The bee keeper diaries

[KS Smitty]

This is messed up...Police are searching for suspects after the Brazoria County Beekeepers Association (BCBA) said someone dumped out dozens of beehives and set them on fire at a county bee yard in Alvin over the weekend. Up to 500,000 bees may have died.

https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/b...photo-17301049

[Iowanian]

Here are some pics from the cutout I did today. It was in an old corn crib that is being torn down soon. I found signs of 4 other old hives in the same building.

These were large. A lot of bees and I ended up with two separate hives within a few feet of each other. I caught one queen but I'm confident I got the other in the vacuum based on how they acted when I put them in their new box.

A lot of work but a good day of bee catching.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Weren't you expecting three queens in this lot? whatever the case, it looks like you did some really good work and I hope you get the Queens that you're looking for.

Depending on species, how many bees can one Queen "rule over" so to speak?

[Iowanian]

One queen per hive. They will kill another queen.


I thought there could be three hives in the wall because of the number of entrances being used. It turned out to be only two living hives.....and three more old ones with no bees. The east wall had a dead hive also.

I'm still happy. Two nice hives are in my bee yard now

[Iowanian]

There aren't many large commercial bee yards in my area, so i'm not certain how to answer your question.

Every bee keeper I know has lost hives. My brother had as many as 8-10 and they are all dead right now. Another guy on my bee team is down about 50% of his hives right now. I've bounced between 2-7 live at any given time.

There seem to be multiple things killing them. Sometimes it's conditions like last year where it was too cold too late and a lot of them starved on top of a box of 90lbs of honey. It seems like varroa mites get a lot of them, and as I've mentioned before I'm convinced aphid spraying of soy beans is getting a lot of them.

I'm not a scientist or a scholar so I'm not an expert, but I don't think it's rocket science to figure out why colony collapse is a thing.

A lot of keepers ship their hives to a common place and then they are shipped south on a tour from Florida-texas and then to California for the almond groves. Bees from all over the country to go one place on trucks, interact, and a lot of them die.

To me it's like going to spring break cruise...long trip, there are girls there with the flu, one food worker with norovirus and a couple loose women with STDs.....and people wonder why there is shit on the walls of the ship when it gets back to port.

You can make as much money per hive doing pollination as selling honey...but I'm not sending my bees there, even if I get enough to make it an option.

[Iowanian]

Swarm bees are very gentle. There isn't a hive to protect and they've just gorged themselves on Honey. Think about how you feel on Thanksgiving day after pie when the Lions are on.

[redfan]

I've been monitoring the hives for queen cells (in between all of the rain we've been having) and I finally found a couple that looked viable.
They were in the lower super above the top deep, kinda odd place but I've seen queen cells all over the hives in odd places.
Last month I made a queen castle (a deep divided into 4 2-frame chambers each with its own entrance), and I've been itching to use it ever since.
Everything growing around where I live seems to be a couple of weeks later than last year, and the bees are following suit. I had a hive swarm 2-3 times by this time last year. This year, they're just now making/capping queen cells.

On Sunday, I pulled the frame that had good looking cells and put it in the queen castle. Then I pulled a deep frame that had a good mix of capped brood and honey and put it in there as well.
I went back about 3 hours later and saw a couple bees leave from the entrance; a good sign. Hopefully it'll take!

[Iowanian]

I spent last night and part of today building bee traps and put 3 out. I've been mouthing off about them for a couple of years here, but they are strapped into sound locations, scented with old, smelly comb and some lemon grass oil. The tree in the pic has had bees in it at least since the 80s. That is one reason I think this is a good spot.

I put one close to my office and I'll check the others each week and report back when I get anything. If I don't have anything in a couple of weeks I'll make adjustments to their location.

...and yes, half of the shit in my shop is broken

[KS Smitty]

Are you hoping to attract a queen into the box and the rest will follow or do the worker bees prepare the hive for the queen and then she moves in?

Glad you guys are posting pictures along with your info. I really haven't seen many bees at all this spring, not even the dumb-blebees (wood bees) are as numerous as they usually are.

[Iowanian]

I'm hoping entire swarms move in.

When the bees swarm out of a hive( naturally way to propagate, the old queen and half of the bees leave)... they ball up around the queen and scout bees go out and search for a new home. They report back "hey I found a 3 bed 1 bath fixer upper in a bad neighborhood" and another says "hey I just found a 4 bed 2 bath near good schools that already has some delicious stinky old comb...let's go there to live".

Then the entire swarm flies to that spot and moves in and starts building.

Once a swarm moves in, I'll give them some time to build up, hopefully lay some eggs and feel like home....then I will go soon the disc some evening and close the entrance and move the hive to my bee yard and place the frames and bees into a hive box.

