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  1. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    I don't know them personally, but judging from thier website it sounds like you made a wise choice. Excellent bees.
  2. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    Look at the calendar and you will see you have a window on the 19th and 20th to do an oxalic acid dribble. It's very easy and inexpensive to do and it will dramatically increase the chances of your hive making it through the winter.
  3. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    It's a big learning curve. Your bees will be fine, and you'll have a well mated queen. Don't open them for another 8 days. The swarm cells are in the fragile state, and you may damage them. When you do open them, you'll see empty swarm cells.
  4. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    Check for eggs on 7/20. https://www.iowabees.com/psc
  5. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    If the frames are really wonky, they should be changed out or the frames next to them will also be affected. You will lose some brood, pollen, etc., so the sooner you do it the better. Inspect hives at least once a week when you are starting out. You can rewax the wonky comb frames after...
  6. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    Thymol works good. There's several products out there like Apiguard and ApiLifVar. I use Randy Oliver's extended release treatment if a hive gets a really high mite count. It works great, but sometimes it can be a little rough on brood and you have to remove supers or your honey will taste...
  7. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    While beekeeping is local, unfortunately varroa mites are not. Varroa are the number one killer of bees. Learn as much as you can on the control and life cycle of varroa mites. At the end of July you want a mite wash of 3 mites or less per 300 bees.
  8. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    I would stick with the 8 frames. Push them together, centered in the box. I always get heavy waxed foundation or add extra wax to it. It stops the cross combing. Thats okay, you can always use mason jar feeders over the inner cover hole. I think they are easier to use and swap out and you...
  9. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    What kind of foundation did you use?
  10. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    I was going to switch over to all canvas inner covers, but the plywood inner covers are kind of handy for the few times I jar or bucket feed.
  11. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    That's great!
  12. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    I have an overwintered nuc that had a queen with tattered wings, could have been from fighting after she was mated. Rare, but it can happen. She was a great laying queen but would never be able to swarm. Sometimes a colony will try and swarm with a non flying queen and end up as a clump of...
  13. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    All my years of keeping bees this is the first time I ever had a laying two queen colony in the spring. Or at least I've never noticed one before, it's usually in the fall and one is gone by spring. They both looked great, so I split them. Maybe one is a dud, but it certainly didn't look that...
  14. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    I'm sure they will do great, so gratifying seeing a new queen laying.
  15. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    Beautiful queens! Very interested in how the Golden West queen works out for you.
  16. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    Great! You should see eggs on the 18th. Give or take a day.
  17. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    Call a bomb squad!! :D Did you buy a queen?
  18. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    I wouldn't be able to do that here unless i buy queens. Not enough drones would be flying.
  19. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    You can pet the drones! :D
  20. Apis mellifera

    The Honey Factory

    Unless they swarmed you won't find a capped queen cell then. Maybe charged queen cups.
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