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Thanks David, that makes sense.

I didn't see any signs of foulbrood but I did see some chilled larva, which makes sense given the size of the cluster. I will check the hive again in the next day...

What an interesting year this will be! My guess is that the bees have a better sense of what is going on than I do so I plan to keep an eye on the bees and take notes and learn something new. Maybe...

So when you take brood frames from a weak hive and put them in a strong hive where do you put them and do you first shake the bees that were on the frames back into their original hive?

I opened up my thriving hive to find a full box of honey on top and lots and lots of bees. When I worked my way into the brood nest I found plenty of larva, eggs and capped brood and also two small...

Well, I found a a full box of honey and a box with a little cluster (softball size) of nurse bees caring for brood. There were capped brood, larva and eggs. THe cluster is so small that I am not...

Reducing the size of the hive makes a lot of sense to me. I will take a look this afternoon and see what I can learn from my inspection of the hive. I hope that it will be clear to me whether to...

All of my colonies made it through the winter and three of the 4 are thriving. The fourth is sluggish (slow to take in syrup and not many bees foraging compared to the other hives) and I plan a...

Has anyone tried putting a medium honey super filled with Kelley's beveled foundationless frames on a hive during a nectar flow? Did the bees do a good job drawing out comb that was relatively easy...

I have a hive that swarmed and yesterday I watched as three virgin queens piped and emerged from their cells. It was pretty amazing to hear and see. I am also curious to know what the bees will do...

Thanks Michael! I went out and and found that within just a few hours they had begun building cross comb again so I scraped it off and reversed the hive bodies. How soon do you think I should check...

My bees are in an 8-frame deep which they have filled up nicely with comb, etc. They are beginning to move up into the second deep but are building up from the top of the frames in the bottom box as...

After inspecting my other hives which are out at a friends farm I found that they also have dead bees on the ground. One of the hives had poop on the inner cover which makes me think that this is...

There were dead bees all over the ground and landing board this morning. The living bees seem to have done a good job of cleaning out the dead bees over the course of the day and my hope is that...

I have a top bar observation hive in my yard which has been doing very well this spring. The hive contains a new package (hived in mid April) with an Italian queen and up until yesterday everything...

I would direct release her. I hived five packages this spring and all five direct released queens have been accepted and are laying well. The queens had been with the package for 3+ days prior to...

I am looking for a package or nuc. I would be willing to drive up to 60 miles to pick it up. I am in Northfield, MN. You can PM me or call me at 507-663-1045 and leave a message. Thanks!

Thanks! I have put two coats on so far and I think the wood will take more. It did rain on one of the supers for about a minute today before I moved it inside and the raindrops beaded up very...

I put a coat of pure Tung Oil on the outside of my supers yesterday and it went on very nicely. I am wondering how many coats I should put on to give the supers a nice durable finish. Does anyone...

The "sawdust" is wax cappings that the bees removed from the honecomb.

I just finished reading "The Buzz about Bees" by Jurgen Tautz and I highly recommend it. The information about heater bees was fascinating and I learned many things from this book that I had never...

Thank you Sundance, wildbeekeeper, TxFirefighter, and Oldtimer! I will drive out to the site in the next few weeks and take a look around again and see what I can figure out. I should be able to...

I will be setting up a new apiary on a friend's land this spring. There are two restored prairies on this land and the owner will be having the prairies burned in April. My bee packages will arrive...

Wow, I am glad I asked you all this question! Thank you for explaining it to me. I will make sure I assemble them as you suggest. Thanks so much for your quick replies. Sometimes being a newbee...

I have never noticed that on preassembled frames I have bought elsewhere. But I would be relieved to know that these are normal and that I can go ahead and assemble them.

I bought 100 foundationless frames from Walter Kelley in November and just started assembling them last week. The end bars look a little defective to me and I wondered what you all think. Have you...