# Killing me not to know



## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

They sure can do that. Let us know what you find when you DO check this weekend!!!


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

I couldn't stand it anymore I just had to. Popped the top for about 30 seconds and wow is all I've got, just wow. 3 frames in a corner with about 6x6" pie slices of comb in 2 1/2 days. I didn't dally around looking for eggs, queenor anything but they Rollin. The syrup in the top hasn't been touched so its gone now. Impressive


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## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

Pretty cool. Knew you couldn't wait!


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

Yeah it was cool. I drank a cup of coffee with them this morning and noticed a change in the returning by bees. Yesterday maybe 1 in 20 was hauling pollen today it's every other bee. I'm assuming that means brood rearing is coming. Hope so, it was a pretty small group that needs help pretty quick I'd think


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## SouthTexasJohn (Mar 16, 2015)

Good deal. One of the coolest things I think that they do is build comb in the dark.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

May you never lose that Christmas Present feeling when you pop a lid. I still feel it and love it.


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

I can't wait to open it again, it's like crack I can see why they only live weeks, them girls don't waste any daylight. Before good sunup they were leaving and now the sun is gone and they're still exiting for another run. If people worked like that we could build Rome in a week.
Of course we'd all die by 25, lol. Bees, well I'll be ****ed


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

Peeksee on day 10, capped brood. We has a queen doing the deal ,whoop whoop


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## diymom (Apr 8, 2016)

I know what you mean, I just got bees on Sunday and I am literally crawling over to the hive and watching it for as long as I can every day. Even before I transferred the frames, when I was watching the hive with binoculars... it was like something clicked in my head...this was going to be my new obsession. I want an observation hive now.

Fabulous creatures!


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

I've been leaving the girls to it for the last couple weeks except for coffee or beer visits. Same traffic for the most part up until Thursday evening when a bunch of what looked like orientation flights started going on. Lots of commotion and front door traffic all of a sudden. Same when I got home yesterday so I went in to have a look. About half the earlier noted capped brood has emerged, some capped and larger larvae in a frame that wasn't there before but the coolest thing was the eggs. No small larvae anywhere but a whole lotta eggs, about twice what she layed the first round. From the looks it was probably a week stretch with no laying then she cut cut loose again. Waiting on help to take care of them I guess  gonna be cool watching this almost nothing knot of bees turn into a full blown hive


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

Pretty good sized orientation flight this evening. I'm guessing a bunch of newly capped brood has freed up some bee for forager duty. Give a check tomorrow and see what's a happening. I had about a 1/4 and 1/3 of 2 medium foundationless drawn and a half side of foundation drawn on last check. Interested to see what they've been up to


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## RedHalo (Apr 24, 2016)

What indicates the orientation flight? I get a bunch flying in a cluster in front of the hive entrance from time to time. New bees figuring it out?


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

dtrooster - there going to be going like mad for the next 3/4 weeks. You are in tallow country my friend and its in full bloom. Then they will start slowing down a bit.


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

Big pile flying in front facing the hive then they start figure 8ing and coming back to the front getting wider and higher circles. New bees setting a pin on the GPS, pretty cool to watch


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

watch out - you'll have a 100 before ya know it - worse than cocaine these little buggers


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

Yeah the privet is winding down but the elderberry and tallow is turning it on. They've got a long way to go tho, I may have to figure out the best way to help them keep expanding when those 2 are gone. Stuff blooming was something I never paid attention to before so I have no idea what's left


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

well I can help with that as were in close to each other along I-10 - after tallow - blueweed every time it rains for about a 3/4 day flow - then in the fall goldenrod - then its winter until Feb when yellow jasmine hits


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## RedHalo (Apr 24, 2016)

sakhoney said:


> well I can help with that as were in close to each other along I-10 - after tallow - blueweed every time it rains for about a 3/4 day flow - then in the fall goldenrod - then its winter until Feb when yellow jasmine hits


y
I've been told the Tallow in south Louisiana is our #1 source. True?


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

very true


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## ksr004 (Dec 26, 2014)

RedHalo said:


> y
> I've been told the Tallow in south Louisiana is our #1 source. True?


Yes. It seems they are filling supers as fast as I put them on right now.


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

If you don't have them stacked up head high then do so - they need to spread that new honey out to get it dried/cured - a strong hive on a tallow flow will make 200 pounds of ripe honey and that requires a lot of spread out room. Really - don't just install 1 box - super the heck out of them. And if you have plastic frames of foundation - now is the time to turn it into comb. I just put on 4000 frames of it myself. If all you have is pulled comb - better get a step ladder to super them with.


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## ksr004 (Dec 26, 2014)

sakhoney said:


> If you don't have them stacked up head high then do so - they need to spread that new honey out to get it dried/cured - a strong hive on a tallow flow will make 200 pounds of ripe honey and that requires a lot of spread out room. Really - don't just install 1 box - super the heck out of them. And if you have plastic frames of foundation - now is the time to turn it into comb. I just put on 4000 frames of it myself. If all you have is pulled comb - better get a step ladder to super them with.


