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Thanks, Joseph for the helpful information.

I have people ask me occasionally what kind of bees I have, and I tell them I believe they are Italians. I guess it's not so simple from what you've...

Joseph,

So I guess the gist of what you're saying is that a honey bee is a honey bee, since appearance basically doesn't mean anything anymore? So when you buy or sell bees, you just tell folks...

Michael Bush says that you can just add a frame of open brood. Does it have to have eggs or can it just be open brood? Those eggs are hard to see.

I had the same thing happen to me this year. The bee actually chased me right into my house and stung me. But, being the gracious fellow that I am, I took the bee, which was now flying in the window...

When you say "scrape the queen cells," what do you mean? I have watched youtube videos where queen cells were cut out with a knife and "pressed" into the comb on another frame.

Thanks

Could you expand a little on that second statement? Do you take a single frame with a load of house bees and press one of the queen cells into it?

Thanks!

When doing splits where you just divide the boxes evenly and one hive gets the queen and the other has to make one, can the hive without the queen produce one if they have open brood, or do they have...

Thanks a lot, fishstix!

I'm going to be installing this queen in a hive that has pretty much NO brood. It's a queenless hive. So, I guess just put it between 2 frames down in the brood nest?

Thanks a lot, Charles!

1662

Can anybody tell me how to use this queen cage?

What kind of candy to use (marshmellow?).

Should I plug the hole with the little cap? What is the cap for?

Where do I put it in the...

Do they always have some, or do you tell them to give you a call when they mess up an order?

Very nice!

I like your handholds too. How did you do those? It looks like a 3/4" dado, but then you also have a flared bottom lip.

Do you really get exterior paint for $5? I need to check...

Thanks to all for some really excellent and helpful information!

Have any of you found a cheap airless spray gun that can speed up the painting of multiple boxes, or do you prefer to brush it on to get better coverage?

I guess the better question would be, do...

I would like to know whether it is advisable to paint the top and bottom edges of hive bodies or leave them natural wood. I have been using semi-gloss paint which tends to make them stick together. I...

OK, guys. That sounds good. I'll give it a try. Thanks a lot for the advice!!!

JD,

The nuc without a queen has had sealed queen cells in there for 2 week. Shouldn't they have hatched at least one by now?

I have 2 nucs which I placed swarm cells in about 2 weeks ago. Now, one nuc has a new queen, but the other hive still has the sealed queen cells, but no queen.

The nuc with the queen has only a...

Very good tips here. Hive management is so important.

But, before you can become a good "hive manager," you have to come here and get knowledge, and that is what I'm trying to do. You all have...

Jeff,

It sounds like you have to be in your hives a lot, because how else will you know if you've got swarm cells? You have to go through every frame of every box to insure your bees aren't going...

Wow, this stuff is way more complicated than I ever imagined. I've certainly got a lot to learn. Thanks, guys for the great info!

Thanks a lot for the info honeyman!

Question: I only put 2 frames of bees in my nucs. If I add some more frames of bees to fill up these nucs, will it be a problem if the frames were from a different hive that the original first 2...

Honeyman,

Thanks for the helpful information on how you do splits. I think I'll adopt your method. :)

It has to be kind of hard to prevent swarming unless you do hive inspections every couple...