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Post by Alan on Apr 17, 2008 22:08:46 GMT -5
We moved them here to the farm on tuesday! I'm really excited about it, I have seen them out and about quite a bit the past couple of days visity clovers and dandey lions and all kinds of little flowers, they have even been checking out the tomatoes in the greenhouse!
They definetly weren't happy after being moved though! No stings yet luckily!
Will keep you all updated as the year progresses! Beautiful pollination and tastey honey, what's not to love?
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Post by durandal on Apr 18, 2008 22:15:48 GMT -5
Rock on!
I did a cut out last week and I get my nucs on Thursday!
I'm in the same boat. I have bees and I am in a great mood!
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Post by Alan on Apr 18, 2008 22:20:03 GMT -5
Excellent! I'm definetly hitting the learning curve hard here, but enjoying myself thorougly.
Anybody have a good rundown of bee keeping lexicon and terminology? It would be much appreciated!
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Post by johno on May 1, 2008 12:41:40 GMT -5
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Post by Alan on May 19, 2008 23:27:41 GMT -5
Thanks for the link Johno, very helpfull! My bees are doing well but are asking for their winter jacketts back because of the cool weather! Looks like next week is in the 80's which is great, we need that sun to warm the soil and our hearts and soul!
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Post by durandal on May 22, 2008 6:01:23 GMT -5
I got my bees as well. The last week in April. I got 4 5 frame nucs of mutts from a guy up in Lancaster, OH. I have also caught 2 swarms, one in Ross, Ohio and the other in Price Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio. The first one seems to be doing as strong as my really good hive. I've already had to requeen one hive and let another hive requeen itself (killed/died sometime after I got them down to the farm). So, half my hives are rocking right now (up to three brood boxes in some cases) and the rest are doing so-so, but have been an excellent learning tool for all sorts of management issues.  This photo was taken right after the install at the end of April. |
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Post by Alan on May 22, 2008 21:42:31 GMT -5
Nice picture, I really like that setup, very professional!
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Post by plantsnobin on May 23, 2008 6:19:54 GMT -5
I like the color coordination-never seen hives with quilt patterns.
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Post by johno on May 23, 2008 9:46:58 GMT -5
Ditto that. Looks very nice.
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Post by canadamike on May 23, 2008 10:34:14 GMT -5
Ghee...even my decorator wife would let me have some like that in the backyard, very nice indeed...
But mine won't look as neat, I know myself....
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Post by durandal on Jun 3, 2008 22:21:48 GMT -5
Sorry I have not replied in a while.
Been busy with swarm catching, growing, and selling at market....and baling hay...
I've caught three swarms so far. My colonies are doing really well. I think I accidentally killed a queen in one of the nucs at the time of transfer and have been hoping they would requeen themselves naturally. Did not happen even though I counted something like a dozen queen cells, none of them produced queens.
So I took my smallest swarm of about 1000 bees and a queen that was already laying 7 days after I caught them and combined them with two mediums packed full of stores and field bees with a few house bees. I checked today and all seems to have gone as planned and now I have a good hive.
And now I have six colonies instead of seven.
This year has been very friendly in our area for new beekeepers (crappy for growing sweet corn and too much rain for some of my spinach, but soooooooooo many things in bloom and a huge locust/clover/honeysuckle season so far. I have one colony that has drawn out, completely, 30 frames of foundation and filled 'em with bees, honey, or pollen.
Good time to learn, so I have something good to compare the REALLY bad times (like last year too).
I'll try to post some more pics in a little bit.
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Post by plantsnobin on Jun 4, 2008 8:57:24 GMT -5
It's good to hear that the bees are doing well. Wish I could get up the nerve, think I will look into getting some mason bees. I'm not really a huge honey fan anyway. I was wondering where North Bend is? Last April my husband and I went to Zanesville and came back on hwy 22. It was a really nice drive. It seems to me that Ohio has a lot of small scale industry going on. Everywhere you look there is a small business, and many that I have heard of. When you start looking around, a lot of well known businesses are located in Ohio. Just curious about tax incentives, and if the state actively promotes small business. Seems they are doing something right. Wish IN was as pretty as Ohio. We really want to go back, didn't get to explore Zanesville, only got to see it in the dark. We were going to Roseville actually, to pick up bird baths from Burley Clay factory.
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Post by cff on Jun 4, 2008 23:04:05 GMT -5
North Carolina seems behind on rainfall already but it hasn't been real hot until today; the bees have done an awesome job here this year, it's been several years since I've had a honey crop this good in my out yards and at home I've replaced all the starter Nucs I sold plus I've made a pretty large number of increases.
Several times this season I've had swarms with more than one queen. If you find more than one queen you can actually split a large swarms into two or more boxes depending on the number of queens you find. Try to find your swarm queen(s) before you shake them into a hive, the queen(s) will be close to the surface of the ball and most of the time you'll be able to spot her by watching or slightly moving the bees with your fingers.
I think I have about 6 more empty Nucs to fill before I'm out of boxes frames and wax for the forth time this season, but it's a good problem to have.
I've been grafting queens several times a week for a while now and I'm seeing some really good queens come from the breeders I've purchased this year from Glenn Apiaries in California, I order two new breeder queens every year and I'm pretty sure I'm working with the best two Russian breeder oueens I've ever purchased.
I had to split both breeder hives twice this season to prevent them from swarming. Both breeders are super productive queens and there daughters seem just as good.
Wish it could be spring time year round.
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Post by johno on Jun 5, 2008 16:12:06 GMT -5
So... can you breed a queen from a wild swarm with domesticated ones, or are the wild bees just feral domesticated bees?
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Post by Alan on Jun 5, 2008 21:45:17 GMT -5
I'm glad to see cff and durandel posting again. My little hive of bees is doing terrifically, very well manered and very condusive of me spending more time, money and research on this new hobby! It really is quite interesting and not nearly as hard as most make out that it is, I look forward to expanding upon it greatly in coming years!
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