The Honey Factory

[OhZark Biddies]

So I'm curious...this was yesterday posted...

Does this mean you guys have and can order nucs and hives etc when NOT in spring?

If I could order bees now and get them before Spring I'd sort of bee interested in experiementing with that, as it gives the queen overwintering experience. (In my state people sometimes pay extra for a nuc that's already got overwintered experience.)

Is it possible to order nucs or stuff before Spring then, from somewhere to get them now?

In my state, I never see anything sold after end of May. The window seems to be April and May and then you never see anything up for grabs anymore.

That makes it difficult if you miss the window.

Any advise on this?

There are smaller, more local bee outfits in my general area that offer nucs and replacement queens pretty much all summer... from memory I think they start offering them at the end of April, and have them through out the summer

I don’t recall how late in the summer they’d have them, but it’d largely be dependent on the bees and the queen rearing activity...

but I think you could fairly easily get nucs in July, for overwintering...

past that though I’m not sure ...?

 

[OhZark Biddies]

So about your comment that you think a lot of the package and replacement bees are coming from CA...

Yes that's true. From Oliveiras specifically. And many people even say they are carrying and selling through Oliveiras like a middleman. I keep hearing this Oliveiras name everywhere regarding west coast bees actually. But I haven't used them myself, so I can't vouch for them either way.

But not everyone does this.

I think this brings mixed blessings though, because I'm not so sure the commercial migration trend for moving hives is good for them. And it makes something unsustainable look sustainable.

yep, some of those big suppliers are probably contracting a lot of that in this way...

but I was thinking of some of the other ‘local’ ones too...I think there are a lot of apiaries selling replacement queens and packages that are doing this... but certainly not all of them are...

my point in mentioning that was more to the point that the ones doing this often offer Italian and Carn’y bees both, and are letting the bees open mate, and so the traits and genetics are going to be mixed and not completely match the breed descriptions that we read on the internet...

Even a smaller local supplier of, let’s say... Russian replacement queens, nucs, etc, is open mating and can not control them crossing with drones from some neighboring carn’y hive, as an example...

I think it was Jerry that mentioned sourcing bees from a more local beek that focuses on overwintering, etc..... I think this is a better approach than looking at the breed description literature and saying ‘I just need to switch breeds, and that will solve the issues I’m having’...

But I understand that from time to time, particularly as we start off, we might need to get replacement stock... and then we might want to try something a little different... and that’s a great way to do it...

we just need to be careful that we don’t assume things and look to switching breeds as the answer to all...

when I posted the other day, I missed where Ralphie said his hive was aggressive, and only saw the part about them not building up and not putting up honey, so I thought the breed discussion was more about that...

But after his last post about the hot hive, my question would be: are they being aggressive or defensive? ...

those are two different things... and a replacement queen is not gonna solve the issues if they are being defensive... and it’s somewhat high odds they will kill her in that case, even if the previous queen is pinched and all queen cells are removed, etc.

Anyway, my point of not relying on switching breed and breed descriptions to fix problems with a hive is the main point... the exception of course would be the varroa problems

 

[jerryse]

So I just checked the July hive . The 2 frames of brood seems to have done the trick . A lot more bees and more capped brood . So I now feel they have a chance to build up enough to survive the winter . Cool cloudy day . So most were in the hive . They were a little more agitated today . Nothing like Ralphies . Odd thing is they want to build comb away from the foundation between frames . Only 2 places .

 

[CindyinSD]

So I'm curious...this was yesterday posted...

Does this mean you guys have and can order nucs and hives etc when NOT in spring?

If I could order bees now and get them before Spring I'd sort of bee interested in experiementing with that, as it gives the queen overwintering experience. (In my state people sometimes pay extra for a nuc that's already got overwintered experience.)

Is it possible to order nucs or stuff before Spring then, from somewhere to get them now?

In my state, I never see anything sold after end of May. The window seems to be April and May and then you never see anything up for grabs anymore.

That makes it difficult if you miss the window.

Any advise on this?

Nah... I'm thinking about next spring.

 

[duluthralphie]

Things:

I think I have bees that are “hot” all the time.

