Just a question, but are your queens marked with a spot of paint? Is that still common practice?
Just a question, but are your queens marked with a spot of paint? Is that still common practice?
While I cannot speak for Polq, this is my experience.
Generally they should be. My first hive had a yellow spot, since it was a 2017 queen. Do you know how hard it is to spot a queen with a yellow spot on her back? Last years queens were red. Even then I had marginal success in finding the queen.
Here take a gander.
Here you will see the queen in the upper right of the comb. She is the awkwardly long looking one. She has a faint yellow mark on her, looks like most of the paint rubbed off. Her brood pattern is not as clean as I would like but then again there is not as much room to work with since the hive isnt filled out yet.
Another picture of the queen.
quote is not edit!!!
I feel like im playing wheres waldo... I'm terrible at wheres waldo, can i get a hint, a quadrant?
edit: nevermind, I found it, that is tough! I cannot imagine doing that with them moving.
Yup, commercially bought queens are usually marked with paint. I think one my current queens has a little smiley face sticker on her back.
I have absolutely no luck finding them. I think many of them have an instinct to hide when the hive is opened. Some keepers think that finding the queen is an essential part of regular maintenance. My feeling is that the more time I spend looking for a queen, the more likely I am to accidentally injure her or upset the hive in some way.
A lot of commercial keepers hunt down and kill their queens every year. They think this helps keep the hive vigorous and maximizes honey production.
My approach, so far, has been to minimize interventions and to try to let the hive take care of hive business on its own.
I feel like im playing wheres waldo... I'm terrible at wheres waldo, can i get a hint, a quadrant?
edit: nevermind, I found it, that is tough! I cannot imagine doing that with them moving.
Yeah that is just one bar from my TBH. Which when full contains 30+ bars. Now imagine that you have bees swarming all around ticked off your bothering them. Add to that the queen can be climbed all over, is moving and may move between frames when going through it. A new hive from a package will have 3-5000 bees. A hive at peak season in full production may have 100,000+ easy.
A keeper at one of our meetings was speaking asked by show of hands "how many of us look for the queen during maintenance?" and nearly every hand was up. Then he asked "how many actually do find her every time?", at this all but the most seasoned keepers still had a hand in the air. He went on to talk about how its good practice to try, but impractical to hunt for it. You want to be in and out as quick as possible. If you spent 10-20 min hunting for the queen every time you are just going to aggravate the bees.
Yeah, I had a glass case demo hive and could look at my leisure. We also had florescent green marks, so... Easier. But the other bees seem to cover up the queen whenever they can.
This is gonna sounds dumb, but how do commercial bee sellers force the production of a bunch of queens to mail to people? Do they use that forced split method polq described? Also, how do they hold them down long enough to paint them?
Honestly, I've seen - decades ago - a queen isolated in it's own little cage, and a paintbrush used to dab a dot on it. Dunno if that's how its done today.
This is gonna sounds dumb, but how do commercial bee sellers force the production of a bunch of queens to mail to people? Do they use that forced split method polq described? Also, how do they hold them down long enough to paint them?
There are really extensive bee queen rearing programs. I don't know to much about it other than when a hive makes a queen they usually make 3-6 at a time. The first one out makes a noise and the others in the cup respond to it. She then goes around killing them with her stinger (its not barbed so she can stabby stabby as much as she wants). So you can cut out the cups and boom you have 4 extra queens. So if you have 300 hives you can force several of them to start rearing queens by different processes. Say 50 of them are needing queens if you get on average 4 extra queens per hive then thats 200 extra queens.
Skiptron wrote:This is gonna sounds dumb, but how do commercial bee sellers force the production of a bunch of queens to mail to people? Do they use that forced split method polq described? Also, how do they hold them down long enough to paint them?
There are really extensive bee queen rearing programs. I don't know to much about it other than when a hive makes a queen they usually make 3-6 at a time. The first one out makes a noise and the others in the cup respond to it. She then goes around killing them with her stinger (its not barbed so she can stabby stabby as much as she wants). So you can cut out the cups and boom you have 4 extra queens. So if you have 300 hives you can force several of them to start rearing queens by different processes. Say 50 of them are needing queens if you get on average 4 extra queens per hive then thats 200 extra queens.
What is the competitive advantage to that? There there a high incidence of mutation or deformities in queens?
No I dont think its a mutation thing. It ensures the healthiest strongest queen survives. Queens will usually be born around or at the same time. Ones that both hatch will duke it out on the surface of the comb. But thats not always the case. Sometimes a new queen will travel with a swarm. Some keepers say they have found 2 or three queens in a swarm. I imagine this is to help ensure its survival.
