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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...

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...

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...

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

Some will split when they uncap purple eye drones, I wait until mature drones are flying.

No feeder !!?

Great job! You can hit them with an oxalic acid dribble before the hive has capped brood and feed them 1:1 or thinner syrup until they draw out 2 brood boxes of frames.

Most inspectors I talk to say bees come off blue berries in rough shape. A biologists once told me some places on earth just weren't meant to sustain honey bees. Maybe some loosestrife and knotweed seeds could accidentally be dropped ;).

Thats surprising, Im way northern NY and golden rod is starting to bloom. I dont really get severe dearths here and most of the beekeepers I know in Vermont are having a good year. I love knotweed honey, thats coming up soon. https://www.njbeekeepers.org/PollenPlants.htm

Not at all. I like the kid, she is enthusiastic but is just a beginner and doesnt understand why she is doing the split and what the results will be. She is performing a weak OTS queen rearing manipulation. Workers emerge in 21 days not 16 and the mites aren't going to starve. If she is...

Its a steep learning curve, I lost and killed more bees than I care to admit. Like they say, you may not have the bees but you have the work they did. Freeze the comb and use it for your next colony. Excellent advice. You want healthy bees raising healthy winter bees. Its breaks the life...