Well, here it is all, My first hive! I had to build it in class last night, it came as a kit…. I'm trying to decide whether to paint it or linseed oil, suggestions??? Due to the harsh winter, they said "not" to expect our nuc of bees till 3rd week in April..
Lookin good !! Congrats on the hive I paint all my hives. Less maintenance in the long run . Although....its a shame to cover up all that very nice grain ! And about the bees.....the cold hung on so long last year , that I didnt get my bees for my new hives till the beginning of May last year . Talk about a late start !
I'm assuming around here, "the norm" is early April things get moving and are up and running… I don't know, to new at this to tell but thats what I heard some of the old timers say.
I think it depends on the supplier . Where I get them from....they dont get shipped up here for pickup till after the the last frost...give or take . The first year I started with the bees....I got them the first week of April . I just had an old time beekeeper tell me some great things . One of which is.....is that the methods to keep the bees alive and happy seems to change from year to year . I thought that was great..because I thought I was doing something wrong when bad things happened...even though I did the same things every year !
Thats funny you say that…. I basically heard the same thing last night. One of the bee keepers said him and his wife haven't changed their way of doing things in 25 years and they said some years are fine and others, not so good. They said just chalk it up to natures way of doing things.
When is the last time that we have had two consecutive winters that were similar? Huge variable. Looks great! Mine too are painted but i also would preffer the raw look.
My wife just said she wants to paint them light blue, Oh well…. I'll put a coat of primer on them… I wanted the RED, WHITE and BLUE
looks good dave I would recommend going to Lowe's or home depot and checking oupaint screw ups. You can save some money doing that but you can't pick the color just make sure that it's exterior grade paint. My hives are all different colors pink blue white green the color doesn't matter its all your preference.
This paint color thing sounds familiar !! My girlfriend got involved with my new boxes last year...now I have one white hive , another one light sky blue , and the other with a very faint light green !! They have grown on me now...but was unsure at the start ! At least they are light colors....as dark colors suck in too much heat I feel .
The guy I talked to..said it wasnt even just the wintering issues. It was during the warm seasons as well ...which always vary as well . I have noticed that some years....even if all the flowers are in bloom.....they will just attack the wild apple trees and tulip poplars . Then last year...they loaded up on my parents blackberry/blueberry farm.......but didnt touch the apple trees much at all . Those bees seem to know and understand things that we will never know . I tell ya whats even cooler.....is the product of there work . Trying to dissect the taste of the honey..and figure out what they hit the most during that period . Its really cool
Well, we just came from the ACE hardware store,….. and the paint reject isle….. well, we have a emerald, teal color, light green…… The only thing I can say is it's reasonably close to our awnings in color.
Dave if its similar to mine then it the best color you can get obviosly! Mine is from the oops shelf also.
Correct. Everybody seams to be all worried about mice setting up shop in the hive. I never had that problem. I think the little bastardos more preffer my barn. Tape seems to stay on just fine through the winter.
Looks great Dave I would suggest getting another super on hand ready to go just in case always best to have extra gear believe me Ive struggled through with out having enough stuff it can be done but its a struggle. Also NUC box would be handy to for swarm season.
Thanks for the tip! They did say to "keep" the nuc box, I'm listening "VERY" carefully to all of you! I'm new to all this and I want it to go correctly. . I will buy another kit super, there easy to build! I was also thinking… should I get a queen excluder?
