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Thanks for advice.
I would prefer to be hands off and let them do what they need since they know better than I.

My first colony was a 3 lb Italian package I installed in 2011.
Do I need to consider requeening that colony or can they do that themselves?

If I should re-queen, when should I do it?

The...

To follow up, what does fermenting honey look like?
It is definitely not crystallizing, but there are white cloudy clusters in it.
Yeast?

Thanks,
Shawn

I have noticed the formation of white, milky clouds in honey that I opened up and used.
I am wondering if it is contamination from spoons or honey dippers (water, bacteria, fungi?).
It does not...

Ahhh--that explains the flavor of one of my batches of honey. Will be extra careful next year.

Thanks,

Can too much smoke on the affect the honey flavor?



Shawn

I bought one-gallon bucket feeders from Brushy Mountain and they seem to work well. They just had a hole about 1 1/2 or 2" diameter in the center of the lid then they siliconed what seems to be...

I am in the midst of feeding 2 colonies (Russian, and Italian) with 2:1 sugar solution.
Our temps have been in the 40-50s F in Day and near freezing at night.

I was thinking of just putting on...

So putting a candyboard in now would be good insurance? I am feeding syrup in less than desirable temps, and was thinking of putting in a candyboard early instead (I put it on a few days after New...

I tried different things with wet frames this year.

1) After my 1st extraction in summer and honey flow, I put wet supers back on the hive and within a day or two they cleaned up the residual...

I decided to go to all mediums for my second colony.

In my manipulations of frames, I was wondering if I need to keep track of honey vs. brood empty frames that I store.

Are any issues with...

I now have learned my lesson.

Sounds like a good idea--I will put the supers above inner cover and maybe even an empty super under it. I just don't want them to recap the residual honey. Thanks.

I put a couple of wet supers out for the bees to clean, and I noticed there was a lot of foundation that got chewed up.

Is this typical for the honey bees or native bumble/carpenter bees to chew...

What is the optimum temperature range to store honey to minimize crystallization and not degrade quality?

I am wondering if I should store the honey in my basement or keep it upstairs at room...

How do you get the bees to clean up wet supers on the hive without recapping residual honey or refilling with nectar?
Do I put them above inner cover?

I was amazed at how fast they cleaned and...

I had a honey super of foundation frames in the process of being drawn out that I used as the new hive body (brood chamber) that we dumped the swarm in. I also pulled a few frames of empty drawn...

My daughter's colony of Russians (from a 10-frame NUC this year) swarmed yesterday. My daughter and I were able to recover it into a hive body of foundation and put it back on the hive (bottom). ...

What is the foam on top of extracted honey that has sat for many days?
I know some of it is particulate matter floating. Is it wax and small air bubbles?

Any tips/techniques on getting rid of...

It took my hive 6 days to draw out a 9-frame medium super this year during the peak nectar flow.

I just extracted Super #2 & #3 and put back the wet supers back on the same day (Friday). Yesterday (Sunday), I went back to pull off the top empty super and it already had capped cells. So I left...

Would the medium be for additional brood or overwinter food? A local beekeeper indicated 2 deeps is sufficient. However, I could just leave a super as insurance?

Last winter I put on a...

I have been fortunate enough to have 3 supers on my 2 deeps of 2nd year Italians. I already extracted Super#1 and put the wet super back on (20 July)--this super has been refilled and starting to...

I have been saving my wax cappings and burr comb I scraped off. Finally getting to the point where I can do something with it.
I am planning on building a solar wax melter soon.

- How do you...

Thanks for all the tips. Didn't want to create a 'honey gate' controversy.

After I bottle the honey, I will futz with the gate as recommended and see if it leaks.