Found out one of my chicks is a rooster. Pitiful first attempt at crowing. I'll try to post it. He's trying again this morning.
The wife decided that we should have 8 hives now. And that "we" should build a bee barn just for them. The bee barn may not bee a bad idea because of the amount of snow we get here. Plus it will protect the hives from bears. I'll start on it right after I build the new chicken coop for the 25 meat chickens that will be arriving around the first of June.
Robin, actually you're view is mistake. Right idea, wrong reasons.
When the bees give directions to a nectar/pollen source, that's inside the hive and no view of the sun. When they first come out, having direct view of the sun is not a factor, they can interpret it just by looking around.
Rather, the important thing is the heat generated by the sun. Warming up the hive weather summer or winter is really bad for many problems affecting the hive. Excess humidity is driven away with sun-heat. That reduces mold/mildew issues. That reduces many fungus issues. Varroa are slaughtered by heating a hive, same with SHB. And many other things. Sunlight does your hives good.
I just saw a story where a flash flood completely washed away a guys apiary.
That's a huge $$$ loss
Another secret. Wear a headband. Down lower, so it touches your eyebrows. That will wick away your sweat & keep you from going blind when it gets in your eyes.
"A hunk fell off"??? How big? Brood? Honey? What foundation do you use? Was it in the frame, or added outside the frame? A frame of honey (or sugar water) will be heavy. Maybe 8 lbs for a deep, 5 lbs for a medium.
When honey falls out, don't bother putting it back. It's messy and you'll honey-drown as many bees as you would help. That is assuming they have other honey.
It helps to make sure the frames are pushed together. Minimize bee space between frames minimizes cross comb. Just make sure you have even spacing on both ends, if frames are pushed to one side they'll cross-comb to the body.
Yes, sweat band. That is what I am here for, to help with the really hard problems! But you will be amazed at how many hundreds of simple things like this happen. For example, have you practiced drinking through your bee suit? Yup, simple problem. But you do need to learn how to do this. Either at the side or below is softer fabric, hold the bottle there to your lips. Yes, you spill some, so only drink water. And have a covered bottle to minimize bees in the container. AND, stir it up every time before you open to drink... if a bee got into it before, let them go down into the water rather than be on top & stink you with your first sip (yes, that really happens all the time). When working bees, many of the most simple things you teach a 2 year old need to get relearned! And that's what I'm here for...
In general, when they get inside your suit, either ignore or release if possible. Exception are for bees like mine where that means a face sting. The minus of killing a bee inside your headgear means their scent will attract other bees wanting to get you.
Loose wires... one more reason I don't like wax foundation. And it's not like the bees need any reason to go off the reservation for wacky comb.
I assume you smoked your bees. The 'heads in comb' means they were eating honey. They do that because they're afraid of forest fires, and are loading up in case they have to evacuate and start a new colony somewhere else. That's a good thing... first it keeps the bees busy rather than attacking you. And second, a bee full of honey can't bend their belly to get their stinger into you.
Don't worry about looking for eggs. If you can see larvae (which are much larger than eggs), you're good. I used to be able to see eggs, but haven't been able to for a couple of years. Even got new glasses, still can't see them. I tried black plastic foundation and could see a little better but not for long. Old eye don't work like they used to. Oh well, not the end of the world.
And sitting there hunting for the queen or eggs is no help to the colony. If you see capped brood and larvae, call it good & close it up. Minimize heat loss and chaos.
Robin, you can smoke around the edges and drive the bees down a little. Then put the top box on at an angle & twist it into place. Yes, likely still kill a few. No worries, you have 20000 spares.
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