Ordered a new hive the other day. Hopefully I will have time to get it together before the bees are here. How are people finding the spring for their bees? Polq everyone make through the winter?
Ordered a new hive the other day. Hopefully I will have time to get it together before the bees are here. How are people finding the spring for their bees? Polq everyone make through the winter?
Both hives made it through the winter. I tried to make a third hive by doing a split. The split, described a few posts above, did not go as smoothly as hoped. The story is complicated, but I tried using a new anti robbing screen to protect the new hive and it had the effect of preventing the bees from cleaning the hive and created hugely unhygenic conditions. I ended up scraping a centimeter thick layer of parasitic maggot larvae (probably pantry moths) from the bottom of the hive. Super gross! I think there was a pretty significant die off, which I tried to fix by adding in another frame of capped brood with some queen cells. Still waiting to see if the rescue works.
Anyway, I'm not really sure where my viable queens are at this point.
I seem to be producing a lot more bees than honey. Weather has been not great so far this spring, with a lot of rainy days and only a few good flying days each week. The northern California snowpack is at about 160% of normal.
Nimcosi, I've used similar stacked arrangements of bamboo/wood tubes, and they work just great. If you have mason bees in the area, they will *love* that. And it is zero maintenance; use it till the tubes fill up or the thing starts to fall apart.
Anyone have any experience with these? Tips? Thoughts?
Looks like a great Mason bee hive. I've never done it myself but know a lot who do. Low maintenance, great pollinators.
Nimcosi wrote:Anyone have any experience with these? Tips? Thoughts?
Looks like a great Mason bee hive. I've never done it myself but know a lot who do. Low maintenance, great pollinators.
OOH. theres no room at my townhome for a real hive, but I bet I can talk to head of the HOA into letting me hang this.
Igneus wrote:Nimcosi wrote:Anyone have any experience with these? Tips? Thoughts?
Looks like a great Mason bee hive. I've never done it myself but know a lot who do. Low maintenance, great pollinators.
OOH. theres no room at my townhome for a real hive, but I bet I can talk to head of the HOA into letting me hang this.
They can be quite pretty. They are for america's native species. We always talk about protecting the honey bee because they are the most prevalent, but only because we have an insatiable appetite for the liquid gold. They are in as much if not more danger than honey bees. Mason's have some great qualities, the biggest might be how gentle they are. This is very applicable to the HOA I would think. When people talk about being able to pet a bee, it is most likely a mason. One issue though is since they a solitary bee, they can be VERY susceptible to an early frost. It is often recommended to keep them in a freezer till your weather is evened out, since they essentially hibernate. But as all things bee related, YMMV, and ask 10 keepers to get 11 answers.
Mason bees are great. You can literally stand in a cloud of them and they will just ignore you. Good when small kids are around.
I was hoping to have pictures of my nucs from this weekend. But I do not. They didnt come yet. Now they should arrive on the 30th. Waiting for these bee boxes brought to mind Sylvia Plath and "The Arrival of the Bee Box". I love her bee poems. Even if they are utterly sad.
I ordered this, clean wood box
Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift.
I would say it was the coffin of a midget
Or a square baby
Were there not such a din in it.The box is locked, it is dangerous.
I have to live with it overnight
And I can't keep away from it.
There are no windows, so I can't see what is in there.
There is only a little grid, no exit.I put my eye to the grid.
It is dark, dark,
With the swarmy feeling of African hands
Minute and shrunk for export,
Black on black, angrily clambering.How can I let them out?
It is the noise that appalls me most of all,
The unintelligible syllables.
It is like a Roman mob,
Small, taken one by one, but my god, together!I lay my ear to furious Latin.
I am not a Caesar.
I have simply ordered a box of maniacs.
They can be sent back.
They can die, I need feed them nothing, I am the owner.I wonder how hungry they are.
I wonder if they would forget me
If I just undid the locks and stood back and turned into a tree.
There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades,
And the petticoats of the cherry.They might ignore me immediately
In my moon suit and funeral veil.
I am no source of honey
So why should they turn on me?
Tomorrow I will be sweet God, I will set them free.The box is only temporary.
No, I'm not crying, you're crying.
This also brings to mind a book by Orson Scott Card in his seventh son series. There is an native american character who as a child every fall would get into uncontrollable bouts of sadness and crying. When he was finally able (being old enough) to communicate with those around him he would ask why couldn't they hear all the bees dying.
So I got my bees yesterday. Then at 10pm the night before I got an email saying that the vendor was going to be FAR short on the nucs they sold, meaning most people would not get what they paid for. Needless to say I was upset about this. I showed up to get my bees and am told I can have one nuc, and one package. The whole reason I was doing a nuc was to have an established hive and no need for a package. He offered to throw in drawn combs, but I already have those from the failed hives. They're not what I needed. He did offer a partial refund for taking the package which was a discount on their normal price. Overall the whole process was not the best.
