Guilfordbeekeepers.org

Thanks Wally, then my wax was not old. They were about four years old yet had some discoloration due to a bit of mold.I suppose they were damp when stored or enough moisture caused this. This was the reasoning to replace. Thanks for the valuable information as always.

So far my new hives are doing well. In fact, some are exploding with bees to the point I am worried of a swarm in one.There are honey supers and space yet the hive is either hot, needs another honey super or? My problem is several hives the honey production seems to have slowed and they still are no...

next question for the experts. My honey frames are now old. The wax is old, fragile, and discolored over a couple of years.I am taking the wax out to replace in the existing frames. How do you guys "clean the frames"? There is plenty of bee wax and bee glue on them so after scarping and be...

I would like to thank Wally and Jacobs for the excellent advice. I have been using the bee escape for 4 years. Never understood why I would smoke , take a super off, put the bee escape on, throw the honey super on, then run them out. The fume pad and extract is the ticket. The bee escape I think wil...

Thanks Jacobs. The bee escape seems to slow my progress so I will try leaving it off this time. The quicker I can get them out of the top supers the better I should be. Thanks to Wally and the folks for the suggestions and my apolgies for my confusing typos.

Typo-s I use the bee escape where they go thru the hole and out the triangle puzzle....and the nice smelling extract Wally has sold at the meeting. Is it a waste of time for the bee escape? you guys use this or not. Sorry for the typo's . Don't leave the nasty smelling stuff in the garage - the wife...

For prepping to extract, after putting the bee excluder in place under the honey supers, how long do you want to leave to pads on top of the hive with Bee Go or Bee Gone to "push" the bees out and remove the supers to extract? 30 minutes, couple of hours???? Last year I had did this and it...

when is too late to split a hive? My last strong hive I had plenty of room, they swarmed. Dang it. Too far up to get them. Now I have two new packages from Brushy Mountain. They are find, yet I only have two and the flow (to me) looks to be poor. If so,I am thinking if checker boarding and trying to...

Where I am, it seems the tulip poplar bloomed almost at the same time and looks to be ending quickly. Bad for me as this is the main source for my bees.. well..what is left of my bees. 60-70% losses over the winter.

I have one killer hive with lots of bees with a double brood setup. To prevent swarming I generally checkerboard so I am glad to see Kurt's and Jacob's responses. The question - checker board on brood and make one split? Remove a brood and replace it with new frames and possibly make two nucs? I hav...

bummer....my Russians did not survive the winter. They just kicked the bucket on me. Time to start over again.

Glad you other guys are doing o.k.

o.k. I will harvest when a super is full versus waiting. I figure I only need to make a mess once with several supers versus making a mess with one. This advise will not make the wife happy. LOL

Thanks for all the input. I guess my question from Wally and others do you re-queen or let nature take it's course? So far I let nature take it's course. One hive was great in the spring, I checkerboarded, yet the hive split anyway. The hive was good for a couple of weeks then died pretty quick. I w...

I am on a roll for my questions for the year to become better at this hobby. Many thanks for opinions from my fellow beekeepers. My question is I wait and extract once a year with my hives. Generally in late June-early July, so a hive might have one honey super, or two supers depending on the streng...

I am looking to see if I can get better this year with my hive management. If a hive is actively managed and the beekeeper in the perfect world has access to queens, etc, a hive can last many years. I have had hives last 4 years (thanks to this forum and learning from the great bee keeps at the meet...

Pleasant Garden location. Probably too late so I will try again next year.

Thanks for the replies.

I lost 3 hives. They were very strong in the spring, but kicked the bucket. Is it too late to take some brood from strong hives and try a couple of splits? Of course feed them like crazy. Tried two splits already, they made no queen and perished. Hopefully others had better success at splits. Honey ...

Thanks Wally, I will do this. Boy,it did not take long for mold to grow. As long as it does not affect the honey I will do this.

my honey supers after extraction got rained on with the local showers after I extracted and the bees cleaned them. There is light grey (not much) mildew on the wax in the frames. Will this harm the bees? next years honey if I reuse them? I don't want to mess up my honey so if there is any doubt, I w...

Thanks Wally, that it quite the website. I will give it a shot