Bee Keeping

[Till]

I wish I could live somewhere like this, DROOL!!!

On a side note are there specific bee's that protect the headquarters?

Like security?

[scorpionmain]

Evicting the drones who contribute nothing to the hive but sperm is an interesting cultural phenomenon - Work and ye shall live LOL

This is a very neat thread - i love checking out your updates. Makes me want to put a hive or two out back.

One question, at what point do you add another hive, with the population growing like it has, or do you keep it at one and let natural selection take its course and the evictees move elsewhere?

LOL
I have known some guys who act like drones.

Thanks, it is a hobby that I have fell in love with.
I go out to the hive everyday after work & just watch them come and go. It is totally relaxing & has become my place of zen.

I started with just one hive but many Beeks (Bee Keepers) would recommend starting out with two hives. That way you can compare how they are doing & use resources from the stronger hive to assist the weaker.

To answer your question, I will add another hive in the spring.
They will want to send off reproductive swarms then. To prevent that, I will remove many frames of bees, brood, and stores to make room in the original hive and fill another hive at the same time.

Once I have more hives than I can handle or want, I could let the off swarms move elsewhere on their own but I intend on selling & keeping them as 5 frame Nucs. (Nucs, or Nucleus Colonies, a smaller box colony created from larger colonies.)

[scorpionmain]

I wish I could live somewhere like this, DROOL!!!

On a side note are there specific bee's that protect the headquarters?

Like security?

Thanks, I enjoy living in the county.
You could keep bees in the city, on a rooftop, or in your back yard.
They are amazingly adaptable creatures.

...but yeah the bees do occupy certain jobs within the hive depending on their age.
The worker bee starts it's life as a nurse bee, feeding the young larvae (open brood). For the first 2 days the newly emerged worker will clean cells and generate heat for the brood nest. The next 3 to 5 days it will feed older larvae. The next 6 to 10 days it will feed young larvae and queens (if there are any). During this period from 1 to 10 days old it is a Nurse Bee. From day 11 to 18 the worker will make honey, not gather but ripen nectar and take it from field bees bringing it back, and build comb. From days 19 to 21 the workers will be ventilation units and guard bees and janitors cleaning up the hive and taking out the trash. From day 11 to 21 they are House Bees. Day 22 to the end of their life they are foragers. Except during winter, workers usually live about six weeks or less, working themselves to death until their wings are too shredded to fly.

[scorpionmain]

I hate to report that while I was do some work within the hive earlier.
I found my first small hive beetle.



Here is some of the best info I have found on the SHB:

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/beekee ... e_ipm.html

[scorpionmain]

So to battle the SHB today I reduced the area within the hive that the bees have to patrol.
Removed a super that they weren't really utilizing. Forced them down into two Hive Bodies.
They have some work they need to do in there anyways. lol

Ordered:
A Beetle Jail


The Freeman Beetle Trap


...and a Mouse Guard to be used later this fall

[scorpionmain]

Tomorrow I need to find plastic sheeting to put down underneath the hive.
This should prevent the SHB's larva from entering the ground and pupating.

[scorpionmain]

For those who may be interested in starting beekeeping:

A Beekeeping 101 Class will be held at the Walter T Kelley Co. in Clarkson, KY on October 6th, 2012.
This 1 day class will begin at 9:00 am CST and end at approximately 3:00 pm.
There will be a morning break and a 1 hour lunch break.

This class will cover equipment choices, hive locations, installing package bees and nucleus colonies, when to feed, how to care for your bees, medications, when to add additional boxes, how to determine colony strengths and weaknesses, combining colonies, harvesting overview, requeening, identifying most common diseases and how to deal with them, winter preparations and first spring inspections. The fee for this class is $30.00 ea person and the class size is limited to 50 people. If weather permits we will do a live inspection of an active hive. Sign up by calling 1-800-233-2899.

[scorpionmain]

Gonna do a pic dump of the inspection I did today.

[scorpionmain]

[scorpionmain]

[scorpionmain]

[scorpionmain]

[scorpionmain]

[scorpionmain]

[scorpionmain]

[scorpionmain]

[scorpionmain]

[scorpionmain]

[scorpionmain]

Walter T. Kelley is now taking orders for spring bee packages.

I just submitted my order for one!

[Paula]

This thread is great. I couldnt do it myself, but glad others can.

[scorpionmain]

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... php?t=1599

[scorpionmain]

[Whootsinator]

Some crazy photos at your link. What's with the upside down jar?

[scorpionmain]

Lol
The jar contains sugar water.
It is used to feed bees that are light on stores and encourages them to build comb.
This hive is a first year hive and my goal was to produce as many bees as possible, build comb, and help them have feed in addition to what they can gather to get them through the winter.
An established hive wouldn't need this assistance.

[Jonwoos]

You coming to clarkson sometime??