# 2018/19 Journal NW Florida Gulf Coast



## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

First look at some utube videos that are by Jamie Ellis, and in addition to that he will be doing a talk “What is killing our Bees and What We Can do about it” see below:

The mission of the University of Florida's Honey Bee Research and Extension Laboratory (HBREL) is to improve the health and productivity of honey bee colonies in Florida and globally by investing in research projects focusing on honey bee husbandry, ecology, behavior, biodiversity and conservation.
Dr. Ellis is the Gahan Associate Professor of Entomology in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida. At the University of Florida, Dr. Ellis has responsibilities in extension, instruction and research related to honey bees. Regarding his extension work, Dr. Ellis created the UF, South Florida, and Caribbean Bee Colleges, and the UF Master Beekeeper Program. As an instructor, Dr. Ellis supervises Ph.D. and masters students in addition to offering an online course in apiculture. Dr. Ellis and his team conduct research projects in the fields of honey bee husbandry, conservation and ecology, and integrated crop pollination.
***Members of the Seminole County Beekeepers Association will have reserved seating in the front row.***
https://www.seminolecountybeekeepers.org/
https://www.facebook.com/seminolebeekeepers/

DATE AND TIME

Wed, February 7, 2018
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Add to Calendar
LOCATION

UF/IFAS Extension Seminole County Auditorium
250 County Home Road
Sanford, FL 32773


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Unfortunately, that is over 7 hours from me. One of the local clubs will have a meeting with speakers about an hour from me at the end of February that I plan to attend. This is my third year. Not a total newb, but obviously making mistakes.


----------



## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

UF Bee College is coming to you in March.
Panhandle Bee College

Friday & Saturday, March 23-24, 2018

Blountstown High School
18597 NE SR 69
Blountstown, FL 32424

Panhandle Bee College is a two-day event offering training for beekeepers of all experience levels, gardeners, naturalists, county agents, and anyone interested in honey bees! The Friday and Saturday courses cover practical beekeeping skills, honey bee behavior, specialty hive products, and more. There are live honey bee colonies on site for open hive demonstrations and protective gear is available for everyone. Children under 12 are welcome to participate in Jr. Bee College on Saturday and everyone is encouraged to enter honey, hive products, art and more in our Bee College Honey Show.
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/honey-bee/...n/bee-college/


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That is closer, but still 2.5 hours away. Do you know if anyone will be selling proven treatment free bees?

My main two thoughts right now regarding the two nucs I will be getting is to either split them both immediatly, or put one in a fully drawn out hive and split the other one. Again, the goal is to get some honey and up to 10 hives by fall.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Proven TF queens, the Holy Grail of beekeeping.

JG, I would let the nucs build for about three weeks and then split them each three ways and install 4 mated queens. Keep building for another two months and split 2 ways and install or raise the 6 queens you need. Then find these TF queens and install them late summer into your booming hives.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

JW, Do you think I will be able to get any honey harvest doing this?
So, you suggest putting the two nucs into 10 frames, at start of March, split three way into nuc boxes start of 4th week of March, build up, start of June, split each into two nucs, move to deeps by fall? With none of the hives being stronger than the others, do you think I need robber cages? 
This is the type of planning I'm trying to work out. ty

Last year I tried to follow others, but ended up always being behind in my timing due to my location. I'm at the southern end of zone 8, top of zone 9.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Sounds about right. Don't forget to feed heavily. I will be doing the same thing but will be about three to four weeks behind you. Zone 7a. Honey production is iffy at best. If the flow is good, you might try supering the nucs. I have about 8 5-frame mediums for this purpose. Maybe get a few frames off of each. Really hard to get honey when you are trying to get new hives. You will probably need the robber screens for the June splits. Your hives may all be weak, but those local bees you saw will be full strength and looking for an opportunity to get stronger. I look forward to reading your journal.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Good info JW. Ty I put out a swarm trap in my back yard today and will be putting one next to the national seashore wooded area very soon. Too early to swarm, but I want them in place and worry that I will be too busy teaching at the appropriate time. I'm adding more nucs and robber cases to my building list. There are several houses being built nearby, so I may be able to get a lot of the materials for free. The guys gave me a few 4-5' 2x12 boards that I hope to use to make a book shelf for my classroom. The smaller pieces may be used as hive covers. I had originally thought they were 3/4", but when I looked closer, they are 2" thick. I'm sure there will be plenty of 2x4 to build stands with soon.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Weather is in the 60s today. Lots of bees on the old frames. I really hope to catch a swarm from them. Seeing them keeps my spirits up that my colony is somewhere nearby. I'm told swarms should start in about four weeks, so today we worked on building horizontal hive swarm traps. Got everything cut out, but it looks like I need a different router bit before I can assemble. Maybe tomorrow...


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

JadeG you can cut the entrance with a half inch drill bit and a jig saw too. If you use the router, be sure to use a guide rail. I tried to freehand my first hole and lets just say I'm glad the bees don't care. The frame rests can be cut with the table saw but I've decided the router does a better job and is more square too. Build the cases first and then fit the tops. There is no margin for error as the tops are a tight fit. Thinner is better on the pieces that get ripped from a 2x4. Have fun with the glue and nails!








Sorry about the sideways picture. Five of the seven I built. Two are hanging in trees now. I need to add a board on the side to hang them on a nail cause they are a PITA to carry up a ladder and ratchet strap to a tree trunk.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yours look great. I hope to get the frame rests cut today. Thankfully, I bought a nail gun that should hold big enough nails for this job. LOL, I'm sure gluing and nailing will be the highlight of the day. I plan to do it indoors while watching T.V.

Side note: I noticed yesterday that the blueberries are starting to get ready to bud. This is usually my first sign of spring.


----------



## B52EW (Jun 3, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Jadeguppy, what county are you in? I'm in Okaloosa. Tri-County Beekeepers are good source. Last few years, I've had drones in the hives by 2d 3d week in February, so definitely good idea to have the traps out by March. Good luck and good hunting...


----------



## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> That is closer, but still 2.5 hours away. Do you know if anyone will be selling proven treatment free bees?
> 
> Jade, 2 ½ is well worth the drive to attend this. My husband and I drive 2+ hours to attend SABA conference which Michael Palmer will speak at this year amongst other bee professionals; we learn someth8ng new every time. This year we will drive 3+ hrs to attend the Geneva Bee Conference. I have only been keeping bees 7 years.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



B52EW said:


> Jadeguppy, what county are you in? I'm in Okaloosa. Tri-County Beekeepers are good source. Last few years, I've had drones in the hives by 2d 3d week in February, so definitely good idea to have the traps out by March. Good luck and good hunting...


Thanks for the info. I'm south Santa Rosa, Navarre. I bet you have a lot of good forage in Baker.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

We put up another swarm trap this weekend. *fingers crossed* a swarm takes a liking to it.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Jade, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you too. I will be setting my traps out first of March although I do not expect any activity until April, but who knows?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I'm so glad I shouldn't have to wait that long. Too impatient.


----------



## Hayden01 (Jun 22, 2015)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I plan to put out a couple traps this weekend. I'm not expecting anything until the end of March and into April but it's going to be in the 80's a few days next week. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky.


----------



## B52EW (Jun 3, 2013)

Boxed my first swarm this afternoon. One of my off property hives that I had left extra honey over winter decided to split...luckily it was spotted and I was able to box it.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

No swarms caught yet, but I am seeing trees full of blooms. I think it may be dogwood, but I'm not sure. I also noticed that my live oak is getting heavy with pollen. Not "ripe" yet, but a good sign. I think the nearby hive finally robbed out all the old honey and pollen I had on the porch. They have moved on to better pasture. I just hope it helps encourage a swarm from them and that the swarm moves into my box. I put it up in the branching trunk section of an oak. I have two more locations to put traps, but had to take the day off from bees and concentrate on fixing the bearings on the boat trailer. Thankfully I had help, because that is not my area of expertise. Still working on it. Too bad scuba season and bee season aren't opposites of each other.


----------



## B52EW (Jun 3, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yes, I don't remember when the Dogwoods were so beautiful. It is hard to squeeze everything into Spring. Good Luck with the traps.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Here in Virginia the dogwoods are budding but still a ways from blooming. My hives are under two of the white flowered (common) variety. When the are are in bloom, the bees work them like crazy for pollen.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Hmm, maybe I should plant a dogwood or flowering pear tree for early access for hive build-up.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I'm excited to be finally be getting bees back. The nucs are ready for pick up on Saturday. Wish me luck. I hope to end the year with 8-10 hives.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Kewl deal.jade, !!! Mine are coming April 20. My first bees. Also setting traps soon too. Got.most.equipment just a.smoker left.now !!!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Picked up a nuc today. We got a surprise when we walked into his bee yard. A swarm was huddled under one of the nucs and the nuc hive was not happy! By the time I left, he had them moving into an empty hive. Cool timing. I was suppose to pick up two, but the frames wouldn't fit into my homemade nuc. Not sure why, since I used it last year. Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow and I can pick it up as well. The goal is to have 8-10 hives going into winter. 

No hits yet on the two swarm traps I have up. If the weather is good tomorrow, I may have a chance to put some more together.

2018 is officially in full swing!


----------



## Groundhwg (Jan 28, 2016)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

PM sent with question about your nucs.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Happy to report that I finally got to pick up my second nuc. Rain hes let up and today is sunny. The other nuc is nearing 80% full. I'm debating on letting it grow with supers or letting it make queen cells and then splitting it. Lots of pollen coming in. The guy I got them from said he has no problems with robbing at this time of year due to so many resources available. Quick reminder that my goal it to end the year with 8-10 hive and a bonus if I can get 50 pounds of honey.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

80% full in the 10 frame or the 5 frame nuc? If still in the 5, get the medium super on it or transfer to the 10. Don't let the bees get crowded yet. Are you going to try raising the extra 8 queens or buy them? If raising, read up on the fly back split and the OTS method for raising queens. Let the fun begin!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Just checked on the new nuc and found about 10 dead bees on the front landing. Opened her up and they are calm inside. These must have gotten squished during the drive. Also took closer look at the nuc from a few weeks ago and found lots of brood of all ages. I also spotted a queen cell. I got excited that I may be able to split her already, but when I went to move it I found it is already open. I almost wish I had kept them in nucs to force swarm cells and split from there. However, I'm happy to have two hives going well.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That may have been a supercedure cell. Was it opened from the bottom with a neat round hole, or was it opened from the side?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Bottom, nice and round. In hind sight, it may have been the cell that he started the nuc with. That frame is formed unusually. I'm trying to post the pic, but the upload button won't open once clicked.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> Bottom, nice and round. In hind sight, it may have been the cell that he started the nuc with. That frame is formed unusually. I'm trying to post the pic, but the upload button won't open once clicked.


Got it


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Most likely the case. You would not have brood of all ages in the hive after three weeks if you had a new queen, nor would you have had the nice build up. I was thinking they may have started a QC, then torn it down once things settled.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Sugar syrup placed on both hives today. Mason jar feeder through the inner cover. Protein patties are on their way. Once that arrives, I'm considering splitting the hive in two or three. Not sure if four would be pushing it. Both hives were busy foraging. 
I'm still considering switching everything to mediums.
Lastly, three more swarm traps built and painted with the exception of two lids. Hope to cut that tomorrow. Unfortunately, I lost three days of spring break to my back pain, but hope to get caught up and the traps out very soon. If only my to-do list was smaller...


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Update: Hive #1 is expanding to the last deep frame. Still on a single deep. Sugar water feeder. Didn't find the queen. However, did find three new queen cells being built on frame 5. I wish I had seen them making swarm cells of different frame. Hopefully they will. Looks like I may be spitting it soon.  
Hive #2 is continuing to expand. Five full frames and several others with some bees and some comb.
Temps are getting into the 80s.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Peeked into hive 1 yesterday. Three cups, but nothing in them. As I looked around, I noticed a lot of open cells. I found older larvae and very young larvae with a few eggs. I didn't have great lighting, but am concerned that there looks to be a gap in age. However, I am happy that it looked like there are some eggs. What do you think they are up to? They are drawing out the last frame, so I expected to see swarm cells, but not yet.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

This weekend we decided to put a nine frame medium of mostly comb on hive 1 instead of forcing it to build swarm cells. We are currently 10 degrees below average temperature for this time of year. Part of the thinking is that we would like a bit of honey and the other hive is not ready to split. It will probably be safer to split both at the same time. How far behind do you think this will put us on our hopes to end the year near 10 hives? I'm thinking if I feed during the summer dearth that it may be a good time to split each 3 or 4 ways and then maybe get another small split at the end of summer. The extra cold weather is concerning me. I know some hives have thrown swarms in our area already. Is this change going to cause problems?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Trouble in paradise. We were planning to check hive 2 to see if we can pull four frames to start two nucs. However, as soon as we looked back there, we found hive 1 flipped over. The deep was upside-down and the super was behind it, upside down with some frames knocked out. There was a bad storm last night, but even with 60 mph winds, we haven't had this happen before. Nearly all the bees were piled on the deep. Thankfully, we manged to get everything turned back over with few casualties. The deep did accidentally get put on backwards to how it was before. I estimate 100+ bees were dead on the ground. The weird thing is that the super was a 9 frame and I only found 8 frames. To those that have had this happen before, did the hive settle back in or abscond?

Hive 2 has nearly filled all the frames, but we couldn't find the queen. I did find larvae, but couldn't find eggs. However, that could just be me and my inexperience. We decided to leave it for another week and see how it is at that point.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Worst I had was lids blow off, bees were fine. Heard stories similar to yours and the bees were fine there too. Finding the queen in a full hive is always a challenge. She is often on the frame with the youngest larvae. Go ahead and make your splits. If you accidentally move the queen it is no big deal. Just give her plenty of room to lay once you figure out where she is.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Thanks for the advice. I went ahead and pulled two frames from hive #2. Both with capped brood and larvae, honey and pollen. They were both covered with bees too. I hope that I pulled one with young larvae/eggs. Am I correct thinking I should see a queen cell by this weekend? I did not see the queen and am not sure if they have enough foragers. I decided to take a look in hive 1, the one that flipped over. Frame 5 had two sealed queen cells mid-frame and frame 8 looks to have six+ queen cells being built on it. That frame is the weird one where the bees have tunnels between the comb and plastic frame. I didn't have a nuc ready, so I closed her up and got my son to give me a hand getting the nuc/swarm trap out of the tree. While we were pulling the frames for the nuc, we found the queen.  I moved her and shook those bees into the nuc and then a frame of bees from the super. They should have a good number of foragers. I'm very hopeful for that nuc. *fingers crossed*


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I was a bit concerned about the nuc from hive two so I took a look. No sign of the start of a queen cup and a lot of brood has hatched. I went looking onto the mother hive and am happy to say I found the queen. She is very yellow, while the other is black. Both were from the same beek. I switched in a frame with lots of tiny larvae and hopefully some eggs and moved one of the sealed brood back to the mother hive. I've also put patties and syrup on nuc 2.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Nice find today. I went looking for mistint paint in hopes of painting nucs and hives in different colors to help with queen return and drift. Lowes barely marked their down, but the local Sherwin Williams had a lime green gallon of exterior that usually runs about $70 for a wallet breaking $1. Score! Gonna have to check in there every so often.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

This belongs in the "what did you scrounge today" thread. We all cheer each other on when someone gets a great deal. A gallon of exterior paint for a buck is fantastic!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

LOL, I was trying to figure out where that thread is.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Decided to try making nucs with thicker wood than the D Coats call for. I have a few of the D's and don't like how they don't line up when stacking. Happy to say the thicker plywood and adjusted measurements worked out great. The hangers for the frame could be built in now that the wood is thicker.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I found two queens near each other in nuc 1.  I went to check other hives and then came back to it to show my hubby. (I found the queen in hive 2 as well.) The two queen we next to each other. One walked away and the other looked to be putting her end in the comb as if to lay eggs. We put the walk away in a queen roller, but while watching the other, I saw her kinda bend like she was touching her toes and she stumbled a comb or two when I moved the frame. (open comb). DO you think she was stung? The other queen is still inside the nuc, just in a cage while I decide if I got lucky and can start a new nuc with her or if I timed it just wrong and lost the other queen.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yesterday I made a divider to change a 5 frame nuc into two mating nucs, 2 frames each side. Then added a frame of mostly honey and pollen and the bees on it to the mating nuc. I wanted to have another nuc for the virgin queen. Of course, I did this too late in the day and they got hot on me before I ran back and got smoke. I ended up releasing the virgin queen into the hive because I'm not sure how long they can go without food and she had been caged 24 hours already. They ignored her as she walked down into the nuc. Of course, then I read a bunch of stories on how this never works and they always kill the queen. This morning, that nuc and one ner it had bee body parts scattered over the lids. The new mating nuc had about a softball size number of bees on the frame, but the virgin queen is still alive.  Nuc 2 has now had its queens hatch, but I didn't find them. They were tearing down another queen cell with a large white bee in it, so she is somewhere in there. By next weekend I hope all three will be laying eggs. *fingers crossed* they make it back from their flight.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

The nicot is ready for use and I want to use the queen in hive 1. I went looking for her, but couldn't find her. Figures... Frame 10- lots of honey and pollen, next few frames were nearly wall to wall capped brood. Frame 5 (same location as last time) had 3 supercedure cups, at least two with larvae, and now one was damaged by me. Found a frame of eggs too. The hive is packed with bees and they are drawing out the last three frames in the honey super. I went looking in one of the young nucs that I think the queen returned to from her mating flight and couldn't find her. Lots more bees, but the queens are hiding from me. I have ordered equipment to mark the queens once I find them so they will be easier to find in the future.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

It looks like nuc 1 and 2 probably have queens back from mating. I couldn't find them or eggs, but the bee population is up. I'll wait a few more days and check for eggs again. Nuc 3 with the extra virgin queen is nearly gone. Very few bees left. I don't think she made it back. However, I did find four+ swarm/supercedure cells in hive 1. Some are at the bottom, others are midframe, so I', not sure which they are doing. There are lots of full frames of brood in the hive. We cut off two, caged them, and put them in a nuc near the brood. I accidentally dropped them in the process. Hopefully it didn't hurt them. It is getting late, so tomorrow I will put them in mating nucs with a frame from hive 2. We prefer the queen in hive 1, but they do tend to build some weird comb.

Hive 2 had built comb from the cover down and filled much of it with honey over the past five days in a spot I had pulled a frame from. The comb is now in a frame and part of my transition to frameless brood chambers.

The first pic is the frame I took the queen cells from. The others are the new comb.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Two frames pulled from hive 2 with brood and honey. Used them to set up two mating nucs with the two queen cells I pulled from hive 1. Put a divider into a 5 frame nuc to create the two frame spaces. Let the clock begin until emergence, mating, and egg laying.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Hi jade, what did you end up you going with on the nucs(breeding)? I think I'm going to go with 3 frame.i found a perfect feeding container to fit feeding box perfect. Of all things my cats treat container. It is friskies 20 oz. Party mix cat treats. Also, barnyard bees uses 2 frame nucs, they use 1/2 gal milk jugs and has a video on it , and one for their fat bee Man feeders they use, I'll adapt the feeder for my 3 frame box. Looks doable, and I save up bunches for my customers touch up paints , left over from my custom painting business. Say, I got my 2 packages in, and installed last Monday. Same day collected a huge swarm !!! Not bad for 1st day in the bee business &#55357;&#56846;&#55357;&#56842;. Also, they are doing really well. 1 week in, and no smoker yet, and only stung a few times on installs. Yesterday, I went in to inspect progress, and remove queen cages. All pretty docile, and no stings !!!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Rich, that sounds awesome! I found several queen cells in hive 1, so I am giving a 5 frame nuc divided into two 2-frame mating nucs a try. I used a 2x12 board scrounged from local construction to make a follower board, put the entrances on opposite sides, and put in a vent one each side. I am concerned about the heat here. I also dropped the queen cells on the sand, so I have my fingers crossed that they aren't damaged. I've been using mason jars for feeders. Two small strips to of support wood and placing them on the top of the frames. The pollen patties are being ignored by most of them. I didn't put a feeder on the mating nucs, but the frame of brood has honey on it. As soon as she starts laying, I plan to move her to a five frame. I think two of the three nucs I set up last month have mated queens. I'm guessing they will need moved to a 10-frame within two weeks. The one with the queen from hive 1 looks to be building faster than the other one, even though the other one received syrup and a patty. Let me know how your three frames do. Our weather is different from so many north of us it is good to get to compare closer locations. 

You are lucky to have a paint source. I try to check mistints each time I'm in a store. Your first day was great. I still haven't had a chance to get a swarm and I'm three years in. How many hives do you hope to go into winter with? With three hives, you can easily do a split on each in early summer and build them to six hives for winter. We both need to do some major carpentry to get our equipment up to snuff. I was just out there counting how many bottoms, lids, nucs, etc. I will need over the next few weeks. I wish I didn't have so many projects at the same time.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Same here jade. I was ahead on the equipment side till the swarm came up. Same day as packages in. But I have 3 or 4 5 frame nucs extra, and 5 med boxes, and 1 complete hive ready for the swarm to go into. I'll be building some this week, 10 frame boxes, 2 and 3 frame nucs/ w feeders. Also a couple bottom boards, inner covers, and Tele covers. 
I hope with swarms, and splits to be at about 10-15 nucs/hives by mid fall. 
Also, on day one I have a cut out to do, it's a very big one as well. In a gas tank of all places. It's packed though. I'll try to get bees smoked out, then get the tank out , and try to get the queen??? And brood, and honey. It's in a jungle, and a friend said may be into helping me. I'd like to keep tank standing as like in the truck, and get it to farm and cut it out there, reframe it ect. Lots of building stuff, and time is a premium this time of the year with business I'm into. 
Yes, no stings are great for paints. I've been using all semi gloss ext. Paints. As it's best on a house, so it's got to be better for the bee boxes I'd think. A challenge in getting the swarms, cut outs, and building, as no one close to me for assist. But, I'll do it, ya know. I'd like to see 20 if all goes well, mabye a pipe dream though. 10 or so is very doable I think. Give me a shout on phone sometimes. P.m. if ya want to get it, I'm learning, and always fun to chat about interesting stuff. What part fl. Ya in?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I'm in nw Florida. Pensacola/Destin area.
I have plenty of medium frames made and three medium boxes, but everything else is being used. I need to make bottoms, tle covers, nucs, etc. I don't use the inner covers. The palmetto bugs drive me crazy and they love to get in there. Without the inner cover, I have fewer issues with them. They sometimes get under the edge of the cover, but a heavy smoke and they drop to the ground before I life it. Roaches are my achilles heal.
I wish I was closer to help with the cut out. Takes lots of pics or film it. 
pm sent


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yes always an equipment struggle. Seems I'll have more of what I don't need and less of what I really need. So, I'm gonna build some of each thing. Needed or not, I'll use it somehow..... lol I'll sure try to do pics or video, I was supposed to be receiving video of my 1st swarm capture from fellow that I did it for. No video yet, looks like I'll have to pester him. I really hate that though. I was lookjng foward to seeing it myself. Mistakes and all. &#55357;&#56833; yup, help would be nice on this one, lol... Looks like it will be fun, trying to get the nerve up now.. it in the middle of a small jungle. Breaking out the chain saw for this one....


