We had a few days this week around 75-80F. I don’t have a good way to heat a volume of water and I’ve finally resorted to just using well water mixing 10 gal at a time, sometimes several times a day. My thinking is if I’m feeding thin I need to get it done and allow them time to cure it...

Hey all, I’m a first time beek with a 3x3 OH. I bought a 3# package of bees last spring that came in a plastic Bee-bus container. The beek that sold them suggested I put the queen cage on the middle frame so I didn’t have to look at it and said I wouldn’t need to open the hive till about Aug. to...

I did a hive inspection today and this is my first year. It has been quite chilly since my last inspection. there were a few frames of honey in the supers. When I opened the hive today all of the frames with capped honey were broken like in the photo. At first, I thought it was maybe robbing or...

When is the the earliest time a mite can enter a drone or worker cell? units: days start time: egg lay For deciding how to treat, you also need the latest bees can hatch. Michael Bush: worker: 21 drone: 25 Correct us if its wrong.

This is the best thread to use for "When do you add a second box?" because its the oldest most "on topic" one I found. I can't add a poll to it. How does your box adding advice differ when adding box 2 versus >2 boxes?

My hive is not doing well. Here it is late spring (Nov = May in Northern hemisphere). At the end of the winter there was an equivalent of 8 full full-size frames with capped honey from the last season. Due to some unfortunate circumstances (and my mistakes) the hive was queenless for a month...

Has anyone had terrible luck with returning mates queens? All six of my hives made it through winter, then all six have swarmed (caught all six by some miracle) but five of the six currently have no eggs. It’s been over three weeks since all of the swarms and still nothing. I literally witnessed...

I have two top bar hives. What I was considering the stronger of the two has enough honey stores and some open brood (eggs and larva) but a bad case of mites. The weaker one has little honey stores closed brood and no visible signs of disease or mites. At this point what is my best option...

I have two hives that made it through last winter (1 with original queen, 1 queen died and was requeened three weeks ago). Original queen hive is absolutely booming with essentially an entire 10 frame deep of brood and tons of bees, requeened hive does have a few frames of brood but def not...

Hi everyone. I'm new here. I recently moved and had to leave my single hive unattended for a few months. I was finally able to relocate it to my new home. It was rainy and cold for a week, so I couldn't open it for several days. Upon first inspection I found: -queen -5-6 hatched queen...

I started my first two hives last spring and am coming out of winter with one surviving. I overwintered with two deep brood boxes and a medium super full of honey. I figured the medium might serve the colony well if it ran out of honey in the deeps. The surviving hive has honey in the upper...

I overwintered two colonies of carniolan bees installed Easter 2017. Hives (langstroth 10 frame) are located in southern New Hampshire. One of the colonies is reduced to a cluster about the size of a fist - maybe even smaller. The queen is alive. She looks healthy. Examination of the...

I have 3 hives. All new packages this spring. They all seemed to be paralleling each other until about a week ago I noticed one hive didn't seem to be keeping up population wise. I use all medium 8 frame equipment and I added a fifth level to all three. The weaker hive doesn't seem...

I hived a swarm on May 1, they built out pretty good in the first few weeks. Then, my anxiousness being a new beekeeper got the best of me and I added a 2nd deep too soon. Now they haven't built hardly any comb since then. So, my question is if the bottom brood box has 6 frames built out 100%...

So I have a nuc that I purchased and installed 6/3. My first concern with them was on the first frame they drew they put a big supercedure cell right in the middle of the frame within the first week of hiving them. I checked the cell and it was empty, still is empty as of yesterday as a matter...

Hello, We made it through our first MN winter as beekeepers and have a strong hive! I am ready to do a reversal of the deep boxes now that our MN nights are getting warmer. My question is that I left a super of honey on the hive to overwinter because they needed it. Now it's full of brood. What...

So on 4/5 I caught a swarm near my bee yard. I took it away for a week and then took it back with my other hives. The swarm was booming, which I expected. I added a second brood box because they had drawn out all the frames. I moved a couple of frames up to get to the second deep when I put it...

Hi there! I have the intention of testing this out: instead of having my honey boxes above my brood, separated by a queen excluder, I want to have the brood sitting at the top of my beehive. The reason I want to do this is because, mainly, I feel it would be easier on the back: taking off one...

I think my queen stopped laying but I've read of queens not laying when it gets cold. Nights get into the upper 40's here as of the last week. Should I be re-queening? Am I missing something or is there anything else I can try? I'd let them emergency replace her but there aren't any larvae. I...

Hello everyone! I have a bit of a conundrum that needs solving. So, some context, this is my second hive ever. The first did not survive the winter because of record wetness and my own inexperience. I started with a home made top bar hive, and it did not go well. Fast forward to today, I have...