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They look fine. They'll get bigger over time.

Use smoke. It keeps the bees calm, it will clear them off the comb so you can see into the cells, and it blocks the pheremone signals if you happen to accidently squish a bee. The queen won't fly off...

Yes...usually. Though occasionally a mother and daughter queen will lay side by side in the same hive. You will really be booming if that happens, with twice the laying power. Keep an eye on them. As...

I agree with Tony P. They are probably supercedure cells. I don't think I have installed a package yet where the bees didn't immediatley replace the caged queen that came with them. Just wait and...

KB,
Your queen should be out by now. I never poke a hole in the candy plug, just pull the cork that is on the candy side so the bees can access it. As soon as you have time and good weather, I would...

Not sure about Missouri, but THIS may be the relavent statute. Wher I live in Maryland you do have to register your apiary with the state, but there is no cost and you basically just send away a form...

You can treat with Oxalic Acid vapor in the cold weather witout even opening the hive. Actually, it is the ideal time to treat with OA as there will be less capped brood. If you know how to sweat...

Hair clip method worked for me. I figured out how to do it from these videos.

Matt M.

I have an LG Optimus IV phone with the Android operating system through Virgin Mobile. I pay $25 per month and get 300 anytime minutes and unlimited text and data. No contract. Service is good where...

I see you are in Mississippi. You might want to check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e419UbjFsw&feature=plcp

In my limited experience, pollen patties (of the size that are produced commercially) are a magnet for SHB. Provides a great protein source and plenty of surface area beneath the patty that the bees...

DC Honeybees,
In the post on your website, you mentioned that this is a refinement of your 6 frame medium nuc plans. Are those posted somewhere on the site as well?

Matt M.

Or you have a two queen hive and didn't know it. See the link below and scroll down to "Two queens can't exist in the same hive."

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfallacies.htm

Matt M.

The small hive beetles have arrived. I made an interesting observation the other day about a "mistake" I made when putting together my top bar hive, that may have actually ended up working to my...

You should be able to set one of these on the bottom of your TBH. Haven't seen any problem with small hive beetle yet where I am in Maryland. People a county away do though.
...

I agree with MattDavey. I see lot's of drone comb and capped drone cells and the "queen" looks to me to be a drone as well. You might have a virgin queen if they superceded her, but you should have...

Thanks for your reply JYawn! You were right...it just took a little longer than expected. We had a stretch of several rainy days and she probably wasn't able to get out and get mated for awhile. She...

So here’s the deal.

I’m a new beekeeper and have one 47” long top bar hive on a small urban lot near DC. The bees were started from a package at the end of March and have built out about 15 bars...

"Matt, thanks!
Are you the guy who did the "Out of the blue sky" clips on YouTube? I learned a lot from those. Thanks again.
Mac"

Not I...just found them useful as well and the hair clip trick...

Bmac1985, try using hair clips to repair your crossed comb. You have to work carefully, especially with new comb, but it worked for me. You just 1) cut the crossed comb off of the top bar, 2) loosely...

Thanks for the responses. Seems like things are back to normal. Since that one cold morning with the 40 or so dead bees, it has warmed up and I'm only seeing 1-2 dead here and there. In fact, the...

Hi all,
I'm a brand new beekeeper with a 47" top bar hive (end entrance) and a 3lb package of bees installed March 30th. Everything has been going along fine so far. I had some cross-combing issues,...