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I checked the mating nucs yesterday. I'll call them nucs 4 & 5. 4's queen cell is open, but not the usual tip opening. It is bigger and off center. I'm not sure if they ripped her out or she emerged and they are clearing out the cell. I did not find her. #5's queen cell is still intact. The both were cut out of hive 1. I did see some flying from them, which I had not seen the previous day.
Update:
Hive 1- on second med super of honey, some frames have been used for nucs (purchased early March as 5 frame nuc)
Hive 2- on first med super of honey, many frames have been used for nucs (purchased early March as 5 frame nuc)
Nuc 1- looks like queen has returned from mating flight
Nuc 2- looks like queen has returned from mating flight
Nuc 3- queen did not return, frames repurposed
Nuc 4- queen cell open, no sign of queen yet
Nuc 5- queen cell has not opened


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

double post


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

As of today, nuc 1 is now hive 3 and nuc 2 is now hive 4. I had a bit of an issue putting them in 10 frame mediums as they had more deeps frames that I realized. To compensate, I added a riser on hive 4 and a second medium on hive 3. The top is a bit lose on hive 4, but it is getting into the 90s. I left the old nuc sitting upside down on the new box with the lid next to it to close the box off and give them time to move down into the new frames. With the opening closed, many did. Two deep frames were left sitting against the front of the hive while I went to get the second medium. BONUS! I found the queen on one and was able to put her into a nicot! She is a daughter for our preferred hive. Very excited to finally get to try out the nicot. guess I will need to make some more boxes within the next week and 1/2.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

You can never have enough wooden ware, especially when one is going gangbusters like you are! Tell the hubby to get busy sawing. Any update on the two mating nucs? I was concerned when you mentioned that you had dropped the qc's during the move. 

Splitting like crazy on my end too. My original two hives and a nuc are now four hives, four nucs, and four mating nucs. Six of the total are waiting for queens to emerge. One hive swarmed on me and is included in the six. Trying to use all the queen cells but sometimes there are too many and I end up with as many as four in a nuc. What a waste. Goal is now 20 production hives for next year and as many nucs to overwinter and sell as I can make.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Wow, that is awesome! Wasn't your original goal 10? I'm now thinking I may increase my goal. I wish I could farm out the sawing to hubby, but I'm the carpenter. He helps a lot though. This past month he has starting getting into the bee thing and helps bounce ideas around.

I wanted to check the two mating nucs today, but it started sprinkling and I didn't want to risk it. I hope to check tomorrow. Last look, one of the queen cells was open and the other closed. However, the open one wasn't typical looking. I did notice more bees flying in and out today, so I hope that is a good sign.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Man, carpenter, beekeepeer, boat trailer mechanic, you are one talented person! And with a good memory. Goals change and I am really liking this bee husbandry thing. But I don't think I can get more than 20 in my back yard so a line needs to be drawn. Thus the idea of raising nucs for sale. I get to play and better my skills and I get to help out other beeks. Win/win. I had to loan out one of my empty nucs to a mentee yesterday. Looks like his nuc swarmed three weeks after being hived but left a bunch of swarm cells. We put two in the nuc box I carry with me and made the split. Hope to see eggs in his and my new splits the week after Memorial Day. Also plan to get four more made by then if the bees hold out. #2 hive is weakening due to the old foragers dying off. Will still be another week before the new brood begins to emerge. I'd like to give grafting another go too, this time with a *queenless* hive as a starter/finisher.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Thanks. I like to dabble. I too am moving toward the idea of making extra to sell. I may be selling some queens soon. Honestly, I hope to get to trade for some wood ware. I was going to try my hand at grafting, but decided on the nicot after reading up more about it. Almost the same, but looks more forgiving. Hive 3, the one I caged the queen, has lots of larvae. She is off to a great start. I couldn't see anything but blackness in hive 4, but that time of day is light shade. I may take a light with me next time.

Side note, if you ever want to breed seahorses or breed mice to create tri-colors, I can help with that.  Current boat project is reupholstering. It is already looking much better. I really hope to be diving a lot this summer. I just hope the storms stay away! We already have one coming in and hurricane season doesn't start for two more weeks. It probably won't organize, but not the start of summer I hoped for.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Mating nuc queens did not take. Possibly because they were dropped. ugh However, both sections have capped queens cells in them. Just two, but they only need one.
Nicot doesn't look like it has any eggs, but it has only been a day.
Today is the first time I have seen scout bees at the swarm trap in my front yard. I hope they are from the feral hive in the area. At least I think it is a feral hive.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Officially killed my first queen today.  She was one of the new ones. We had luck finding and marking two other queens, so we went for it again. Squished her. I think it may have been the extra fabric on my glove. Right in the middle of a flow too. The only silver lining I can see is that I had just pulled 10 eggs from a nicot and put them into a nuc, so we rushed back in the house, set the eggs on a damp washcloth, nailed on some hangers, and installed seven eggs in the now queenless hive. I really hope I get lots of queens from the grafts.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Sorry to hear about your queen loss. I think id use a very thin exam glove to do that or vare handed.... eeick... exam gloves.work well if no tears in them.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I hate it when that happens!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yes, I'm going to try a different method next time. The timing stinks, not that there is ever a good time. At least she laid some first and I just pulled the nicot. It was also the first time my husband found a queen. Go figure.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

We checked on the nicot cells in the queenless colonies. One cell is being built out and about 14 look glistening. I'm hoping this means that I am seeing royal jelly and they are only a short time behind the other cell. We have been building 3 frame medium mating boxes and have tried tweaking the measurements. I think we have it where we want it. Nearly three nucs and feeders finished and painted and four more nucs built. Fingers crossed that I will need them!


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I built out6,, 3.frame.nucs.myself. I didn't get the feeders built. Do you have.a.picture, or.plan for.your feeders? I held off making.mine,.not.sure to use one or.put.nectar frames on????


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I'll try to remember to get pictures tomorrow. I'm using 5/8" aka 19/32" plywood. I figured 8 3 frame nucs or 4 nucs and 4 feeders from each board. I could go with a bit thinner board, but it was what I'm using for other builds and should help provide extra weight and width to keep them from tipping over. I'm hoping that the thickness also helps with insulation.
sides are 19 3/8" x 7.5" front and back are 4 3/4" and inset, bottom is 6" x 20 3/4" and the same board is used to make migrating lids. Scraps are the handles. It is based off the d-coats style nuc. Length may be 19 1/4", I'll have to check on what we settled with. I could do a few things different, but that would require multiple type of boards. I took my cut plans to Lowes and had them cut almost everything. The new compressor and nail gun are a huge time saver as well. The feeder boxes use the same plans. I thought about making them shorter, but this fits in a quart mason jar. I like the ease of replacing the jars and sticking them in the dishwasher to clean them. I've shied away from the more open style of feeders out of concern for what else may crawl in to eat. Lots of videos of people having issues with ants.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Thanks 😊


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

My boxes are standard size. 4 1/2" wide, 6 5/8 tall , and 19 7/8" long. All built for a med. frame size. So my tops are also the same. I was.going to use a ladder in mine, into a 4 1/2" square feeder, and 6" depth. I just thought yours would be similar. No jars on mine , just pop the lid, and pour into container, and pop lid back on. I'd still like to see pics though. In case I decide to change. Also, I did my boxes with frame rest on all 6. That way i can double or tripple stack if no nucs avaliable to move them too. Shoot me an email in pm . Im not sure how to post oics on here, and simpler for me. Mines [email protected] .I'll send pics of mine to you then. Thanks, rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I built them with attached bottom board, so the box height needed to take into account space for under the frames. I'm not worried about stacking three frames. Each will have a feeder and will be moved to a five frame as soon as needed, which will probably be rather quickly. I may build the next set to be five frame with a follower board to start them as three frame mating boxes. Then I only need to remove the board.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Well, the brood boxes are honey bound on both original hives. I put on another super some time ago, but it was't effective. Yesterday we switched the brood box up higher. It looks to have helped some. Today we pulled a few frames from the brood box, spun them out, and put them back into the center of the brood box. Hopefully that will be an additional jump start to getting back where they should be and discouraging swarming. I'm wondering what they were collecting from. Most of the honey was in the process of being capped, but only a bit was fully capped. It is a lighter honey than last year and has a bit of a citrus flavor. There are a few orange and lime trees in yards, but not many. No major citrus industry this far north. In fact I lost my lime tree to the freeze this year. Any other plants give a citrus taste?


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I seem to be having luck moving all honey or nectar frames up and brood to middle of box with open and foundation staggered towards outside of box, qith pollen and honey frames on out side. Then I'll pull up a brood frame or two into the new box with empty comb and new frames for them to work on in upper supers. For honey or brood . They will quit brood, and seem to think of swarming if they run out of room to brood. Also, the queen usually won't lay in boxes that are full of honey. So moving honey up and to outside of boxes seem to work for me so far. Just a thought.


----------



## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> Well, the brood boxes are honey bound on both original hives. I put on another super some time ago, but it was't effective. Yesterday we switched the brood box up higher. It looks to have helped some. Today we pulled a few frames from the brood box, spun them out, and put them back into the center of the brood box. Hopefully that will be an additional jump start to getting back where they should be and discouraging swarming. I'm wondering what they were collecting from. Most of the honey was in the process of being capped, but only a bit was fully capped. It is a lighter honey than last year and has a bit of a citrus flavor. There are a few orange and lime trees in yards, but not many. No major citrus industry this far north. In fact I lost my lime tree to the freeze this year. Any other plants give a citrus taste?


Our Spring/early summer honey has a slightly circus flavor also, light yellow, and I am in NY.


----------



## B52EW (Jun 3, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> Well, the brood boxes are honey bound on both original hives. I put on another super some time ago, but it was't effective. Yesterday we switched the brood box up higher. It looks to have helped some. Today we pulled a few frames from the brood box, spun them out, and put them back into the center of the brood box. Hopefully that will be an additional jump start to getting back where they should be and discouraging swarming. I'm wondering what they were collecting from. Most of the honey was in the process of being capped, but only a bit was fully capped. It is a lighter honey than last year and has a bit of a citrus flavor. There are a few orange and lime trees in yards, but not many. No major citrus industry this far north. In fact I lost my lime tree to the freeze this year. Any other plants give a citrus taste?


I pulled 50 gallons in April just to clear off the hives for the main flow. Early honey around here has an after taste that isn't that pleasant. While the main flow honey has a smooth caramel flavor. I set the early stuff aside and might feed back late fall and winter.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Interesting experiences with early honey. Thanks for sharing.

Rich, every spot they had with comb was filled with honey. I'm transitioning to all mediums, but those two still have deep frames in the brood box. I hope by switching the location they will build comb on the lower level for brood and lay eggs in the frames I opened up in the now higher brood box. I think the problem was compounded because I'm having to use so much undrawn foundation. The honey is coming in faster than they are drawing comb. If needed, I'll spin out some more frames to provide space. It makes walk away splits difficult if there aren't frames of brood. ugh!


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yup, I'd move.all honey.frames.up.or.out. extract if needed too. I put a frame.of honey on outsides, and starter strip, foundation , alternating like this should help. They will quit drawing when the flow ends, then feed, feed, and feed 1 to 1 . They may keep drawing for you a bit like this.... Good luck on this. Not sure how many hives tour switchin out. But id do one at a time till i got em all done. Even if it takes till next year to complete. Or use all deeps on bottom box, then mediums above. Ect. Ect. Ect. Also, if you extract your deeps with honey, you can cut the comb out, and put into meds. Rubber band them. You will get close to 1.5 frames of med. For each deep.. faster that way...


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

The deeps have plastic foundation. I have been using the natural comb they build under mediums in the deep box to put into foundationless mediums. I'm concerned about extracting honey on ones without foundation and having the comb come out, but want to have a brood box of natural comb. I have seen a difference in the size of the bees. At first I thought I was imagining it. Hopefully the mites will have more trouble with smaller cells. I guess I got a brood break, just not the way I intended.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I hear ya there on the brood break. Drawn combs are a pain when ya want to grow, and just don't have it. I bought some comb frames from a friend. 5.00 each. It helps, and most that do bees a while have freezers full of it. Mabye an option for you.....


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Squished the queen on the 17th. Today, I checked the hive and see larvae and capped cells. Not sure about the timeline, but happy to see something in there. Some larvae was on the comb they draw out on the queen frame I put in. Definitely post squish. Looks like I have 5 hives/nucs queenright and the two that were honey bound are doing better. I have two possible queen cells that have been capped on the original queen rack. Fingers crossed that they make it back and that I am back on track for expansion.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I managed to get into the nuc with the queen cells before the storm hit. Not sure if both cells are viable as they started building comb around one of them. Went ahead and moved a failed two frame into a three frame nuc with the hopefully good cell and removed the follwer board that was in their so the other half went from two to five frame with the remaining cell. I finally have a bit of spare time, so I will probably start of several splits this week. Gotta catch up with JWPalmer.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Jade, you'll get the chance, I ran out of deep frames. Starting to use old rewaxed plastic foundation and foundationless frames I am collecting from my very non-productive swarm traps. Going to Lowe's tomorrow to buy more lumber for hive stands and some boards for nuc components. Will also be placing an order for another 60 deep frames and foundation.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I doubt I will be able to catch up, but I'm going to make a run of it. I'm about to be off work for the summer, so sky is the limits. Six work days remaining. I'm so tempted to buy mated queens and split out everything, but I'm cheap so I haven't. Almost done reupholstering the exterior of the boat too. Another big project nearly checked off and time freed up, sorda. I can't wait to have more time to build boxes and work on the various other projects that need finished up around here. Nearly nothing gets done during the school year due to so much lesson planning to do at home. Summer is crunch time. By August I'm usually ready to go back to work just to get a break from home chores. Any who, I'm glad you are having such good results. I hope to step it up very soon. This rain will probably help keep the nectar flowing.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Speaking of projects, my son and I have decided to build a cedar strip canoe. We are going to make the strips ourselves vs. buying them for $750. Gives me an excuse to buy a better router and router table for bee hive production.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That is amazing! Please post or pm me pics of the project in progress. I've thought about doing something like that. I'd love to see how it is done. Maybe between the lack of comb and new project, I will have time to catch up. muhaha


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Went to pull a frame of brood and honey for a three frame nuc and found the queen. I already had a nicot in there that they had a week to clean out. She now resides in the nicot. I'll wait for larvae before moving the cells this time. Had to pull the frame for another hive, but I'm excited to be moving forward again. Fingers crossed that I will have queen cells int eh nuc and a nicot full this weekend. I just informed my son that now that school is ending, he can start his carpentry and painting experience this weekend. a.k.a. building nucs.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Lol, put him.out there building !!! He will have fun , I'm sure


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

He painted one of the 3n yesterday while we worked on the boat seat upholstery. I bought a paint pen to start labeling boxes to help with record keeping.
3N# = 3 frame nuc and whichever number it is
f- feeder box (mine are almost identical to the 3n's
5n# =five frame nuc

I hope this helps with record keeping and with assisting my home helpers to know which box I'm talking about.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Today's Inspection:
h1: drawing out comb, empty comb available, day old larvae present, hive calm
h2: young larvae, buzzing, not much laying room, filling comb with honey as fast as they make it
h3: eggs & queen seen, queen escaped nicot, no eggs in nicot, but on comb on that frame
h4: eggs, calm
5n1: queen right, laying, still drawing comb, maybe add feeder?
5n3: queen emerged, no sighting of her or eggs
3n1: queen sighted, no eggs yet, has feeder
3n2: very few bees


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Interesting happening yesterday afternoon. Eight or more scout bees were checking out my garage. they took the most interest in black storage boxes that were empty, but had their lids loosly put on top. Thing is that I had check all my hives hours earlier and no swarm cells or supercedure cells. I suspect there is a feral hive nearby, probably my absconded hive from last year.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Lost the biggest swarm I've ever seen. I catch 90% on an ash tree I planted in front of my hives. A rag with swarm commander on a head high branch and the swarms usually park there while the search for a place to live. I walk up, drop them in a nuc and I'm off. For some reason, this huge swarm was on the bottom 3 feet of the ash and spread out on the ground with so much tall grass I couldn't scoop them up. This was a swarm like you see in the magazines. It couldn't have fit in a nuc. It was gone before I could get home from work the next day and try again. At least we are at the end of the flow, my supers are all full anyway. But I sure do hate to lose swarms. First time I ever wished I had a bee vac. I've got 4 really big hives, must have lost at least half the bees out of one of them.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Ouch Robbin. That is a bummer. Have you tried checker-boarding in the spring to prevent swarms? Hopefully the rain we have had will prolong the flow. The bees are pulling in a lot of nectar at the moment.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> Ouch Robbin. That is a bummer. Have you tried checker-boarding in the spring to prevent swarms? Hopefully the rain we have had will prolong the flow. The bees are pulling in a lot of nectar at the moment.


I don't think there was much you could do to stop this one, it's 3 full brood chambers and 5 or 6 supers. All completely full. I could split them but I didn't have any wooden ware for a new hive and I hate to split during the flow. IMO big hives produce more of a surplus than two med hives. Glad it waited till the end of the flow. We're really slowing down, the only thing I've seen blooming is mimosa Trees. The bees do like them. But we were filling a box every ten days or so in late march thru april. The few boxes I had left that I put on two weeks ago only have a few frames drawn and filled. Hoping my breeder queen comes in a couple of weeks so I can start re-queening.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

We went in to see if the eggs had hatched in h3 so we can start some queens and the eggs are almost all gone. I think they read my mind and decided to thwart me on purpose.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Ah, the best laid plans plans of mice and men...

I think you should pitch the Nicot system and just learn to graft. I may try again tomorrow if the weather cooperates. One really stong nuc split as a starter, the other two splits normal. Then two weeks to get the bees out of the queen castles so they will be available. Still not up to twenty and I hope to make a few nucs to overwinter and sell in March. With mated queens I can split into August, so...maybe?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I've been thinking the same thing. I wish I had a grafting tool already. I'd be doing that today. Time to make another order.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Hey look on amazon. I saw the Chinese ones cheap. 10nfor like 10.00 shipped. I here they are pretty good for the price.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Order 10 this morning. Should be here in two days.  I'm also looking into buying a few queens from treatment free apiaries. It looks like the ones I have are monitoring and opening cells, so they may be resistant already, but I know the guy I got them from does use chemical treatments.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Tried my hand at fat bee man's paperclip grafting tool. I hope to get a few queens out of the ten larvae I tried to put in cups. I rather certain a few were not done good enough. Some just wouldn't stick to the bottom. While looking for larvae, we happen to locate hive 1's queen. Our favorite hive. Caught her and put her in a nicot. This time the nicot is closed with rubber bands. Got two options going at the moment. Additionally, I went ahead and ordered 3 queens from a nearly tf location. (tf for 10 years, but recently used oav in Dec.) I hope this will help improve the genetic pool I have to pull from. Happy to see that blue has several frames with brood again. They had a bit of a brood break when they went honey bound. Looks like all hives are back into production. However, the dearth will probably be soon.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

So, when I put the nicot in, I pulled a deep frame of honey to extract and cut down to a medium. It got set on the kitchen counter and I ran to the store. First thing i see when I return is finger marks in the comb. Most just a single finger, one a swipe. I assumed that it had been knocked over by my son and he accidentally grabbed it too hard. Nope! He saw a honey frame and wanted some honey. Hard to get too upset over the spots of crushed comb when the kid is so honest. He said it was yummy. No comb is safe in my house.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

The swarm I got last year had to be cut out of the trap. They had built quite a bit of comb in 7 days. Some was full of nectar. During the cut out, it was my wife that was stealing "tastes" of honey.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Lol. There is always someone around to taste it.

Bees in graft nuc absconded back home.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

How did you make the grafting nuc? Try putting about three frames of capped brood in the nuc along with their bees. Make sure there are no eggs or young larvae on the frames. Then wait a week before putting in the grafts. When I do my walk aways, I use two frames of capped and one with eggs. Nucs stay put and are strong when the queen they make emerges. Anxious to do the grafting thing again myself but work and weather are not cooperating.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Today, we put two frames of brood, one honey and pollen, and a few extra shakes of nurse bees in a 5 frame to be used as a finisher. Released the queen from the nicot, but left it for them to start the larvae stage before moving larvae to the five frame. I expect to set up the cups in the nuc Saturday. My three queens I ordered from a long term tf keeper should be ready for pick-up at the post office Saturday morning. I suspect they won't wait around to call me.  Plan to put them in a 3 frame to get some egg laying started before moving them to a 5 five. We saw three queens while checking hives today. I'm running into problems setting up the nucs due to still having deep frames that are being rotated out and cut down. Hive 2 also took it upon themselves to build comb on the bottom of all the mediums so they fit the deep box. LOL, Cool with me. I'm spinning the honey, cutting the extra comb off, installing it in empty frames and giving it back to the new boxes. Helps out as I rotate out the deeps. Now if they would just move the queen into the lower box and back fill with honey, I could finish up the rotation. Darn girl went and laid on several of the deeps, so I can't pull them.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



B52EW said:


> I pulled 50 gallons in April just to clear off the hives for the main flow. Early honey around here has an after taste that isn't that pleasant. While the main flow honey has a smooth caramel flavor. I set the early stuff aside and might feed back late fall and winter.


That's interesting, all my honey last year was early, and it had a hint of vanilla as an after taste, best honey I've ever had. I'm curious, was your's vanilla and you just don't like vanilla? Or was it something different....


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I liked last years better than what I have gotten so far this year.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Our tulip poplar flow got wacked by high winds and lots of rain. So not only are we going to get less per hive than last year, it will be a different floral makeup. Hope it is as good as last year's.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Checked on the three mated queens that were added yesterday and it looks like they are accepting them. Too soon for them to have released her, but looks promising. I took my first try at using a grafting tool. Ten larvae moved. The box we set up for them had started some of its own queen cells, so those had to be torn down. Fingers crossed that I have some success. Hopefully they were all young enough. Queen right count is now up to 9, including the three frame boxes queens are being introduced in. Now I need to build some more boxes this week. FBM says that stacked 5 frames will produce more honey than 8 frames. Has anyone had experience with that?


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I doubt that box configuration has anything to do with honey production. What is the rational? Happy to hear you are 9QR. Confirmed today that I am at 12. The mating nuc that was iffy does have a laying queen and I saw her. Moved both mating nucs to 5 frame equipment and added a feeder and pollen sub. Grafting tomorrow so I will have queens for the nucs I plan to overwinter and sell next Spring. Did it take long to get the hang of the grafting tool? I smushed about six before I got the first one to come out whole.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Good Morning !!!! , glad to hear all is well , and qr !!! Hope the grafting works for you. 
I hear that the smaller boxes do mature faster too. I'm thinking that the more bees in a smaller space may make them mature faster, mabye make a bit more honey, and mabye brood improves too. More bees in less space, more getting done faster? Keep an eye out for swarming, as im shure they will want to swarm sooner, as congestion happens. Add boxes sooner, and checkingnoften....Mabye? . I did a few nucs yesterday myself, and looks like i got queen cells ready to hatch next few days.... fingers crossed.... more in my post.glad yours are working out great. I'm needing more equipment built too. Looks like the dearth is coming fast here....


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> FBM says that stacked 5 frames will produce more honey than 8 frames. Has anyone had experience with that?


