Hey everyone, love the community we have here and thanks ahead of time for all your information and words of wisdom. I'm in Denver, and want to try a small cell hive next year. I already have all the small cell frames and everything and would much rather find a source that sells small cell bee...

I was lucky enough to capture a monster swarm with a bait hive. While hiving them, I noticed they seemed much smaller than my other bees. I'm assuming it is because they are feral and have been making the natural 4.9 size cells instead of our man made 5.4 size. Question is...what to do since...

Over the years I have needed to find solutions/reasons (bee related), and depended on all of your research and teachings. I had to learn beekeeping on my own, and with the help of Beesource, you, Dee Lusby, Randy Oliver, Michael Bush, Linda - City Bees, and now Sam Comfort, to name a few, the...

I am a beekeeper in North Texas and have been experimenting with small cell and treatment free beekeeping for a number of years. After a hiatus of about 5 years I returned to beekeeping. However, I kept a small apiary during that time on my acreage. Happily I do have one survivor hive after...

This will be my first year keeping bees. I have ordered four packages of bees raised on 4.9 foundation. I will not be putting them on foundation but will let them draw comb as they see fit. I want to add to the genetics of my colonies, as soon as I am able to do splits, by bringing in some...

Dear Bee Keeps I started a new colony this spring of natural small cell package bees. They as many first year bees are doing well. I started the colony on small cell plastic frames, 10 Frame medium Langstroth. Once they were strong I placed a medium on top and moved two frames up. hey had...

I am running mostly PF-125 frames with a few Kelley foundationless thrown in. It seems like everytime I put a foundationless in they draw it out huge for drone comb even if I put it smack middle of the brood nest. Any tips on how I get them to draw it out as small cell brood size?

Hello Marcy from Maine here reporting in. I am so excited. Once again all my colonies made it through winter and this was CRAZY winter here in Maine. No winter losses and so I continue with my natural bee keeping approach. I did lose one hive due to queenlessness (likely not an actual word)...

third year beekeeper here in the Indiana Dunes. I had lots of queen issues past summer and lost both (2/only) hives. So I am basically starting fresh but with my old equipment of 2 hives,10 frame, deeps and mediums with large cell plastic foundation. I've got 3 packages coming of 4.9 bees. I...

Hello all! I am located in the outskirts of Louisville, KY and I am a new hobby beekeeper. Primarily for gardening purposes. I'm looking for some feedback regarding "narrow frames" and possibly regressing bee size to small cell bees. The following is an explanation of my setup - or soon to be...

Hello, An informal meetup for treatment free beekeeping in the Chicago area is scheduled for Tuesday, July 29th, 2014. Open to all, it will be the first of what the organizers hope will be a monthly meetup (the schedule will be discussed at this meeting). Details are as follows. Date: Tuesday...

I'm trying to move my bees to small-cell comb and added some into the brood nest this weekend. A few hours after, I noticed considerably more bees than usual doing orientation flights. Does rearranging their comb cause them to reorient?

It's just about time for me to add my second deep brood box this coming weekend. Right now I have standard foundation (not sure the exact size) in my first brood box. I did some reading about the potential benefits of small-cell and would like to give it a try. So my question is this: Can I...

This is 2x10x8's planed down to 1 1/4" and cut to 6 1/4" pieces. On the left is a normal (W.T. Kelley) endbar, On the right is a narrow endbar with the lower section thinned down. I also intend to thin down the topbars...

Like lots of others, I've been reading about the value of small cell foundation and wondering if I should give it a try. I came across this: http://www.extension.org/pages/44732/has-research-been-done-on-honey-bees-comparing-54-mm-comb-cell-size-with-49-mm-i-have-heard-that-smal and am trying...

I'm working with a team of woodworkers in Haiti who are learning to make bee equipment for my apiary and eventually for mass production and sale. The frames have proven to be the most difficult, due to limited equipment. I have 2 questions: 1: Can someone give me a link for some good...

Would I be able to use the pf series frames on nuc colonies that I will be getting in the spring? I am fairly sure these are unregressed bees (from a large commercial place locally, they couldn't tell me what the cell size was) and I'm wondering if it will work. When bees are regressed it is...

Going to stir the pot here a little. I have a few different types of hives, including top bar. Love the idea of regressing bees to small cell. However, I think it has more to do with the cell size. Wouldn't you have to reduce the size of the queen as well? So, keep replacing the queen with...

I went to do my inspection today. First one since I added a 2nd hive body on the 15th. I filled the 2nd hive body with alternating frames of foundationless and small cell foundation. The small cell foundation seems to have a weird pattern where the bees have drawn it. I dont know if I should...

Hello all, as I said in my welcome post, I have been slowly researching bee keeping over the last 2 years. I've read The Complete Idiots Guide twice, and I've followed the boards here, and looked at MBush's site a few times, just ordered his book today. The one nagging question I have, which...