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I pledge that I will be a BSA beekeeping mentor, if they reinstate the Beekeeping merit badge. I was a Scout in the 80's. I'm in Northern San Diego County.

Transferring a swarm that settled into one of our nucs this morning into one of my boxes. I forgot to get a lid out of my truck so I borrowed a company lid from a nearby stack.

The audio is weak,...

I'm going to be building some of my own, so I'll have measurements when we get back from the almonds, again. We use 4 way pallets with the bottom board incorporated as 2 pieces of plywood & a 1/2"...

The swarm hadn't settled when we left, we still had a few hundred colonies to add deeps to, to prevent swarms, so we had to run. Couldn't catch it. I have about a dozen sets of boxes, frames,...

Today at work I witnessed a swarm leaving the hive. The bees were flowing out like water. The position of the sun (morning) made it hard to get a clear video, but I think you can make it out. It was...

This is how my boss's son avenged the dishonor I brought upon his dad's bees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B2TyhPySUM

If you look closely at the background at the end, you'll see me pumping...

The bloom in the video is Kettleman City. Fresno, for the most part isn't as far along.

Just wait till I get the video of what the guys did to MY bees today posted. I got there 5 min later and...

In my defense, I really don't think a few jumps late in the afternoon after the girls have stopped flying is as stressful as a 7 hour semi trip up to Fresno. My boss, who owns the bees under...

We have to destress somehow in the chaos of the almonds. Yesterday we serviced about 1400 colonies. Last week three of us put in a 25 hour shift.

One of my co-beeks bee jumping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dokmknD3EMs

Me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDwQhSGMVUw

Driving around the almonds in Kettleman City today. I don't think...

When we discover that we've opened a AFB colony, we shove our hive tool into our smoker & pump them up. Seems to work.

Use the screen, just seal up the edges well. Don't use the towel method. Bee colonies need ventilation.

Putting the screen on early in the morning, before the bees take to the air, is a good idea....

I would recommend 3. I'm a comm. beek, but started with 2 of my own this year. Lost one to ants. I was very lucky to have a strong remaining colony that I was able to split into three. The...

If I could have a superpower, it would be to have every yellow jacket & ant within 20 feet of me die, now.

We have about a half dozen YJ traps from Home Despot around the honey house. They make a...

Hey Tuttle,

I work for Farmer Bees (Dave Farmer). Most of our bees are around NAF El Centro. We had bees on the east side last year, but not right now.

James, David, Greg & Adan from Chaparral...

A few things i forgot to include:

We adjust the amount of syrup in our pollen substitute mixture for expected temperatures. If we used the same mix locally that we use in the valley it would be as...

We take most of out bees out to the Imperial Valley every summer for the alfalfa pollination. It get's very, very hot. If a frame is left out in the sun the wax will quickly melt & run into the dirt....

This is very true. Not slowly, but methodically. We spent today feeding pollen sub & syrup. Didn't get stung once. I've found that the more experience I get, the less I get stung. I'm sure I'm doing...

I usually wear my Mann-Lake jacket & veil with Dickies white painter's pants. Leather gloves, always.

Today we (me & another guy) went through 3/4 of a 335 gallon tank of syrup. Typical day,...

One thing that always surprises me is the cooperation between beekeepers. While we might be competitors in the commercial market, we don't hesitate to help each other out. Where I work (Farmer Bees)...

In my experience, plastic frames don't survive the uncapper well, are brittle, and are easily broken. I wouldn't spend money for them. Sometimes when placing a pollen sub patty & closing the colony...

We buy it from Chaparral Honey. They buy it in large quantities from Aventine. We do the same thing with the soy flour & sugar to get lower prices.

http://www.aventinerei.com/pdfs/62p_nut.pdf

http://donnerpartykitchenstaff.com/pblog/images/77Mixer480.jpg

Ernie,
This looks like the same model:
http://www.multiquip.com/multiquip/592_838_ENU_HTML.htm
I don't know what what we paid for...

This is the whole setup. I was limited in the number of images I could post at one time.

http://donnerpartykitchenstaff.com/pblog/images/77PollenSubSetup.jpg

We did 6 or 7 batches Saturday

This is how we make pollen patties:

http://donnerpartykitchenstaff.com/pblog/images/77PollenSubSetup.jpg


http://donnerpartykitchenstaff.com/pblog/images/77BrewersYeast480.jpg
90 Lbs of...