I keep a 16 stacked 5 frame nucs every year. I can tell you that they SWARM a lot faster than any other kind. The limiting factor on honey is you can't stack them very high, after the 3rd box they are very unstable. I overwinter in doubles. The real advantage to nucs is having strong double stacked nucs in the spring to replace a production hive that is failing or died over the winter. It's also the item you can sell. I do take honey from really strong nucs. But my strong, 10 frame production hives produce 20 to 50 frames of honey. Takes a lot of nucs to match the output from a strong hive.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

jw, He says the heat rises in a concentrated form, helping production, and that a 5 frame is closer to a natural tree trunk. I'm interested in possibly running both to see the results. But that is for another year. Congrats on 12 confirmed! I didn't squish many larvae, but I had trouble getting some onto the end. I'm just hopeful that I picked out young enough larvae. I went for the smallest. I guess I'll know if a few days. Hubby wishes that I didn't get rid of the queen cells that the nuc had started to build. I wish I had been able to switch it out to start another nuc, but it was one of the remaining deeps and I only have two nucs that they fit in.

Rich, I think that is the idea behind the nuc towers. Glad to hear you are having good results as well. Yes, I think the heat is knocking the nectar down here.

Robbin, Thank you for sharing your experience. I suspect that even if they do product more honey, keeping up with more than a few is prohibitive vs. the time for 8 or 10 frame boxes.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

*$&*^&$ first robbing of the year and they go after my new queen nucs. I had to restart two of them with a new frame of brood and one of honey and pollen. Queen have not been released and were still running around. Quick run to the store and a few building moments and all three now have robber screens. This may not have happened if I had remembered to put the reducer on the entrance. Time to build more screens for future boxes. All the small entrances were fine. The graft nuc still had two queen cells that I missed, but I think they are feeding the grafts. Fingers crossed that they are raising them as queens. Other than moving them, any suggestions?


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I put entrance reducers on every box, and robbing screens on also. Before I put bees in now. #8 screen, bent into a z , 1inch folds. 3 staples at top, then if I have to move a box, not any trouble, just fold it up, and take 3 staples out, and restaple to new bottom box., and unfold


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbing screens are great prevention, but when a full fledged attack is under way. A wet sheet all the way to the ground brings it to a halt. 

one thing about nucs. If you steal frames to start a nuc and you put a honey frame in it. The fliers will go home and tell the hive where they found honey at and bang, a hive comes after your nuc. 
If I'm strengthening a nuc, I will move just the brood. If I'm starting a nuc, I move the nuc to a different location, a 100 feet will do, let the fliers go home at dark, move the nuc to the location I want it and add the honey frame on the second day. I learned this lesson the hard way, bet I lost 10 nucs before I figured out what was triggering the attacks. You can probably skip the extra hive move and just add the honey after two days so the fliers have all gone home. But I did it with the move and it works so that's how I always do it.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I really hope the robber cages work. I have many more splits that I want to do!


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Jade, I start all my nucs with robber screens or entrance reducer from day one. Something I noticed too is that a robber screen forces a reorientation and some of the foragers return to the nuc. My first split attempts last year all got robbed out and killed. Learned that lesson the hard way too.









Working on building 20 deep nucs for the summer splits. Now if BM would get me my frames and foundation!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Is it a must to have brood to do a split? I haven't fully split down either of the original nucs. We have only stolen frames from time to time. Have you found that they build faster in a 5 over 5 instead of a 10 frame? Looks like we will all be spending time woodworking. I plan to do some dives tomorrow, but maybe after that I can pick up the plywood and have Lowe's do the main strip cuts.
I'm surprised your frames haven't arrived.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I'm doing all my splits with a frame of brood, frame of resources, and if no queen cell.... a frame with eggs. I leave the bees on the frames I pull, and try to add a shake or two from frames in strongest hive. So far so good...
As to making wooden wares... I'm doing something daily now. If I have something that I built , and not as expected, and needs modifying, and building new stuff along the way too. It's a real challenge to stay ahead of the game, especially being new, cause you have nothing but ideas, and the bees move faster than me it seems. I think ill get caught up before summer and fall. But winter will be build time for me for next season, and I'll have bunches of everything for next spring...


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I've never used more than a few at a time because I'm afraid that bees that learn how to navigate them can navigate them to raid another hive. So I only put them on hives I need to protect. But it may bee that the barrier slows them down enough for the defenders to be able to stop them. Just a thought.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I always move a frame of capped brood and a frame of eggs and open brood when doing a walk away split. It will just be capped brood on my mating nucs. Like Rich, I try to do something every night. Last night it was cut and assemble 5 telescoping tops and 1 screened bottom board. Sunday night was 10 inner covers.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> Is it a must to have brood to do a split? I haven't fully split down either of the original nucs. We have only stolen frames from time to time. Have you found that they build faster in a 5 over 5 instead of a 10 frame? Looks like we will all be spending time woodworking. I plan to do some dives tomorrow, but maybe after that I can pick up the plywood and have Lowe's do the main strip cuts.
> I'm surprised your frames haven't arrived.


I've always split with brood, bees don't live very long and their numbers dwindle FAST. Also brood will hold more of the bees in the new nuc. Especially the nurse bees. I've only had them abandon a frame of brood once.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I have a shortage of brood on the needed comb size, but I'm in the process of fixing it. I figured that I can't get away with broodless splits, but thought I'd see if anyone had tried it. I hope that the nucs are doing better today. Yes, building is a constant thing. Getting to it between storms has been the trick this past week. 
Rich, Sorry, but we are sending more rain your way. Florida summer showers are in full swing. I prefer the way they used to be. Same time each day, lasting 15-20 minutes, total downpour, but sun still shining.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Lol, ill take that rain I guess. My pastures need it more than I do..lol yes I remember those daily showers when I live in Jacksonville, fl. In early 80s .


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

The three queens were still not released today. At most, only half the fondant had been eaten. Way too much fondant. This was my fist shipment using the plastic cages and I know why all the others use the wooden ones. Any who, we released them and checked on the graft frame. The little stinkers decided to build one last queen cell and ignore those I offered. By now they should have no other larvae to pick from. So I hope. Try again. This time we brought the frame in for better light and to save my back. I found that removing the lower edge of the cell helps get a better angle for the grafting tool. FWIW, I'm using the chinese style ones. Eventually I will get this method figured out. My first attempt with the nicot landed me 2/10 queen cells, probably because I moved eggs. The showers here are making it hard to time things. I'm having to work in between showers. We did see a hawk land on the edge of our lot and then fly off. Probably checking to see if the chickens had chicks to snatch. Birds of prey are making a come back here, even with the development.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

To make the grafting tool work better, bend the blade in a tight curl towards the plastic slider. When it relaxes, it will look like the tip of a water ski. Perfect for sliding in and picking those suckers up, and makes it easier to deposit them in the cup too. The grafts I did Sunday are coming along. 13 of 24 and it has rained every day. Gave them a piece of pollen patty day one and they are tearing it up. Added a mason jar feeder today as they have already consumed most of the capped honey that was on the frames. I am really seeing how important feeding is. The nuc I made Saturday has one capped cell and five open ones. The capped one is too soon and will be removed, it is small anyhow. Going to put it in the incubator to see what happens. She'll get an alcohol bath regardless so her fate is sealed.
I'm suprised your bees chose to just make one cell of their own and ignore the larvae you provided. I would have expected some to be accepted, even if they were making another on a different frame.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Duplicate


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

They had made more, but I tore them down. At first it looks like they started to raise the larvae as some looked bigger, but then dried out. They were bit noisy today, so I have my fingers crossed that I finally have the right mix.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Update: Three installed queens are doing fine. I quickly located them. Bee numbers are low, so I'll keep an eye on that. Hopefully they will be laying before all the current brood emerges. Looks like I will get 2 out of 10 on the graft. A third was started, but abandoned. I'll happily take the two and give it another try. Thinking of putting up a feeding station instead of a bunch of individual jars. Sugar water goes cloudy very fast right now.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: squarepeg 2015-2018 treatment free experience*

Yes, Robbin has been very helpful. I'll put the feeder in the front yard. Unfortunately, I don't have the land you two have and must adjust for limited space. If I do well enough coming out of winter, I do have an offer to put some hives in a relatives yard. We are also looking into a few other options.

4 frame deep nucs overwintered is good information. As you mentioned, winters are milder here, but that gives me a number to work from.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: squarepeg 2015-2018 treatment free experience*



Jadeguppy said:


> Yes, Robbin has been very helpful. I'll put the feeder in the front yard. Unfortunately, I don't have the land you two have and must adjust for limited space. If I do well enough coming out of winter, I do have an offer to put some hives in a relatives yard. We are also looking into a few other options.
> 
> 4 frame deep nucs overwintered is good information. As you mentioned, winters are milder here, but that gives me a number to work from.


 Nope, not in the front yard in front of neighbors. You won't believe what it will look like when every bee you've got and then some are attacking the feeder... I think you will get complaints. 
I love to stand next to my feeder and watch them when there are 10K or more all over them at the same time. You can stand 2 feet away. You won't get stung unless you swat one that lands on you. 
It's an amazing sound, but not one your neighbors are going to appreciate. Unless they are bee keepers of course. Even where I live I don't let my long range neighbors know I keep bees.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: squarepeg 2015-2018 treatment free experience*

One neighbor use to work for a commercial beekeeper, one is thrilled I have bees, and the other is fine. However, drivers passing by may be an issue. I'll put it behind the fence.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: squarepeg 2015-2018 treatment free experience*

I got very secretive when a beekeeper in walton county had to move his hives because a neighbor said the bees were pooping on his classic car. I simply don't give them the chance....


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: squarepeg 2015-2018 treatment free experience*

I have about another two weeks before the dearth starts here. Bees aren't on the clover yet. I will be open feeding dry pollen but syrup is in hive only. Robbin is right about not putting the feeder in the front yard. Do an experiment with a small pan of syrup in the back yard away from the hives. Imagine that number of bees tripled, and that will be just your bees. Add in every bee within 3 miles and you get the idea. Sounds like a "hey, y'all hold ma beer an watch this" moment.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

Jadeguppy said:


> I'll put it behind the fence.


sounds like a good plan jg.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Mixed news today. We went to cage off the queen cells and oops, there is a red marked queen walking around and cells were being torn down. Turns out one of the purchased queens left her box and moved into this box. I lost the queen cells, but at least I kept her. One of the other purchased queens is also gone and the third is where I expected it to be. Supplies look to be getting low, but none of the open feeder bottle was taken.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

The trials and tribulations of being a beekeeper. Came home today with the intent of moving my grafts to a queenright finisher and some big thunder boomers moved in before I could get started. May have to wait until tomorrow. I picked up a sheet of Advantech yesterday. My Lowe's has gone up in price and is now $32 per sheet.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> ...but none of the open feeder bottle was taken.


hmm. if there's no interest in the open feeder you may still have decent nectar flowing.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



squarepeg said:


> hmm. if there's no interest in the open feeder you may still have decent nectar flowing.


Yes, It must be just enough. I'm surprised as the storage has slowed. Robbin says dearth is going on about an hour from here, but I'm in a very unique region. Kinda like how yours varies due to the mountain terrain. At least I'm seeing some brood now. The honey bound issue really messed things up.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That's really interesting, I've never seen that before. I was convinced part of my problem with virgins not returning from mating flights was they were returning to the wrong hive and getting killed. I alternated the direction the hives faced to reduce the chance but it didn't help. Very interesting....


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I find that it's hard for bees to find an open feeder at first. Sugar water has very little scent. I put flowers next to mine if I've got any, failing that I'll squirt honey on it. 
That always does the trick. Once the first finds it, it will take off. I put dry sugar out to see what would happen, covered in bees while there was due on it. They are still bringing in a little nectar, but they can't finish a frame they've been working for weeks.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Tom Seely likes anise to scent his syrup. I have put McCormick anise extract in the syrup and the bees really go for it. Same for when I make sugar bricks for winter.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, from what I have read, 30% failure rate on queen mating flight returns is about average. I wish I had gotten my swarm box back up and caught that other queen. Money down the drain.

The first feeder was right near the hives. They must be bringing in just enough to stay happy. I'm not seeing the bearding I did last year, so it may not be full dearth yet. Temps are hitting the mid 90's and continue to rise. Lots of flowers going to seed. I gotta keep a close eye on them or all the splits will starve. The two now empty hives are filled with maggots. Yuck! Gotta freeze some frame. They too no time to move in and take over as soon as the bees were gone.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

What a day! We were called out for a cut out in an old abandoned house. We were told small to medium. There are actually two huge hives with a third in the house next door. We decided to work on what looked like the smaller one. LOL It had filled between the studs from floor to ceiling. Lots of bees in the vac box! Plus large plastic tub full of comb, mostly honey. Large capped brood sections. Looks like a great queen. They had hive beetles, but were doing well anyway. No telling how many years they have been there. We will be going back for the other two hives and look around to see if there are any more.

On the other hand, when we were putting the box in with bee section, we found one of the 5 frame nucs was dumped next to the fence with one comb on the other side of the fence. No bit or scratch marks on the box and all other boxes were just as we left them. Any ideas on what would do that and not leave marks?

Excitement over possibly have a great feral queen and more to come has kept the loss from upsetting me, but I'd like to figure out what did it.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Too cool. We were just trying to process some of the honey and there are bees emerging from the brood comb. I hope to get it in there tomorrow.

The comb is hard. So hard that I'm having difficulty squishing it to remove the honey. How long does it take for comb to get that hard?


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I'd rubber band em.into frames asap, and into boxes. Need a home for.em.by.a.m..I'd say...lol


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I couldn't get to the comb until mid-morning. I cut and bound five medium frames worth, mostly brood with some pollen and put them into the box. They were very loud. Now that they have brood to tend, I opened the door. Late this afternoon, hubby finished the job with four more frames installed. He didn't notice that they were loud and said they weren't aggressive. A large group was beading this afternoon. Still can't decide if I think we have the queen. Tomorrow we may add a frame of brood from another hive to see if they start making queens. Anyone know how long a queen may take to start laying again after being moved?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Here is the start of the cut out. The floor joists are at least three feet off the ground. The comb stretched from the floor to the roof, stud to stud. Less than half of the hive is exposed in the picture.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Checked on home hives. 7 are queen right. The cut out looks to be building queen cells. One is nearly full length, five are small cups. I would love it if they requeen with her dna. So glad so much of the brood is still viable. We transplanted nine medium frames worth of brood and have a mason jar of their honey as the feeder.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

My VSH Breeder queen arrived today. Less than 24hours but all the attendants were dead. She seems ok, Got her into a nuc with a push in cage so she can eat. I had 5 more VSH production queens that were suppose to come. Earlier this year same guy sent via USPS and my queens where here in less than 24 hours. This time for some unknown reason they sent them Via Orlando, so after 24 hours they were further away than they were to start with. Then they didn't arrive today, tomorrow will be 3 days.
I don't hold out much hope they will be alive when they arrive. very frustrated.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I hope they beat the odds. Crazy how they routed the package.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

My Five VSH production queens came in today. They were all alive and are in nucs are hives tonight.  The breeder queen was the only bee that made it in that shipment, but I checked on her today and she looked good. She's the one I payed for so I'm really glad she made it. I call her the red queen, because they glued a red dot on her with the number 57. You can do anything while they are knocked out. Sure am glad she made it.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That is great news Robbin.

We cut out the second hive yesterday. It took over 9 hours of up and down on a ladder, tugging on a vacuum hose. We had to use the light on my husbands cell phone to see the last portion. Nearly every bee was sucked up and almost all the comb made it back with us. It took both of us to life the honey tote. Today's job is to move the brood to frames and put it back in the hive. If time allows, process honey. This hive was younger and mostly white comb. Processing should be easier. Pictures to come soon.

One more cut out to go.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Official count of medium brood comb frames from cut out #2 is 14.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

You are much tougher than I am. I wouldn't do this in the fall, you're doing it in the middle of summer. Glad you are saving the bees, but I'm sure not tough enough to do it!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I hope I get some good genetics from them. TF is my hope. I know why people are willing to pay so much for ventilated suits. We had to take a lot of breaks to keep from getting heat stroke. The first one was easier because we could stand on the joists and a light rain came through and cooled things down. No such luck this time. Harder cut out and worse heat conditions, plus climbing up and down. No way we could have done more than one at a time. This heat is deadly.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Too bad nobody makes a bee suit with built in air conditioning. I darn near got heat stroke myself last week. Got all light headed and dizzy after about two hours in the sun with a non-ventilated suit and full veil. Left a "sweat angle" on the concrete floor I laid down on to cool off.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

JW: I'm having second thoughts on going back tomorrow. I haven't recuperated yet. Still exhausted. The heat is dangerous.

We pulled the boxes apart to put the frames of brood in and bees poured out piled on top of each other. There are a lot more in this batch than the first one. Hopefully the brood will calm them down. Now to cross our fingers that we got the queen.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

So...how many nucs are you going to make with all these bees and brood? Sounds like these hives were massive.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I was just discussing this with hubby. I don't think I can talk him into splitting the first two, but the next one may be do able. I could easily split this last one into four five frame nucs that were busting at the seams with bees. Very temping. I'm between throwing caution to the wind and split, split, split, vs. keeping some strong ones to build through fall flow and hopefully increase odds of wintering success. What would you do with them?


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

If you get the 3rd hive and split it with four frames of brood and a full frame of stores, I can't see why they wouldn't have you some laying queens by mid-August in a nuc that is still strong. That gives you almost three months to get them up to weight for your short winter. I will be starting my final round of splits next weekend with three fly back splits of my production hives. After that it will be consolidating resouces and splits that did not make it, along with a lot of heavy feeding.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I found some wax moth larva in an oil tray of a large hive. Decided to pull the supers and check the brood boxes. Didn't find anything wrong, pulled 10 supers of capped honey from my 3 largest hives. Inspected the brood chambers. Still tons of brood, obviously queen right, and very strong hives. Not ready to extract yet so I put the 90 frames in two freezers. One more really strong hive to go, and probably 10 more supers off the rest.

Hadn't tried this before, open feeder among my nucs, I had some left over dry sugar and I poured it onto the feeder tray to see what would happen. We still have a very little bit of nectar coming in but not much. Anyway this is what happened


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Thanks for sharing Robbin. I'm putting some of the honey in the stiff black comb out for them to reuse. That looks like another great idea.

Palmer, I like how you are thinking. Now to talk my other half into it. I plan to check the 1st cut out today if the rain holds off. I think they have multiple queen cells that would be great to split out.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, I didn't think bees would take dry sugar in the summer. Wow! I'm going to set some out when I get gome from work to see if it will cut down on the robbing frenzies. I doubt much will make it into the honey supers before I pull them in two days. 

Jade, I think it is time for us both to make some more nuc boxes.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



JWPalmer said:


> Jade, I think it is time for us both to make some more nuc boxes.


I was going to do that shortly, but the rain has set in. Hopefully I will have building weather soon. Hubby is nervous to split hives. He thinks we will be better off keeping these production size and strong instead of splitting them. I think making strong 5 frames now and allowing them to build will better our odds.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I'm with you Jadeguppy, More small hives are better. It's too late for a large production hive to do anything. The numbers are going to start winding down naturally as the hive gets ready
to go into winter with many fewer mouths too feed. The only question is queens. I have problems losing virgins on mating flights. I hope you don't. It's not been as bad this year but still not good. Until you get some hives built up, you're better off with more smaller hives than a couple of big ones. More hives gives you more shots a survival and more resources to build from. 
I'm got enough hives and nucs now I'm self sustaining except when I want to bring new blood lines in like I did this year. Now my only costs are when I want to expand and need more wooden ware. Funny, Never thought I was going to want more, now i'm thinking about it again. Glutting for punishment....


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

It is like an addiction. Just one more, it won't hurt anything...


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

If beehives were potato chips, I would have already eaten the whole bag (Family Sized). Fourteen queenright colonies, 10 more in the makings. Expect to go 9 from three when I do the fly back splits for an additional six. Somebody stop me. (Faux cry for help). Go ahead Jade, make a split or two more. They are fun and deeply satisfying. Besides, you may be able to sell a few next year.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Selling nucs is a good angle to take. Hmm, he has to go to work while I have time off...

We have almost finished squishing the honey out of cut out 2 and have over 35 pounds. Happy me. We were not expecting to get any honey do to it being a building year. Once the strainer drains I'll get the last bit into the bucket. Good thing I'm not making wine right now because I stole the 5 gallon bucket for honey.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I released my breeder queen from the push in cage on monday with SHB sliming inside the cage. I thought she was being cared for not attacked so I left when I saw her crawl down into
the hive. 

Great news, I checked on her highness this morning and she is fat and sassy. :banana:


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, That is great news.

I checked cut out 1 and the frame with queens had five sealed cells. I cut out one to put in a cage, squished one on accident (nothing squished out?), and left the other three for them to requeen with.


----------



## Rocky Mt High (Mar 22, 2014)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

hahahaha, you folks make me feel normal! more bees, more bees, more bees! I love it.:gh:

Good luck with the last of your splits.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Rocky Mt High, Have you joined us on the Dark Side? Several of us on this thread either lost everything or are just starting. I lost my last hive this winter. Very bad winter in my area for most keepers. So, this year I set a goal to have at least 10 going into winter. I started March with two purchased nucs. To give you an idea of when that lands in our season, the guy was only using swarm cells to build the nucs. Palmer had a similar goal and is currently ahead of me in queen right colonies. However, I'm thinking of going splitting crazy very soon.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Bwahahahaha, you'll never catch me little one, never! The sickness has taken over and there is no antidote. Must. Satisfy. Urge. Ahggrrr. 

So I was checking on the mating nucs and things dont look all that good. The robbing that took place last week opened a lot of brood and took their stores. I think the bees that didn't die are cannibalizing brood also, but if I feed them, it will start the robbing all over. All the qcs did emerge so I am going to wait it out and combine what needs it. I did see one of the mating nuc queens and eggs already but that is 1 for 10 so far. The queen I direct released into the remains of my starter hive is also laying and then there is my swarm that got recaptured. Doing the fly back splits this weekend and will divide the parent hives the following weekend with qc's produced. You have a longer season than I do so you might catch me after all. Those feral hives will certainly help!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That stinks. They robbed even with robber cages? The first cut out is covering a medium. They don't have many bees up in the next box. Going to do some manipulations and add sugar water/ honey and pollen patties to several later this week. Up until recently, none of the ones I put on hives were getting used. However, cut out 1 sucked in half a quart jar of their honey this past week.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

The queen castles and my two-frame mating nucs do not have robber screens, just reduced entrances. Finishing up frames for the eight nucs I have sitting in the kitchen. Those do have screens and are what I will be using for the last splits and the mating nucs with returned queens. Picked up another sheet of Advantech this afternoon so another six nuc bodies and two mediums by this weekend. Time to start making 10-frame hives again too. A couple of the nucs are bursting out. Put a medium super on one last week to give them more room.

I put 1/2 gallon of syrup in one of my hive top feeders on a single deep 10 and it was gone the next day. No robbing. Five more of the Betterbee Beemax feeders should be here tomorrow. Set out the Ultra Bee pollen sub again today. Still no activity but I left it out for them.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I have wondered if those types of feeders are worth the money and if they contribute to robbing with so much surface to send out scent. I'm going to stick with mason jars for now. I can add multiples if needed and I think they hold in the scent better. I'm not getting expansions within the hives, so hopefully the feed will help. This past week is the first time I've had a hive show real interest in it. Not much bearding, so there must still be enough out there to keep them in the hive.


