to disturb them too early on, but also don’t want to leave it too long lol.

Also I’m located in Ontario Canada, zone 5b

2nd year, one hive, central NJ. There’s some mold on the inside side of my deeps. Doesn’t appear to be affecting the frames closest to that side, but one might have looked slightly funky in a small area of it. My question: I have two deeps ready for my next hive (getting a nuc in May). Next time I inspect, should I remove all the frames from my original deeps and put them into my spare deeps, and then clean the mold out of the original deeps? And if so, should I then swap those frames back to the original deeps next time I inspect, or will it not really matter? Thanks in advance

Hi I’m in the U.K. and recently took on a small apiary. There were some supers without frames that bees were in and had built their own frameless comb. I took it out so I could start using frames and the honey had a slight aniseed flavour. Does anyone know what plants produce this flavour?

In September I treated two new hives three boxes tall by putting two Apivar strips in the lower brood boxes. Since it was my first year, I was not going to use the honey so they could get through the winter. It was a bad decision, because now I can't harvest honey from any of those boxes ever, I guess. There was a little honey remaining from the winter, especially in the hive that died in the cold with no queen. Now I want to add another box on top that will be the honey super. Is that okay? Don't I need to put a frame of brood or honey in that box to make the bees go up in there? Won't that contaminate the new box? What mite treatment is safe for honey consumption?

Please note this is for my neighbor. I have a bee nest or hive in an oaktree in front of my mobile home trailer. And I rent do not own the trailer. Please help with advice or if willing to remove please thank you

Hello Friends, New/novice beekeeper located in central Illinois, near West Chicago.

Long story short, this is my 4th day working with hives and the bees hate my hair. It is dark brown, almost black looking. I thought braiding it and pinning it up under my veil hat would help, but I just finished pulling out about 10 stingers from today's attack and oof, it is not fun.

I do not wash my hair with anything except unscented products the night before or the day of when working with the bees, I do not use any lotions, hairsprays, etc., and I currently am using an unscented sunscreen for my body and face.

Also, I currently am using a veil hat that has elastic under my arms and I have been wearing white cotton turtlenecks to try and avoid them getting in, but they will get in if they want to apparently.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what else I could try? I was thinking of trying to hide my hair under 2 plain white bandanas, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you all so much; I'm not going to give up beekeeping but I would like to not have to pull stinger out or have itchy lumps all over my head for the rest of the spring, summer, and fall

I split a hive recently and brought the queenless part back to my house a couple weeks ago. I fed them for a few days, but I felt I gave them plenty of resources and drawn comb, so I stopped after a few days. I’m in SC and stuff is starting to bloom around here too. I took a peek in the other day, and I saw an evidence that a queen emerged from one of the cells I left. So feeling pretty good at this point. So I decided to wait a couple more weeks to inspect for egg but I decided to feed them a bit. Before I fed them I noticed they seem to be a bit on edge and more aggressive. I didn’t actually get around to feeding them. From my reading, it could be a queenless issue when they suddenly get aggressive, but do hive sometimes get on edge when they don’t have a queen that is laying yet? From my calculation, she could still be hardening up or just starting to go on flight, but should not be laying yet.

Wondering which will end up fairing better with honey production and variable winters in the great lakes area. I figured the carniolans, being from the alps, would be better, but I don't have much experience with this.

So maybe 35 years ago I used to run 40 hives with a pal for years, we had a decent extractor and had a lot of fun. It was hobby. I say that just to preface I have some experience with bees.

Anyways, I have a swarm that got into a sun facing wall on a summer cabin/home near Binghamton, NY last fall. They seem to really get established pretty good. The property is some hours away from my primary home, I won't be able to check on it regularly. I don't want to rip out drywall interior or board and batten exterior if I can help it. It would be cool to capture the queen and transfer it to a nuke or something but really, bees in the walls are a pest. Right? I'd love to extract and save them and so forth but really I need them gone... tell me how I can transfer them, if feasible.

