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I'm fairly certain they've got brood and pollen in there... the other two hives I started at the same time do. I'll try the chicken wire method, and stickpins if there are any on the outsides of the...

Someone has come up with a design like this before. I think I saw it on Youtube, some guys in South America somewhere.

I've thought about doing something similar with a rotted-out oak or somesuch...

I started 3 TBH this year--two are building perfectly straight combs right where they ought to be on the bars. The last is about 60 degrees off, nearly perpendicular to the combs.

Not real sure...

Did you go out and get your hives PERFECTLY level? I think that has a lot to do with it if they're ignoring the guides on your bars.

Heh... I looked yesterday and several of my hives were like that. In one, I saw a skinny little virgin running around. I was in there to pull the old queens into nucs, BEFORE they swarmed, but it...

Smoke does push them back. Also, if you're occasionally lazy and don't feel like using the smoker (I only do when I'm going for a full break-down inspection) you can use a little spray-mister. ...

I guess I'd have to say bees can qualify as 'local' after about 1-2 years (either that queen or those genetics) surviving in the local area with no particular advantages (you weren't feeding them...

Wow... fun times.

I'm a newly dubbed 'beekeeper' having just overwintered my first hives. But I did so maintaining the standards that I hope to keep as I grow my production--and of 7...

Harry,

I think the issue is less 'adapting' than simply weeding out those who don't do well in damp/cold/whatever climate. Those who do well probably have some slight advantage over those who...

I dont' know about Wayne's logic, but I got southern bees so I could start early. That way when I requeen with a well-bred northern queen, she 'inherits' a well-started hive with brood and stores...

Dark combs should not be an issue. That just means the queen laid there and that area was used as brood comb. Shake or blow (leafblower) the dead bees out as much as reasonable, and you should be...

No. I know what pollen looks like. It was shiny, smaller, higher on the leg (but on the same segment) and went all the way around the leg, or at least moreso than in this pic. It really did look...

I appreciate all the pollen candidates, but do any of these pollens come in smooth and shiny? The things on the bee's legs didn't look granular.

So I was looking at my bees today and saw something odd. It LOOKED like the pollen basket areas of one bee were large and swollen--large for a leg, but small for a load of pollen. At first I was...

Alice... you talk about ecoregions. Do you only want native plants?

Actually what I did was take a bit of window screen and bend it over at one end, then hooked it over the ledge of the opening. I made it long enough it went to the bottom of the feeder. That way...

Fantastic! "Beehive? What beehive? Oh, you mean these wild bees that set up in my yard decor here?"

As small as it is, they wintered fine! No extra pollen or sugar/candy feed since December...

I poured in melted parrafin (about 1c) and moved the feeder so the parrafin coated all wooden parts except the top, the poured it back out the feeder entrance. Works great.

I overwintered 4 nucs from Fall-started queens. Two were 10-framers in double-stacked 5-frame medium boxes, and did the best (biggest population now). One was 8 frames in a medium super, and the...

I just spent the weekend with my future in-laws in Mass. They make maple syrup every year, and warned me that if you put maple syrup in former pickle jars, it ruins the syrup.

Any experiences of...

I'm in the same situation, and this is my first winter. But from what I've heard, as the cold weather fades away the queen will lay a LOT more brood and the bees will be ravenous--they'll go...

This was my first winter, but all of my outside hives survived. Most were Russian stock. I didn't wrap the hives, but I did tape a sheet of alunimum foil to the bottom board when I put it in in...

22315-Alexandria VA

Yesterday, 17 Feb, was the first 65F day since fall. I noticed a few bees bringing in large loads of very pale yellow pollen and dancing it out on the combs when I put on...

3 mediums = 2 deeps, so the size shouldn't really matter, and I like having everything standardized. I also prefer to move 50-60 lbs rather than 80-90lbs in a single lift.

I also read at one...