....and go re-set the trap. That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

[mlyonsd]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I'm hoping entire swarms move in.

When the bees swarm out of a hive( naturally way to propagate, the old queen and half of the bees leave)... they ball up around the queen and scout bees go out and search for a new home. They report back "hey I found a 3 bed 1 bath fixer upper in a bad neighborhood" and another says "hey I just found a 4 bed 2 bath near good schools that already has some delicious stinky old comb...let's go there to live".

Then the entire swarm flies to that spot and moves in and starts building.

Once a swarm moves in, I'll give them some time to build up, hopefully lay some eggs and feel like home....then I will go soon the disc some evening and close the entrance and move the hive to my bee yard and place the frames and bees into a hive box.

....and go re-set the trap. That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

Don't laugh at this question.

Are all honey producers one breed of 'bee'? Are there multiple breeds that produce honey?

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

Don't laugh at this question.

Are all honey producers one breed of 'bee'? Are there multiple breeds that produce honey?

Multiple... and they all have their individual pros and cons.

for example:

Italian- Apis mellifera ligustica GOOD TRAITS: Very gentle, good brood pattern, isn't so prone to swarm as much, great honey producer, light on excess propolis and makes nice looking white comb honey. A great bee for someone new to beekeeping. POOR TRAITS: Can drift between hives and not find their home. Are prone to rob other hives during a dearth. A dearth is a lull in nectar flow.

Caucasian- Apis mellifera caucasca GOOD TRAITS: They have a long proboscis or tongue. So they can work certain flowers other honey bees cannot. Very gentle. POOR TRAITS: They don't build up very fast in the spring and are very heavy on propolis, making the hive very sticky to work. Can rob more.

Carniolan- Apis mellifera carnica GOOD TRAITS: Explosive spring build up, are not so prone to rob, are very, very gentle, and good comb producers. POOR TRAITS: Explosive build up means more swarms. Honey production is less than the Italian bee.

Russian- Hybrid A product of the U.S. Dept. Of Agriculture's Honey Bee Breeding Genetics, and Physiology Lab of Baton Rouge, Louisiana by importing this bee from the Primorski region of the Sea of Japan because it had survived mites for 150 years. It is not a species but a hybrid.GOOD TRAITS: Bred to be more resistant to mites and more winter Hardy. POOR TRAITS: Produces lots of propolis, always seems to have swarm cells in the hive, and moderate honey producer.

Buckfast- Hybrid

A product of Brother Adam (1898-1996). He spent his entire life perfecting the Buckfast honey bee hybrid. He claimed to have eaten a teaspoon of honey a day and in case you don't want to do the math, he lived to be 98!

GOOD TRAITS: Strong resistance to tracheal mites and good hygienic behavior.
POOR TRAITS: Can be defensive.


Minnesota Hygienic- Hybrid A result of the work of Dr. Marla Spivak of the University of Minnesota. A few months ago, my wife and I traveled to a queen rearing conference in Ohio where Gary Reuter was one of the main speakers. Gary is a Research Technician at the University of Minnesota working with Dr. Marla Spivak. Dr. Spivak and her team were able to produce a trait within breeder queens, a trait where the bees are able to reduce disease by being exceptionally hygienic.

GOOD TRAITS: Good honey producers and more able to resist American foulbrood disease. POOR TRAITS: Those mostly common to the Italian bee since this is an Italian bee. Many other beekeepers and breeders have their special line of queens that they are breeding, making claims, that to them, are very true and founded. But to be honest, there is always the flip side. To gain a positive characteristic may mean you gain two negative characteristics. It is very difficult to hold a pure line or race of honey bees. The more important factor is that they are produced from a colony that has satisfactory or higher traits.

https://www.honeybeesonline.com/diff...of-honey-bees/

[Groves]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

"hey I found a 3 bed 1 bath fixer upper in a bad neighborhood" and another says "hey I just found a 4 bed 2 bath near good schools

I feel like I’ve heard this somewhere. Nice description.



Definitely keep us posted on your traps. It’s a great way to a acquire more colonies.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Iowanian]

No...not a dumb question. I don't pretend to know everything.

There are several species/variety of honey bee.
Italians and carniolan areprobbaly the most common species in North America. Some people raise Russians...which are bitchy but make a lot of honey and are harder to kill. I've also heard of caucasians

I'm interested in a newer hybrid one called saksatraz.

I had to look up others in North America....starline(hybrid Italian) cordovan, midnight, buckfast( discussed in earlier posts about Nortre Dame) German/English native, Lus, Africanized.