Guilfordbeekeepers.org

When I uncap, they fall into a 5-gal bucket lined with a paint strainer. I can then pick up the bag, tie a knot, and let it hang for a couple days while the honey drips out into the bucket. I might squeeze it a few times, and then when it's done dripping I'll put it out for the bees to clean up.

3/20: I am here to dispel the myth that it has to be really warm for bees to swarm. I watched two of my hives on Monday send out multiple small afterswarms at the same time. It was only 46 degrees (but sunny) at lunchtime when this occurred! Note the small groups in the holly, on the side of the hou...

Once again, I came home to find a swarm congregating in my yard - this time all over the place on the side of my garage and fence. I did not see where it came from, but probably one of my hives... This one was a little unorganized, and I discovered an additional virgin in one of the separate bunches...

Again, despite all my best efforts at swarm prevention (other than splitting), another one of my home hives swarmed yesterday. Luckily, I happened to be at home for lunch, so was able to mobilize and get it captured in my own back yard this time. This one is going to another buddy of mine who is get...

I got home from Beez Needz at 1:00 today to find two of my home hives in the process of swarming at the exact same time (despite all my efforts). Interestingly enough, the two swarms merged and landed on the neighbor's exact same bush about 6' off the ground. We shook them into a hive, about half fl...

With the flow we've had so far and the amount of stores I've seen in my own hives, I discontinued dry emergency feed a few weeks ago. This was especially true once they started filling the feeding shim space with comb, drone brood, and honey! It's also warm enough now that if you personally feel the...

I'm so confused right now on how to manage my hives that I'd love to hear what others are thinking. I've had to toss my "typical" calendar out the window... Usually I might start making splits in mid-March, then feed 1:1 for a month to get comb drawn before the flow, and then add supers in...

So I totally failed to heed my own advice and chickened out last week when it came to my weak hive... I ended up pulling the 2-3 frames of bees, queen, tiny patch of brood, and a couple honey frames from the hive and putting them in the bottom of a double 5-frame medium setup. I added 2 frames of so...

I had a few of mine with honey up in new comb in the feeding shim also. And I have made the same observations about foragers coming back with purpose without pollen... With temps close to 80 next week, I'm expecting the earliest swarm season we've seen, and I may very well go ahead and add a super f...

How in the world did they survive that week of single digits? And mites? Those are some hardy genetics probably worth fostering. Hopefully someone can collect them!

Personal opinion here, but if you're looking to eventually have 5 hives, a chest freezer would be an invaluable piece of beekeeping equipment... I use mine for storing honey prior to extraction, storing partial honey/nectar frames for later use, and for freezing frames to kill pests.

Great question! I have basically the exact same situation with one of my 20 hives, and I'm trying to decide whether it's worth nursing them along or not. They were an aggressive hive last year, so I requeened them in August. Although I treated them for mites exactly like my other hives, they had HUG...

I'm sure everyone else is seeing the same thing this week, but I went through all my 20 hives and had about half with new drawn comb clogging up the feeding shim (built in the past 3 weeks), and maybe 5 actually had capped and purple-eyed drone brood in that comb. I did see my first drones flying ar...

My bees here in Greensboro are working like crazy right now, and I noticed all bringing in the olive green/gray pollen I associate with red maples. Sure enough, a look around the neighborhood shows me that some of the bigger old maples are already in bloom! Ought to be an interesting next month or t...

I ran a little pseudo-experiment this year to test some of the theories about SHBs and thought the results were pretty interesting... Hive 1 was in complete full sun, solid bottom board, and on a stand over a concrete slab. Hive 2 was in afternoon shade, screened bottom board, on a stand over dirt/g...

I'm not looking to disassemble and cut boxes, but looking to do something simple like adding foam and/or wood spacers on the outsides to turn a 10-frame box into an 8-frame box (brood boxes only). Anyone ever tried something like this? Over the years I've noticed that the two outer frames in my medi...

I just got done opening every one of my hives to install FormicPro treatments, and noticed the same thing about SHBs. I don't have traps or sheets this year, but the bees seem to be doing a great job of pushing and corralling them to the top corners of the inner cover. I'm squashing anywhere from 5-...

After a VERY prolific March/April, I have not seen or heard of any swarms in probably a month... Interesting observation about the stinging nature of the swarm you caught - it's rare that I ever use anything other than just a veil, but will think twice about that if I run into one now!

For anyone who's had to deal with skunks harassing their colonies, is this typically just an issue during the winter or can it be a year-round problem? I had issues at a new out-yard this winter and went through the trouble of installing a low electric fence and other measures. It seems to have stop...

I had another swarm show up yesterday on the same branch of the same magnolia that I captured one last week! This one was more difficult to get in the box, as I think it was traveling with at least one virgin queen in the mix... This morning I noticed a small group of bees out on the white sheet act...