Thanks Sak. The girls have plenty of room. Did exactly what you said yesterday. I need a step ladder to get to the top of most of my hives as I currently have 4-5 supers stacked on and ratchet strapped down.


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

I know the feeling - I'm around Beaumont - and I have to stand on the back of my 4 wheeler for some of mine - hey a little helpful tip I learned a few years back and so obvious.
When stacking supers this high - nail on the top before putting on top super - then the top super is put on -top goes on with it


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## ksr004 (Dec 26, 2014)

Good tip. Thanks Sac.


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

Maybe next year I'll get to that point. I've got the one hive from a small swarm and have had no luck catching another. I've spent enough on frames,foundation and building hive parts I'm not willing to pay for bees, not yet anyway. Funny tho, I took a walk yesterday and I don't even see them working the tallow yet which is a good thing for where I stand I think. My girls are doing good, looks like close to doubled the amount of comb in the last week.


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

Dt - you want more bees???
Go down to the local cop shop and pass out a few cards and honey. I do not know why people call the cops on swarms but they do. Also little for sale papers like the thrifty nickel - put in an ad.


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

> Go down to the local cop shop and pass out a few cards and honey


 I tried that, bottom of the list I'm afraid

second round of brood has been hatching since this weekend and business in there is definitely picking up. I'd think my population is getting strong enough now that the queen wont feel the need to batch lay as much and they are pouring it on in the comb building. I had an issue with my first attempt at plasticell getting drawn whacked but I put some extra melted wax on and now they are drawing it marvelously. Pussy cat bees. No veil, no smoke (although I do keep them handy) and no stings other than self imposed venom therapy once a week. pretty cool distraction for my coffee or beer drinking times


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

Took a look and they've definitely turned a corner on brood production. The queen is making the rounds and popping an egg in every cell that comes available. They've started on the 5th foundationless very well and she's loading it as its building. Next week I'll probably slide the last one inside that outer honey frame and we should be good until adding the next box maybe the following week or two if they keep rollin on


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

good to here - did your tallow crop get washed out?


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

I really wouldn't know, to soon in the game for me,lol. It's been raining but they're collecting something still from the increases in comb and honey on the outside frames and wrapping the top of the brood frames. Doing good I think


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

I went ahead and slid that last foundationless inside the opposite outer frame, took about 15 seconds. The foraging activity today is out the box compared to anytime before. Just as soon let them get to it. Next planned home invasion weekend after this one


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## sakhoney (Apr 3, 2016)

I'm flying home today - I'll be checking mine friday


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

Welcome back. I went to the local beekeepers club meeting for the first time last night and the consensus seems to be this is average year for honey production. Not good, not bad just average. I had a few basic questions I tried to ask but the answers turned into a quagmire of people talking over each other. My nature is a grain of salt philosophy so I guess this'll be like everything else. Learn on the fly with hard knock lessons. True to the theme of this thread I had to know and slid the lid over enough to check that frame I added. Wedge the size of my fingers built in 24 hours so the plan worked and we're good for the next week or so


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

On another thread I mention a small swarm I hived that was queen less and really low on bees at about day 4. On about 8 I went to just shake out the few bees and put up the box, lo and behold a fat queen with some eggs layed in the 4" patch of comb they managed to build. So I did a what the hell and put them in a hive next to my other one and took some capped brood, nice nectar and pollen ring over the top, with nurse bees and seeded it a little. Checked it today and she's filling up cells as they become available. Now the question. Im thinking of taking a frame of partially drawn comb thats mostly nectar and some pollen from the other hive and put it next to that brood frame. Will those bees use that nectar to draw more comb or consolidate it up top and open those cells for egglaying? The stronger hive is pouring in the nectar and pollen, squeezing down the brood nest. My gut say it would be better to transfer resources and open it broodnest for more new combbuilding rather than take more brood. What say yous, hopefully I explained my situation and thinking good enough


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

Old girl in the pink hive finally decided she wanted more room to work and moved up into the second box, woohoo. Maybe now she's skint back popping eggs again hijacking brood to boost the welfare hive might not hurt my feelings so much. Still don't know where the feed is coming from but they rollin on.


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## dtrooster (Apr 4, 2016)

Amazing how a couple days of good rain gets things rolling again. The pink hive forager traffic looks like downtown LA. That hive is looking good, well into filling the second box. Yesterday I took a half drawn frame with capped brood, nurses and wax builders and transferred it over to the Welfare hive. I noticed the previous frame of capped was mostly emerged and the queen was doin the deal. This morning a concerted pollen gathering effort going on with noticeably more forager activity. I'm thinking one more pass thru Pinks soup line in about another week and they should be good to fend for themselves. After the fall flow I'll rearrange/nuc them if needed to get thru the winter. Bees, who'd a thunk it


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