Kathleen and I rotating brood chambers for colony growth and swarm discouragement. https://youtu.be/jb2gyZ5a_bo

Hello! First year BK in Southern Maine. I was doing a hive inspection yesterday and heard piping for the first time. Set up is 2-10 frame deeps and one honey super that's 80% full. I also saw my queen during the inspection. I believed I had culled all the swarm/queen cells yesterday (must...

Picture and video Went out to my hive this afternoon and a good amount of bees were bearding under the alighting board. I thought it was due to heat and ventilation so I removed a removable plex-glass sheet under my screened bottom board. Then I started wondering if yellow jackets had tried to...

Good day! Part of my hive has swarmed today. Not too many bees left though. One of my acquaintances a commercial beekeeper helped me to do the following: 1. Go through the hive frame by frame and find frames with capped queen cells 2. Found 3 queen cells and split the colony into 3; The main...

Hi, I have been really lucky this year, all of our 6 hives survived the winter even though four of them had between a hundred and five hundred bees when we opened the hives in mid march. The reason for this was a heavy expansion last year. Now, thanks to a great spot and the only hive coming...

Hey guys ! This is my first time posting here but I've been reading a lot for this past year. I'm a novice top bar beekeeper from the South of France, and I'm having a little a trouble I hoped maybe you could help me out with : I'm not sure whether my colony is about to swarm or supersede (I...

Hello everyone!! I have made a new video abot swarming control. We used our observations and made up the stages of preparing the bees for swarming. What do you think about this control system? I hope my explanation was clear. If you want to be a good beekeeper you need to know stages of...

Hello, I have 2 hives since last July. Kept them nice and well. 2 days ago did brief inspection of one and today did about the same but for both hives. 1 hive has all its brood in the top box and I didn't noticed any queen cells. 2nd hive has brood in the middle of 2 boxes and, I noticed today...

I'm in my third year of keeping bees in the Catskill mountains of NY. I had 4 hives (now 3) the one lost due to robbing. As a new-ish beekeeper, i just want to alert new beekeepers to robbing behavior that I noticed and tried to stop but failed and lost a hive. Last year, one of my hives...

Hello! I am looking to put in a couple hives in the spring and am new to the beekeeping world. I'm located in the Texas Panhandle. I need to ask a few questions and was hoping yall could help me out. #1. How prone are bees to swarming? I'm sure it depends on the species and environment. I'm...

Does anyone have experience with a swarm buster? Have a hive that insists on swarming even though it's late so trying this out. See pic. If they are bearded like this tomorrow mid day I'm going to shake them into a nuc box and see if they make it.

Late today, I saw lots of bee activity in my yard from my remaining ("strong") hive. Yep -- swarming. They landed in my pear tree, only 50' from their old home, BUT in one of the worst possible sites [kinda]: in the crotch between the trunk and a big limb. I shook the swarm over a big box but...

I have just become aware of a new method for swarm control. I am a novice/improving beekeeper, on a journey, and I would value any thoughts on this theory. The theory and research comes from Dr Roman Linhart in Czech Republic. In essence: His theory and research is that when a colony focuses...

Hi, This is my first year in bee keeping and I've just bought 2 new families. Currently they are on full size frames and I want to relocate them to half frame supers. My question is: Is it worth doing it? Would you advice on how to achieve this. If it is not worth doing it, should I just...

Hello, I am a first year beekeeper and am seeking advice. Last week, my hive appeared to doing well, based on my very little knowledge and experience. Yesterday, I opened up the hive and the number of bees were way way down. I'm guessing I went from several thousand bees to maybe 100-200 at...

I made a 5-frame medium nuc from a big hive that swarmed earlier in the spring. The nuc started a little slow (my bad, it was the first nuc I made, I didn't add enough bees) but grew exceptionally well and soon filled a 5-frame nuc. I added a second 5-frame super about three weeks ago, moved a...

I'm a newbee and started 2 hives this year from 2 five-framed nucs. One of the hives grew very fast and then decided to swarm. I captured the swarm and put it in a nuc with some foundationless frames with starter strips. Unfortunately the queen did not stick around. The hive that she left...

I'm a newbee and started 2 hives this year from 2 five-framed nucs. One of the hives grew very fast and then decided to swarm. I captured the swarm and put it in a nuc with some foundationless frames with starter strips. Unfortunately the queen did not stick around. The hive that she left...

Hello, i'm a first year beekeeper and still trying to absorb this monster ammount of information called beekeeping. My location is Gresham, Oregon (Not far from Portland) I currently have 2 hives, both hives are supposed to be Italians. One of my hives is a package and the other is a starting...

I am a first year beekeeper. Am learning as I go and am reading all I can. My bees survived the winter so I managed to get them through somehow. But now I am facing another issue I can't figure out. May I get the help of the forum here? A month ago, I upgraded my small winter hive to a new...