----------



## Rocky Mt High (Mar 22, 2014)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Jadeguppy: I haven't had total loss...but it's been close! I'd like to think that I've learned a lot from my mistakes over the past five years and time will tell if that's true. But I definitely have the "more, more, more" attitude!! It's a beekeeping thing, eh? That being said, this year I've taken a big step back and focused on education. I've been obsessively reading, watching presentations on youtube, scouring the internet, etc. I feel that I'm in a much better place than I was last year at this time and I have a really clear idea of the direction I want to go with my beekeeping. It feels good.

Good luck with your hives, it sounds like you've had a great year so far. I just can't imagine beekeeping in the hot, humid, south. My challenges of keeping bees in the mountains at 8000' are very different than yours! I appreciate that we can still relate about so many things bee-related and still help each other.
RMH


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yes, very different environments. Co is one of the places I actually have on my "wouldn't mind living there" list. To be fair, I went into winter with one hive. One of the late hurricanes took out my last nuc in late fall. I spent the winter reading and studying. I'm much more hopeful that this winter will go better.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Holy Cow Batman! I did not get the queen with the second cut out. The home owner said she saw them 'swarming' above where we stopped, so there may be more of the colony above the stud. We'll check Sunday. When checking the colony for signs of a queen, I found lots of swarm cups in the second box and seven frames with capped queen cells in the bottom box. Yippee. One over-packed double medium is now seven hives.
3-frame, 2 q cells, 2 frames supplies, 1 foundation
3-frame, 1 q cell (I saw), 2 frames supplies, 1 foundation
3-frame, 4 q cells, 2 frames supplies, 1 foundation
3-frame, 5 q cells, 2 frames supplies, 1 foundation
5-frame, 3 q cells, 2 frames supplies, 3 foundation, extra bees
5-frame, 9 q cells, 3 frames supplies, 2 foundation
5-frame, 3 q cells, 2 frames supplies, 3 foundation, extra bees

Most foundation frames were from the hive and covered in bees. I would have tried to split the frame with nine cells, but I'm out of hive boxes. LOL I may have time before they hatch. The queen cells were often hard to see because the bees are so densely packed on the frames. When hubby is away, wifey will split, split, split. muhaha


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

You're doing me proud, girl!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

LOl, Thank you. I try. Gotta use my longer season to get ahead of you. 

Any guesses as to how many will make it back to start laying? I have my fingers crossed for 5 of the 7, but I'm not putting money on it.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Just curious j.... did ya get rid of your bear, or ****? Did the fence work out ok for ya? 
Rich


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

If all your nucs have robber screens, my money is on six or seven out of seven. Now whether they are all going to be good layers, only time will tell. Doing my own splits this weekend.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Wow, you racking up on the splits from that cut out !!! Congrats... I'll post this weekend , after I check mine out. I may try for 1 or 2 more myself. Fingers crossed ... for success 😁


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Good luck on the splits jw.... I want more also. I need to make more equipment up though... what a bummer...lol


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Still need to get the fence up. I know, I'm pushing my luck. Almost done with the main part of the upholstery on the boat and I will have a few moments to drive there. Hopefully Sunday will be the last day for cut outs.

Some of them have robber cages, some not yet. I had to scrounge to get enough boxes. Some of the lids and bottoms are make-shift. Bees don't know better and it bought me time. Tomorrow will be a mix of building for the bees and reupholstering, cutting and sewing, the captain's chair. That thing has more intricate, geometrically unique pieces than it looks to.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Sawing, glueing, and nailing. So, a sheet of Advantech will make 11-1/2 five frame medium boxes with almost zero waste. I dont run mediums but use them as feeder covers. I go ahead and cut the rabbet for the frame rest cause one never knows.

Jade, do you have a walking foot sewing machine for the upholstery? Makes it a lot easier to keep the stitching even.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Do you mind sending me your cut plans that get 11 1/2 out of the advantech. I have one more sheet and need to make 5 framers. So far, I'm liking the switch to all medium equipment.

No, I don't have a walking foot, but just looked it up. I now wish I had one. Yesterday was a pain to keep it feeding. Two layers of 1/2 inch sew foam and two of vinyl. The biggest problem was how big the piece was and that the weight kept pulling it in odd ways. Almost done with the exterior though. We hope finish the captains chair tomorrow.

About to leave to get that last cut out. Wish us luck!


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

To get eleven and a half boxes, cut the sheet across the short side at 19-3/16" and rip three pieces. Then set the fence to just barely remove the tongue from all four pieces. Set the fence for 6-5/8" and rip the box sides (21) from the three 19-3/16" pieces. If you used a fine kerf blade, the final cut will remove just the groove and leave a smooth flat surface. Rip the large piece into strips also so the ends will be exactly the same as the sides. Set fence for 9-1/4" and cut 4 ends from each strip until you have 22 ends. Cut the other half of the strip to 19-3/16" to make the last side for the eleventh box. This leaves a strip 6-5/8" wide by 38-1/8" long that can make a side and two ends or four ends. When cutting the end pieces, I use the miter guage to make sure they stay square. If they are not, the box will rock and leave gaps. Learned that lesson the hard way a while ago.

Can't wait to get the gory details on cutout #3.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Thanks for the cut info.

I wish I had more to tell you about cut out 3. Turns out that it was very small and had virtually no capped honey. The comb is very brittle and the bottom half of the hive wasn't being used. I suspect that this was an empty hive that a swarm moved into a few months ago. Our first task was to vac up the small number of bees clustered at the top of cut out 2. I suspect the queen was there and trying to rebuild. We did bring two boxes, but when we switched boxes to do #3, we quickly realized that #4 hardware cloth had accidentally been installed instead of #8. The bees started to escape. The only solution was to use the same box we had the other small group of bees in. It looks like they attacked each other. When we got home, there were bees around the box, but it looked like a small cluster on one wall. Hopefully that means a queen. I don't think this has enough bees to do much splitting. Officially the smallest of the three. It was raining on and off and everything was soaked, so we had a lot of trouble getting the smoker to smoke and stay smoking. This group was not happy. Thankfully hubby had two sets of gloves on. The gloves were quickly covered by many, many stings. Nothing penetrated though. I was the unlucky one to get stung through my suit on the arm. Ended up with a palm sized+ swelling despite benedryl. Thankfully I had one more pred left so, that should keep the swelling from spreading. The edges itch, but not facial reaction like the last sting. I'm happy about that since anaphalaxis would be a game ender. I'll process the brood tomorrow morning and let you know. Two big clusters of capped brood plus some other larvae.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Finished splitting the hive yesterday, it was actually hive #3 not #2. So easy to get confused these days. Forgot that frames with brood were all mediums so only made two additional splits. One frame of eggs and young larvae, two frames of capped brood, and a sharke of nurse bees off a frame of open brood × 2. That ought to reduce the numbers in this hive substantially. Total of five splits this weekend. Two have capped queen cells, the other three are walkaway splits. Next sunday I will have a better idea of how they are doing. I only have three empty nucs left. Do I stop splitting or make more boxes?

Sorry to hear that you took one on the arm. At least you were prepared. Better living through pharmaceuticals!

Gave my wet super frames to the bees. They had them clean and dry by 2:00. Used six of them to replace the frames I stole to make the splits.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

They said yummy.

I started to take a look at the vac box. It looks like a small cluster with others roaming. I think we may have gotten the queen. However, with no smoke and rain starting, too many bees were interested in me for me to do much more. I'm about to cut the brood into frames and will check again once the rain stops. Not sure if I should put them in a full 10 frame or if two 5 frames would be better. 

Side note, I noticed that the bees in these cut outs tend to build seven strips of comb. This has me thinking that an 8 frame may be better than 10 frames for boxes.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Ended up with 6 medium frames of brood from the third cut out. While looking into the hives, I noticed some of the splits are running low on honey stores. We placed jar feeders in all of the ones we could. The original two don't need it as both have a super of honey. I'm giving open feeding of pollen powder a try. Down to six queen right hives.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Update: cut out three did not make any queen cells and there is no evidence of a laying queen. No evidence of laying queen in cut out 1. So, both received a frame of very young brood with possible eggs. The seven splits from cut out 2 do not have signs of a laying queen. However, I found the capped queen cells on the 6th, ten days ago. They may very well be in there and not mated yet or just not laying yet. Lots of brood in my strongest three hives. Current count: 5 or 6 queen right, 9 without a laying queen. Smallest queen right is a 3 frame box.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Pulled my honey supers today, 20 full mediums leaving plenty for the bees. Will start extracting next weekend. Going to wear my small extractor out. 
Also found a slimed nuc. Went queenless long enough I didn't notice and got slimed. I broke it down and burned the foundation. Then saw about a two softball sized pods of bees in the old location. So I cleaned it up, put the nuc back with a comb frame and a comb that had some open honey so they have a place to live. May try to add a frame of brood and nurse bees. They still have some time to build if we get any fall flow. I can't stand to see homeless bees. At least this way they have a place to live. 

Usually full on dearth hear this time of year but they are bringing in a little pollen and nectar, Thou I don't know what they are using. I haven't see anything on my 80 acres.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, nice honey haul. I say go for another split.

We were away for a few days, so I was excited to check on the nucs this morning. Two three frames had water in the bottom and cut out three must have been flooded. co3 absconded and most of the frames have been infested with wax moths. Only one frame of bees left, which we added to co1. Interestingly, co1 did not build queen cells on the brood frame they were given. I'm wondering if there is a queen in there that hasn't started laying. One of the 3f was torn down as a shake out. Good news, we saw the queen in the yellow 5f. No eggs, but positive for a queen. I'm hopeful that this means other queens have returned and just not started laying. This puts us at 7 queen right hives.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yesterday's inspection went well. Two more queens were found. One is laying and one has not started. I'm hopeful that this means I have more nucs with mated queens that haven't started laying. The two news ones are in 3 frame nucs. One has a small number of bees. I've provided both a frame of capped brood and stores in place of an undrawn frame. Hive 1 has moved into a super to lay eggs. Several very full frames of capped brood. They barely have any honey on them. They will be very strong for the fall flow. They were using some of the pollen patties, but I had to pull them due to shb larvae. The addition of oil worked great to keep them from going hard and lesson learned on putting in much smaller pieces.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

We had do tear down some of the splits that didn't make it. Of course wax moths had already multiplied in the comb, so it was melted down instead of going into another hive. Good news is that one more queen did make it back, although she is not laying yet. I hope she gets to it. Not sure if we will make it to our goal of going into winter with 10. We may try a late season split or two in the next week or so.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

As we were finishing up replenishing the syrup jar in one of the nucs, a cloud of bees were around. at first I thought it was because the lid had just been shaken off, but nope. The cloud of bees seemed t be interested in a high section of an oak. Yep, soon there was a cluster of bees 20+ feet up. None of my hives appear to be short on bees. I'm hoping it is from another local hive/ feral hive and decides to stay in one of our empty boxes. I have a nuc on a low oak branch and added a swarm box next to the other beehives. We have a lot of icky frames on the porch that we have been cutting out and processing for wax. I'm guessing that and the smell of sugar water attracted them.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Even with hard rain this morning, the swarm is still in the tree and sending out scouts.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

The swarm is still in the tree. Day 4. Any suggestions on how to attract them to a box? I put a q tip with lemongrass inside and rubbed brood comb on the inside of the cover. It is sitting near an active hive.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

it may be too late jg. after 4 days there is a good chance they have started drawing comb on the limb. it may have been better to locate the trap as far away as possible from any active hives.

do you happen to have a friend who owns a bucket truck?


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Jade, got a ladder? How about a pool brush pole and a bucket. Rope and a sheet to lay down and then give the branch a good shake. Lots of ways to get bees out of a tree if they are just 20' up. Last but not least, and my personal favorite, chainsaw!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

sp, I wish I knew someone with a bucket truck. Too suburban around here. We have a second box in a tree back there, but I wish I had another one in the front yard like you suggest. If they have put some wax on the branch, what will they do?

palmer, I think hubby is correct that they are actually 30-40' up. We can't get up there. They are under the elbow of a branch. The branch is too strong to get a good shake.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I think your best bet is to take the swarm trap with drawn comb and place it on the tree as high as you can. Then apply a liberal amount of LGO to the outside of the box. (A saturated q-tip wiped on each side.)The q-tip you already put in is enough for inside the box. If that doesn't entice them in, I'm not sure what else would.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> If they have put some wax on the branch, what will they do?


i've had that happen once before. they stayed put and got chilled to death when the first cold rain of winter came.

perhaps you could sweet talk the fire department into bringing their ladder truck and help 'save the bees'.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Palmer, I'll give that a try.

sp, I probably could get them to help, but there are too many trees to get a truck close enough. The local bee group meets at the fire station. If they do try to stay there, at least it gives me time to try to find a way to get to them. I wonder if anyone I know has equipment to strap hubby into and keep him safe in case he falls climbing up there. Shhh, don't tel him I'm thinking of that.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I've had very little luck getting bees to go into a box. I think the problem is they are probably my swarms and they don't want to move into a box that close to home. I think I read somewhere that they tend to move at least a half a mile. I've also had a swarm that stayed like Square peg and had belt 12" of comb. The good news was they where still there when I got my 14 foot Telescoping pole and a swarm catcher on the other end, and they weren't 40'.
I actually have a fire truck, but it doesn't have a ladder. It will shoot water 150', great for extra protection when I'm doing controlled burns. 
Good luck Jade


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin- Wanna climb a Live Oak tree? The branch goes nearly straight up. I'm still one hive short of my goal. This would get me there. Live Oaks are strong trees.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

If Robbin says yes, let me know. I'll be there with the video recorder. Some things ya just gotta see.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

LOL, no answer from Robbin yet. I guess he didn't like the idea.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Too bad. The video titled " Dude falls from ladder while trying to catch bees" will just have to wait. In the meantime, did you slather the outside of the trap with LGO? Curious to see if it works for you. All I got the last time was ants, lots of them.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I hope to tomorrow. Yesterday the boat engine went dead about 10 miles off the coast. We had to get towed in. Today was the first day of school for the kids. Two very full days. Tomorrow is slated for bee feeding and maybe a split.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Nope, Robbin's tree climbing days are behind him....:no:


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> I hope to tomorrow. Yesterday the boat engine went dead about 10 miles off the coast. We had to get towed in. Today was the first day of school for the kids. Two very full days. Tomorrow is slated for bee feeding and maybe a split.


That's why they make boats with two engines.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Finished bottling last night. 120 Quart jars and 100 Pint jars. Couldn't put a label on straight to save my life....


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Robbin said:


> Finished bottling last night. 120 Quart jars and 100 Pint jars. Couldn't put a label on straight to save my life....


I've gotta get on the bottling. I have 3.5 gallons in a bucket that need bottled. I don't have labels yet. Lots of stuff required to be on them under the cottage industry laws. Where did you get your labels?

Yea, my tree climbing days were over some time ago. I'm thinking of trying to borrow a bow and arrow and shoot a rope over the branch to hoist a swarm box up next to them.

Inboard chevy motor. I wish it had twin inboards. This may be the end of the season for me.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I got mine from a place on line called Zazzle, but I forgot to put in the cottage industry food disclaimer so I'm going to have to get a second label. I went for a pretty label with a BEE on it but there isn't enough room for all the info and the disclaimer so I forgot about it. I've had gas inboards, never liked them for fear of a fire or explosion. Lost a 32 foot Trojan with twin 350s in Opal. 
The 350s weren't 30 days old, 
Went with twin outboards after that. My 30' century center console with twin 250 Yamahas has been sitting in my main field for 6 years... Go figure....


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Well, my boat season is over until we can replace the block. How about you bring that 30' down here and put it to use.

Red nuc has a ton of shb in it. They were the same way last week. The beetles are corralled and we are playing the squish game, but I wonder why they have so many more than the other hives. They are strong and keeping the shb in a pile. For some reason, the queenless hive still didn't make queen cells. I can't figure them out. No laying worker in their either. We went ahead and split out another nuc in hopes of getting another hive prior to the fall flow. I've noticed some yellow short growing flowers on the side of the highway, so they may be getting something from them.

Swarm is still in the tree.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> Red nuc has a ton of shb in it. They were the same way last week. The beetles are corralled and we are playing the squish game,.


Hi Jadeguppy,
A warning about the SHB in a nuc. They call it a jail break, when you inspect and the bees are distracted and the SHB make a run for it. It only takes one laying eggs to slime the nuc and nucs are more susceptible to it then a big strong hive is. I lose a couple a year like this and my son and I go bonkers trying to kill as many as possible When it happens. When in doubt, swap the honey frames out for foundation and freeze it and put it back it the hive. Most of my nucs are doubles and I'll pull one and leave only one frame of stores in the nuc until I can get the SHB under control. I have a spare oil tray for a nuc if you want to borrow it. 

Sorry about your boat. :-( I know the feeling...
Good luck


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Robbin said:


> Hi Jadeguppy,
> A warning about the SHB in a nuc. They call it a jail break, when you inspect and the bees are distracted and the SHB make a run for it. It only takes one laying eggs to slime the nuc and nucs are more susceptible to it then a big strong hive is. I lose a couple a year like this and my son and I go bonkers trying to kill as many as possible When it happens. When in doubt, swap the honey frames out for foundation and freeze it and put it back it the hive. Most of my nucs are doubles and I'll pull one and leave only one frame of stores in the nuc until I can get the SHB under control. I have a spare oil tray for a nuc if you want to borrow it.
> 
> Sorry about your boat. :-( I know the feeling...
> Good luck


Hopefully we got them all. I'll let you know if I need to take you up on the offer. The shb were corralled on the jar feeder lid and came with the jar when we picked it up. Those that didn't scattered in the empty feeder box and were easy to squish. The nuc is packed with bees. I'm wondering why the shb are attracted so much to this particular nuc. We will be keeping a close eye on the box.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Swarm is gone. No sign of where they went.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Inspections were a bit different today. The hive we tried to get started is empty. The hive next to it is still without a queen. Moving on to the next row on nucs. Added a box to the first one. Red one still has space and didn't have as many hive beetles as past to inspections. Third, empty. No idea why. They were strong a week ago. Slimed out now. Four didn't have any young larvae until the last frame. In fact, they had built two queen cells. However, we found young larvae and the queen on the last frame. Five is a three frame. It looks like they lost their queen, but have at least 7 queen cells. One has hatched. While having this one open, a cloud of bees formed around us. They went up to a tree limb, but then started coming back down. We left an empty box next to the hive since they were climbing all over it. Not sure why we are getting so much queen movement and issues this late in the year. Pollen is starting to come in and I think there is a slow flow started. These guys are going to drive me nuts.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Looks like I may get lucky and the swarm may take up residence in one of my swarm boxes. Glad I was there to put a few drops of lemongrass near the entrance. Pulled six frames of capped honey from hive 1 to keep them from going honey bound as the fall flow is slowly starting. 18+ pounds of honey that I didn't expect. Tiny amount for most people, but I'm in a building year that started with 0 hives.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

My hive inspections looked good, only one without an obvious queen. However my nucs weren't so good. One was a dead out, I had put 4 cells in it over the summer but they never got a mated queen back. Wax moths wrecked the comb. 3 others were queenless with significantly reduced population. Probably swarmed, and failed to get a mated queen back. They are salvageable, so I ordered some queens that will arrive next Friday. Easy to miss small swarms from nucs.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, that is really bad luck. I'm having issues with swarming recently too. I wonder if the heat contributes to them feeling overcrowded. It looks like the swarm is here to stay in the tree box. I'll probably try to move them this weekend. Do you have much luck with getting any comb drawn out in September/October when the goldenrod is strong? A lack of comb is an issue for me right now.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I've had very little comb drawn in the fall, I don't think the goldenrod is around long enough most of the time. I've got some very light nucs that have comb, I may end up feeding some this fall. Hopefully we'll have a good goldenrod flow. I never take any of that, I always leave that for the winter.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I was afraid you'd say that. They need more comb to put up stores for the winter. Hopefully they will build some so they have enough stores for the winter.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> I was afraid you'd say that. They need more comb to put up stores for the winter. Hopefully they will build some so they have enough stores for the winter.


You can always feed them. They'll draw comb if you feed them.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Good point Robbin. I was just reading the thread about splitting a hive this late in the year and I think I like the idea, especially since I am seeing swarm activity. Have you done many walk away splits this late in the year? I did late year, but the hurricane caused them to abandon the hive. Moving the strong queen to a new nuc will also help with mite control while I'm building up my numbers. We do have a three day weekend coming up.


----------



## Barhopper (Mar 5, 2015)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Barnyard Bees still has queens. He also ships.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I'll keep that in mind. I'm thinking of letting them rear the queens. If I don't get a mated queen for some, I haven't lost anything as the current queen should build up to wintering side around the same timing as the original hive would be downsizing to wintering size.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I have never split this late. I got queens to save my queenless nucs, they come in tomorrow, but that's just me feeling bad about the bees that are left. It's tough to get them to build up this late unless you get some kind of flow going. I've noticed some activity but I haven't seen any goldenrod blooming. It's been a wet summer so we ought to have a strong batch of golden rod this year.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I haven't seen goldenrod yet either. I am starting to see spanish neddles. Only a few, but they are starting. Lots of the little yellow/orange flowers along the road side and some purple blooms. I've thought about just buying more queens, but I really want to be more self sufficient.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Hive 1- eggs
Hive 2- honey, capped brood, queen cells open, no larvae, young larvae/eggs added
Hive 3- eggs
Hive 4- has stores, no queen sighted, no larvae
Hive 5- red dot queen sighted, low stores, added sugar water
Hive 6- added a box & sugar water
Hive 7- low stores, added sugar water
Hive 8- queen right, needs stores
Hive 9- appears to need queen
Swarm box- queen right, haven't opened yet

Had to stop there. Looks like we are at 7 queen right.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Jade, are you going to purchase mated queens, raise your own, or combine? I am still trying to raise a few but am recommending to my mentees to purchase due to the lateness of the season. A bit of a double standard, but I am not willing to gamble with their hives. I released the swarm queen into the nuc today above a bottom qe. She went right down onto the frame. I'll check for eggs in three days and remove the qe if there are none in the unlikely event this is not the old queen and is an unmated virgin. Really funny watching the returning foragers encounter the qe for the first time. After an hour or so it appeared they all had it figured out.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

JWP, I'm torn between trying to raise my own and purchasing some. The fall flow hasn't gotten going much, so I've put feeders back on some and will probably do more tomorrow. I haven't had much luck this past month with moving young larvae and eggs into a queenless hive and having them rear their own queen. If I can find some queens for closer to $15, I'll probably jump on it.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I doubt you will find a mated queen at that price, a ripe queen cell maybe. Perhaps it is time to try grafting again. Remove the queen from your strongest hive to a nuc along with a frame or two and some nurse bees and give them a bunch of larvae in the cups. In five days, divide the cells among your queen less hives and reintroduce your queen using a clip or cage. Although not the best, slightly older larvae seem to have a better acceptance rate.


----------



## Slow Drone (Apr 19, 2014)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

You can get queens out of GA right now for $18 and queen cells out of FL for $4 or $5.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Slow Drone said:


> You can get queens out of GA right now for $18 and queen cells out of FL for $4 or $5.