That aside, I got both hives installed and are now being fed with entrance jar feeders. I am still hopeful that I will be able to take better care of these then previously since they are now on my property. Yesterday morning was a beautiful day for it, which is nice cause the rest of the week will be crap.in about a month I am going to do a oxalic acid vapor treatment then put on another deep box for each hive to build into.
Not a beekeeper, but I've always appreciated bees unique place in our world. I saw this article a couple days ago about some hives that were torched by an arsonist(s) down near Houston. I can't even begin to imagine why somebody would do something like this.
Not a beekeeper, but I've always appreciated bees unique place in our world. I saw this article a couple days ago about some hives that were torched by an arsonist(s) down near Houston. I can't even begin to imagine why somebody would do something like this.
Whenever I hear about these type of things it just makes me so mad. People who do this don't realize the burden they just put on the owners. Or if they do then that's even worse. I really hope they catch the creep(s) who did this.
So I got my bees yesterday. Then at 10pm the night before I got an email saying that the vendor was going to be FAR short on the nucs they sold, meaning most people would not get what they paid for. Needless to say I was upset about this. I showed up to get my bees and am told I can have one nuc, and one package. The whole reason I was doing a nuc was to have an established hive and no need for a package. He offered to throw in drawn combs, but I already have those from the failed hives. They're not what I needed. He did offer a partial refund for taking the package which was a discount on their normal price. Overall the whole process was not the best.
That aside, I got both hives installed and are now being fed with entrance jar feeders. I am still hopeful that I will be able to take better care of these then previously since they are now on my property. Yesterday morning was a beautiful day for it, which is nice cause the rest of the week will be crap.in about a month I am going to do a oxalic acid vapor treatment then put on another deep box for each hive to build into.
I've had good luck with packages. As long as you keep them well fed, they should be fine. Still, it's frustrating not being able to start off your plan the right way.
OA: Unless recommended by your local keepers, I'd consider holding off on OA treatments until the end of summer. I've been using OA soaked towels instead of vapor and I've committed to an every four months treatment schedule. My hives have tolerated OA very well, BUT the Italian hive completely shuts down brood production for a month while the OA towels are present (this shutdown is another benefit for varroa control because induced brood shutdowns -often by capturing and sequestering the queen- are one of the best and only methods of totally natural varroa control). You may not want to risk shutting down brood production with a brand new hive, especially when varroa levels are probably very low.
Entrance feeders: After last year's experience, I'm kind of down on them. I've got one on my weakest hive, the new split, right now. But, my experience last year suggested that putting the food sources directly on the hives also made them robbing targets for other hives. The entrance feeders are probably vital for a brand new hive, but I'd keep the entrance reduced down to an inch or so. For later supplemental feeding and winter build up, I'm putting feeders about 20 feet in front of the hives.
My new third hive, started by splitting a one of the established hives, got off to a bad start. But, I think there is a laying queen in there now. Unfortunately, I'm seeing my first case of chalkbrood with the split. Apparently, this happens when the nurse bees can't keep the larvae warm enough and they die in their brood cells and develop fungal growths. As far as I can tell, the best response is to provide food and nutrition so that the hive can get strong enough to raise their young.
So tonight will be my start of hive maintenance. I wasn't around this weekend due to a wedding out of state to check on my package queen. So tonight i go in and see if she has been released or if i need to release her from the cage. At least the hive should of had plenty of time to acclimate to her. When I got back home yesterday evening it was pouring out so I couldn't even check on flights.
This is kind of my favorite time with the bees. To watch the growth of the hive from early season to what they can become. I'll post pics soon.
Was able to get into my hives. The queen is out of the package. Couldn't find her, but the cage was empty. No eggs that I can see but thats fine as they are hard to see. She should be laying. It will be easier to notice when the larval stage is in affect. So next week when I am in the hive again I will be able to see the larvae. The nuc is doing well. There is plenty of larvae there. Couldn't find that queen either. I am awful at spotting them.
I was able to spot my queen from the package, but I think my nuc based hive is queenless. It is really disappointing. There appears to be an emergency queen cell built off of a frame, and there is only a handful of larvae so they may be remnants from when I got them. I had trouble finding any eggs, but that is not surprising as they can be hard to see.
There are a few courses of action to try to rescue the nuc, but at this point in the year I think buying a new queen from a local breeder is the best choice.
There are a few courses of action to try to rescue the nuc, but at this point in the year I think buying a new queen from a local breeder is the best choice.
Yeah i think your right about that.
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