Guilfordbeekeepers.org

Well Rob, I sure can't slide anything past you! You are exactly right - my post was directed at the new beekeepers taking our class in how to keep bees in a Langstroth hive. Why? Because I know from experience that there would be nothing said about any other way to keep bees and I wanted our newcome...

Wally, I thought you'd never ask! Picture taken back in the summer.[http://www.thegardenhive.com/your-windo ... window-ws/]

Rob, by cutting edge I mean that there are a great many keepers who are dissatisfied with the bee losses they are experiencing with their Langstroths and are looking for different hive designs, designs which may be less attractive for commercial keepers but more bee friendly. By cutting edge I mean ...

Wally, the Kenyan top bar was "invented" by the British, I believe, in the 1970's as a way for 3rd world subsistence farmers to earn currency by selling honey and, more importantly, wax. The hive was simple to make and soon the beekeepers banded together in co-ops and were able to raise th...

It's news! You guys need to drag yourselves out of the nineteenth century. We all need to be thinking seriously about what the next 100 years holds for us. Do you understand that pollinators besides the honey bee are experiencing population crashes? I'm sure it feels good to have your head buried in...

First, the Langstroth is a product of the mid 1800's, hardly modern. Top bar hives of various designs are now considered by many to be the cutting edge of hive design. In this time when bees are threatened by disease, parasites, habitat loss and climate change the emphasis has shifted from one of ma...

Here's your chance to move up to the best hive on the market. We are now offering a Langstroth Adapter for the Garden Hive. The Adapter will take five Langstroth deep frames, so now it's easy to move your Langstroth bees - or a nuc - into a modern top bar. More info at thegardenhive.com. We also hav...

Looking for an alternative to heavy old fashioned Langstroth hives? Check out the ultimate hobbyist bee hive at thegardenhive.com. Made in Julian by Guilford Beekeepers member Bill Rawleigh. Your bees and your back will thank you. And so will I!

I have read that bees navigate mostly by eye and that they like to have a landmark to help them find home. Like a lone tree in a field would be easy to spot from the air and so would be a good place for the colony. I have also read that the entrance hole should be about 2" diameter but it seems...

What are the ingredients for making and placing a temporary hive that will successfully attract swarms? There is a lot of conflicting info out there. Anyone care to add to the confusion?

Thanks

Oops, sorry Emerson. My ears are fairly well wrecked from running saws for 30 years. Thanks for the reply Wally. I am recommending to my customers that the best time to add the super is when they are first establishing a colony into the hive. That way all the main hive bars will allow access above. ...

Wally, you once told me that workers should be able to access a super from anywhere in the hive. That is, that if they could only access the super from a limited area that they could well not use the super. During the presentation we heard Emmett (?) describe how he turns his queen excluder sideways...

You guys are awesome!

You want questions? I got 'em! Stay tuned...

I have some other questions about feeding. 1) Bees can only make use of capped honey for nourishment, right? That means the sugar syrup does them no good until it has been processed in their bodies and placed in open honey cells until enough moisture has evaporated off to reach the "honey"...

I built a bottom board that holds about 1/4" of vegetable oil - The Pool of Doom - that collected over 30 of the little buggers the first time we used it. We removed it and haven't seen a beetle since.

Well, we did the 24 hour mite count and had 1 lousy varroa mite. So much for the powdered sugar experiment. Maybe I'll dust them anyway just to see what happens. Also to see if my rig works. I'm not seeing any beetles either after we did the falling-into-oil trap on the new bottom board. Hmm - I fee...

I was wondering if several treatments of powdered sugar timed to interrupt the life cycle of the varroa mite might be successful in lowering the mite population to "manageable" levels as the colony heads into winter. If the mites fall through the screened bottom onto the ground can they re...

Does anyone know of an apitherapy practitioner in northern Virginia?
Thanks

I would have thought the opposite - after all, no one is breeding mites to resist bees. Hmm, maybe we're looking in the wrong end of the telescope!

Interesting. Thanks for your input. The one thing that seems to be repeated over and over in my reading - and I'm reading mostly research papers from university bee labs - is that the pesticide regime is failing, and failing badly. Not only do mites with their short breeding cycle develop resistance...