Do you have website addresses or phone numbers for those breeders?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

JWP, Gardner's in GA. You can get the phone number from Facebook and call. They mailed out the same day I called. Should arrive tomorrow or Friday. $18 for queens, $8 shipping for the 4 I ordered.

We put some pint feeders in three of the nucs that were getting low on stores this past Sunday. All were empty today. I'm not worried about my bigger hives as they have stores, but we put pints in five of the nucs. The rain has kept them from being able to do much of any foraging for themselves. It looks like we got about 5 inches of rain in the past 24 hours.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Gardners Apiaries lists queens at $27 on their website. Did you get a better price due to the season?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yes, the lower price is on their Facebook page.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Queens arrived. The box was marked to call, but the post office dumped them on my porch. Thankfully a friend saw them and brought them for me.
Hive 4- given new queen
Hive 9- given new queen
Hive 7- found eggs, swarm queen may have moved back to the box. This is the colony she came from.
Hive 8- red queen spotted
Hive 10-single frame of bees, failed started, give new queen
Hive 11- pulled bees from 1 and started nuc w/ new queen

Wish us luck!


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Good luck Heather!!!! You got it, those queens will make ya happy ya got the nucs up and going. I did 2 more splits myself, with queen cells. Late but can work.. if drones still around. I'm sure for a month or so more...


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I hope they work for you.

Queen check today.

Hive 11: they have eaten a hole in the fondant, but queen and some assistants are still in the cage. The hive appears to be feeding them through the cage. Gardner's queen

Hive 10: queen released, added sugar, Gardner's queen

Hive 9: queen in cage, feeding through cage, poked hole in fondant, 1 frame of bees Gardner's queen

Hive 8: added sugar

Hive 7: refilled feeder

Hive 6: feeder added

Hive 5: very full, added feeder

Hive 4: Queen still in cage, feeding though cage, poked hole in fondant, 2 full frames of bees, Gardner's queen

Hive 3: capped brood & eggs, honey around brood nest, but few extra stores, added feeder

Hive 2: flying, calm

Hive 1: very busy (Have they found someone to rob?)

Hive beetle numbers are still high, but not as high. A few bees on the ground, couple of local species of bees too. Probably attracted by frame feeder that was left out.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yesterday feeding/inspection
4:no sign of queen, no eggs, added feeder (9/6 queen)
7: refill feeder
8: refill feeder
9: queen sighted , no eggs yet, very little stores, using the syrup (9/6 queen)
10:queen not sighted, but eggs spotted YEA, refilled feeder (9/6 queen)
11:absconded *angry face* I'm going to have to put queen excluders on when adding queens from now on (9/6 queen)

Starting to see some comb being built in a few nucs. Still no goldenrod

Of 4 new queens, on is gone, two are unknown, and one is laying.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I hate it when your newly purchased queen takes off and drags a bunch of your bees with her. QEs on swarms and new installs is not a bad idea, especially if there is no brood in the hive. I put a qe on the swarm I caught two weeks ago to make sure the flighty little bee-itch stayed put. She did and is laying but the qe is still there.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

They had capped brood. Should have put in young larvae. Brood hatched and off they went.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Capped brood is good for a quick increase in numbers but does little for the open brood scent that tends to anchor a queen and/or swarm. Naturally, I learn all this stuff by doing it wrong the first time. Trick is to not do it wrong the second time. Hope the other two queens show up, or at least evidence of their presence does.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Jadeguppy, since we have been been doing a little competitive splitting, thought I would give you the update. As of today, I am 16 queenright, 7 in 10 frame deeps, 9 in nucs. The hive that swarmed recently did produce a laying queen and she is doing quite well already, several frames covered in young larvae and shimmering with milky blue royal jelly. The queen cell I harvested from this hive must have already been stung by the emerged virgin as that queen never emerged and the bees went to parts unknown. One of my original big hives died out this year. The hive swarmed and the new queen failed to return, just like almost all of my late June and early July queens. Still four hives short of my goal of 20 and no nucs to overwinter for sale. But, I have a newfound respect for the devastation dragonflies can cause to a queen rearing operation. Next year's queens will all be made by early June, before the dragonflies get going here. Can't wait for next Spring!

PS, what do you call the dog?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That is great. Yes, I agree on the queen rearing time. I'm looking forward to being able to start in Jan/Feb next year. If I have enough make it through the winter, I'll put two aside as my splitters and try to handle some of the others as producers with management like squarepeg's manipulations.

He has been name Harold. Smart guy. He figured out that the cheese has pills in it. Last night he reluctantly took the cheese from my husband, held it in his mouth while he got a tummy rub, and then spit it out when alone. Today he wouldn't touch the cheese. I put it in chunks of wet dog food and hand fed him. Don't know how long that trick will work. My lab looking dog is half treeing walker **** hound on his mom's side and he has the same tricky nature. Scent hounds. Neither of my other two dogs are so scent oriented. If we weren't still working to get one of mine's thyroid under control I might keep Harold, but four big dogs, including one with hormone directed dominance, isn't the best idea. That just might push hubby out of the house.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I, at one time, had seven Shepard/Chow/ Lab mixes. Ate me out of house and home. Tough to remain the alpha male in the house with four trying desperately to usurp my position. Fortunantly, humans live longer. Down to one pure chow now who was a rescue in that we took him in when the owner said she no longer wanted him and would take him to the pound (death camp). Back when I had a better paying job, I used to fly rescue missions for Pilots n Paws. Had some very nice passengers including a three legged pit bull who was very loving.

Picked up 100#s of sugar at Walmart today. Time to start feeding 2:1 syrup continuously until all the hives get to winter weight. One has five deep frames capped and is more than halfway there. Some have next to nothing. Also put out patties and powder as the pollen seems to be in short supply right now.

BTW, The pit that is looking so comfortable in my avatar isn't even my dog. He belongs to a neighbor but is right at home in our house too.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That is funny. Nice looking pit. Pilots of Paws is a net program. Thank you for caring so much.

I've been thinking about putting in patties, but the shb are sooo bad around here. Many of the hives are sucking in the syrup. Some have even been building comb, which thrills me. I'm still waiting for the goldenrod. I saw one in bloom about 45 minutes north of here. Maybe in the next week or two they will be able to feast on it.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I am trying a rotation with the patties. Three days in the hive, one in the freezer, then back in the hive. I saw shb larvae around day five on the patties I had in earlier this year. Also using 1/6 of a patty per hive. See how things go this time around.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Saw golden rod blooming today so the fall flow is getting under way.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Great news! I saw one stem about 45 minutes north of me on Wednesday, but nothing else. The girls looked busy today, so maybe they found some nearby. I wanted to get a better look into the hives this weekend and see if they are all laying, but it looks like plans have changed. The fence between my house and my neighbors belongs to them and is falling apart. We have both been putting up scraps of plywood to keep the dogs from going through it. We put some some wire fence years ago that helped, but their dogs climb over it. Today one of them got into my yard and ate one of my chickens. I've decided to put up a second fence on our side in hopes of keeping them out. My dogs can be a pain, but they are getting old and slowing down. They didn't see her as an intruder, which is good, but it gave her a chance to get my bird. They are locked in their run and I get to spend what spare time I have after grading papers and lesson planning putting in a field fence. Yea, not. Sorry to rant.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That's one problem I don't have. I've got a 140lb Anatolian Sheppard that's about 33 inches at the shoulder. You can bring a dog up in your car and he'll play and have fun, but ANY dog walking on the property is treated like a coyote. Good luck, fences are hard work. If it's wire I've got a big air powered staple gun that works great on fencing.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I think we are going to buy the green field fence posts. They cost less than wood posts and don't have the termite problems. Two sides of my yard are field fence and have held up very well. They also don't block the wind. The new houses behind me put in their own privacy fences. This area is growing rapidly and we only have one wooded lot left next to us. I miss being a tiny community that few knew about, but I do like the convenience of closer stores. I've been looking for a lot to put more hives on and have to go a long distance to get half and acre under $40k. Takes a lot of honey to cover that cost. 20 years ago lots could be bought for under $15k. I've joked with my hubby about getting a 10-20 acre lot on the north end or in Baker county as a weekend vacation home.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> I think we are going to buy the green field fence posts. They cost less than wood posts and don't have the termite problems. Two sides of my yard are field fence and have held up very well. They also don't block the wind. The new houses behind me put in their own privacy fences. This area is growing rapidly and we only have one wooded lot left next to us. I miss being a tiny community that few knew about, but I do like the convenience of closer stores. I've been looking for a lot to put more hives on and have to go a long distance to get half and acre under $40k. Takes a lot of honey to cover that cost. 20 years ago lots could be bought for under $15k. I've joked with my hubby about getting a 10-20 acre lot on the north end or in Baker county as a weekend vacation home.


You're better off to look a little further out of town. I bought at the bottom of the down turn but I got 80 acres for 160K. Bet you can get 10 acres for 40K, put a camper on it and use it as an escape on weekends. That's what I did for 10 years till I got this place. Camping is fun if you don't have to haul and set up a camper every weekend.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, I like that idea. I'm wondering if we are heading to another downturn in property prices. Are your acres in Okaloosa?

We got the fence started today. Unfortunately, my back is acting up today and I couldn't help much. I hope to get into the hives tomorrow. At least long enough to see if any still need fed, check brood nests on new queens, and check mite levels on two big hives.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I'm on the county line, My mailbox is in Okaloosa, my property is across the street in Walton.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Robbin said:


> I'm on the county line, My mailbox is in Okaloosa, my property is across the street in Walton.


Too funny. Managed to get into the hives. Had to abandon attempt to replace brakes and check rotors due to front being rusted on solid and running out of time. 100' of the fence is now up. Mixed results on bee check.

#1 refilling comb w/ honey in 3rd box, backfilling comb in 2nd box, pushed queen to bottom box, new comb being made, 1 queen cell-open, visual on eggs, no visual on queen, did varroa check in alcohol, 1 light grey speck found, had to take bees from capped brood frame, hive has not been treated this year. 
#3 lots hive beetles, honey, brood, young larvae 2-3 days, no visual on eggs or queen
#4, eggs sighted, no visual on queen, 2 frames being used
#5, young larvae, capped brood- multiple frames, drawing new comb, no visual on queen or eggs
#6, lots brood, multiple queen cells capped W/ 2 open. no visual on queen or eggs, backfilling w/ honey/sugar water
#11, shook out, frame of comb w/ one side sugar water given to #8

Why do you think I didn't find varroa? Brood break? hygienic bees? user error? I expected to find a high number.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yea! Goldenrod blooms have finally reached my area. I saw it a week ago a bit more inland. I'm continually amazed on how much a 30-45 minute drive can make. It's not like we even have hills around here to change elevation issues. Florida is flat, flat, and more flat. Any who, the blooms are just starting to open up.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> Florida is flat, flat, and more flat.


Not true! Somewhere near Tallahassee there is a high spot of about 435'. Floridians call it a hill, we call it a bump, folks in Colorado would call it a large anthill.

Florida is so flat that from the roof of my old condo in Coral Springs, I swear I could see Naples. (On a clear day). Maybe it was Ft.Myers. Hard to tell at that distance.

Correction, the bump is 345' feet and is closer to you in the panhandle near the AL border. Just looked it up.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yep, I live about 2 miles from there. My property is not very flat, one end is wet lands, the other the top of the ridge that will never flood unless a meteor hits the gulf. So my property varies a lot. All my hives are in the top half to insure they never have any flooding problems. Lots of woods around me and then lots of farmland. Nice place to keep Bees.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



JWPalmer said:


> Not true! Somewhere near Tallahassee there is a high spot of about 435'. Floridians call it a hill, we call it a bump, folks in Colorado would call it a large anthill.
> 
> Florida is so flat that from the roof of my old condo in Coral Springs, I swear I could see Naples. (On a clear day). Maybe it was Ft.Myers. Hard to tell at that distance.
> 
> Correction, the bump is 345' feet and is closer to you in the panhandle near the AL border. Just looked it up.


I've been there a couple of times. Mariana Caverns area. I wish I had some caverns in my backyard during the summer. I was thinking Robbin may be near and yep, you are closer than I thought. I'm not considered to be in a flood zone, but as far as I'm concerned Florida is a flood zone. I think we managed to dig six or eight feet before hitting the water table when digging our sprinkler system. If there is a double digit change in elevation it is a mountain around here. Oh, and none of our trees know how to grow straight. I don't know how you northerners can stand all those boring straight up trees. Down here, they got character. If one of the branches is touching the ground, don't cut it. It may be holding the whole darn tree up.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Hive inspection day. Hives 1,2,and 3 are doing excellent. Lots of stores, brood, and eggs.
4 failed, 5 eggs sighted, lots of brood, but no extra honey stores. Looks like they are using it as fast as they bring it in. 6 is most likely failing. No sign of an active queen, 7 is building up and using honey as it comes in, 8 is failing with no sign of queen activity, 10 is tiny, but did have eggs

Looks like I'm down to six. I'm considering moving some brood to the weaker ones. What do you think of that idea?

I've never done a combine, but may look into doing one with the three frame failing hive over my weaker hive that has eggs.

Temps are still in the high 80s, low 90s during the day, but we will probably get our first chill by the end of the month.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I would combine 6, 8, and 10 together. They are all weak and if it is due to varroa, you won't be hurting other hives, yet. And 10 has a queen but maybe not enough bees to tend to much brood? Are you monitoring the amount of feed you give them? A hive that does not take feed could have nosema or PMS, so I would watch 5 carefully. Rule of thumb is to not take frames from a strong hive to prop up a failing one. Although, if a newer nuc or a late swarm capture needed a frame or two and was already doing well, but not super populated, I might take one from a hive that had more than 5 frames of brood.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I have to read up on how to combine them. I may do that tomorrow or the next day. I went ahead and gave 10 one frame of capped brood that should hatch soon. The queen is lacking comb to lay in, so I hope it provides a boost to her space too. Honestly, there are more bees in the two that look like they lost their queen than there are in the queen right one. She just doesn't have what she needs to get going strong.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Great news. Before doing the combine, I took a second look at 8. I found the queen and some eggs. With the goldenrod just coming into full bloom this past week, I hope she was on a brood break. We put in a new feeder and plan to leave her alone. The other hive we suspect to be failing doesn't seem to have eggs and I didn't spot a queen, but they weren't acting like they are missing one. I'm going to check back after the hurricane passes through and see if that queen was taking a break. Fingers crossed that was the issue and that they build up to winter strength. On the up side, a brood break like that will put a hurting on mites and give them a better chance to survive the winter.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Keeping you and the bees in my thoughts and prayers as Michael bears down on you. Hold onto your hat. Looks like it is going to be a strong one.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Thanks. We have been VERY lucky. Just took a look outside and it looks like we have very little damage, mostly just tree branches. I am shocked at how fast this one powered up toward the end. Thankfully the turn put us on the west side. Not so lucky for my friends to the east in Panama City.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Hubby was pulling the straps off hives yesterday. The weak, queen right hive had already left. There pre hurricane, gone post. I'll be able to get a better look at things tomorrow.

How many of you lost hives from the hurricane?


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Glad you guys are ok. Was nasty hurricane.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

So 10 flew the coup? Micheal dumped a bucket load of rain on us and the wind gusts (60 mph) knocked out power for many. I slept through it all. Hope to check on the hives in the morning but the wife said all the tops still appear to be on, so the hives are intact, I think.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Good news today. Hive 6 now has eggs in it. Not sure if hive 10 moved into it or if a queen had been on a break. Looks like it might not be a loss.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

We came thru the hurricane fine, some trees down but no roads blocked, hives or buildings hit.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That is good to hear Robbin. You were closer to the center and nobody has heard from you since the storm. Figured you were in major cleanup mode. Still seeing eggs in the few hives I inspected, which is way different than last year at this time when all were broodless by mid Oct. Are you also noticing differences between last year and this year? My bottom boards were showing around 10-15 dead mites on them so I also hit the hives with the first of another round of OA. I'm not sure the bees have realized it is fall and wonder if they have been making winter bees yet. My understanding is that the larval diet is a little more protien rich which accounts for the fatter bees. They are doing something because the UltraBee is disappearing pretty fast.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Heather, I am starting to have trouble following the shell game queens. So 8 which you thought was queenless started laying last week and 10 may have moved into 6 on their own? Could 6 have just ramped back up like 8 did or are there more bees in the hive than before? I need a score card to keep track!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

JW, I know the feeling. Thankfully we have been writing it down each time. Yes, it is possible that 6 started revving up again. However, there are a lot of bees in there, although it wasn't weak before. Just don't know, but promising either way. All nucs got 2 pint jars of sugar water today.

Robbin, So happy to hear from you. I was talking with my husband earlier today wondering if you made it through intact. Very happy for you. 

Bees were busy flying around today. A lot of flowers are in bloom right now.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I was in Tampa when the storm blow up. My brother is wheel chair bound and lives in Panama City. He had a very close call. Storm 30 miles west and his house would look like Mexico Beach. 
He was on the edge of the real damage. Water got two houses next to him but not his. House is ok, all the wind damage was outside, sheds, fences etc. Very Very Lucky.....


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Glad you were able to help him. I haven't heard how much water damage my Panama City friend has taken, but I hear her house is standing. She left at 7 a.m. Wednesday morning when she heard how much stronger it was. If that thing had been a wider storm, the damage would have been so much more. The school district here has had problems with the server. Damage between here and Tally. I hear The schools near the eye will be closed for months. I saw pics of one middle school that is basically gone. Waiting to see how many refugees we get.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Hey Jadeguppy, you've been quiet the past few days. After our little nor'easter blew through, we had a nice day today. All the hives were busy earlier in the afternoon but by 3:45, things had slowed down a bit. Pictures of some of the hives taken just before I came back in. The white single deep with all the bees flying around it my pollen feeder.





















Guess which one I will be making queens from next year? If it survives that is.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

That blue one is bursting.

I had intended to get into the hives today to check frames, but the foster dog ripped my smoker apart late yesterday. I found it in two pieces this morning. He is the one that was hit by the car. Feeling much better and getting into everything.

They are flying. Hive two looked like a bunch of orientation flights around noon. My concern is the lack of comb and if they have fixed the problem and made stores.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Fall Flow was very light around here while I had the best spring flow and honey harvest I've ever had. Think I'm going to feed them some of their on honey back over the next week. Saturday is suppose to be nice, I can take a look at a couple of questionable nucs. All the hives seem strong, I'll check some for open comb. If I find plenty I'll go ahead and give them some of their honey back. Low's just above 50 highs around 70 starting Saturday and for the next 12 days. Make sure they have plenty of stores for winter. They are predicting another mild winter this year. We end up with fly days several times a week for most of the winter.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, I hope to get into them this weekend. I was going to earlier this week, but things kept coming up. Thursday a rescue ferret, Freya, went into surgery and passed as they incubated. The new smoker has arrived and weather may be good enough if the rain stays away. I have an adoption day tomorrow, but have to check the frames. I think I need a vacation.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Very worried about my nucs. Three of them have very little honey stored. They have frames of capped brood, but not of honey. Our weather is staying above 50 for at least the next week. Is it still okay to feed 2:1 syrup? Do I need to figure out a way to feed dry sugar? We did feed them, but they appear to have used most of it up. Two pints were put into each one today.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I am still feeding mine and they are still taking it. Days in the 50s and 60s, nights in the 30s and 40s for the next two weeks. Sugar bricks are drying in the bee room for later. Reading queen rearing manuals again and dreaming of an early spring.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

my method for emergency feeding is to dampen sugar with just enough water to bring it to a pasty consistency.

i lay a single sheet of newspaper on the top bars and put the sugar paste on the newspaper, and then place an empty hive body on to house the feed.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yep, it's safe to feed them, I've feed as late as thanksgiving here. I checked on the red queen today, no stores at all in her nuc. checked two others, ditto. Fall flow was a complete bust. Tried feeding pure honey but they can't get it out of the jars, Added about a 3rd of water and they took a whole half gallon jar in a day. Feeding two places, one in the middle of my nucs in the woods and another on the edge of the field about 100 yards from the hives. Unlike sugar water, they found the honey in an hour because of the scent. Anyway, will try to feed over the next two weeks. I've got some honey in frames and will start adding those frames back. Already put one in the red queens nuc. She still beautiful and easy to find with that big red numbered dot on her. I hope she makes it, I want to graft of her next year. Good news was I didn't see any hive beetles so the cooling weather has put a damper on that problem at least.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Thank you to all three of you. The weather is low in the 70s until Wednesday, then 60s. How cold does it need to be to be safe to feed solid sugar/ candy board style like squarepeg mentioned?

JW, I'm there with you on looking forward to queen rearing. From what I understand, I need to expect hives to start spring build up in January. Feeling like an eternity, but actually is right around the corner.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Also, do you put pollen in your candy boards? I've read some people put a pollen patty in with the candy. I still see hive beetles and wonder if that is a good idea here.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

the thing about syrup is they have to expend energy to dry it down to honey consistency, and they can't do that when they have to cluster to keep warm during a cold night.

the sugar paste is ready for them to use as is and can be restocked easily as needed. 

the main thing is to prevent starvation until there is nectar available again.

don't mix in pollen sub. they don't need it if they are not brooding and the solids will only play havoc on their digestive tract.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

The nice thing about square pegs method is there is no lower range temp. It just sits there when the bees are clustered until it warms enough they can use it.. Maybe they can even use it in the cluster. 
Feeding syrup requires warmer weather, but we have fly days here thru most winters and always thru the middle of Dec. They've got plenty of time to store some up. I've done the sugar bricks, going to 
try squarepegs method this year.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

LOL, I'm worried about a upper temp limit on squarepegs method. Especially if pollen is included. The shb are unreal around here and sugar can go bad. 

I wonder about conservation of heat if they have a full box of extra space above the cluster. A candy board will hold the heat nearer the cluster. They look super simple to make.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, what is your experience with pollen intake during the winter?


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I've never put any pollen out in the winter, It's mostly used for brood which there is very little off. Speaking of SHB, I didn't see one yesterday. Went into 3 nucs, but I usually see them in every hive I open. So the numbers are falling back for the winter. Two nucs had no brood, the third had two spots 3 to 4 inches across of older sealed brood. No eggs or larva, so they are really cutting off the brood spigot. I'm going to open feed the next two weeks, then hold and wait for spring.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

My nucs are full of capped brood. Multiple frames each. They have been building up. How fast do you think a candy box will go bad around here?


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> My nucs are full of capped brood. Multiple frames each.


really? interesting. most of my colonies have shut down brooding for the winter.

are they brooding on available pollen and nectar or has the brooding been supported by supplemental feeding?

one thing to keep in mind is that those multiple frames of capped brood will result in a couple of frames of more bees per frame of capped brood. is there room in your nuc boxes for that many bees?

are these nucs headed by queens that you purchased a while back? if these queens have been selected for brooding no matter what the circumstances that might explain why the nucs are so full of brood at this time of the year.

or perhaps with you being close to the coast your bees are a month or more behind in their winter preps than what i am seeing up here.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

as far as sugar going bad i've not seen nor heard of that happening.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

SP: Robbin sounds like his are starting to shut down, but do still have some capped brood. He is on the northern Fl border. I think I am several weeks behind you and I have a bit of a warmer micro-climate here. 

