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If you are starting with no drawn comb like a lot of us do, make sure you can feed them with 1:1 sugar syrup. In your area, they have to be well built up before Winter.
Don't worry about small cell....

Just wondering if some experienced queen breeders could use this thread to post some basic info for us noobs. maybe post some photos etc about how you go about the business.

Preparation
Setting...

All wrapped up for Winter.

52797

See you in April

52795

There's a lot to digest here, but first I think we need to think on a global scale, because a lot of changes are taking place where we can't see them, or too slowly to notice day by day. The oceans...

I set foot in this debate with trepidation.
What's happening now is that the cost of zero marginal cost energy has fallen to the point where it is displacing carbon fueled plants. India has just...

I had an old bee inspector tell me if the entrance is up off the ground a few inches (mine are), the skunk has to stretch to get there and is vulnerable to attack under their arms. Two years ago, a...

Seely found that bees in trees preferred a bottom entrance about 2 square inches. Gravity helps them clear dead bees, wax cappings, and so on.
They have avoided chilling the brood for hundreds of...

We are surrounded by the sea, so our Winters are mild, and our Summers almost never get over 30C (86F). My apiary is in a Pine grove, which protects them from our fierce winds, but most times, they...

I have puzzled about that myself. I requeened 2 hives at the beginning of August and they were both in the 85 lb range by the beginning of September. After feeding 4 gallons of 2:1 with bucket...

A battery charger would work, but you will need at least 12-15 amps to run a vaporizer that takes 150 Watts. A charger will also put out a bit more voltage than a battery, so it would make sense to...

What do I need?


Quiet corner
Accessible by pickup/trailer
Room for fencing if bear country
Suitable forage
Away from commercial farming if possible
Distance from other apiaries if...

I use a half face mask with organic vapor cartridges, and I use prescription safety glasses with a dam all the way around, specifically for chemical use. I also treat with formic acid pads, so they...

If you use an extension, make sure it is rated for outdoor use, & keep the connections off the ground in case of flooding. You can protect them with something like these:...

You can manage your bees the way you want to, but many studies have shown there is no advantage to small cell foundation. It does NOT control Varroa Mites.


Berry, J.A., Owens, W.B., Delaplane,...

My question is are you testing for mites? That's one of the first causes of hive death. If the mites are under control, and they have enough food, they should survive the Winter.

You could shake the bees down into a medium box, then put the nuc over a queen excluder. In about an hour, the nurse bees will have moved up to take care of the brood, but the queen will be laying in...

OA treatment works well, but about 50% or more of the mites are under capped brood and the OA can't touch them. The best time to treat would be about 6-8 days after you hived them, before any brood...

You can wait until they have about 80% of the comb drawn out before you add another box. You can feed 1:1 syrup as long as the weather is warm to help them draw comb, and watch for the pollen to dry...

When i started, I planned on having more than 2 colonies, so the question of how to extract the honey came up. Most small radial extractors are designed to maximize medium frames, so that was one of...

All good advice up above. Spend a year learning all you can before you get bees. Read, read, read, join a club, work with another beek. There is some good stuff on YouTube but you need some...

My recipe is as follows:


1 litre hot 1:1 syrup
1 tsp each Wintergreen, Lemongrass, and Eucalyptus oil (your choice of oil)
1 tsp liquid Lecithin


Add a cup of hot syrup to the blender,...

The odd queen will get through a queen excluder, but if she's up there, you should see some brood in the supers. If there's brood, the bees won't leave. I had a queen get through the Cloake Board...

Where I am it's too cold to Winter feed, because the bees can't break the cluster most days or cross a cold barrier to get to feed. I have to make sure they have enough stores in the Fall to get them...

All good advice above. I would load it with the right dose of OA and time it out in the open. It should take about 2 minutes or so.
This sounds like a low voltage problem to me. I don't know how old...