Guilfordbeekeepers.org

If you're seeing lots of bees but no resources at this point (specifically honey/nectar), I would keep feeding 2:1 in bulk as long as the temperatures allow. And that means giving them gallons (not just quarts), depending on your feeder situation. At some point soon you will need to stop feeding liq...

Interesting! This kind of makes me feel better knowing others are experiencing the same thing. I have a young beekeeper I've been mentoring, and his parents were in panic mode a couple weeks ago with this same issue (seeing no brood and assuming they were queenless). I checked behind them and finall...

I typically use Halloween as my deadline for feeding syrup and opening my hives and doing any sort of thorough inspections - just to make sure they are queenright and ready for winter. I have gone through all colonies now and it was WORK to find any sort of brood at all! There was absolutely zero ca...

As far as I could tell, there was not much difference between all the wand-style OA vaporizers. I used one for years with a motorcycle battery, but once I got past ~5 colonies, I had to look at other alternatives. I wanted a larger capacity for the amount of OA (like 4 g or more), temp control, more...

Wow, what's most amazing is that this all would have happened in the span of just 48 hrs? Probably 24 hrs if you consider the time until they chewed through the newspaper... By all accounts, it seems like everyone has had huge issues with SHBs this year! Definitely the worst I've dealt with. I'm rea...

Agree! This one seems to be thriving and did have a queen that immediately started laying. They are covering 5 medium frames, and I am keeping them going for the reasons you stated - mainly having a "spare" queen if needed.

We'll see what happens...

I've learned over the years to generally ignore any small swarms after about mid-July, but went up on my roof yesterday morning to inspect my home colonies and found a pile of bees on the deck under one of my hives. Not sure when or where they came from... I scrounged up a 5-frame medium box with tw...

Agree that it's a personal choice, but I definitely did not feel the need to buy bees (packages or nucs) after Year 1. Splitting your own colonies, catching/collecting swarms, and eventually getting paid for trap-outs or cut-outs is certainly more rewarding!

The primary OAV treatment is towards the end of Dec., but I usually hit them again in early March (or before honey supers go on) and again in mid-July (after supers come off). I will try to check after ~2-3 days to see the mite drop. I'm not so exact with that, but the goal for me is just to compare...

I second Jacobs' treatment approach - FormicPro in August as temps allow followed by OAV in late Dec. Rather than sugar rolls or alcohol washes to test, I started using periodic OAV throughout the rest of the year as a means of testing (and treatment). I have all screened bottom boards, so I can wat...

No - no changes at all to the lids, inner covers, or anything else over the past two weeks. Same equipment in the exact location as in the past 7 years. I have not even fed any pollen patties at all this entire year... I pulled my last honey supers off almost a month ago, and these populations are s...

For the past few years I have basically ignored SHBs (and traps, sheets, etc.), as I've felt that maintaining a healthy colony, managing space, and having them in full sun has been sufficient to never have an issue... That has been true until today! I have NEVER seen as many as I did today here in m...

I've had no trouble selling mine at $13-14/lb the past few years, but I've heard of others getting as much as $15-16/lb. Like most things, it probably depends on your clientele.

I took Wally's comment about SHBs to heart. Here's what I did and observed with my triangle bee escapes: 1. I experimented with 1, 2, and 3 medium supers above the escape. 2. I used painter's tape and wrapped all seams between the supers. Inner cover came off, and my lids rested directly on top of t...

I think I have become a convert after all this time using fumes boards for getting bees out of my honey supers (with ALL types of sprays, including the vomit-smelling ones). This method almost always included the additional step of having to use my battery powered blower to get the stragglers out. I...

I might not have a fancy nectarometer like Jacobs, but I agree that at least my home bees here in Greensboro still seem to be on some sort of flow. I thought things were done a couple weeks ago, left some partially-filled supers on the hives, went on vacation, came back and checked everything today ...

In most previous years, I have targeted the July 4 holiday as my time to pull supers. The idea being to wait as long as possible, but to get them off before a real dearth and the bees start consuming the honey they've stored. This was also done when I had fewer colonies and rented an extractor for o...

Just curious what folks are seeing out there with the flow... To me, it looks like tulip poplar and blackberry are basically done, and privet seems to be the only blooms I'm seeing now. I feel like the rains have really hurt this year, and everything bloomed at the same time rather than staggered ov...

The two old poplars in my Greensboro neighborhood I usually watch for the first signs of blooms definitely have some open flowers now. There seems to be a range of fully opened flowers down to solid green unopened buds on the same tree. My home bees aren't quite acting like the serious flow is happe...

I got a call from a neighbor on Wednesday about a swarm at the base of an AC unit. This particular house appears to be a magnet for some reason, as I had responded to them last spring when they had scout bees coming down their chimney and entering the living room! This time they were on vacation, so...