It had been about 1.5-2 weeks since we fed, but we had been feeding before then. The pollen they are getting locally. I do see a good bit of it stored. Those nucs don't have five full frames, so they can handle space for more bees. I have to check records, but I believe one or two of the nucs did late requeens. Actually, I tore down three queen cells with larvae in them in one of the nucs Sunday. Not sure what to expect in there. I found single eggs in cells, but not many of them. Couldn't locate the queen. I highly doubt a queen will be successful getting mated this late in the year, even here.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Jadeguppy, I.am jealous of you having brood in your nucs still. All my nucs are broodless. I think one of the hives still has brood as there were about three frame widths of cappings wax Saturday morning on the board that I had cleaned just last week. 

I still have leftover sugar bricks from last year so I am fairly confident they do not go bad. I think a mouse peed on one though. I wonder if the bees will have problem with that.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



JWPalmer said:


> I still have leftover sugar bricks from last year so I am fairly confident they do not go bad. I think a mouse peed on one though. I wonder if the bees will have problem with that.


LOL too funny. I'm happy to see the brood as these are tiny hives. I just hope I can get them to spring so they can build up. They need more comb. Hopefully the predicted mild winter will be in my favor. I predict a need for lots of feeding.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> My nucs are full of capped brood. Multiple frames each. They have been building up. How fast do you think a candy box will go bad around here?


Boy, that really proves the statement that all bee keeping is local...


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

We bought some plastic tubs that will fit in the nuc boxes and filled them with "candy". We used the damp with water & vinegar method as opposed to cooking the sugar. About 2 pounds were put in each and then placed on top of the wood crossbeams that the mason jars had sat on. Here is the question. How fast do they tend to use this up? We still have flowers in bloom and highs have been near or above 80. It will drop below 50 at night next Tuesday, which is why I wanted something other than syrup that they need to dry in there. I'm assuming they won't try to store this.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

they won't use it until they have to jg and they won't move it or store it in the comb. 

they also won't break cluster when it's cold to climb up into the plastic tubs.

the sugar needs to be directly on the top bars with newspaper under it or perhaps on a piece of wire cloth like lauri shows in her thread.

if it is warm enough for flying and inspecting and if you are seeing any honey stored at all you can wait to put the sugar in when the weather changes.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



squarepeg said:


> they won't use it until they have to jg and they won't move it or store it in the comb.
> 
> they also won't break cluster when it's cold to climb up into the plastic tubs.
> 
> ...


Good to hear that they will leave it there until they need it. We typically have flying days every week all winter long. I actually hope to have a week or two of freezing weather to knock the mosquito population down. We are looking to make the candy boxes with wire mesh bottoms, but don't have time the next few days. They have very little honey stored and virtually none of it is capped. 

The lack of continual freezing weather and high humidity is why I was wondering if the sugar will go bad. I hear the vinegar helps protect against that. Last year we had conditions that actually meant ice may be on the road when the buses were to run in the morning. School had to be canceled. No way to deal with it here. No snow tires, salt treatments, and whatever else you northerners use to cope with ice on the road. A few hours after first light it was melted. Yep, Squarepeg you are a northern.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Now that is funny, calling someone from Alabama a northerner. Relax SP, at least she didn't call you a Yankee! Here in Richmond the big joke is that they will close schools if we get an inch of snow, sometimes for days at a time. Sheesh. I remember my schoolbus getting stuck in Addison, IL when I was six, (blizzard of 1966) We waited for the wrecker and got to school late. Big deal.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



JWPalmer said:


> Now that is funny, calling someone from Alabama a northerner. Relax SP, at least she didn't call you a Yankee! Here in Richmond the big joke is that they will close schools if we get an inch of snow, sometimes for days at a time. Sheesh. I remember my schoolbus getting stuck in Addison, IL when I was six, (blizzard of 1966) We waited for the wrecker and got to school late. Big deal.


LOL, SP hasn't responded. I may have gone to far with that comment.

I'm native Floridian. Caribbean in the soul. Give me some steel drums, salt in the wind, and water under the boat. What makes others sea sick is like the sweet cradling and rocking of a bassinet to me. No better place to nap.

On the topic of bees, we have rain, rain, rain in the forecast. I think it is supposed to be in the 70s today, high in 60s later this week. Hopefully the sugar will hold over the nucs.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

My open feeding has gone well. Taking about 2 quarts a day at each site, plus dry sugar that is moistened by the rain and humidity. No syrup today and still thousands of bees on the sugar. Another 5 day window for syrup starting next Saturday. I'll keep sugar out until after thanksgiving. Need to buy some yellow jacket traps. I've never seen so many. Can't wait for spring. and it's not even Thanksgiving.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

This weekend I picked up my table saw from a friend I had loaned it to. Time to start making more hives over the winter. Last Sat. the wife and I drove down to Durham, NC to meet a rescue transport from Eden, NC. We have a new addition to the Palmer household. "Luke" had been at the shelter for six weeks, Jadeguppy, I think you know what that means. Anyhow, he was spared and is a great dog. Breaks my heart to think they were going to put him down.









Best as I can tell, chocolate lab, about a year old.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

AttaBoy for you JWPalmer, you won't be sorry.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Awww, he looks so sad. He says that place was scary. Six weeks is a very long time. The county I live in has the highest kill rate in Florida. If there isn't room in adoption for them, they don't make it much past the stray hold time. 

Congrats on your new family member. I bet his full personality will come out in short order. Harold took a bit to get use to the routine, then he stopped whinning and worrying so much. He practically puts himself to bed now. Tell us more about him as he settles. Hopefully he won't be as destructive as my lab was when he was young. I still love him anyway.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I woke him up to take the picture, normally not sad looking. Destructive, nah, I needed a new pair of bee gloves anyhow.

As far as making himself at home, $50 at PetSmart for a very nice pet bed and the darn thing thinks MY bed is more comfortable.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



JWPalmer said:


> I woke him up to take the picture, normally not sad looking. Destructive, nah, I needed a new pair of bee gloves anyhow.
> 
> As far as making himself at home, $50 at PetSmart for a very nice pet bed and the darn thing thinks MY bed is more comfortable.


LOL. Harold got ahold of the mesh on my beesuit. It had some burn marks on it anyway. Thankfully a cheap one from England.

Of course your bed is nicer. That is why you sleep in it. My husband keeps showing me memes about her space, dog space, his space. He is doomed when all three get up there with me, or just the lab. He loves to spread out and take over his side of the bed. That 75# butt decided a few years ago that he was too stubborn to move over, even if it meant getting hugged and laid on all night. When we do force him to get down he sounds like he is ready to tear someone apart. Grips all the way. Now people just think he is a grouchy old dog, but he has always been a grouchy diva.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, the weather report reminded me about your comment on bee keeping being local. It looks like 90% of my county is under a freeze watch tonight. Temps dropping into low 30s, possibly 20s. I'm in the 10% that they don't expect to drop below the upper 30s. Too much warm air coming off the Gulf. On a side note, I'm surprised school hasn't been canceled. With all the rain, there will probably be black ice tomorrow morning when the buses are running. Last time that was expected school was canceled. No equipment to keep the buses safe on the road. Anywho, take a look at the freeze map. I'm that tiny piece of Santa Rosa that juts out into a peninsula.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Weather warming up for the next few days, coldest is the 24th but plenty warm enough to feed bees. I've been shocked how well open feeding dry sugar has worked. There are hundred if not thousands every time I look at them and the piles spread out and shrink. Also feed syrup again now that it's warmed up so much. will feed till the first freeze after thanksgiving which is not in the forecast yet. On the map, I've five miles south of Florala Al, on the Okaloosa/Walton county line. I saw two bucks, 7 does and 6 fawns today. That is my FAVORITE thing about living out here. Got to build a yellow jacket trap tomorrow. NEVER seen this many in 5 years of beekeeping hear. 
Good luck.


----------



## Chicago_ks (Feb 27, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



JWPalmer said:


> Now that is funny, calling someone from Alabama a northerner. Relax SP, at least she didn't call you a Yankee! Here in Richmond the big joke is that they will close schools if we get an inch of snow, sometimes for days at a time. Sheesh. I remember my schoolbus getting stuck in Addison, IL when I was six, (blizzard of 1966) We waited for the wrecker and got to school late. Big deal.


I was also six. In Aurora, IL. I lived kitty-corner from school. Now I live a few miles from Addison.
ks


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, any cheap undeveloped land near you? I probably passed your house on my way to do the cut outs this past summer. I'm still avoiding open feeding at the moment to keep the big hives on the honey they have stored. Inside feeding also lets me know who is taking feed. Today looks like a good day to check on them. High of 71. Next 10 days are in the highs of 60s-70s and don't drop below 44 at night. I may even get my orchids out for some natural sun. This is going to be a long wait to see if they all make it.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Everyone still as sugar. The weak hive is still weak. I don't expect it to make it.

Problem, nearly every hive I opened had condensation on the lid that dripped down. The continual rain may be contributing to it. What do you suggest?


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Are you running solid bottoms or screened? We had several days of rain here, nearly 2", and the covers on mine are dry inside. All my covers are telescoping so rain does not get in from the top.. If you have solids, you should make sure the feeding shim has an upper entrance or screened vent hole. Got up to 56 here today. All hives were active and REALLY hitting the pollen feeder so they got another 4 cups of powder. One nuc and two of the hives had emptied their feeders so I topped everyone back up.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Some had migratory lids, some oversized piece of plywood that was actually meant to be a 10 frame bottom. Solid bottoms. I don't use inner covers because I hate opening them and having palmetto bugs (giant roaches) run out. I simply put on an extra hive bottom and place the feeder (mason jar for liquid and plastic tub for solid) down on some small sticks to raise them up off the frame tops. The hive with drilled vent holes was actually the worse. They have the plastic vent hole covers, but maybe a hole drilled in the bottom will help. Well, I guess I have time to change some things up this week with it being a holiday week. Glad to hear it warmed up for you and you were able to check on them. We still have flowers in bloom and I noticed mine are bringing in pollen. Two colors. I have no idea if any are getting nectar.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

The cold front is here and we have highs in the low 50s. With all the recent hard rain, we decided to open them up enough to check the moisture and sugar levels. Lots of sugar still there. Two hives had water in the bottoms as evidenced by the water fall when the hive was tipped. We added shims under the backs. Hopefully it will fix the problem. Surprisingly, all hives still have bees. I keep expecting the red one to be empty, but they have proven me wrong. Sometimes being wrong is a great thing.  Buildup starts next month with swarm cells by the end of February.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

good to hear jg! thanks for keeping us updated.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

This time last year I had lost my hives. Now I have 7. Small potatoes compared to most, but a big jump here. How are your hives of concern doing?


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

the two of concern that i ended up putting robber screens on still have strong cluster roar and the number of dead bees hauled out to the entrances are comparable to all the other hives. time will tell.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> Buildup starts next month with swarm cells by the end of February.


Jadeguppy, you are the forever optimist. I on the other hand, am an experienced optimist, spelled "Pessimist". Next month is the brutal cold (by our standards) with the real losses coming in Feb as the hives are weakened.

That said, I prefer your sunny, "spring is almost here" outlook on life.  The truth is, there is very little we can do between now and then except make sure there is some sugar available. 

Good Luck!


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, Heather is right. Even here in the frigid north, Richmond, VA, the bees start brooding up in January. Funny in a way since February is typically our coldest month. I make sure they are well provisioned by mid Jan. to prevent the spring "starving time".


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



JWPalmer said:


> Robbin, Heather is right. Even here in the frigid north, Richmond, VA, the bees start brooding up in January. Funny in a way since February is typically our coldest month. I make sure they are well provisioned by mid Jan. to prevent the spring "starving time".


I didn't say she was wrong, I just said her optimism is beaming through loud and clear. :thumbsup:


----------



## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



squarepeg said:


> the sugar needs to be directly on the top bars with newspaper under it or perhaps on a piece of wire cloth like lauri shows in her thread.


No wire cloth for me, my bricks are laid directly on the frames.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

my apologies lauri. i mistakenly thought you posted photos showing wire cloth used with your recipe blocks.


----------



## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



squarepeg said:


> my apologies lauri. i mistakenly thought you posted photos showing wire cloth used with your recipe blocks.


I just didn't want folks to use a screen by accident.

You were close. I use screened _inner _covers, but the block goes below.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

yep. those are the photos i remembered. 

i assumed incorrectly.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Robbin said:


> Jadeguppy, you are the forever optimist. I on the other hand, am an experienced optimist, spelled "Pessimist". Next month is the brutal cold (by our standards) with the real losses coming in Feb as the hives are weakened.
> 
> That said, I prefer your sunny, "spring is almost here" outlook on life.  The truth is, there is very little we can do between now and then except make sure there is some sugar available.
> 
> Good Luck!


LOL, I don't think of myself as a forever optimist, but I like the thought. My local guy was splitting nucs and having them ready for sale by the end of February. You bring your own equipment, but the frames are all full and covered with bees. Very strong nucs. I hope to get in on the early splitting action on some. Hopefully 2-3 production hives as well. Although I'm not sure how to sell the honey. The local flea market has a guy selling that drastically undercuts everyone's prices. He travels across multiple counties to get to our market.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I know many of you are in deep winter, but I'm trying to figure out early spring/winter here. This is my second time actually making it into January with a hive, this time six (7, but I expect one to die). With days of warmer temps, I decided to get into the brood nest to see what is going on.

hive 6 (nuc) tiny cluster, tiny cluster of eggs if any, shb in cluster, expected to die out months ago, still expect it to go

hive 7 (nuc) 1 double sided frame brood, four full frames of bees, too much moisture, sugar puddled in tupperware. 

hive 10 (nuc) deep/mediums drawn to deeps, queen sighted, full of water in bottom, baseball sized cap brood, but being enlarged by 1"+, other side full hand sized area of young larvae/eggs, moved to double medium 10 frames to solve water issue, had to leave sides empty, got noisy and fanning upon move, new wax building

hive 5 (nuc)2 boxes of bees, but only 5 frames of comb, five sides with brood/larvae/eggs, most very young, sugar wet & puddled, new comb building present Moved one frame of comb/honey to bottom box to encourage comb building in there. Most of nest and comb in second box.

pollen being brought in, I wonder from where


----------



## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Carpenters apiaries in Frostproof Fl sell very good TF queens.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

ty. I think I have ordered from them before. 

10 frame hive inspections:
Hive 1- bees up to box 3, but bottom two boxes only being 1/2 used. Inside of lid was dripping, so I put a small piece of wood, similar to coroplast under the lid corner. based on hive 2, I think we need vents above the wood chips. 1/2 still full of honey. Put empty comb in middle of brood. multiple frames brood

Hive 2, bone dry, has vent along the full front of hive above the wood chips, queen spotted, plenty of honey, no capped brood found, possibly young larvae & eggs, but getting dark & hard to see with flashlight

Hive 3, almost out of honey, added container of plain sugar, queen spotted, brood found
We have migratory lids on the nucs. I won't go into winter with migratory lids again without a way to vent. Hopefully others can learn from my experience.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Hi Heather, been a while. I havnt posted much, being winter here. Sorta...lol
Looking at your moisture issues... hmm I've thought about how mine are set up, and no issues here. My inner cover is notched out, and I pit #8 hardware cloth on inside edge. Keeps air moving I'd guess. As to sugar inside hives... I put a sheet of paper cloth over top frames, pour sugar over top. Works well so far. Also, I put a few 5 gal. Paint sticks under back side of hives, let's water or condensate flow out of hive towards front opening. Also, I might not use woodshavings in my climate in no. 
Bama. Wet moist winters, and hot humid 3 seasons. I'm sure your not far off this weather situation. Mabye a bit colder here than you. In spurts at least. Also, the sugar on paper towel absorbs moisture. I think you said you were using Tupperware. Plastic will puddle water inside, and hard to evaporate. Just ideas, I'm like you going into my second season here. Also, 7 hives from 2 packages, and a swarm last spring-late on all. Was 10 till fall.eobout of 3 nucs. A couple a little light, but hoping 2 to 1 open fed 75 yards away from hives, and sugar on top mabye get hives through .... shout me back, let me know what ya got going on with yours. Hope any of this helps... Richard


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Rich, I think you are correct that plastic wasn't the best. The wood chips were very wet in some hives, but not it those with upper vents. I think that will be the trick here. With migratory covers on nucs, I'm limited. The nuc with the big inner puddle has a drilled entrance and attached bottom. Not good for draining. We tried shims on some and got mixed results. I don't like inner covers due to how much palmetto bugs love them, but the notch vent probably would have fixed my moisture issue. Live and learn.
When does your swarm season start?


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I'm thinking mid March, 1st of April. I'm going to say temps will regulate that. I caught my 1st big swarm I think on April 27...??? Last year. Same day my packages arrived. So was a busy day for me. I'll start putting out a few traps around my farm mid February. I also have one in a neighbors gas tank I didn't get out last year. I'll go soon and cut all brush away from the old truck asap. Disconnect all gas lines, and plug them. It was just 2 snakey for.me.last summer. Then I get to cut it.out. never done that, so should be fun !!!! To say the least. I'll do allot of splits this spring, after a round or 2 of brood hatches out. Also, will purchase a couple of packages. I'm really building allot of equipment this winter. I want at least 20 plus hives by mid summer. Fingers crossed....


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

You have aspirations this coming year. I had thought you cut that tank out. Early spring could be a great time to do it. Not as full of bored bees, snakes still in the ground, yep, more to my liking too. Is there water nearby? I'm more scared of water moccasins than rattlers to be honest. They just seem meaner and give you less warning. Bring a couple of chickens to hangout next to you and they will do away with snakes. Mine pinned one to my sliding glass door and wouldn't let it go. Only one I've had to kill. It got really aggressive and we couldn't figure out if it was poisonous or not. Chickens hate snakes.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Copperhead, and rattles here. No moccasins around. At least at that site. I was going to get it this past season. I got slammed with work, and tried trapping it. Didn't work, I think a swarm happened either before or just after I set traps up... 
News of the day. I lost one nuc today. Mabye a full size hive also. All looked good last week. Today little or no activity on those 2 . Problem, field mice/rats moved in . They had eaten allot of comb and frames chewed up. I suspect they eat the bees too?? I was so bummed out. I was doing so good till this. The rats were fat and very healthy when I dumped em out !!!! So now there are 4 strong.... 😥😥


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Rich, sorry to hear that. I dread finding rats in boxes. Thankfully I haven't had issues with that. Not sure why I haven't, but happy not to. They get into the chicken coop every so often. Going into the year 4 strong is still a good starting point. March and April should give you lots of opportunity to pick a hive or two to split multiple times. We will probably start Feb/March. Probably early march to get nucs built up bigger before splitting. Depends on how fast they build. We have pollen coming in, so we will probably switch to syrup soon instead of sugar globs. Rain possible in afternoon, but temp getting close to 70. Of course, my uncle is posting about his 80 degree weather in Boca. Maybe I should go visit...


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Been open feeding dry sugar at two stations during this warm weather. They are both covered with bees. It's been in the 70s here for a couple of days now. Nice to see the girls out and about.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, are you seeing spanish nettles in bloom in your area? I also see some orange flowers, but mostly nettles. I'm guessing that is where the pollen is coming from.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



Jadeguppy said:


> Robbin, are you seeing spanish nettles in bloom in your area? I also see some orange flowers, but mostly nettles. I'm guessing that is where the pollen is coming from.


No, but my blue berries have buds all over them already. If they blossom and then freeze we'll get no blue berries. :-( 
I've got a lot of fresh new grass growing too. Saw a hive with very little activity today. May be a dead out but I decided to leave it alone for the time being. I did manage to kill all my yellow jackets.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I hope the blueberry season is good this year. Which variety do you have? I have a few climax bushes. My favorite. My son likes the Tifblue, so I also bought one of those. My apple tree is getting leaves, but no buds.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Went to.my farm today. My orchard trees have buds on as well. Mabye fruit this year, as the trees are still young, but growing well now. Checked my bees, surprisingly the nuc was 3 to 4 frames . The full hive was empty. So, I only lost 1 instead of the 2 . Those rats are mean.. been eyeing blueberries on my place, not sure as to which variety would work in no. Bama. But sure want some in the ground soon as I can.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Rich, great news on the nuc still being alive. Was looking at the apple and peach trees myself yesterday, not even swelling buds yet. Of course the peaches usually don't bloom here until late Feb/March. The orchards use large propane heaters to protect them from a late hard freeze. I have a few wild blueberry bushes growing in the woods but mostly just huckleberries. Darn berries are so small it takes thousands of them to make a gallon. Needless to say, I haven't made huckleberry jam in a long time.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Hi jw, I have several verifies of Apple, peach, and plum,cherries. Also, grapes. Wild blackberries galore... which I love, but the braids are wicked !!! They will slice you open. So, no picking those, except for a nibble in passing. 
Yes, the nuc hive survives another day. Sad I lost a full size hive, but I'm learning. Never take mice for granted !!! They killed, and severely damaged the nuc. It may not survive, but I'll keep nursing it all I can til spring... ya know, never give up mentality. Lol


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Rich, go for the blueberries. Check with local farms and master gardners. I googled tifblue and it may grow better in your area than here. I'm on the southern border of where they do well because of the need for hours of cold. Climax are zones 6-9. They are the sweetiest and lack the bitter aftertaste. I wish you were nearby. I need a serious pruning on my apple tree. It stopped producing.

Palmer, what flavor difference is there between a huckleberry and blueberry? Don't know if I've seen them here. If I did, I didn't know what they were.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

The taste is similar, but the wild ones are not strongly flavored. The bushes have the same leaf shape but only grow 18" to 24" high. Berries are about the size of a #2 pencil eraser.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*



JWPalmer said:


> The taste is similar, but the wild ones are not strongly flavored. The bushes have the same leaf shape but only grow 18" to 24" high. Berries are about the size of a #2 pencil eraser.


Small berries. I can see why you don't want to pick enough. The birds must love them.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

It is official. I had hoped I would be wrong, but red nuc hive has failed. I think they lost their queen or the queen was no good. It looked weak months ago and I'm surprised it lasted this long. On the up side, the others look to be doing well and starting to build up. Mid-January is usually our coldest point and then it is warming up from then on.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Was that hive #6?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

yes, #6


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

They are sucking up the honey fast, but aren't interested in the pollen patties. No worries though on pollen because each hive has at least a frame of pollen getting stored up.
nucs
#7 3 pints sugar water gone, ignored pollen patty, 6 frames of bees, new comb being built, 3 full frames of brood, added 3 pints sugar water
#4 replaced 2 pints sugar water, large brood pattern, queen sighted, 4 brood frames, added 2.5 pints s.w.
#5 new comb, small number hive beetles, queen cup, 2 frames brood, building into bottom box- honey, rearranged bottom for comb building
#1 no supplements offered, consuming left over honey, removed 9 frames, most empty, dozens of hive beetles, so freezing those frames, new comb building, drone, unmarked queen(s), we marked 1 queen. Could not find first one sighted, but suspect two queens. Checker-boarded brood box
#3 brood, honey, pollen, has dry sugar from winter
#2 marked queen sighted, grumpiest hive as usual. 4.5 frames of brood, dozens of hive beetles, 4 frames honey


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

nice report jg. your colonies are a good 2 months ahead of mine.

if they are drawing comb you can insert some foundationless frames at the side of the broodnest.

if you do it's important to make sure the hive is exactly level from left to right so the bottom of the new comb hits the middle of the bottom bar on the frame.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

sp, two month gap surprises me. I didn't expect to see drones, but the hives I haven't manipulated with feed are producing them. The unmarked queen or two queens was a surprise too. We are having a typical winter, so I'm learning a lot about the timing in our area.

