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Thanks, Michael. I will proceed on the assumption that I have laying workers, and continue to give them frames of open brood. Should I stop transferring frames when I see queen cells with larvae,...

Note that I was referring to pinching a "drone-laying queen", assuming that I had one, not a laying worker(s). The drone-laying queen would be as easy to find as any other queen.

I have a new package of bees that was installed in one deep of drawn comb 3 weeks ago. I inspected for the first time the other day (after checking for queen release 3 days after installation), and...

zipcode = 44234
Hiram, Ohio
Northeast Ohio

May 20
Black Locust

I have two deadouts that have some moldy comb, as well as some thin (probably fermenting) honey/nectar dripping out of open cells. Is it O.K. to leave that comb in the hive for the new bees to clean...

I'm in Northeast Ohio, and we had a two-day warm spell in the lower 70s a week and a half ago. I saw my bees bringing in light yellow pollen in large quantities, but have no idea what it could have...

In my area of NE Ohio, the boneset starts blooming a few weeks before goldenrod, and continues for a week or two after goldenrod starts blooming fully. The bees seem to completely disregard the...

Keefis,

I don't mean to be a jerk, but as a scientist, my critical thinking skills won't allow me to believe anything without thinking about whether it even makes any sense. In this case, the...

What type of fluid did you use to calibrate your refractometer? Which model do you have? Can you include a link to the instructions, or upload a scanned file of the instructions?

I have never see an ember get sucked into the bellows, but I used to get flames sucked into the bellows and was afraid it was going to melt the plastic fake leather on the bellows. So I came up with...

Jewelweed has white pollen. A tell-tale sign for Jewelweed is that sometimes you will see it on their backs, due to the stamens patting the bee on the back when they reach in for the nectar.

See Michael Bush's Bee Math.

As the flow winds down, they reduce the size of the brood nest and back fill with honey. This reduces the size of the population and conserves stores during the summer dearth. I have observed this...

Milkweed Pollinia?

Steve,

I had a very similar experience last fall, and I am now hesitant to use the robber screens. I had what I thought was robbing, because I had bees flying all around the hive all day long...

The plant is toxic, but I don't know about the toxicity of the nectar. I have a lot of Dogbane (Indian Hemp) blooming in my area and I have never seen a honeybee working it. That is surprising,...

I was wrong. They are called "bracts", not "sepals".

Good point. I had never considered that the neighbor's diseased riff-raff could be bringing diseases to my comb.

Buzzy Bee,

There are different kinds of dogwoods. One type that is plentiful in my area of Northeast Ohio is the Red Osier Dogwood. This is the red-twigged one that heus mentioned. It has...

Hanging them out to let the bees clean them worked well for me last year, but I left the frames and extractor about 200 feet from the hives because I had read that leaving them out near the hives...

Personally, I would be worried if the queen hadn't started laying in the upper deep. That is just the normal progression of brood nest expansion. If you look in the lower deep, you will probably...

I vote for Dame's Rocket as well.

chaindrivecharlie,

Thanks for the explanation.

The last few weeks I have noticed dead bees, mostly drones, accumulating in front of one of my strong hives. Not a lot, maybe 40-50 over 3 weeks or so. This hive is otherwise doing very well. Last...

I don't think anyone really answered this question, and I've been curious too. If you have a sump, what keeps the bees from drawing comb down past the level of the bottom edge of the bottom box, all...