[Iowanian]

Am..

I name my hives based on where or how I get them or for some other reason to keep track of things.

I have one hive that I named after a local welfare apartment complex. The hive always has had hive beetle and roach issues, it smells weird, the bees are grouchier than my other bees, and there isn't anyone working in that sonnabitch during the day when the others are...low producer, grumpy, bug infested welfare trash....that queen is from a low rent trailer park for sure. This hive is named after a specific complex I don't want to name because of privacy reasons. I actually bought the hive as a nuc my first year.

"pinch the queen". A hive is what the queen is....If she's gentle, your bees will be. If she's a hard worker, the bees would likely be good producers. This hive has sucked for 3 years. I'm going to find the queen and squash her, and install a replacement queen either from a cell I find in another hive or a purchased queen. A new queen in that hive of workers will eventually lay eggs of better stock and in 6-8 weeks the hive will be completely different. Hopefully better.

My hives are close together. You pretty much just need enough room to work. The "big boys" will put 4 of them on a single wooden pallet. I think at some point having too many in the same area would be counter productive, but the large bee yards have enough bees in one area that I'm not worried I'll ever have more than I should in one spot. The truth is it's easier to have them in the same general area because you don't have to spend as much time running around to check on them. Right now there are essentially 3 guys on my bee team. One guy is tired of bees dying and probably getting out and another moved out of the area. Of those remaining we have bees on 4-5 farms.

The only reason I'll spread mine out would be if I do splits(taking frames of brood from a good hive and place those and bees from that hive into a new box where they'll hopefully make a new queen and become a separate hive). I'd move them so the bees don't get confused and go to their old home. I think they need to be a mile away or more. I do have a copule of friends who have asked me to place a hive near their garden or orchard I might do just to help them out, but I don't have the hives available right now. I'd do that, but I'll never send my bees on the big trips to California or anything. It's a good way to make some money in the winter but a great way for your bees to die.

My goal for this year would be to end the season with 7-10 hives but I'd be happy if I end up with 6-7 healthy ones. I'm not looking to get too big, this is just a hobby right now. I'll also probably help my pal get more hives filled because they have a lot more and more of the processing equipment etc. I'll spend as much time helping him get back up and going, because honestly just like deer hunting it's more fun with a battle buddy.

I only have 1 trap out right now, in my orchard. Time is the only thing holding me back. I'll try to take some pics of the trapping process and how it works...win or lose, success or fail.