We put tester foundationless frames, one per, in a couple a week or so ago and those are getting drawn out. Looks like I will be doing a lot of stapling frames together this week. I'll double check the level. Thanks for the reminder.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

:thumbsup:


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I was unloading the cage for three new rescues (degus) and noticed my neighbor down the street putting a chest freezer next to the road. They said it still works. Score! Now I have place to put comb in the winter to keep the wax moths out of it. Those of you further north are lucky you can leave them outside and they will freeze. I do like our longer season and you can keep the cold, but keeping wax moths from destroying comb over winter has been a pain.

Side note, we are getting a chill. Getting down into the high 30s at night here. I hope the flowers make it through. I'm impressed by how much pollen they have stored up recently. Makes me glad I only bought a small bucket of pollen powder since it appears this one will last me a very long time. Bees say mother nature makes better pollen.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Just noticed, I'm a sticky! I'm honored you find my journey helpful.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Update from Sunday, 2/3 inspection
Weather is in the 60s and it looks like we have pasted our last cold snap.

#7 building comb, some wonky, backfilling with honey, capped brood & larvae, pollen stores, added empty frame in middle of brood, no queen sighted, no eggs sighted.

#4 plenty honey, pollen, brood, eggs, queen found- marked her

#5 3 nuc high, 2 frames in top, 2nd box- 5 frames used, capped brood, larvae, eggs, 

#3 2 frames pollen & honey, capped brood, found marked queen, still nuc equivalent

#1 6 frames honey, rotated boxes, deep pollen, adult drones, lots brood, marked queen sighted, added empty frame between brood, some shb

#2 still most aggressive hive, lots of shb (24+), 4 frames honey, brood to eggs, marked queen sighted

A couple of queen cups were found, but they were empty. Small number of drone cells starting to show in hives. #1 is strongest and already has growing number of drones. Based on nuc sell times for other locals, we may start seeing queen cells in the next couple of weeks. We are considering requeening #2. Hives 4,5,7 are receiving in hive sugar water. The upcoming question is how many to move to production and how many to use for splits.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

We've got Maples, plumbs and some others blooming now. I haven't gone into the hives yet, been swamped. My son got back into town last week so we'll start going over the hives this coming weekend. Got a hole in the water hose in the front yard. It's covered with bees.  I put a chicken water out there but they haven't started using it yet. If we don't get a hard freeze, I'm going too be up to my neck in blueberries.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Blueberries, yum! I'll be happy to take some off your hands. Especially if they are climax or tiffblue, then the bush may have to come home with me.  They are very busy here. Lots of pollen coming in. Just did a check on them and the empty frames we inserted int he brood nests are being built out. Hive 3 had three empty queen cups. I've removed it for the moment. She is packed full of capped brood, but ignoring the outer two empty combs. I probably need to move those into the center. Nucs are starting to cap a small number of drones. I'm thinking that we will be in nuc production mode by the end of the month. We had to make things quick today because I have adopters coming over in an hour. They are interested in two of our 14 month old sisters that have been with us since they were babies. I hope they pick them over the younger litter. (bunnies)

Thinking- I'm at six colonies, moving to all mediums, all with 10+ frames worth being worked. We want to end the year with 10 production ready hives and some nucs as back-up. We also want maximize the number of production hives this year. I'm thinking we can do this and still sell 3-4 nucs in the spring. Am I being too ambitious?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

My other half wanted to go ahead and cut up the hanging comb in #3 so that it fits better into two boxes. We did it as quick as we could, but I'm not sure if the queen made it back. I really wish I had seen her. They were fanning like mad at the entrance when we put the boxes back together, but did quiet down a bit over the next 5-10 minutes. Time will tell if we made a big mistake. Of course, I thought of the queen excluder under the boxes after we put the hive back together. With the larvae in there I hope they don't get P1$$ed and abscond. I lost two queen installs that way last year. We do have some adult drones and this queen had a section of drone larvae laid. If they do have to replace her, we will be a month behind, but will hopefully have success.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Azaleas started blooming a few days ago. Hive 3 is still flying. We lost our chance this weekend to graft queens and get into the hives thanks to my foster dog dufus getting into the shed and dragging tons of stuff out. Of course he stood up and got the smoker, which no longer has bellows. A new one should arrive tomorrow.
p.s. The shed now has a lock on it! Take that Harold!


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

We've got snow forecast this week and then 30s to 40s for the next week. Hoping the weather breaks and we start getting back in the 50s to 60s soon. Plan is to start my grafts by the first weekend of March but I have not seen flying drones yet. Keeping my fingers crissed that there are a bunch of capped drone cells in the hives but have not been able to get into any of the big ones yet. I think Harold and Luke are related. Darn thing chews up all kinds of stuff. Good luck on the grafting. Pictures on day 5?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

JW, Does Luke need a buddy? Harold is up for adoption.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Ha!, I am quite certrain that another (third) dog is not in my future. But best of luck with finding Harold a good home.

Ps. You may not want to mention the chewing to prospective new owners. Let them figure that out for themselves! 

Pps Luke gained a new respect for the bees this week. He discovered that sticking one's nose into a hive entrance is not a good idea.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

JW, I will be sure not to mention his trips into my shed. After all, it is my fault for not having a proper lock on it. He isn't destructive in the house. Plenty of toys in there.

Update for today. My grafting tools have disappeared, so no grafting queens until replacements arrive. 

#1, some empty queen cups, but still have room to lay (top of my list for grafting)
#2, grouchy, still space to lay
#3, expanding well, signs that the queen did make it back into the box. 
#5, packed enough that we decided to split out a nuc (#10) and bring it up to a three tier nuc using what little comb we had left in the freezer. First split of the season.
#7, numerous empty swarm cups, expanded to three tier nucs
#9, expanding well
#10, new nuc

LOTS of drone being laid. The season is upon us.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Follow up:
#10 new nuc- no queen cells, eggs and young larvae present, Queen must have accidentally been moved there.
#5 no eggs, no queen cells, added a frame of larvae and eggs from another hive
#7 expansion came too late, multiple queen cells, so we split it three way, 3 tier nuc, now 2 tier
#new- 5 frame nuc, queen cell w/ larvae
#new- 5 frame nuc, possible queen cells, larvae and eggs


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Re the new number 10 nuc. I see you must have performed one of my stupid pet tricks. As I have found out several times, the perfect frame for making a nuc often has the queen still on it. Hoping to find drone cells this Sunday. If so, I may split out three nucs to get things started. Not quite ready to make a starter hive and do the grafts. We'll see. I have not been deep into any of the production hives in some time so not sure what I will find. Keep us posted on your grafting progress.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

JW, yep, I'm guilty. Earlier I was seeing the queens nearly every time I looked. Now I can't find them and I need to. Figures. The three way split was done so that every box hopefully has the ability to make a new queen if needed in case the queen isn't where I hope she is. We couldn't find her and with it getting late in the day, it wasn't a good idea to keep trying. I need to put some frames together. We've nearly used all the ones I had and I need to expand brood nests on the production hives and get ready for more splits. I loving this year! I think hubby is starting to agree with me that selling a few nucs may be doable this year. It would help offset the upfront cost of honey jars. I hope you find drone cells. When do you usually start seeing queen cells?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

We are so excited about this season. Our best start yet. (10)- 10 frame (5)- 5 frame

#1- (10)checkerboard & added box, 20 full frames of bees, no queen cells, previous empty frame built out.
#2- (10) didn't get into it.
#3- (10) doing well, plenty of extra room, no swarm prep
#5- (5) pulled frame with queen cell nearly capped to 3f1; remaining frames moved to a 10 frame
#7- (5) pulled frame with capped queen cell and 1 honey/pollen frame to 3n4.; another frame of multiple qc clusters, but plastic foundation and unable to cut them for more nucs  split must have moved queen to one of the others. Not sure which. (forgot paper & didn't write them down)
#8- (5) doing well, plenty of room, no swarm prep
#9- (10) doing well, plenty room, no swarm prep
#10- (5) doing well, no swarm prep
#11- (5) looks like some larvae on outer frame dried up, hopefully due to me and not disease
#3n4- 3 frame nuc set up today, frame brood & queen cell + frame honey/pollen
#3n1- 3 frame nuc set up today, frame brood & queen cell + frame honey/pollen

Adding foundationless frames with paint stir stick painted with wax as starter strip.
While updating this I also realized I should have moved the tag # with the queen when the queen accidentally was moved in the split. We hope to fix all of that in the next day or two. Also, probably should have left queen cell in #5. We will have to check if it is queenless as I suspected last time. Probably need to return the frame. Learn from our mistakes. Remember to write down which hives have eggs in them.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I didn't lose a single hive, but I lost 11 nucs! I went through them today. Looks like they all starved to death. Two or three had very large numbers but the rest were normal to small size nucs. We had a VERY mild winter, fly days every week, if not every day every week. I had dry sugar open feeding the entire winter with bees all over it every nice day. The main hives have to fly about 100 yards the nucs feeder is much closer, none more than 60 yards and several that starved are in plain site of the feeder. I really don't under stand why they would starve to death in plain site of a feeder that was usually covered with bees. I'm lucky I got to them when I did, wax moths were just hitting them and I saved the bulk of the comb, some 70 frames. It is really heart breaking to find bees starved to death. I've never lost them in these numbers before. I usually lose more hives than I do nucs. But I usually lose very few period. I did treat the hives and didn't treat the nucs because I bought a mighty might killer. But I don't think that is the problem. some of these were strong nucs that simply starved to death in plain sight of a feeder. I will look for stores next year and put feeders in Nucs. Really confused about how this happened.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin, very sorry for your losses, especially for starvation. I think there is some kind of magic number for nuc strength before they forage in cooler weather. Critical mass for cluster warmth? Anyhow, I noticed that my nucs were not hitting the pollen feeder as hard as the large hives which is why I put patties in the nucs only last month. I also kept syrup and sugar bricks on them the whole time. Bricks and first pieces of patties are gone in most. You should still do an autopsy to rule out any mite related causes, esp BPV or anything that could have weakened them. Glad that you saved the comb. Makes the next round that much easier.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Robbin that bites. I did in hive feeding this winter with a plastic container full of sugar candy. When it warmed reasonably consistently, I switched to in hive pint jars. Maybe that will work better for you if we have another mild winter. At least you know it wasn't because of treatment issues.

BTW, how are your hive beetle numbers? After I get through my splits, I'm thinking I may do more to combat them.

I couldn't help but chuckle earlier today when I had just been admiring all the pollen on my car and reflecting on how great it is for my bees and then went into a sneezing fit when I turned on the vent and got a blast of pollen to the face.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

I haven't opened a live hive to look for SHB. That will be next weekend. None of the nucs had been slimed. No honey to slime. I have 4 double, and one triple nuc. I'm going to start building a cell raiser next weekend and will split them all when I have cells. 

I think they just flat out starved, but I didn't treat them. I will treat them with OAV in the future but I think I've figured out a way to use the MMK on a full size base to treat two at a time. I will continue to investigate that if I find it's as good on SHB as I've read about. 

Not buying any queens this year. I'll work on raising my own and if I end up with less honey production that's okay. Last year I got 50 gallons out of 14 hives and couldn't come close to selling that much. From know own I won't worry about maximizing honey production. 25 Gallons is plenty for Family and what little I manage to sell. I may get some more nuc boxes to stack and move the extra to the nucs to over winter. But I'll have to really be carefull with the hive beetles. I think I can skirt that problem by waiting until winter is in full swing. 

I'll start running the MMK as soon as I find a hive with a strong SHB population and I'll let you know...


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Please do. While it is not something I would buy for mite control, if it will kill the SHB, it will still be a good investment.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Yea, I treated with OAV and it was very effective and cheap. I decided to get the MMK because it's supposed to kill SHB. It does kill mites, but I haven't tried it yet on a hive I know to have a large infestation of SHB.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Fixed some issues today
#5 is back on the hive with the original queen sighted
#9 eggs 
#10 has 2 almost capped queen cells
#11 never made a queen, so added a frame with a queen cell from 7
#7, left queen cell in there, bees overflowing
lost one of the 3 frames
3n3 extra queen cell
3n4 unhatched queen cell

They are sucking up the sugar water and making comb. I hope these queens hurry up. *fingers crossed that I can keep up with them when they do.

Sunday is our usual work day, but it looks like rain. Hopefully I can get some equipment painted tomorrow.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

Unusual problem today. We scrubbed woodenware to prep it for new paint and the darn things wouldn't dry. Painted surfaces dried, but wood didn't. The few dry ones we painted are still wet. Last time we painted the whole box would be dry and ready for another coat by the time we painted the second one. Summer is a much better time to paint.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

We just went through three days of below 50 cold. It barely went above 50 for two days. Today there are dozens of dead bees one the ground in front of each hive. Hopefully that is all they need to clean out. Regular weather for next 10 days. I just hope none of the queens were caught out in the cold.


----------



## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

*Re: 2018 journal NW Florida Gulf Coast*

While driving the grankids to school today the temp in the garage was 17* as per car thermometer; as we drove the mile to school we watched the temperature drop down to -4.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

You can keep it.


----------



## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

Sure you don’t want just teeny bit of it? I think it’s amazing my bees live through this stuff.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

We got a touch of it the past few days and many people had already packed up their winter coat. I just hope the unusual dip didn't catch any of my queens out while mating. The arctic needs to freeze back up to full strength and stop letting the cold dip down so far. 

I love a quote I saw attributed to Elon Musk recently. Something like: We are going to run out of fossil fuels anyway, so why not hedge our bets that the science is correct on global warming and go ahead and move toward alternative, green energy now. For me, I find it concerning that may of the advances and movements toward alternative energy sources and alternatives to plastics are coming from countries other than the US and our stubbornness to hold onto fossil fuels is leaving us behind as other industry leaders emerge.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

how the weather affects our bees is fair game. let's be careful please not to deviate from that into politics.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Amen , very true about arctic and temps here. Also, nice quote from elon musk. Very true, and not political in my view. Its all about going green, well as much as ya can. Good luck to all the greenies out their. And good luck to the bees Katherine!!!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Thanks Rich. Did you have losses due to the freeze? 

News on the splits is not good. Every hive, big and small, has a pile of dead bees in front of it.
#3n1 dead. Pile of bees inside the hive and a bunch of bee butts sticking out of many cells. 
#3n3, I have no idea the condition of the queen. Dead in cell? Alive?
#3n4 looks like the queen hatched or they cleaned out the cell faster than I could check. *fingers crossed*
#7 queen dead in cell, looks like they were starting to open it to pull her out. Added frame of young larvae from 5
#8 queen cell intact. Several there.
#11 no queen cell remaining

Looks like we have been set back on our splits. The freeze was unusual and hit right as the cells were about to emerge. Next year the hives need packed with bees if using 3 frame queen nucs this early in the year.

How did everyone else do? I'm guessing it may not have been as big an issue for some regions that weren't already a month into the starting flow. I hope not at least.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

JG, Sorry that some of your splits are not working out. I lost one of the two I made two weeks ago due to putting the wrong aged bees in it (foragers apparently as there was only a couple hundred bees left when I checked it five days later). You say three frame nucs. How many of those three frames were covered in bees? I overwintered several nucs that were just three frames of bees going in and they survived temps into the teens with very little bee mortality that I am aware of. I have to paw through the grass to find bee bodies unless there are a lot of them. The surviving nuc I just made probably has around 2000-3000 bees (about a quart) in it and so far is doing well. Monday is emergence day.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

It is easy for us to see dead bees on the ground. Sugar white sand. Even my strong hives had a few dozen in front. Sorry to hear you lost one too. The three frame that died probably had half coverage and one of the frames wasn't comb. I wonder if they ate up the supplies and didn't get enough from the feeder in time. Several things that may have gone wrong. I didn't make them very strong since the queen cell was nearly ready to hatch and the weather was on the uptick. Usually mid-February is our turning point. At least that is what I thought.

I'm hopeful on the others and may try a few more splits. Plans are to look into the stronger hives tomorrow. This time I may put a queen excluder between two boxes when I shake out nurse bees. Don't need another switch up on where the queen is.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Morning Katherine, I didn't loose bees to weather per say. My issue .... I had 5 nice hives going into winter. Cold and rain made the mice move up, and into my hives. I lost 3 so far.... All very strong. One week full of bees , next week totally empty. Found 4 to 5 large mice in lower boxes. Fat, and looking good. Bees non existent. I'm bummed, but will cope. Swarm traps.going out this coming week. Fingers crossed, as I havnt ordered any bees yet. Well I did, but havnt heard back yet. I gotta figure out this rat thing. I think they ate all my bees while on cluster?


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

Dove into my hives, Didn't lose any but three where weak and suffered loses, I had to clean the bottom board of dead bees. Think they were on the verge of starving out when the flowers came in. 
I think all three still have queens, saw one, saw capped brood in others, but didn't tear into them. Probably going to add a frame feeder to them tonight to be sure they make it. 
The other 11 were booming and I added boxes to them as it won't be long now before the flow is on. 

Now the important part. Not a single SHB was seen in any hive. They've been an absolute scourge for 6 years. Oil trays made a big difference, but last year I used the mighty mite killer in the fall.
Plenty of dead mites but not a lot of dead SHB so I was unsure. But I've NEVER opened 14 hives and not found SHB. Especially the 3 weak ones with half the frames in the top box with no bees.
NO SHB..... That CAN'T be a coincidence... They are a pain in the butt, but I'm sold on them now.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Rich, Glad most of yours made it.

Robbin, you may get me sold on buying one. Interestingly enough, yesterday I didn't see as many shb.
-Heather


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

I don't see a lot this early, but I've never seen NONE... My son and I planned to put the MMK on the first hive we found with a lot of SHB, so we were looking for them. Boy are we happy...


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

#3 got a lot of attention today. We took a reciprocating saw to the deeps and cut all the comb built under the mediums and installed it into medium frames. The hive is now fully mediums.  Three more hives have similar issues. Two are being rotated to the top in hopes they are filled with honey and we can rotate them out that way. The other will need cutting. We are happy not to need to deal with dangling comb in 3 any more. 

First grafting attempt of the year. One strip, from hive 3. *fingers crossed* It took several tools to find a good one and we almost lost everything when the dog's butt smashed into the stand and shifted it nearly two feet. Love to see them play, but COME ON! I now have two very tired mutts.

Possible requeen in progress on #2.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I still have a few mediums masquerading as deeps too. All the additional comb looks empty so I want to get it out soon and rubberbanded into my mini nuc frames which the bees are NOT drawing out yet. Got to play with the bees today also! 
On the foundationless front, last week I put a frame in the #4 hive to open the brood nest. Today i checked it. Better than half drawn. 100% drone comb. Bummer. Moved it closer to the side of the box and dropped in another blank frame. Let see how this goes.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JWPalmer, Glad to hear they are drawing it out. I'm getting a lot of drone comb too. One of the hives has a ton of drone. I wish they would start backfilling that and leave the worker comb open for the queen. Too bad I can't talk them into it.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Looks like they are drawing worker comb some again. All added frames are foundationless at this point.

#1 starting to cap some honey, signs queen being pushed down from top, added a medium, 1d-3m high
#3 starting to cap some honey, nearly all previous frames being drawn out, added medium, 4m high
#5 queen sighted before and as moving, moved into a 10 frame, very few foragers- they nearly all stayed in the original location with the queenless remaining hive.

We bit the bullet and ordered 6 queens from Dixie Supply to make-up for what we lost to mating flights during a freak freeze. USPS does not know where the package is, only that it is arriving late. Called seller and he said he has received calls on several of the packages he sent Monday. Looks like one of the transfers didn't bother to scan them in, so the post office has no idea where they are at the moment. They shipped out Monday and were scanned by his post office. I hope they arrive alive tomorrow. Our luck with queens this year is off to a really bad start. We hope to get 40# from each of the new hives.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I hate incompetence and the USPS appears to have a lot to spare.

Having the same rotten luck with my early queen rearing. Queen cells got too cold on my first split and had to add another frame of eggs. They have 5 capped now. The flyback split has multiple capped cells as well and seems to be in good shape. I harvested two of the capped cells and put them in a styrofoam mating nuc. Next day found the top blown off. Idiot beekeeper forgot to put a brick on it. Buttoned it back up and crossed my fingers. One side still had bees clustered on the qc but the dip back into the 20s these past two days did them in. Rats! Hope to get two of the cells from the nuc and try again. They should emerge Sunday if the calendar starts with eggs laid. Will find out Sat.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Duplicate


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JWPalmer said:


> I hate incompetence and the USPS appears to have a lot to spare.
> 
> Having the same rotten luck with my early queen rearing. Queen cells got too cold on my first split and had to add another frame of eggs. They have 5 capped now. The flyback split has multiple capped cells as well and seems to be in good shape. I harvested two of the capped cells and put them in a styrofoam mating nuc. Next day found the top blown off. Idiot beekeeper forgot to put a brick on it. Buttoned it back up and crossed my fingers. One side still had bees clustered on the qc but the dip back into the 20s these past two days did them in. Rats! Hope to get two of the cells from the nuc and try again. They should emerge Sunday if the calendar starts with eggs laid. Will find out Sat.


Sorry to hear that. Several of the qc here were dead in cell, others hatched and appear to have been off mating when the temp dropped 30+ degrees overnight.

Still no location on the package. Next truck is 11:00et.

We are discouraged with the losses and considering holding off until April/May after these new queens have time to build up. One medium box is about 40# honey. I'd like to average at least one box each this year. It looks like I've got two strong production hives remaining to fill in gaps. #2 is requeening AGAIN and set them back.

How do you like the queen castles? I haven't used them. Closest I've used is 3 frame boxes.

Goals for this year: 400# honey, 10 full sized hives & 10 nucs going into winter. Get much better at grafting, raising queens, and splitting.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

No queens on the 11:00 truck. Package appears to be lost. :waiting:

Good news that #7 appears to be queen right, #10 unmarked queen located and then dropped while marking her- hopefully she made it back, #9 queen sighted, hive expanded, and the last deep frame removed. The only remaining deeps are the two original brood boxes. They are being moved up and have been getting backfilled with honey. They will be removed when extracted. We are so happy to be done with boxes of mixed sizes. :gh:

Nearly forgot, grafted a strip of 10 from #3 and put them in #2 who appears to be hopelessly queenless.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Heather, my PO will not deliver the bees, I have to pick them up. Check with the local PO tomorrow morning to see if they have arrived yet.

The queen cell that was in one half of the mating nuc from when the top blew off appears to be developing in my incubator I can actually see her now when holding the cell up to a light. The one where the bees froze is not looking viable. I have decided to wait one more week before grafting because we are expecting some more sub freezing temps this coming week. May do another flyback split, this time on my #2 hive. It is two deeps and a medium and is fairly packed with bees. A little light in the lower box but plenty in the other two. Last year they drew out 14 qc's for me when I did this. Hoping for similar results this year.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JWPalmer said:


> Heather, my PO will not deliver the bees, I have to pick them up. Check with the local PO tomorrow morning to see if they have arrived yet.
> 
> The queen cell that was in one half of the mating nuc from when the top blew off appears to be developing in my incubator I can actually see her now when holding the cell up to a light. The one where the bees froze is not looking viable. I have decided to wait one more week before grafting because we are expecting some more sub freezing temps this coming week. May do another flyback split, this time on my #2 hive. It is two deeps and a medium and is fairly packed with bees. A little light in the lower box but plenty in the other two. Last year they drew out 14 qc's for me when I did this. Hoping for similar results this year.


