Welcome Newbees

A place for bee-ginners to ask questions and receive answers from experienced beekeepers.
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Allen Dick
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Joined: February 25th, 2003, 10:09 pm
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Welcome Newbees

Unread post by Allen Dick »

This forum is for new beekeepers to ask questions they might feel uncomfortable asking in the other forums on this site.

Please feel free to also express your thoughts freely here, however don't expect that people will not disagree or have unflattering things to say about some ideas. If that happens, it is not personal, or should not be, so please do not feel unduly criticized or unwelcome. This forum is populated largely by people who are successful beekeepers and have made all the mistakes you are about to make, and sometimes more than once.

Listening to them can save you and your bees a lot of trouble and pain.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
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Unbakedpegga
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Joined: December 11th, 2016, 10:51 am

Re: Welcome Newbees

Unread post by Unbakedpegga »

I cannot see a link to start a new post. I had 4 hives for three years, I reduced that to just one hive because the boxes are too heavy for me to lift. This one box was robbed last summer everything was lost. But I had some questions on how to keep the hive small because the bees are what I enjoy, the honey is a nuisance . But I have to keep it small. I don't know how to do that. Also I still have all of the frames without wax because what the robbers didn't destroy, the wax moths got into. Is there a way I can post this, and what forum should I post it in
Allen Dick
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Re: Welcome Newbees

Unread post by Allen Dick »

This is a good place to post this question. You don't mention where you live and that info would be helpful since all beekeeping is local, i.e. depends on where you are.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
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Countryboy
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Joined: November 8th, 2010, 9:37 pm
Location: Central Ohio
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Re: Welcome Newbees

Unread post by Countryboy »

A hive that gets too big is not a problem most beginners have. That is success.

First I would encourage you to learn how to treat mites successfully. This may help you reduce hive deaths so the combs don't get wiped out in the future by wax moths after bees die out.

My recommendation would be for you to learn how to make splits and nucs. If you split your colony and sell nucs or splits from your bees, that is a good way to weaken the colony enough so that they do not get too large, and they will also not produce as much honey.

You can still earn a little money by selling nucs, and it is a lot easier to handle than having to process and sell honey.
B. Farmer Honey
Central Ohio
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BDT123
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Joined: December 3rd, 2016, 6:47 pm
Location: Drayton Valley, AB

Re: Welcome Newbees

Unread post by BDT123 »

Country boy, that sounds like excellent advice. I'm not fussed about some honey, small hive count, but splits and nucs are on the list for 2017! Learning to manage, I hope....
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eltalia
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Re: Welcome Newbees

Unread post by eltalia »

Unbakedpegga wrote: December 11th, 2016, 11:04 am I cannot see a link to start a new post. I had 4 hives for three years, I reduced that to just one hive because the boxes are too heavy for me to lift. This one box was robbed last summer everything was lost. But I had some questions on how to keep the hive small because the bees are what I enjoy, the honey is a nuisance . But I have to keep it small. I don't know how to do that.
(edit)
Jumping right in at the deep end I supply an answer to the question which
reflects much of what has been lost in the post Y2k "boom" enthusiasm for
"my own bees", in leaving behind much of what bees do, have done for eons, in preference to what we *think* our well cared for bees _should do_.
Evidence of our well meaning efforts being rejected, it is all one can do is to burst into tears (literally in many cases) and pile on selfguilt in new found inadequacies, discovered.
For the question posed the answer lies in tweaking the following targets
FOR A SINGLE COLONY IN YOUR YARD.

1. Strong colonies do not get robbed, they rob.
So, maintain colony strength above all else.
2. Refuse swarming;
despite ALL that can be garnered in 'advice' swarming reduces colony
strength. SWARMS are BAD, okay.
3. Maintain a focused foraging event in harvesting honey stores as they build - do not wait until "honeybound" combs preclude a flow.
4. Set your management to provide consumption of all stores prior to
a "Spring" or known prime flow initiation.
5. For specific instances where brood control assists colony management,
in averting excesses of colony numbers or measures of responses from unusual foraging successes, restrict the Queen through caging on the comb.
6. Where disease and/or pest intrude on a single colony always look
to preserving the max numbers in emerging brood which are the next generation post any disease/pest and so the core strength of the colony.

In nature, left well alone it is rare for a vibrant colony to swarm outside of
simply running out of space. Owning no external management beyond seasonal foraging opportunities the initial choice of hive structure does
see many hundreds of generations before the colony issues a swarm.
So ask yourself where this natural evolution is known where the heck did the feral mutts you captured and placed into a box think they are at?
Begin to play with them as we humans are wont to do and you find yourself posting copius questions to forums, forums which own the very same core
misunderstandings you yourself are maybe guilty of... no?

Cheers.


Bill
ASK not what your bees can do for you.
ASK what your bees cannot do for you.
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jlharp
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Joined: May 6th, 2019, 10:10 am

New bees, bad weather

Unread post by jlharp »

I have 2 packages coming this week. The weather is 40 and rainy. Can I put them in my little greenhouse for 4 days as long as I feed them. Will they be ok. I would leave them in the screened boxes for now.
Allen Dick
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Re: Welcome Newbees

Unread post by Allen Dick »

You don't say where you are.

Regardless, a green house would be a poor place to store them in the shipping cages.

The best place is a cool dark place (60 F). Basement? Garage?

However, the very best plan is to install them into the hives on drawn comb that has some honey. 40 and rainy weather is about ideal for the first few days while they settle in.

I posted this to the Calgary Beekeepers List. Read on...

---
You might find this interesting. Yes, that is snow falling as the bees are being installed. No problem at all.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g9fendk6mq0f ... i_jKa?dl=0

These bees did just fine and maybe better than if they had been installed during the day or in warmer weather.

Installing in the evening is best because the bees won't drift. Semi-dark or dark is best because the bees have all night to settle in. Installed during a warm day, a package can drift and even swarm out.

The main trick is to have the packages at a temperature where bees are not running on the screens, but also will get back up and cluster quickly when you tap the package down.

If they don't all get right back up, the package is too cold. If they don't get back up in the package, they won't get up onto the frames after being shaken into the hive.

As for the queen, some dip the queen cage briefly in luke-warm water so she can't fly and drop her into the cluster of bees already shaken into the hive.

As for spraying the packages with syrup, that was the practice for years, but recent work has shown that bees that are sprayed with syrup suffer higher mortality, so unless the syrup is gone and the bees are starving, that may not be wise.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
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