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Yep. I just hived my first swarm this morning - maybe 3 pounds of bees.
Charlie

This is probably a good reason not to use an excluder.
Charlie

Probably normal. I have a sheet of tin roofing under my hives- to prevent weeds. Often I will see dead bees under he entrance. During good weather the ants will carry away the dead bees.
Charlie...

I agree also- two queens.

Get yourself an observation hive. You will learn more about bees -faster - than you ever will in box hives. And you can practice finding the queen every day.
Charlie
zone 5 820 ft 12 hives

She is probably in the center of that ball of bees

65279 central Missouri
5-17-2013
first Black Locust blooms today

I raised two queens in my observation hive last summer. My wife and I carried the obv. hive outside, opened it up and caught one of the queens in a "queen catcher". We then put our new queen in a...

yep - normal
scrap it off when convenient

It makes sense to me. All animals need salt - horses, cattle, deer, people - probably bees too. We have used both the plain white salt and the red salt with trace minerals for our horses and cows....

I bought a fogger last week. After I found some FGMO in quarts at Kilgore's pharmacy for $5 +, I saw that Orscheln Farm and Home at it in gallons and a lot cheaper.
I also picked up some...

I did not see any bees fighting, but hard for me to tell. I would put on a robber screen and see what happens.
My robber screens have of tin sheilding the screen in front of the excape hole. ...

I also use cinnamon around the jars of 1:1 on my hive tops. Stops the big black ants.
Charlie

gailmo,
Good question. I also split a hot hive and the one with the queen became "nice".
Charlie

I have had a lot of mason bees on my plum and peach trees this past week. Which is a good thing because it was almost to cold for many honey bees to be out and flying.
Charlie

trance, welcome to Missouri. We don't have restrictions or inspections.
Charlie

shmiusa,
Follow Michael Bush 's info just before your post.
Charlie

J, Last summer I had a queen hatch in my observation hive that was slow to leave the hive and mate. Three times I watched the bees "dog pile" on her for at least 8 -10 minutes each time before she...

Central Missouri - Zone 5 -
I have bees doing orentation flights. My 12 hives went into winter with very low stores, so I put 12 - 15 pounds of sugar on each hive. I lost two so far - starved...

Yep. I see orange heads too.
Charlie

I feed the ants sugar water with borax in a catfood can under the hive. I also place something over the can to keep it in the dark and hopefully the bees away. - like a 12 x 12 piece of plywood. ...

I put quart jars of 1:1 on my hives yesterday. I know that they did not store much honey last fall because of the drought.
I've had two of my twelve hives starve already this spring. Last fall I...

jmgi, Yes - they do have brood during the winter months. My nucs are made of plywood and I cannot see inside them. Also can't remove the top because they are in my porch.

However, I have an...

I agree with beemilk. My obv. hive has to be emptied twice a year- it gets too full of bees. Each time I clean the inside of the GLASS doors with windex, alcohol and a single edged razor knife. It...

I have had three hives on my front porch all winter. The porch is insulated and heated and stays about 55 -60 most of the cold winter, then warms some when the sun shines in the spring. They are...