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Thanks for the input everyone! I just did a search and found some very helpful, interesting stuff, but it's mostly about wintering indoors rather than keeping them there year-round. I guess my...

Just wondering if there are reasons that this wouldn't work.
I know that some people in cold climates winter their bees in cellars or heavily insulated, well-ventilated buildings. And I know that...

Hi Michael...thanks for your help!! I will take your advice about the distilled vinegar. It's going to be a heck of a job but better than buying all new equipment.
I'm in Alaska, by the way. ...

It's still not really spring here (five feet of snow) but yesterday I went ahead and cleaned out the hive I had hoped to winter over. It was pretty nasty and I'm wondering if the bees died of nosema...

I just started using "CandleFlex" molds. After I've poured the wax and it's set up a bit, a thing like a sinkhole forms in the middle of the candle. I've tried pouring the wax very slowly, in small...

Thank you, thank you, thank you. :D

I just tried melting down some pieces of comb and it wouldn't melt. Really wierd...it just softened a little and turned black. I was doing this in a stainless steel bowl over a pan of boiling water,...

Thanks everyone. I guess I wasn't clear about the fact that I cleaned out the weak hive... killed the bees and put their stores in another hive...because, as everyone mentioned, I could tell they...

I just cleaned out my weak hive; the one I suspected had a drone-laying queen.
There were open queen cells on the bottom edges and corners of 4 or 5 of the combs. Some were the tube-like kind like a...

Thanks guys...I'm in Alaska and I've been told repeatedly that two deeps and one super are necessary, though most beekeepers here don't even try to keep the bees over. It's not the cold so much as...

I have one hive that has been fluctuating between being normal and extremely feeble all summer...barely foraging, barely filling one deep. I put a super on it last month since the one deep was being...

I sit on an upside-down plastic bucket and watch them. Sometimes with a cup of tea. They seem to be very interested in the "World Honey Market" section of ABJ (I read aloud only the positive news...

My hives are between a river and a small creek, both of which have nice clean water and lots of calm, shallow spots with overhanging brush and dry flat rocks where bees could get water. Further away...

My bees are being difficult about syrup...for the first several days after I installed them they wouldn't touch either the stuff that came in their packages or the medicated stuff I thoughtfully...

My hives have little black bugs that look like miniature lice or tiny fruit flies. They are very, very small. They're mostly grouped on the inside of the inner cover but I've also seen them crawling...

My two newly installed packages are supposed to be Italians, but about half the workers in each are jet black with off-white bands (no yellow at all), while the other half are normal golden color...

Merest speculation here...we've just had something similar show up here (Alaska) in the last few years- never seen before that. ENORMOUS bee-like bugs! Almost the size of hummingbirds, very loud...

Or at least that's what it seems like. I live in a small town of about 4,000 people. So far, the vast majority of people I have mentioned my beekeeping efforts to (only if they asked) have said, "I...

I second the recommendation of John Vivian's foundation mold plans. Good instructions for building it and advice on how to use it.The only thing he mentions being a problem is getting the wax as thin...

I've decided to go with foundationless frames this spring...just a bead of wax around the inside of the frame.
Do those of you who have done this shape the side pieces into wedges or just leave them...

Well, sounds like my doubts are justified then. I know an electric fence is really the way to go, but the hives are on land my aesthetically sensitive father owns...it's a surprising privilege to...

Wondering if anyone in serious bear country has tried the "Critter Gitter" thing sold by BetterBee? It's a motion sensing device that emits sirens and flashing lights. Does it work or do the bears...

I've ordered most of my stuff from Mann Lake. The first shipment of woodenware they sent was horrible...I'd ordered commercial grade but what I got was nasty "budget" grade with huge cracks splitting...

MountainCamp: I'm in Alaska.
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I'm looking for a source of northern origin(ie not imported from CA or somewhere)package bees that the supplier is able to ship through the mail. Something like the Olympic Wilderness Apiaries would...