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I sealed my feeder with a thin bead of silicone to keep the bees from coming through and drowning.

Nosema Cerenae does not have the dysentery symptoms that Nosema Apis has. That's why it's more difficult to detect until you notice the size of your population dropping. The only outward symptom is...

Robber screens are effective. I use a modified version of this one. http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2006/06/robber-screen-for-construction.html

This exact thing happened to my hive last January. I had them tested at the Maryland Bee Lab and it came back with severe Nosema. Not typical Nosema Apis, but classic symptoms of Nosema Cerenae. It...

Where I live winters are very wet and there is a lot of condensation inside the hive. The inner cover collects much of the drip that would otherwise land on bees. Mine always have quite a pool on...

Why do you need to remove the comb? My experience is they just rebuild it. If you are sure the queen isn't in the feeder comb, you could put a queen excluder below the feeder to make sure she doesn't...

I've been told that a traffic jam at the entrance, particularly during the nectar flow, is one of the things that encourages swarming. Do y'all agree with that?

Also, the ones under the snow are probably frozen so they haven't decomposed. Nosema spores aren't affected by the cold. So if you dig out a few you can still send them. Put them in alcohol and let...

I had a similar situation a few weeks ago and gratefully harvested 8 frames of honey. My honey is all for my use, I didn't treat in the fall except for sugar dusting, and no bee diseases are also...

I make mine exactly like you made yours. It always has a slight gold color to it. It's fine.

Even if you destroy the queen cells now (which you should) you also want to check again just before you install your new queen. They will kill a new queen if they are trying to make their own. If you...

You might want to add a frame of brood while you're looking for a queen to buy, just to keep the workers from starting to lay. And then make sure you check for and remove any queen cells they make...

I have two hives. One of them has been robbing the other since Sunday. I reduced the entrance on the robbee hive with a screen to one bee space on Monday. That slowed them down and reduced the...

I am happy to report that after looking at all the queen pictures and videos you shared and more I could find on the internet (a very helpful exercise), this afternoon I found my queen. And she was...

I'm looking for some photos of frames of bees and the queen, that are not close-ups of the queen. I want to train myself to find my queens on a frame full of bees, and so far I'm having a devil of a...

I have my nuc on a screened bottom board. Do you think I still need a vent hole or will the screened bottom give them enough ventilation?

I am concerned about them being strong enough for winter. Fortunately they have plenty of stores, we have mild winters, pollen all year round, and a bit of a fall flow, so I'm hopeful. But it might...

I started with two hives in April. One queen disappeared. The result of beekeeper ineptitude, no doubt. Laying workers. Shake out.

The other hive (Russians) swarmed twice in June, a week apart,...

You could either combine the queen-less hive with the queen-right hive or buy a queen. It's pretty late for making a new queen and she's not likely to get well mated.

I have two swarms that came from the same hive. The first large swarm has the original queen and it's doing well. A second small swarm and the original hive both failed to produce laying queens. I...

I don't know if it's the right thing or not, but it is what I would have done in the same situation.

What I was told (and therefore, what I've done) is that the laying worker thinks she IS a queen, and might well fight a real queen. So the best way to combine a laying-worker hive with a queen-right...

That also sums up my first year experience. And my husband's as well. Not all of us are thoughtless about what we do with our lives.

Where were you yesterday while I was rushing through all those coats of paint? Once I have "gummy goo skinned over", will it eventually cure, or does it need air and I'll have to strip them and start...

I did, thanks. And they were wonderfully cooperative.