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General Discussion>New Hobby: Bee Keeping
massphatness 08:53 AM 08-27-2019
It opened right to Cold Sores & Genital Herpes ... go figure
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bonjing 09:52 AM 08-27-2019
:-):-)
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markem 02:17 PM 09-21-2019
Mickey Dees is also into bees!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=lng4n3FI7SQ
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CigarNut 07:50 AM 09-22-2019
Very cool!
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massphatness 07:28 AM 10-26-2019
We pulled the honey supers off a couple weeks ago. I think I got over-excited about our honey haul from earlier in the year, and I put three supers on after we had extracted instead of just going with one and adding as needed. The bees ended up working a little bit in one box, a little bit in another and a little bit in the third. As a result, we only ended up with about 12 lbs of honey. Most of the frames were only partially built out. No biggie. I don't know what I would have done if had gotten a lot more honey anyway.

The previous couple years I haven't done a fall feeding and thought I'd give it a try. I know the bees haven't starved out the past two years because there's been a good amount of honey in the frames when I've popped them open in the spring. Had the colony died of starvation, there wouldn't be anything in the frames. Still, better safe than sorry. The feed is a sugar syrup in the ratio of 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. (Interesting tidbit: a container of water weighs about the same when it's filled with sugar; not exact but close enough to make the syrup.)

At a 2:1 ratio, the syrup promotes honey production which will give the ladies extra food stores for the winter. In the spring, the ratio is 1:1, and that promotes brood rearing. No idea why.

I'm using an entrance feeder. The feed drips into it & the bees crawl in to slurp up the sugary goodness. Will be interesting to see how quickly they go through it.

Image
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IBQTEE1 08:37 AM 10-28-2019
Very cool. Thanks for the update.
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icehog3 09:20 AM 10-28-2019
Slurping up sugary goodness.

Bees got a good life. :-)
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BigAsh 11:09 AM 10-28-2019
Originally Posted by icehog3:
Slurping up sugary goodness.

Bees got a good life. :-)
.....though short-lived at Casa Stolo....
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AdamJoshua 02:06 PM 10-28-2019
is it keto-friendly? :-)
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icehog3 02:31 PM 10-28-2019
Originally Posted by BigAsh:
.....though short-lived at Casa Stolo....
The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Littleton? :-)
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markem 06:35 PM 10-28-2019
Originally Posted by icehog3:
The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Littleton? :-)
Whoa! Major shrinkage. :-)
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357 02:44 PM 04-07-2020
Hey Vin, any colonies make it through the winter? I'm 0-fer again. I had 5 going into fall, 1 I was certain had no chance but I didn't want to go through the trouble of combining it with another. All but 1 was dead by December 1st. That one died before it warmed up in late January. I don't have any packages on order yet. I might take this summer off.
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AdamJoshua 05:23 PM 04-07-2020
Bee killers!!!!


You two are like the NYC of covid for bees.
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357 10:36 AM 04-08-2020
Originally Posted by AdamJoshua:
Bee killers!!!!


You two are like the NYC of covid for bees.
True but, it's not just us. Northern states lose 30-80% of colonies annually thanks to Varroa mites and the 2-3 dozen pathogens they introduce to the bees, not to mention the parasitic feeding itself damages them.

Northern bees hatched in October have to live until April or May before they can bring in new pollen and nectar, which is needed to raise new brood. Southern "winter" bees only have to live from Nov/Dec until Late Jan or Feb. So they suffer the same parasitic problems but their winter bees don't have to survive as long so their losses are much less. At least that's the prevailing theory.

My friend who has been keeping bees in Michigan since the 70s told me losing 1 of 20 colonies was unusual, worthy of inspecting to see if you could find out why. Once varroa mites showed up everything changed.
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357 11:15 AM 07-08-2022
Hey Vin, I wanted to resurrect this thread to see if you have any bees this year. I took 2020 off then had them again for 2021 but got super busy with the prep and sale of our house. My neighbor finished things up for me, harvested what there was and still has a few of my hive boxes.

I was hoping you had bees for 2022 and might be willing to share some news/pics. Once we find a place to settle I'll be getting my hives out of storage to start up again.
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AdamJoshua 12:51 PM 07-08-2022
Originally Posted by 357:
Hey Vin, I wanted to resurrect this thread to see if you have any bees this year. I took 2020 off then had them again for 2021 but got super busy with the prep and sale of our house. My neighbor finished things up for me, harvested what there was and still has a few of my hive boxes.

I was hoping you had bees for 2022 and might be willing to share some news/pics. Once we find a place to settle I'll be getting my hives out of storage to start up again.
The bees started committing suicide in the truck on the way to Vin's as soon as they realized where they were heading, better to do it quick and get it over with.
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