I could not mow within 10 ft of them. I am afraid to let my wife be anywhere near them, especially when I look at them.

All I did was open the telescoping cover and they swarmed out the front. I was behind the hive. I did not shake, bump or rattle the hive. I did not have the cover up for more than a second.

Compared to my other hive they are terrible. My other hive is almost friendly. I opened the lid. Bumped the frames over. Closed the lid and one bee came out of the top box and looked at me.

I think it is as Jerry said. I can’t say they are anything but mutts now. I bought Saskatraz, however both hives have changed Queens which mated in the wild.

I do not want to change Queens now. There is a very slim chance this hive will survive the winter. I think waiting until spring is a better plan, especially if my queen mated with some “local native feral guys”. They might have a better chance of making it through the winter.

I am going to feed them for as long as I can. If they get bad enough before freeze up, I will behead the queen, if I can find her, and combine the hives into one. Hopefully, that would help them through the winter.

I plan to wrap the hive well. I am going to use the queen excluder, they hate, as a divider to keep the bees down, I plan to put white rice above the divider ( cheesecloth also) to catch and trap moisture.

I will use my mechanics camera to spy on them through the escape hole. That way I will not have to open the hive until April. I will not add a pollen party until April.

I plan to put sugar block frames in the hive when I close it up.

I was going to put the hives one on top the other with a 1/2 inch neutral space formed by double 1/4 inch hardware cloth. That is not going to happen now.

I am going to place an empty frameless super on the bottom for a spot for dead bees to fall to. I will use a very small entrance reducer at the bottom.

I thought about putting a heater in the hive that maintains 40 degrees, but am leaning away from it. I had thought about making a separate space the bees could not get into for the heater.. I am trying to think of everything I can that might help them through the winter.

Finally, I want to thank you all. I love all your feedback and ideas. I know bees are done differently locally but I think I can adapt a lot of all ya all’s ideas.

Bees are new to me and very challenging. I knew very little before a couple years ago, and that was only what my Brother in law told me.

I love learning “new” things. I find this exciting. I might even put a hive in Togo, surrounded by an mega electric fence to ward off the young Sasquatch and bear.

This did not turn out at all like I wanted it to, I envisioned selling a hundred pounds of honey and keeping 50 for myself, killing off my bees and doing the same next year.

I feel fortunate to have only been stung twice, once while 20 feet away watch the hive, but standing in their flight path, the other Just the other day. Neither time was I wearing a suit.

The mean bees have made me a little less lackadaisical about putting my suit on. Since I noticed they were meaner (I actually notice this in mid to late August, but did not say anything here until I was sure they were mean) I have been checking the zippers under my neck in the bathroom mirror to make sure no hole exists. I cannot think of anything worse (well, maybe I can) than a bee or two inside my hood.

Cindy if they get too mean, I will mail them to you..

BTW, the video idea was much funnier when Karen’s bees went after her than when they went after me.

 

[jerryse]

Ralphie I saw a video that said the mean trait comes from the drone she mated with . So feral or your neighbor has a mean hive . Anyway if you need new bees next spring just put out a bait hive . If you catch mean ones buy a queen . Also I see Mann Lake bee supply is in Hackensack .

 

[duluthralphie]

I plan to put out a couple traps next year, hopefully, I can catch my own hives if they swarm.

If my hive swarms and I happen to catch it, can I behead the swarming queen and put the hive back together?

It appears swarming kicks honey production in the rear.


Do any of you use the plastic excluders?

 

[duluthralphie]

The bright side of this years honey crop was my not needing to buy an extractor.

 

[R2elk]

I plan to put out a couple traps next year, hopefully, I can catch my own hives if they swarm.

If my hive swarms and I happen to catch it, can I behead the swarming queen and put the hive back together?

It appears swarming kicks honey production in the rear.


Do any of you use the plastic excluders?

Not me, I use the metal ones. Unlike you, it does not matter at all to me whether or not the bees like the excluders.

 

[jerryse]

If you catch a swarm wait and see if they are mean before replacing the queen . If you catch your own I would not try to combine .