General Meeting – 2 Jan 2024
Arthur:
- Getting bees – packages and nucs
- End of March.
- Nuc requires a Langstroth hive.
- Beginners: get Nucs not packages.
- Start looking at equipment
- Hives.
- Hive types – Langstroth, Top Bar, etc.
- Strongly consider 2 hives.
- Time Commitment
- Peak – once a week.
- Otherwise every 2 weeks.
- Initially, commit to 4-5 hours per month per hive.
- Location
- Away from traffic.
- Don’t put in garden.
- Not in shade.
- Best in a less traveled area.
- Entrance facing southeast to catch morning sun.
- Solid, well secured hive stand.
- Plenty of room to work around hives.
- Feeding
- Feed a new hive for the first month, or until they’re well established.
- 1:1 sugar to water (by weight) is usually ok around here.
- In hive feeders can cause a lot of bees to drown. Put some straw into the feeder.
- Hive Architecture
- Don’t add a second box until most frames are covered with bees.
- Typically you use 1-2 deep boxes for the brood (the lowest boxes), then add mediums for honey supers.
- Queen excluders
- Optional. Not really necessary.
- DO NOT use plastic excluders… use only metal excluders.
- Questions
- Penny: I have a hive that only has bees on 3-4 frames. Should I move them to Nuc box?
- It’s difficult with current weather to find a day to make the transfer.
- Better possible solution: remove extra honey frames, and use a follower board to effectively reduce the size of the nest area.
- Put all the frames of bees on the sunniest side of the hive.
- Leave one frame of honey.
- Insert follower board.
- Peggi
- Mysterious condensation.
- Penny: I have a hive that only has bees on 3-4 frames. Should I move them to Nuc box?
- Working On Your Bees
- Bees sting a lot on rainy or cloudy days.
- Treating For Mites
- Do a count with a sugar roll or alcohol wash. If the count is high, definitely treat.
- Treatments for this time of year
- Formic Pro can work, but use the longer protocol (use only 1 pad at a time)
- Existing Hives
- Do you see pollen coming in? This is a very positive sign.
- Check food stores. Tipping the hive a bit is a good check.
- Feeding is good. Pollen sub is good. Dry pollen sub may also work.
- Pollen patties can attract hive beetles.
- Stay ahead of possible issues.
- If there are mites, treat.
- If your hive needs room, add it.
- Keep an eye on your bees, and give them what they need proactively.
- Swarming
- Difficult to prevent.
- Give them proper room.
- Swarming is not necessarily bad.
- North American Honeybee Expo
- Western Apiculture Society
- Great, in depth articles and information about bees and beekeeping
Brian, Arthur probably has more ideas, but here is what I did.
Arthur gave me some of his pollen substitute. I put it in aluminum pie tins, maybe 3/8 deep. I turned to empty deeps sideways, next to each other with one “wall” facing the prevailing wind (north). I put a cover and a brick on top of the boxes. All this is sitting on a table at the apiary, maybe 3 feet off the ground. The pollen seems protected from wind and rain. That said, no bees seem to be interested. Its been at least 3 weeks, maybe 4.
I’m trying dry pollen Arthur suggested recently. I have not seen bees on the plate of dry pollen, but it was gone in 3 days. Probably the neighborhood cats or other critters are eating it. Any suggestions for an animal proof feeder for the dry pollen?