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[Note to self: breed a strain of bees that will perform extraction and bottling....][/QUOTE]

How's that working out for you? Inquiring minds want to know.

Whoever above said you have to save or put your money into woodenware spoke truth, but only part of it. Woodenware is a capital investment in your business. Working capital or operating capital is...

This thread raises a question I have pondered previously, but never seen answered. Do varroa mites actually SEEK out drone comb or is it a statistical hit-or-miss proposition?

First thing you need to do is some research, with your local ag extension agent, local beekeepers, state agricultural service, apiary dept, if they have one. ASK QUESTIONS! You are looking for a...

I like to bring a small plastic bucket of water with a few drips of bleach, along with a stainless steel scratch pad. I use these to clean my hands and equipment between each and every hive, the way...

Experience shows that we (meaning "I") forget what I've seen from visit to visit. Notes taken on inspections are really valuable for planning for the very next time I visit, not just for next year.

1) Assume new equipment has a 10-year useful life. (this is an ASSUMPTION, you know what happens when you ASS U ME) How many years useful life (conservatively estimated) does this guy's used...

Check with your local beekeepers. If your area has small hive beetles, SHB, extract often. If not, you can build towers as tall as you can maintain them. The rule of thumb I have always used was...

Someone finally mentioned a notebook, and I just had to log in and put in my 2 cents. My favorite gadget is a clipboard so I can take notes and draw pictures of hive configurations. I tried it...

I could not get your pictures to open in my browser (I'm at work, not necessarily your fault). But I remember the hives of the guy I keep my bees at. You know the old saying, if you have to ask how...

I have Ross Conrad's book on organic beekeeping in my living room right now. I have read it once and parts of it several times. (My 4G beekeeping daughter gave it to me.) Admittedly, I am working...

My experience is to let the bees draw it out without the excluder. If the bees beat the queen to the new cells with new nectar, she won't have the opportunity to lay eggs in it and may go back...

IMHO wrong place to invest your money. For most of my 30 years of beekeeping (Including working as a county inspector) I have generally found a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt (sweatshirt arms are...

Good for you! After reading zero books before I got into rabbits, I read 1 book before I got into bees and many books thereafter. I highly recommend a book that is presently out of print, but you...

Pull the amount of wire you think you will need through the eyelets, cut it off from your feeder spool with side nippers. Start at the back end of your job. Start a nail (short wire brad will do)...

Hand stapler for fastening hardware mesh for winter mouse screens (short staples will do) screwdriver or tack puller for lifting staples.
stainless steel scrubber for kitchen use for using in...

Is the capped brood drone cells or worker cells? Since you mentioned it as "spotty", I immediately thought of laying workers, but don't really have enough information. Are the eggs >1 per cell, or...

I could not disagree more. When you plan to use deeps for brood for the next several years, you need to get them as straight as the bees can make them. Tight cross wires will help avoid foundation...

Something I noticed in your inspection process: before you start lifting frames from a box, break the burr comb from the bottom bars of the upper frames you intend to work from the burr comb on the...

I'm with standman, I don't remember the reference, but they do their version of sleeping. But then, you probably take siestas or chill out in front of the boob tube, so what's the difference? Then...

Boy or girl? Put the sheet on the ground like you do the liner under your Christmas tree. Put the nuc on the sheet as close as you can to the swarm. If you can find the time, hold the frame of...

Sounds like a classic case of laying workers. (Queen never lays all drone eggs unless she's out of sperm.) By all means, when you get that new queen, shake and brush your bees away from your hive. ...

I have been reading news accounts of new beekeepers (welcome, all) http://www.beesource.com/forums/images/smilies/applause.gif and cities becoming more "beekeeper friendly" (where were you when I...

You may have laying workers by now, since the bees appear not to be trying to raise a queen from the open brood frames you are giving them. You did not say anything about this in your post, so check...

Good ramble, but I picked up on a few things I would like to comment on. I would continue with the sugar syrup, but perhaps 1-1 would be adequate. Put on the next deep as advised above, but you may...