Where are you that its was warm enoughfor a hive inspection? As a beek youre doing something right if tey make it through the winter! Is there much brood already? Bringing in pollen or still going on stores?
Dave make sure your nuc comes with a queen that was bred locally or overwintered. The ones from down south have a hard time up here when it gets cold.
Im in North eastern North Carolina it was 70* yesterday 20s* today Ive got lots of brood in all stages in both hives and yes they are bringing in pollen I saw a lot of them carrying in red pollen Im not sure what thats from but a lot of the local beeks in the area have been talking about it. I was really happy to see how well theyve done up to this point now if they can only keep going on through this last bit of cold winter weather.
Carolina!?! You got it easy! What are you even doing on a Wood burning forum? Early season red pollen is likely maple. They are one of the first to wake up.
C.R, Thanks for the advise! I'm so green at this I have the "BIG" training wheels on. "but" I recognize red pollen and your right about Maple. My maples have buds on them already, yesterday as Matt said, we had 62* here in the bottom of NJ. "And" my neighbor had some little purplish small flower sprouting up amd "yes" honey bees on them. Today we got the "WHOLE" can of whoooop A$$, 8" of snow in the yard. C.R., I don't know that much about where the queen will be from, It is going to be supplied by NJBA via Rutgers. I'm gonna assume it will be a local queen
Sounds good Dave yes its expensive getting started with this stuff but it does ease up after the initial start up. You can build the top bars from just about any scraps you have around the house and you can also build one that takes the langstroth frames I have a friend that did that as an experiment it works pretty good. You will find that the top bar enthusiasts are seen and treated as outsiders almost like lepers I say do what you want and have fun with it. Who did you buy your equipment from? I buy almost all of mine from http://www.mannlakeltd.com/ they have great customer service and free shipping for purchases over $100. Also if you buy the un-assembled stuff that saves a bit of money too. Like Coal reaper said make sure you buy your bees locally it helps to prevent the spread of disease and africanized bees.
I bought my stuff through the class. I believe it's a dealings with the NJBA., not sure…. That's funny you say that about the top bar guy's,…. I assume this fella has been keeping bees a "LOOOONG" time and he just likes the top bar hives. He is "EXTEMELY" knowledgeable so he is "well respected" but some of the other folks think he is a bit simple…."funny" to watch them argue but he does believe in starting out traditionally with the Langstroth hives. I showed my intrest in the top bar hives, now I have a buddy!
Sounds like your on the NUC list which generally comes from local beeks. They should be able to tell you where they come from.
Gotta start somewhere. Its a huge step to make to mess around with tens of thousands of little critters that are ready to zap you if they feel like it. Be good to them and they will return the favor. 62*? I dont think we broke 32* on this end of the state yesterday. And not a single snowflake made it to the ground. Too funny!
I gotta say, I'm very excited to learn more!!!! I've done a lot of things in my life, sailed hundreds and hundreds of miles myself, flew privately, 24+ years in the military, "and still at it"…. and yet I'm so intrenched in this beekeeping it's weird… I guess the thing is I just like learning and I just enjoy nature "so much more" and respect it! …… I even gave up my duck hunting for duck watching.
Well, got my class tonight, More to learn…. I think tonight is setting up your hive, getting stung… YEAH!….. and care…. I gotta teach these bees to make beer
Dave you can make mead thats some mighty fine stuff. Im afraid the bees wont make beer for you though We are going to make a batch of mead this year and it should be ready to go next year
Got warm enough for a bee inspection ! Been so cold...so not surprised that I lost 2 of 3 hives . But...the alive-hive was doing good . Got nearly 50 degrees yesterday ...the bees were actually flying around..pooping all over the snow !! They even did some house cleaning . They pulled a bunch of dead bees out of the hive . Everyone looks healthy and ready to go . I threw in a Dadant patty for the first time..so we will see . They seemed to really enjoy it . And I dont have to worry about anything freezing..as its gonna get cold here again Ordered up some new bee packages to fill the other boxes. Hopefully Ill have the magic touch this year
Hey all, Yea, last night was setup, feeding, watering, inspection, and stinging. Next week we build our hive kits! Matt, our bees will be coming from about 50 miles away, north of me. I purchased a smoker last night also we had a raffle and I won a mesh hood. It was a great class. As I stated earlier. In my township I did find out I "must" register my hive.
Congrats on winning! Theres not really to much wrong with registering a hive except for some reasons that weve talked about together I see the pros and cons of it. Im glad your enjoying the classes its a lot of fun. Make sure you set everything up for them, give them a place to get water with out drowning, inspect regularly for a while and be prepared to get stung I would recommend getting an epi pen to have on stand by for just in case.
I did get one! I went to my Doc here on base and told him what I was doing. He kinda chuckled and said no problem! I'll take some pics next week on my hive build, and my set up when I get it home! I have a bird bath with shells and stones about 15ft from where the hive will be, and I have a small pond in the back yard with lilly pads and rocks also they can land on. Believe it or not, we have about 50 people in our class, "NOW" there coming from all over the state and we have about 25 of them are college students. "I'll be the first to say" I was clueless but oh my God.... I won't go there.... Anyway, I'm not worried at all about getting stung, and the reason for registering your hive with the township I found out was so when the bug sprayer comes around in the summertime to spray for mosquitos, they will not spray down your street! That may pi$$ off some of my neighbors.
One of the cities in Va near me has a mosquito control phone number you can call and let them know you have a hive and they will give you a heads up when they are going to spray so that you can close up your hives for the day. I try to get the local farmers to let me know when they are going to spray or crop dust but Im having trouble with them I usually end up running out at 0630 to close the hive up when I hear a crop duster coming around
One of the guy's who is going to be my mentor is also one who has been teaching some of the class. The funny thing is we only live about 1 mile from each other and I never had an idea about him having bees. He does not have them on his house property though, he owns a field which he partially farms and leases out to someone else who grows tomatoes there. He keeps his bees on the edge of the field, even then their only about 2 miles away. I also have a vineyard just about a mile away, and I'm fairly sure they have a hive or 2 as well. Yes, I'm having fun so far! It's so interesting
Hey I just found this out and thought yall might be interested in it. Haagen Dazs ice cream helps honey bees http://www.haagendazs.com/Learn/HoneyBees/
