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Great! Most beekeepers are using wood frames with plastic foundation. When you have brood frames that are about 5 years old you can start culling by popping out the old foundation, clean up the frame and add a new sheet of foundation. Honey frames you can just reuse every year. I write the...

If you have all plastic frames, it won't work. It works with wood frames. Beekeepers that are doing cutouts will cut the comb to fit the frame and rubber band it in. Its messy and some of the comb becomes poor quality for brood rearing. Reputable companies like Acorn and Premier do a great...

I never saw honey bees working my daylilies but I've read they will. Maybe it has to do with the type, I'm not sure. Keep an eye on them maybe you will see honey bees working your lilies.

Thats a good practice, smoke helps to mask alarm pheromones produced by guard bees. A lot of beekeepers do it that way and it works just fine. I dont use so much smoke that Im driving them in any direction. Only in rare cases when Im doing something like changing out hive bodies. You'll see...

Lemon Queens produce a lot of pollen that honeybees love.

European Hornets are common in NYS, thats in the photo. It's the yellow legged hornets (an Asian hornet) that will be a problem. Hopefully they have been eradicated. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant-pests-diseases/yellow-legged-hornet Because if I have to build electric harps, I may have to...

FWIW... I stopped setting up cell builders and pull the queen from my strongest 5 over 5 nucs when they start building cups and drop in a graft. They have been my best cell builders. This year I already split my nucs and will have to split them again so Im not going to bother grafting this...

Great queens!

Congratulations!! Im guessing they are on your property. Yes, move them this evening just before dark to the spot you want to keep the hive. Then this weekend put them in a hive body with frames, they will build comb fast and you dont want crazy comb in the trap. If for some reason you didnt...

First thing I do with swarms is treat them with oxalic acid before they have capped brood. I'll do a mite count on them in August. All my hives are getting extended release OA this weekend.

A surprise today finding 2 colonies in empty stacked hive bodies today. I can keep most hives from swarming most of the time but not all of them all of the time.:) Im thinking one of them is a stray.

Rainy and cold here. Made two splits last week to stop swarming, bees are moving forward in spite of the weather. I'll have to split the overwintered nucs this week. Drones are starting to fly now but Im just not feeling the queen rearing yet until we start getting better weather. Took out...

The queen came in a typical 3 hole queen cage with attendants. Queens need attendants for shipping or holding for an extended period of time. For introduction into a colony removing the attendants increases the chances for acceptance. Taking her out of shipping cage and putting the queen over...

The queen was available sooner than expected so in between rain and sleet storms I was able to take out the TempQueen and put her under a push in cage today. The TempQueen did its job, no laying workers. The cage is 4"x6" so it will fit on both deep and medium frames and can cover emerging...

I have an overwintered nucleus colony that went queenless. The queen may have been poorly mated or maybe the result of a virus, I dont know but it happens. It's still too cold and early for queen rearing here and typically I would just write it off as a loss. The nuc is still fairly strong...

Did you go through the deadouts and find out why they didnt make it?

Interesting to see the bees just shut down and stop foraging during the eclipse.

Since you direct released the queen I would think that you will have capped brood by next weekend. You could wait until then or do a quick inspection this weekend for eggs. You dont need to smoke them, just start from the outside frame and move in until you see eggs. Put the frames back and...

I would re set about 3 or 4 weeks.

It doesnt hurt to put it in your traps. Bees are attracted to it. Put a few drops on the end of a cotton swab and wipe a little on the entrance, then place it on the bottom of the trap. You dont want to overdue it. Old brood comb works best. You can also dissolve propolis in alcohol and...