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Giving bad advice to new beekeepers as worse than giving no advice at all.

All due respects Andrew it is definitely not a question of right/wrong, your wrong.

Just saying here that a fence with no bait in known bear territory is an invite for disappointment. Keeping the bait freshened is another task on the beekeepers long list that can often be neglected...

"There is no question that this technique is effective. Having said that I don't use it as I don't want to attract bear to my bee yards, and the wildlife biologist folks I have talked with frown on...

These few bees are not worth the efforts of survival. You need to keep the bee yard behind an electric fence or will have a visitor time and again. Sorry.

All this over kill on fences. Wire does not hold back bears. Thin wire and bait. Cook the bacon and they can't resist. Works every time.

The dovetails make a beautiful box. I go back and route out the dado after for the frames.

Failure rate seems to be high with packages. It must be stressful with the shaking and shipping not to mention getting to know the new queen at the same time. I won't buy them any more.

I think you may have a skunk visitor at night. Look for dead bee husks below the entry as a sign.

Shake it. There really isn't much to save. No sense wasting a good queen by splitting. Do the shake and intro the new queen. The other bees will go begging at other hives in your yard.

I have seen masking tape over the tube to delay the release.

I agree with everything Chick says except that the rabbit joint is stronger than the box. Glued or not (I glue) the box joint is by and far the strongest and well worth the effort to make.

Making all my own stuff here. Specially in this economy and with a shop sitting idle. We have a few cold nights here in CT also. Good time to use up wood that has been collecting dust as the bees are...

My OH queen hasn't been laying for quite a while and she still has a nice, long, plump appearance. They can fool you. Give her a bit of time yet IMHO.

Reversing the boxes is a very disruptive practice. I wouldn't do it.

I think a 6 1/4 inch frame in a 6 5/8 box with a 5/8 rabbit would leave 1/8 inch top clearance and 1/4 inch bottom clearance on the bottom. I don't think the frames should be touching the bench as a...

If logic prevails I feel it makes no sense to have the mites drop and then have the bees enter from below and pick them back up on the way in and out. I use SBB and top entry.

I would guess the queen has not started to lay yet this season. It may not be quite time yet. Mine went into the winter fat on SW I feed them and there may have been a shortage of stored pollen also....

It is the only way I have ever done. You will never worry about skunks or snow bound entries. Truthfully, I think both ways have their merits so just pick one and go for it. Early on I studied MB's...

I have used air dried lumber. No problem. Dry it as long as you can first with the stickers. The boxes are not furniture and usually don't need the same moisture controls as pieces that will be...

It is not always about the best value. Some take great pride in doing for themselves. From a living green standpoint it makes good sense also to try and do what we can at home if we have woodworking...

Mr Hogan,

Would it be possible to put that information here on the forum so we all don't have to send addressed envelopes. Best to use the technology if we can today to save on postage costs.
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I have only scraped the comb off wax foundation. They will go back to it no problem. It sounds to me like you will be best off with the foundationless and just crush and strain less you like the...

I have found that you can carefully scrape the comb off the foundation and it will be reusable. This works with wax as well as plastic. After a couple years doing this you may opt to try and salvage...

If nailing by hand the splitless ring shank galvanized nails work real well. A size comparable to 6 would be fine.