Search:

Thanks all, for the advice. Sometimes it's hard to be a lone voice in the wilderness when it comes to not using anything in my hives, especially since we have a very active and ever changing group...

I'm curious about N. ceranae and those of us who eschew treatments of any sort. I keep my hives on either small cell or natural cell and haven't used any treatments for the past 10 seasons. I often...

As a beek up in Humboldt County, which also has very cool summers and mild winters (though WET), the general rule around here is to leave at least one super - 60 lbs of honey. Some prefer to leave...

Thanks John - looks like you ARE the only wise one to comment so far. :)

The only thing that's of concern to me (since I also do not use antibiotics) is that this beek DOES use them, and the bees...

Greetings,
I'm actually asking this on behalf of another beek who is not on the forums. She recently discovered that one of her hives has a serious EFB problem, and there are few bees left, so...

A friend has two TBHs and I'm building a few for my own beeyard. When she goes to pull a bar to look at the brood and see how they're doing, she's having a horrible time not squishing a ton of bees...

I'm glad this topic came up, because I'm having the same issue with a package I started this past April. Started them out on some foundation and/or drawn comb, but by the 3rd super (I'm doing all...

thanks for the replies. I should have mentioned that one of the newbees in question was talking about looking in her hives ever 3/4 days NOW, 2 months after installation. Not in the beginning. ...

Nah, my girls haven't taken up toking, but this topic did come up on our local beekeeping forum and I wanted to get some more data from folks here. I had heard from various beeks (both here in the...

Catching two topics here -

First off, the first Brushy Mtn feeder (688) - I got two of them a few years back, and the ONLY way they work well is if you fill them up *before* the bees have sucked...

I guess I need to do a bit more research on essential oils (long as De Lusby doesn't find out! :-)).
Combining with a stronger hive is an option, but I'd need to make sure not to transfer over a...

A bunch of most excellent suggestions on how to do my top bars. I'm especially interested in the idea of cutting the actual bars to a 45 degree angle.

And thanks to Paul H. for the idea of...

I'm sure this info is out there somewhere, but after several searches of the archives, I'm coming up with way too many unrelated posts, so am hoping someone can give me a quick and dirty answer. :)
...

Hi all,
Haven't checked into the forums for a few months - it's been hectic out here!

Anyway, I finally had a chance to thoroughly check all my hives on Friday, and I found some bummer stuff, and...

Thanks for all the suggestions on how to get the girls to draw out comb "correctly" with no foundation in place. I love the popsicle stick idea and will try that next...

jules

Thanks to all who answered about how to help the bees build comb straight in relation to the frames placed in the hive.

Interestingly enough (per Michael's response), all of my hives' entrances...

I'm going to try letting a few swarms I capture this year build their own comb out (rather than supply small/natural cell which is what I currently use). Last year, I tried this with one swarm and...

I appreciate the suggestion to let the bees build what they want, and I plan on doing that in some of my hives. But rather than veer off into THAT discussion, I wondered if anyone out there...

I'm the first beekeeper in our area to use small cell for beekeeping without chemicals (I've done it for 7, going on 8 years now). My beekeeping teacher is really trying to research all alternatives...

Heck, I don't care WHO answers the question, as long as someone does. :) Is this necessary for the bees to build the comb? In other words, if I just stuck the top bars in there, I assume they would...

Greetings,
I have purchased the lumber to make a tbh from the plans on your website, Michael. However, neither I nor the lumber folks could figure out what this part meant:

34- triangles cut...

Good point, Michael. I need to do another mite drop count (I use SBBs) to make sure it's not just an anomaly. Out here, the acid treatments are a bit more difficult, due to our cool weather. But...

I'm hoping someone out there is keeping bees without the use of the major chemicals, so I can pick your brain about my hives, both of which have a heavy enough mite load so that some of the bees have...

Hiya Michael,
Yes, that's definitely been my experience (from reading, and unfortunately, FROM experience) - multiple eggs means laying workers. That's why the presence of the queen baffled me. I...

Oy, I wish I'd stop learning from my OWN mistakes, and perhaps from reading about others. That said...

One of my hives was much less active than my others, so I took a look in last week. (I...