My current plan will kill them I'm afraid.

So my plan is to form piece of 1/8 inch hardware cloth into something of a cone with a gap large enough at the tip for a bee to emerge from the hive and fix over the entrance. This will force all outbound flight through a small exit but returning bees won't be able to find the entrance over the cone. I hate this part. Anyways, the queen keeps laying and new bees keep tending to the brood all the while using up scant spring reserves. As bee mature the take flight but don't return. Eventually the hive dwindles to dead. This needs to happen before it really gets warm because (am I right?) bees not not only return with nectar, pollen, and such but also water to help cool the hive. I don't want a melt down with honey.

I plan to put the mesh on the hive entrance this weekend as we are going up for the first time this year. I won't be back for maybe a month as per my current plans. I do need the bees out. I worry about the local bears ripping the house up, ect...

What about leaving empty wax and a small circle of brood in the walls?

Please advise.

I live in an apartment that maintains a communal garden. I recently learned in the community garden we have a set of bee hives. The person who maintains the bee hives is an elderly man who has requested volunteers. I think he is getting older and is looking for someone to hand this responsibility over to. Bees are something that always interested me and like most people don't freak out if I see one buzzing around me but instead respect them. I would like to help him but I am completely green. Is there something I can read or watch to learn more about beekeeping to see if this is a hobby I would like to start? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Hey friends. Cannot figure out if I’ve been blessed with a swarm or if this is all really robbing. Yes, there’s food in there.

When trying to get the bees to draw comb in a new honey super do you mix and match undrawn comb with drawn comb, put the new super below the drawn super, or put the undrawn super above the drawn super?

So I have a horizontal layens hive but not all the frames were constructed and the bees put their brood combs rt smack in the middle, coming off the floor and also stuck to the sides and now i dont know how to get them onto frames (i did this with a honeycomb successfully (i think) but with broodcomb I'm afraid of hurting larvae as i cut it off the bottom and sides and then transfer it onto a frame. There are several queen cells on top and i saw drone cells too. They are so densely packed on the middle frameless combs that i can't even see the cells.
What do i do? Qro, mexico. This is my first hive and I'm a newb.

I have been offered two colonies, provided that I can rehouse them. The owners want to move them so they can clear some grass. The bees are in old boxes which are disintegrating. I tried to move the bees in their current boxes, but the boxes started falling apart, so I have bought new boxes for them.

They are strong colonies of African bees (in Zimbabwe), so I expect them to be a bit aggressive, but more importantly they tend propolise the frames, glueing them fast. Additionally, these boxes have not been opened for three years.

Now I am trying to plan this intervention. Does anyone have tips for transferring colonies or moving frames that are glued fast to boxes that are fragile?

I had bees about 5 or 6 years ago and this was my hive. I'm not sure what happened but I think it died after a winter. It should of had plenty of stores to over winter so it might have been mites?

Anyway, I ended up with cancer and let everything go. Now, I've got another hive and need to do something with this mess. The honey super has some comb on it, the brood frames have nothing on it and looks to have been home to some wax moths and a rodent.

So what do I do with this old one? Take it to the dump, replace, clean, sterilize and reuse? The last thing I want to do is have this old one infect my new hive with some unknown problem. Thoughts?

My dad is a beekeeper and is a little old to be on a ladder catching swarms. So I made an adaptor that attaches a 5g plastic jug to a 23" telescoping pole. The pole is fiberglass and together with the jug they're very lightweight! My dad is able to knock swarms into the jug from the ground. He's aleady caught a couple swarms this season. I designed and 3d printed the adaptor, it tightens down with a rubber strap.

does anyone want one of these? if you're someone or encouraging someone from this demographic I'd really like to help you out.

We're based in the bay area of california

Pretty much the title. Kept seeing people post about it, so I figured I'd give it a try. Less than 24 hours after signing up someone hands me this easy catch!

10/10 recommend.