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They were pretty full going into winter. They came out in early March and all seemed to be going well. I fed them and was happy to finally have a hive survive. Then it turned cold and when we finally...

I just finished cleaning out my hive in preparation for the arrival of their replacements and it looks like the queen must have failed. It was her first year, but I think I had a laying worker in...

So with one hive struggling and one hive that is almost full of bees and stores, I've been watching my bees very closely to see how they're responding to me moving some honey and brood.

Everyone...

Good news for a change.

I finally got into the other hive and it is almost full! In its first year and I'm having to take out bars! If I hadn't been feeding sugar syrup like crazy, I might even...

I have two hives. I've been putting out quart chicken waterers out front full of little yellow blocks. Today they have more of a bucket with a ton of flowers floating on top just because my children...

Instead of counter to ceiling, could you just make the counter a sort of large, glass, oversized top bar hive? Then you could just live the counter top to get inside when necessary? Just a random...

We are in drought and my bees aren't doing well so I've been feeding lots of sugar syrup, and I'm planning on adding pollen patties next week when I can get some. I would like to know how they're...

Thank you! They don't have an online ordering system, do they? I sent them an email, but just wanted to make sure I'm not missing something!

My bees have not done well getting through this drought and they have essentially nothing at all in all their beautiful comb. I'm feeding them as much sugar syrup as they'll take and would like to...

I think they have broodn, just no honey stores to speak of. Though maybe I should do a more thorough inspection. I was looking for honey stores, not brood. I kind of assumed there was brood in the...

My bees barely made it through this summer with the drought. They were getting incredibly aggressive and I was thinking of just trying to get them through winter and trying to figure out how to...

Their canisters were almost full. In fact, I set them up on boards outside the hive and they finally emptied them today, but I may not have sprayed enough syrup. I'm trying to compare last year to...

Now I'm wondering if maybe I tried to release them too soon after the ride home in the trunk so they were shaken from the vibration? I don't know, but so long as I can work them and walk near them,...

Feeling so much better now!

We had sprayed them with sugar syrup prior to installing, but that didn't seem to help a whole lot. I was really nervous about releasing the queen today, but we went...

Cool. I think I'm going for a direct-release, set for this afternoon if I can get the courage up to open the hive. You can maybe tell I'm really new at this but I've been stung three times and my...

Yes, they were a package of bees. Happy to hear they may calm down. I'm better at the smoker now, but I'd rather not suit up every time I go over to watch them, either.

The bees we had last year were so gentle, I miss them already! I lost my nervousness very quickly, stopped wearing the bee suit and by midsummer decided that the smoker I could never keep lit was...

That's what I was going to say. Farm the land and let the bees take what they can. If you're set on clover, run animals on it. Or put in an orchard or something with higher value that the bees can...

Awesome! Thanks!

Last year when we got our packages, the queen bee was in a little box with two holes and a candy plug and she had a couple attendants. The release went fine.

This year I just have little box with...

I checked the hives about two weeks ago and other than being worried they were a bit short on food, everything seemed fine. I brought syrup out to them two or three days ago. Went out today to check...

We have four foot long top bar hives, but so far, the bees have only filled half of it. Not sure what is honey and what is brood, but it doesn't seem like very much. How many bars should be filled? I...

I'd have to go count, but we were told that for our winters, the hive needed to be at least four feet long and our old one is just shy of three feet. These are brand new packages and have only been...

Ok, so after I installed my bees, I found out my hives were too small. We bought new hives to move them to as soon as the weather warms.

Our old hives have the entrance at the front (short side)....

It didn't quite hit the high of 63 that was predicted, but the bees are all over the dandelions. Noticed yesterday I needed to refill their syrup, but it's in the hive so I have to open it up.
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