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Not trying to rain on your parade, but one question. Why?

It's good to be able to increase the number of hives you have, but shouldn't your goal be to get strong, healthy colonies that can winter...

Welcome to Beesource from another cheesehead. :D Do yourself a favor and learn all you can. This site is a wealth of information. No such thing as a bad question either.

Wisnewbee
Honey Luv Farm...

Enough room to you may not be enough room to the bees. It takes considerable room in order to store all the necter the bees can bring in. Then they process and ripen it into honey. This frees up...

For the sake of argument, let's assume that NutraBee from Keith Jarrett is the best. Since us sideliners arent big enough to buy by the truck load and therefore can't get it, what would be second...

Make sure you have a mite issue before you even think about treating for mites. I would not recomment the sugar dusting as it doesn't reduce or control the mite buildup because it only reduces the...

juzzerbee. the delay is mainly cold weather related. Considering how cold our spring has been in Wisconsin so far, it's not too late to start. Many have yet to receive their packages. It's not just...

Instead of trying to catch the queen and cage her (increasing the chances of damaging her), you could just use a queen introduction cage made from #8 hardware cloth. It could even be mini sized. Find...

No, he's talking about honey in the comb (Ross Rounds).

You need a huge population of bees to do comb honey (Ross Rounds or cut comb). 2-4 frames of brood is way short of the strength you need to...

She should be fine with that amount of space. A queen introduction cage has the highest rate of acceptance. Tha't why I use it and recommend it.

Wisnewbee
Honey Luv Farm

Oh Goody, a learning opportunity! Everyone should know how to do a split. Try this for starters. Rusty does a nice job describing things and is easy to understand....

An introduction cage can be any size, and yes, you can use #8 hardware cloth. I made mine a little on the larger size. Mine are 5"x8". They cover a good chunk of comb. You want the top about 3/8" off...

Depending on the hygenic traits of your bees this could be normal behavior. Bees will often uncap and remove bee pupae and larvae that are not healthy. or are infested with mites. There is also the...

I use frame feeders in all my boxes and leave them in year round. Instead of worring about cleaning it, just let the bees eat it until all the syrup is gone, then add additional if needed.

It's...

A couple questions. How big/strong is this colony? It's difficult to get a large colony to accept a new queen or cell. If this colony is large your idea of breaking it up into smaller units has...

If you're going to try and rely on powdered sugar dusting to control Varroa mite will will need to dust them every 7 days at the minimum. Do you realise that dusting only knocks off about 30-40% of...

A virgin can go through an excluder. After she's mated and has started to lay, she will no longer fit through.

Wisnewbee
Honey Luv Farm

I mix in volumn due to the number of hives we have. A gallon of 1:1 syrup weighs approximately 11 pounds. Take the number of gallons you'll be making, say 30 gallons of syrup (leaving room to...

I use frame feeders in all my brood chambers. Easy to fill. Can add up to 2 gallons at a time. Only requires opening the lid 3". Syrup is warmed by being in the hive. Bees don't have to go outside to...

It is usually recommended that you wait until the drones are at the "purple eyed" stage. This way the sexual maturity cycles for mating, match up between the fast developing queens, and the slow...

Lloyd,

I was asking about the Mann Lake only because of the free shipping and some similarity to the Sundance. That said, I ordered 5 Sundance botton/side drawer traps from Brushy Mountain...

I like it. My planer has the same problem. I even have a spare leaf blower laying around.

Wisnewbee
Honey Luv Farm

Looking for new pollen traps this year. I wasn't happy with the cheap porch type at all. I know that Sundance bottom traps are supposed to be the preferred trap. Looking at the image of the Superior...

Heads buried in the combs is usually a sign of starvation. You most likely would not see any physical signs of mites at this time.

Did your queen fail? Maybe. You said there was drone larvae in...

I think he was talking about organic like in farming. No synthetics. I don't think he was talking about organic as in chemistry. Easy to confuse.

Wisnewbee
Honey Luv Farm

Rob, I agree that a brood break would be a good thing. Hygenic bees are a good step, and 1 that I am personally doing this year. However the OP was about what to do now. If he waitsuntil fall to do a...