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  1. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    When helping new bees install nucs and I find low population, mite infestations, drone layers, undrawn frames, DWV, and all the bad stuff, I tell them to get their money back or exchange for another nuc. Don't let them start out bad, tell the truth. I don't care for the corrugated jester nucs...
  2. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Nice! Now is a good time to do a mite wash.
  3. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Usually what I do is when I'm done straining, I take the strainer outside and flip it over and hit it with cold water from the hose. That will get almost all of it. If there's a little left, you can put it in the oven on aluminum foil and melt it off on the lowest temperature.
  4. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    You'll be surprised some of the members may live near you.
  5. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Check with your state beekeeper's association for local beekeeping clubs. Not sure what state you're in but most have very good information. Binnie and Reynolds are good, but mostly for southern beekeepers.
  6. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    You could switch them now. Horizontal hives are not for me. As far as weight of the hives I have mostly switched to 8 frame equipment over the years. I love 5 over 5 nucs as well, easy to handle. If beekeepers ask me about how to handle the weight, I just tell them to bring an extra box and...
  7. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    I never had a long Lang but did have a top bar for a while. Long Langstroth hives to me are much better than top bars. The earlier in the year you transfer the frames to the new hive the better. Put the new hive in the location of the old one and move the frames. Shake any loose bees into it...
  8. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Definitely put 1:1 sugar syrup on. They just wont go up into the feeder when it gets cold. As soon as it warms up during the day bees will go up and feed. 1:1 sugar syrup has a low freezing temperature and 2:1 even lower. I think you're using a hive top feeder so add 1 tbsp. of apple cider...
  9. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Granulated sugar is good for emergency feeding in the winter. This time of year they will remove it. If you want them to draw comb and build up fast 1:1 or thinner sugar syrup will really help them along. Yes, when you smoke bees or just enter the hive it's normal for workers to fill their...
  10. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    In MI, I would definitely go with https://www.sandhillbees.com/. I would start with all Meghan's queens and raise more from her stock. The reason I like local queens too is usually they are raised during the peak of the season and are well mated. If I was in Wally's area I would start with...
  11. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Just something to be aware of, there's drone brood in the worker cells and a spotty brood pattern. This is sometimes a sign of a failing queen. Keep an eye on it and if it continues to get worse you will need to requeen the hive. They may even start supersedure cells.
  12. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Its hard to tell from the photo if its robbing. If it is robbing the hole in the hand hold will get covered with messy wax. You can switch the hives location.
  13. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Yes, he's training for his favorite sport. Rug-bee
  14. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    It really is amazing watching all the different color pollens coming in and your right its difficult to tell which plants, trees or bushes the pollen is coming from. I always wanted to plant Siberian Squill and see if the bees bring in the beautiful blue pollen. You wont see much change after...
  15. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Here we don't have wax moths until late June. By then hives are plenty big enough to take care of them. I just leave drawn comb exposed to light and rarely have any issues.
  16. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    There's one method you can try next year with one of your hives instead of reversing to relieve congestion. I found reversing really doesnt work that well as you just place the congested hive body below and they're still cramped and will build swarm cells. 1. Set aside the top box. 2. Pull 4...
  17. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Thats normal, all of the foragers will go back to the original hive. Put a feeder on the new hive (or both) to build back up to 2 hive bodies. Just keep doing routine inspections, if the new colony starts to look weak just shake nurse bees off of a brood frame into it to keep things balanced...
  18. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    Thats drone brood. You can just scrap it off and save the wax for rendering. Bees will always raise drone brood between boxes, more so with all medium boxes. Its early yet and you treated so you should be in good shape with mites, but I HIGHLY recommend learning how to do mite washes before...
  19. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    I understand, you could be correct that they will make it on their own. One thing to consider is that a swarm is similar to a package or nuc, its important to feed them until they build up to a full size colony. Less than 10% of swarms in the wild survive their first year, so the odds are...
  20. Apis mellifera

    The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

    They definitely need a feeder. Judging from the photo they just dont have enough foragers to bring in enough pollen and nectar to raise brood. They're going to dwindle on you. Also reduce that entrance to about a quarter.
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