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I checked all of my hives that have shims and sugar bricks on Friday. My impression is that all hives were weaker than hives at this time last year. There was no comb, not as many bees in the shims, and bees were not consuming bricks as quickly as last year. The bees were actively bringing in pollen...

Give pollen substitute only if you are deliberately trying to stimulate brood rearing. Once you start, don't stop until the red maple blooms to avoid having brood starve when the queen ramps up egg laying. If you do stimulate brood rearing in January, be prepared to take measures to stop/deal with s...

I took a look at David's flowering quince and leatherleaf mahonia this morning. The quince has small red buds but is nowhere near blooming. The mahonia buds look rugged and there are a few blooms open. I did see a honeybee checking it out.

This has been more like normal winters of years ago. The cool temperatures of December and January are forecast continue into February. If this holds, I'm thinking swarm season may not begin until close to mid-March. Last year, DuaneB had a swarm move into empty equipment on February 16th. Bees buil...

With any luck, these 2 rapid but intense back to back cold snaps will knock down the population of SHB overwintering outside of hives. Last year's very brief cold snap didn't do much to reduce the SHB population as far as I could see.

Happy Bee New Year 2023. With more normal winter temperatures so far this year, we can only hope that it is enough to knock down some of the over wintering SHB that have found locations outside of our hives. Last year's short Arctic Blast wasn't enough to do the job. Bees are showing a small interes...

I waited awhile to see if anyone would respond. We teach our beginners on Langstroth equipment because it has proven itself over the years, provides for more or less interchangeable equipment, and makes transferring resources from one hive to another an easy proposition. About a dozen years ago on t...

I'm skeptical--especially for our area. Beekeepers farther north used to move hives into basements or structures over winter in the late 1800's. I know the "Canadian Beekeeper Blog" shows in that farther northern climate, this commercial beekeeper moves his hives into a climate controlled ...

I checked today and found a deadout with a "cluster" of about 30 bees.

I haven't seen much activity the last few days. When it warms up enough I'll take a look, but if the broodless situation has continued, it's just a matter of time until the end.

I am not seeing any brood in this dwindling colony. I doubt SHB are eating all of the eggs. I think the queen has quit laying. I did see another very small abscond attempt to take up with a healthy nuc this afternoon. I have not seen a queen among the very few bees arriving and the bees in the nuc a...

I don't think they have been a significant issue in our area for several years. I'm not sure why they became less of a problem. I think the thymol based varroa treatments (apigurard, apilife var) may also take care of tracheal mite problems, so some of the reduced issues may be due to use of these p...

I think the sheets take awhile to be effective. The bees chew on them in an attempt to remove them and the fuzz that develops traps the beetles. If these aren't working for you, go back to the traps or add in traps along with the sheets. I never had much luck with traps, but have visited other beeke...

Not the easiest image to see, but the queen is laying a mix of worker and drone brood in worker cells. I don't know how long she will last or how far into fall and winter these bees can go, but I will let it play out and see what happens.

Today I got a strong off butterscotch smell from the hives for the first time this fall. Bees are working aster that is blooming in my yard and I am confident they are gathering it from around the neighborhood. We don't have much in the way of goldenrod around my house. It took the bees a few hours ...

NOTICE!! DATES FOR BEGINNER COURSE WILL BE CHANGING TO BEGIN IN EARLY JANUARY AND END IN EARLY FEBRUARY--STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS JUST NOTIFIED THE COOPERATIVE EXTENSION THAT THEY WILL BE TAKING OUR MEETING SPACE FOR EARLY VOTING FROM MID-FEBRUARY THROUGH EARLY MARCH. IN ALL LIKELIHOOD, THE REVIEW ...

I'm assuming you are working with wax foundation; a really strong hive with a really good nectar flow will pull out the remainder of the mess and repair the comb (fill in with new comb). If the hive is not really strong, is not in the nectar flow, or is not in a situation where the bees feel they ne...

The new queen is at work. I checked the nuc this morning and found the queen backed into a cell. When she moved out I examined that cell and a few around it and saw eggs.

I have watched the queen disappear and 4+/- queen cells develop since the arrival of these bees. As of Friday, 1 queen cell had emerged and the rest were being torn down. Just a few minutes ago I saw a small queen on one of the frames. I hope she will be able to get mated, make it safely home, and s...