Guilfordbeekeepers.org

I have been using captured swarms this season to get comb drawn. I have kept feeders on most of my swarms and have been giving them frames & foundation to draw after they have drawn 2 medium boxes to live in. I remove a frame when the majority of the frame is drawn deep enough for a queen to lay...

I have read that the North Carolina average is 35 lbs/hive. Some produce none-others much more than the average. I have been told that you want the equivalent of a medium box of honey over the bees going into winter-about 40lbs. That being said, I remember Wally's question to me long ago before drou...

They generally won't accept a mated queen but I'm not sure about a virgin. Didn't Nancy Ruppert say something about a virgin queen less than 3 days old not having the pheromone profile of an older virgin queen? I think she was saying this at the Beez Needz field day in the context of a direct introd...

You probably had a queen in the colony that had not started to lay. The timing seems too soon to have a queen made, get mated, and start laying. I have had bees make and cap queen cells and remove them when the established queen started performing to their satisfaction. I'm glad things have worked o...

That is beyond my abilities, but hopefully, Internet Archives will be around for a long time.

OA can be used with honey supers on if you have the label that says you can. That change was approved about two years ago. https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/ppls/091266-00001-20210430.pdf Formic Pro/Mite Away Quick Strips can also be used with honey supers on. OAV is quicker and the bees s...

I don't see any way a queen installed on April 2 should be laying doubles. If you haven't had fertilized eggs laid in the hive, like Wally said, there is no way they could produce a viable queen cell. I would go with Wally's advice. It gives you a good shot at determining what is going on AND a good...

What signs of laying worker did you see. If you were seeing more than 2 eggs in cells and/or eggs on top of pollen, those would indicate laying worker. If you were seeing some cells with 2 eggs, this could indicate a queen that is just starting to lay. I haven't seen a situation where there was a qu...

That sounds like a reasonable plan. Your eggs and larvae should be capped around day 10, or in 6 more days. Once that happens, brood pheromones should not be involved in calling for feeding. Look to see if foragers are returning with pollen after all the brood has been capped. If they are, it is no ...

Number 8 arrived at the bait hives around 2:40pm. I moved the oldest bait hive swarm into a medium super this afternoon, and set up another bait hive. I'm not sure, but I think it may have scouts looking it over. I had 3 bait hives sitting side by side. All collected swarms.

Arrival number 7 at the house. They came in between 2 & 4 pm today. I have 1 more empty bait hive for now.

Arrival number 7 came between 2 & 4 pm today. I have 1 more bait hive that is unoccupied. It has a few bees looking. I'm not sure if they are leftover scouts from the swarm that came in or potential occupants.

Tough situation that can be made easier if you have another hive that has brood. I would take a frame with eggs and put it in the questionable hive. Check it in 4 days. If the bees are making queen cells, the hive is likely queenless and it would be a reasonable gamble to buy a queen, knock down the...

So far, I have had 6 arrivals at the house and some scouts are evaluating one of my bait hives now.

I set up 3 almost identical bait hives on my driveway pad about 2 weeks ago. 2 of the 3 had heavy activity for the last 5 days or so. I was beginning to think I had put frames in the boxes that had some feed and that bees were taking advantage of the food. When I put a feed frame out in front of the...

Our May monthly meeting will be a picnic/field day held at the Old Prison Farm. The date is May 7th. We will eat between 1:30 and 2:00 pm (or as soon as it is ready). The address is 7315 Howerton Rd., Gibsonville, NC 27249. Families are welcome and there is no charge for this event. Board members wi...

I knocked down and killed the first European Hornet I have seen this season. Hopefully, this means one less colony to develop and feed on my bees.

I set up another bait hive at the house a little before 10:30 am today and went to my cousin's to help get mulch for them in my truck. When I returned about 12:30 pm, a swarm had moved in. I set up another bait hive. As of 1:30 pm, there are no scouts at it yet.

I set up another bait hive after the first one was occupied. Scouting began immediately and at around 5:10pm today, bees moved in. I'll set up a third bait hive in the morning.

A fairly large swarm moved into my bait hive this afternoon. There was heavy scouting yesterday afternoon just after I put a small squirt of Swarm Commander in the bait hive. I got another ratty deep and set up another bait hive. Some scouting began almost immediately. I will be curious to see if sc...