The package has instructions to call for pick-up. I've been up there three days in a row. They have no idea where the package is and gave me the "not guaranteed" timeframe on priority. When I pointed out that the package hasn't been scanned since Monday, they were puzzled and had no answer for me other than you have to wait 90 days to claim it is lost.

An incubator sounds interesting. Good luck with the split.


----------



## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

JADE”We bit the bullet and ordered 6 queens from Dixie Supply to make-up for what we lost to mating flights during a freak freeze. USPS does not know where the package is, only that it is arriving late. Called seller and he said he has received calls on several of the packages he sent Monday. Looks like one of the transfers didn't bother to scan them in, so the post office has no idea where they are at the moment. They shipped out Monday and were scanned by his post office. I hope they arrive alive tomorrow. Our luck with queens this year is off to a really bad start. We hope to get 40# from each of the new hives”

I don’t know if you remember the TV commercials for the “new” hard sided Samsonite luggage? They showed a gorilla jumping on it, throwing it around, literally beating the heck out of it. That is the USPS. I think they also quietly hide “gross” boxes of bugs too. Sounds like you’re having fun. We just received another present, 10 inches of snow


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Cloverdale said:


> I don’t know if you remember the TV commercials for the “new” hard sided Samsonite luggage? They showed a gorilla jumping on it, throwing it around, literally beating the heck out of it. That is the USPS. I think they also quietly hide “gross” boxes of bugs too. Sounds like you’re having fun. We just received another present, 10 inches of snow


LOL. That is a funny image.

I just read that one of the packages sent inside of GA arrived Thursday afternoon. I was about to run to the north end of the county, but may wait until after 11 to see if they arrive here. Yes, we have had two great days with the hives outside of the queen issue. This time last year we had two nucs that were not even into 10 full frames. One of those is now a deep and 3 mediums. Some have started to push the queens down and cap honey. WAY ahead of last year.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

Hi Jadeguppy,
I tried every possible marking cage and paint or pen. Over time, I found that even when successful, I lost enough of those marked queens that I finally stopped marking them. Not only due to loses caused by handling them, but loses after releasing the newly marked queens. Something to consider as you go forward. I've got a ton of marking stuff you can have. Every color pen, at least two muffs, two different types of cages that pin the queen to the comb. My favorite trapped the queen and then pinned her with a foam rubber plug so you could mark her. With the number of virgin queens that I lose on their mating flight, it wasn't worth the effort. Eventually my son and I got very good a spotting a queen. He is a wizard, he can spot them standing on the other side of the hive looking at the frame I'm holding or looking at frames in the hive exposed because I'm holding one of the frames. 
My 14 hives all survived and are growing now. I've got to try and raise some queens to replace my lost nucs. Going to reduce the number of nucs and use the extra bodies to add frames to the nucs to over winter with. Going with fewer, 15 frame nucs instead of 10 frame nucs.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Robbin, thank you for the offer. Neither of us are wizards at locating queens. For now I want to mark, but that may change as we get bigger. Glad to hear so many of your hives survived. We were just joking that with my luck this will be the one time all my grafts take and then the missing queens arrive alive and I don't have enough extra bees, let alone equipment, to set them all up. It looks like we may get lucky this year and be able to expand into another location.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Busy day. Trying grafting again. We set up a JC style cell builder in the morning, did inspections of some hives until I ran short on frames, than came back later in the afternoon and did the grafts. The graft frame had been in a hive for several days. Plans are to check tomorrow and try another frame of grafts. Found tiny larvae that I could barely tell were even on the tool. The sun was bright, but I need a better station set up that will hold the frame well.

Issues in the hives: Several are filling with honey so fast they can't craw out enough comb and are backfilling. We have run out of frames faster than expected.

#3 pulled nurse bees and frames to make the cell starter, queen put under an excluder in bottom two boxes.

#9 checkerboarded into 3rd box

#10 yep, dropped queen never returned. However, the box is full of bees and three frames have multiple capped queen cells on them, so 5 frames were used to set up two 3-frame mating nucs and the original box was given frames. Although it got set back, hopefully we will get two more hives out of it.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

My plans to graft today got put on hold as I must travel to Ft. Lauderdale next weekend. Grafts wont be ready to transfer before I go. 
I got caught short frames last year and ended up using some junk. This year I bought 450 additional frames so I hope I am prepared. Woodenware goes fast when you need it. I had a stack of mediums floor to ceiling and they are all deployed now except for the two I still need to paint.
The 4 queen cells in the incubator look like they will be emerging tomorrow or Monday. They were cutout cells so I do not know when exactly they were capped. I will put one in the first fly back split that does not appear to have requeened and make up mating nucs with the others. Fingers crossed I do not kill them like I did last year.
Hope your grafting goes well Jadeguppy.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

Got my cell builder set up last week. Went in and removed 15 cells off two frames. I'm swapping old boxes out of the yard so I can sand and paint them. 4 more two go. One that was glued and screwed had come apart. I was amazed. Board warped so bad the frames fell off the lip and were resting on the bottom. That one goes into the trash. Got stung yesterday, putting in irrigation
and I was about 30 yards from the hives. not sure what had them stirred up. I can usually stand next to them. Cold today, I'll finish the irrigation close to the hives today. Adding 3 sprinkler 
heads to protect the hives in case of fire (I do prescribed burns near by) and to shut down robbing. I'm actually running water to the orchard but I've got to go right by the hives so I thought I'd 
add sprinklers for just in case.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JP, What are you using for an incubator?

I"m trying out JC's rearing methods where 24hr old cells are moved to a queen right cell finisher. Once they cap them, I'll put cages on each one to ensure I don't get a rogue killing her sisters. That is the plan... if I can get the cells to take.

Yes, I'm having increasing equipment issues. Most I can do emergency builds for, but frames just aren't practical to build diy. We bought 400 frames in November, but some how coded two boxes as deeps and I'm not sure if we actually used the second medium box or if something has happened to it. Best laid plans... Of Mice and Men strikes again.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Weather turned wet and cold today. Light sprinkle and temp dropped to 50. I did move the graft frame as quickly as possible to the cell finisher (#3). It looks like 7 out of 10 took. Best this season. I switched to using the method described by JC's Bees.

How small of a hive do you think I can get away with starting them on? I want to try the three frame nucs I have with two frames of supplies (honey, brood). Balancing growth with production will be a focus with so few production hives, but a desire to learn to sell queens and nucs.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

The six queens I ordered arrived. They are tiny. I'm not a fan of how they were hot glued to sticks and then glued to the box. They were very difficult to get apart and one of the cage had half the bottom and part of the end rip of when it separated from the others. Thankfully the queen didn't fall out. Rubber bands and folded paper did the trick covering it. Five of the six boxes were very quickly covered with desperate bees trying to feed them through the cage before I could get them into a hive. Now to get them to hurry up and build up so I can rob them to make some more hives. muhaha

We had planned to tear #2, the butt head hive into 4+ hives for the queens, but after all this time I found larvae and then the queen. Mixed feeling on that.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Glad your queens came in . Ouch how they packed em. Split that mean hive in 2 . Put an excluded between the 2 boxes. Next week, whoever has eggs in their box..move em. Rob a frame of eggs,brood to the queenless side. Leave the queenless side in original spot, add the frame. You should have a queen rolling in 3 weeks. I hate mean ones too... !!!


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

Jadeguppy said:


> Weather turned wet and cold today. Light sprinkle and temp dropped to 50. I did move the graft frame as quickly as possible to the cell finisher (#3). It looks like 7 out of 10 took. Best this season. I switched to using the method described by JC's Bees.
> 
> How small of a hive do you think I can get away with starting them on? I want to try the three frame nucs I have with two frames of supplies (honey, brood). Balancing growth with production will be a focus with so few production hives, but a desire to learn to sell queens and nucs.


Way to go on the grafting.

Many breeders use a cup of bees on 3 half width, medium frames with a feeder to hatch queen cells and get them mated. I found that I need to use half a stick of tempqueen and to move the mini nucs to my outyard in order to keep the bees inside until the queen hatches. I am also using 5 frame nucs with a frame of mostly capped brood, an empty comb or one that has some food on it, frame feeder if no other food and some undrawn, plastic foundation, wooden frames to act as spacers. Bees are kept to one side to start.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

tpope- That sounds similar to the three frame wide nucs I built last year. I hope not to deal with the half frame nucs. Keep it simple and fewer types of equipment. Thank you for the advise.

Well, my original order of queens arrived today- in my mailbox- no call. These were glued to the box, which is easier to get off.

We cleared out some big tree limbs to let more light on the hives. Scouts are checking out the box in the tree and the swarm box sitting on the back rack. I'm afraid we may have scared away the ones on the tree box with all the limbs we dragged past them. No sure where they are from. I'm wonder if one of the multi-cell splits has two queens that hatched. Hopefully they are from one of the new queens or the big hives. We haven't seen cells in those. Would a queen right cell finisher swarm? The cells should be capped tomorrow, so the timing is suspect.


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

Oh joy! Many queens to place into a home. Those mated queens can get by with a small support staff so long as there's a decent flow. Can't help with the queen right finisher... My only try using one was a failure when the bees left the cells to their own devices..


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

tpope- I should have been clearer with my post. The Monday shipment arrived alive yesterday. The 3/18 shipment is what was in the box today and they were all dead.

Last I looked, the cells had lots of attendants. I'll check them again tomorrow. Once they are sealed, I want to put roller cages on them. We plan to try grafting again this weekend. Hopefully the weather will be good.


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

Oh, I see now. Well that sucks for you and the seller. Sorry.

I am finding that my bees seem to draw bigger and more cells when kept busy. Trying for a new bar of cells every 5 days. Never tried roller cages but I am using JZ BZs base mount cell cups so not a direct fit.

Hope your grafting goes well. I need to on Sunday..


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

tpope said:


> Oh, I see now. Well that sucks for you and the seller. Sorry.
> 
> I am finding that my bees seem to draw bigger and more cells when kept busy. Trying for a new bar of cells every 5 days. Never tried roller cages but I am using JZ BZs base mount cell cups so not a direct fit.
> 
> Hope your grafting goes well. I need to on Sunday..


I've heard that several times. Apparently the grafts the second day go better as they are "primed". Every five days sounds like a good goal. I'm going for two this weekend, 1 Sat, 1 Sun. About how many do you do in a batch? I have between 10 and 14 on a bar and I'm in all mediums. I haven't decided if I want to try two bars or stick with one and roller cages. How do u like the JZBZ? I decided to try the nicot ones first since they can be used with the nicot cage system or grafting. Right now I don't have the equipment to handle a lot at once. Gotta build, literally. Which method are you using?


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

Jadeguppy said:


> I've heard that several times. Apparently the grafts the second day go better as they are "primed". Every five days sounds like a good goal. I'm going for two this weekend, 1 Sat, 1 Sun. About how many do you do in a batch? I have between 10 and 14 on a bar and I'm in all mediums. I haven't decided if I want to try two bars or stick with one and roller cages. How do u like the JZBZ? I decided to try the nicot ones first since they can be used with the nicot cage system or grafting. Right now I don't have the equipment to handle a lot at once. Gotta build, literally. Which method are you using?


I am running 5 frame deep nucs as my cell starter/builder. You can search "Joesph Clemens queen rearing" for a better description than I can type. I am grafting 10 to 12 on a bar every 5 days. I am trying to have the bees continue their feeding. I am not doing a second day type grafting. I just keep them working. I add a brood frame about once a week. You really have to keep an eye on the added frames as the bees will try to raise on them too. I made a second starter/finisher so that I had a backup. I graft into the second in between the times for the first. After I have made all the first rounds of grafting, I have 4 bars with varying age queen cells on them split between 2 starter/finishers. On day 10 I pull the oldest bar of cells and place into mating nucs. I also graft another 10 to 12 cells to replace the ones I removed. Two to 3 days later, I have a bar of mature cells in the other starter/finisher that are ready for mating nucs.
Nothing wrong with using medium frames for raising queens. I would use two nuc bodies. The Nicot system seems to be a bit fiddly.. I decided that I would learn to graft. I made and used a wooden bar for a cell holder for several years. I never really liked how the cups didn't want to stay on after the bars had some use. I ordered the JZ BZ bars and will not go back. They rock. I suppose that I could make roller cages from welded wire. Just have not needed them yet. I understand the need to build. It is a strong urge or better yet necessity for me too right now.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I put a tiny piece of wax in the holder before putting the nicot cup in it. The hold is much better.

The plan was to put roller cages on the cells today. They should be capped today. However, my 8 yr old ferret, Brutus, who has a long and special history with me, was diagnosed with kidney failure and is now in hospice care. He and our grief became the priority. The calendar I downloaded says to be very careful with them for the next three days. Is it safe to gently raise them and put cages on, then lower them back?


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

Sorry about your pet. I know it is a family member...

Yes, you can put cages on. Just try to not jar them around.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Grafting updates: The 7 cells that were started are down to 4 capped cells, now in roller cages.
I tried grafting again yesterday and only 2 look to have taken. Not sure where the problem is.


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

Keep after it and you'll find that things smooth out.

Dr Joe Latshaw states that a strong flow can cause problems with cell builders. "A strong honey flow wreaks havoc on the cell builders. The bees are all consumed with hauling in their bounty, and rightfully so." https://www.beeculture.com/net-gain-cell-building-system/

Don't know about your flow, but something to consider.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

tpope, that is an interesting point. The bees are very busy right now. Flowers everywhere. Actually some are already going out of season. I wonder if going back to the original JC design of having the cell builder enclosed will fix the issue. Thinking back, it was closed up when they starting building 7 out of 10, which was the best I have gotten this year. Hmm...you have given me new plans for the next graft.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Update:
#1- expanded, now 1d, 4m;qe over 3rd; bottom box 1/2 full with frames of solid pollen, queen has been laying solid frames in all boxes
#2- skip
#3- expanded, now 4m; qe over 2m
#5- lots of eggs, red queen sighted
#7- not checked, frames pulled from it yesterday for mating nucs
#8- expanded to 10f-m; unmarked queen sighted (purchased queen)
#9- not checked
#10- 4 frames, light bees, queen cell may be hatching soon
#11- queen sighted, expanded 2nd nuc (purchased queen)
#12- no sign of queen, full of bees, expanded into 2nd m 
#13- expanded from nuc to med; queen sighted (purchased queen)
#14- we marked queen (purchased queen)
#15- no sign of queen, 2 queen cells present (purchased queen)
#16- added 2nd nuc, eggs found (purchased queen)
#17- queen hatched, marked her today, daughter to 5, very full 3 frame, expanded to 5 frames

mating nucs 2 of 4 already failed; cells were scheduled to hatch yesterday, two look like they may hatch today

Already running out of equipment again. LOL I wonder if I will ever reach a point of balance.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Run a thought by you all. Keeping the bees in the mating nucs is an issue. I'm using 3 frame mediums. Will closing the robber cage, leaving it as a vent, combined with a 1" vent on the back be enough to keep them cool until the next day? Then open them up the next day to reorient. Should that be long enough to keep them from going back to the original hive? Should I wait until the queen emerges to do it? Will they feed a virgin queen through a roller cage shortly after being separated from their home hive? The other thought is to move a donor hive to the position the 3f nucs will be in a day or two before stripping it for parts. Then move it to a new spot and leave the nucs there for fly back.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Heather, you should be making sure that ONLY nurse bees are going into the mating nucs. They have not oriented to any hive and will stay put.

I do not know what your robber screens look like. Mine have a large screened area that provides ample ventilation if the entrances were closed.

A virgin queen should be allowed to run free in the hive, there is no benefit of having her in a roller cage while in a hive, unless you have multiple queens in the same hive for a few days.

I should have said mating nuc instead of hive.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I didn't do the pulls this time, but he did pull the bees that were on brood. Good point. It was his first time and I wasn't there to help.

The full front is open when the robber cages are on. I have two cells that should cap tomorrow. I'm thinking I'll wait until they hatch. Make the nucs the day before and close them up overnight this time. Then add the queen. I haven't tried directly adding a virgin queen to a queenless nuc. Any issues with that? Are you feeding your mating nucs beyond providing a frame of honey?

Thanks for helping me bounce this off someone.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I usually feed the splits and mating nucs. The one I made today got a frame full of honey instead. The styrofoam double mating nucs have a built in internal feeder. I use mason jars for the 2 frame and 5 frame nucs and queen castles.

As for direct releasing the virgins, my timing was off last year and only a few ever made it back. Supposed to be able to just set her on a frame on day one post emergence. Easier to put the cell on the frame a day before she is due to come out.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

We got a chance to graft again today. The cell builder's honey frame was empty. That may be why the last graft didn't go well. Only one cell made it to capping. Feeder and pollen patty is on it this time. My kiddo got his first intro to grafting. I decided to try doing it in the master bathroom with hot water kicking up the humidity and a heater keeping it warm. I also went with the tiny puddle of jelly that I couldn't actually see the larvae in. I'm guessing they were no more than 12 hours old. 

I didn't open the 3f nuc, but it looks like one or two may have returned queens. More activity at the door.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Finally, grafted 26 larvae today so I am right behind you timewise. May have smushed a few but most looked pretty good. Should find out Tuesday how many were accepted. Gave away two ripe, uh, VERY ripe, queen cells to a fellow beek. One queen actually emerged while he was walking back to his vehicle. Way cool. Put her in a queen clip and then transfered her to a plastic queen cage and fed a drop of honey. She is going into a LW hive so I hope it works out.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JW, That sounds awesome. I bet he was happy to see her. Let me know how many of yours take. I'd love to do numbers like that, but will have issues if I get a good take on that many. I'd run out of places to take frames from. Maybe in a month or two I can get that high. Remind me, are you using a mini mating nuc or full frame size?


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I'm using everything I can put my hands on. I have 4 of the double minis, two 4-way queen castles, and four two frame deep mating nucs ala Barnyard Bees, for a total capacity of 20. I also have a a fair number of not in use 5 frame deeps and mediums with enough tops and bottoms to make up around another 10 nucs. I am shooting for 50% capped. The blue hive that I wanted to graft from is the one that swarmed. I was able to find enough young larvae for this round but it will be a bit till I can get more of her larvae. I gave the swarm just one drawn comb and 9 of foundation. It was one of her daughters I gave away.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

So which do you like the best?


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Did not start using the queen castles last year until the dragonflys were out, not much success there. I think I am going to like the double minis once I get bees in them. So far, the nucs have done well but use a lot of bees to populate.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

While waiting for the swarm to settle down, I quickly checked on the grafts. I saw bees on every cup and some wax being laid down. This after just six hours. I wonder if the bees can tell that early if a larva has been smushed or not. At least it is encouraging to see all the cups being attended to.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JWPalmer said:


> While waiting for the swarm to settle down, I quickly checked on the grafts. I saw bees on every cup and some wax being laid down. This after just six hours. I wonder if the bees can tell that early if a larva has been smushed or not. At least it is encouraging to see all the cups being attended to.


That is great! Now I want to go check on mine. Sun is setting though.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I risked it. 8 of 10 had a curtain of bees on them. Most, so many so that I couldn't see where the cell was.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

So, looks like you need to make plans for an additional 8 mating nucs. Good going. I really like it when things work out like they are supposed to. I am still psyched that I got both of the queens back! And was able to locate and show the queen on the nuc I sold. My lucky day.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I got home a little earlier than expected. Both of the recaptured swarms are in their hives. I put the mini nuc growing boxes on the swarm from yesterday and they are all festooned on those frames. Popped the top on the cell builder and counted only 11 accepted cells  11 for 26 is terrible, but it means that I can try again sooner as I will still have 9 mating nucs to populate. Maybe your hand/eye coordination is better than mine?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I haven't verified that they are actually all growing out. I doubt 8 of 10 will make it to hatching. Of the previous four capped cells, only 1 appears to have hatched. That nuc had moth maggots on a frame, so I cut out a large section of the comb. Hopefully she returns successful. I'm just going to keep trying. Eventually I should have some success.

I know you are disappointed at 11 of 26, but I'd love to get that % to the hatching point. Shoot, I'll take 30% right now.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Counting queens before they emerge is not a good idea, heck, counting them before they come back mated isn't either. 3 hours today getting some of the hives configured. Harvested a few supercedure/swarm cells from an overwinterwd nuc that I hived a month ago. They don't even have all the frames drawn out. Put one in the leftovers from the nuc I sold, two went into the incubator, and two got left in the hive. This might be the source of my second swarm. Speaking of which, the Saturday swarm is queenright and has eggs in some very new comb. The second flyback split has drawn out all 7 of the frames I gave them, most of which are full of brood, and got a second box. Five of the production hives had their super frames shaken and put above a queen excluder in prep for the honey flow. None of these frames had sugar in them, just lots of brood in all stages. The blue hive super is one I know will need to be extracted first. Still havent seen eggs in one of the splits but the bees are drawing new comb, so maybe soon. Stupid crazy day.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Sounds like a fun day. Glad so much is going right for you. I'm wondering if I should do the incubator next year to help solve issues with temp swings. Food for thought.

Side thought, at what point do you stop adding frames/boxes to a hive? Finding the balance between not having the nectar so spread out that it is shallow and hard to cap vs not having enough room and them backfilling the brood nest.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Our flows are different. When ours starts, it is intense but short. Plan this year is two mediums per hive. As the first fills up, I will under super the second box. So far, I have never needed a third box but I have a few extra just in case. Onece we get to July, I do not need to worry about backfilling. Harvest all the capped frames, condense the uncapped frames to one super, and start feeding after the super is empty. In a slow but steady flow like I think yours is, I am a fan of progressive harvesting. Maybe two 9 frame mediums and every week pull any capped frames and move the partials to the middle. Put the extracted frames in the outside positions. I may try that approach with the nucs as they will get their own little super if they are strong enough.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I met some local guys yesterday and they have already harvested a box off theirs. I probably could have if I wasn't having them build so much comb. Our flow will probably end around June. I think I'll keep them five high and harvest as needed.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

30% capped on the frame from last weekend, plus one on the frame I grafted from. I put it in the top honey super just to see what would happen. Curious, why don't they swarm when the qc is separated from the brood nest?


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

They do not view the queen cell in the honey super as an extra queen, more like a replacement for the "queenless" part of the hive. If you put a qe under the super and give them an upper entrance, you have a split on top of a hive that may produce a lot of honey. I have not tried this approach, but I have had queen cells produced on frames with brood that got moved to a super position in an otherwise queenright hive.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I don't think that one has an exit above the excluder, but it might. I'm thinking I may need to add a one to a few of my boxes. As you know, I avoid inner covers due to the palmetto bugs. Maybe I should put in a narrow rim with an exit that has the center portion clear. I have been thinking of trying it and seeing how badly they build the comb on the lid. As it is, I already have some hives that are connecting the lid to the frame tops, but I suspect the same thing happens with inner covers. I actually had one sitting around here somewhere...


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I would put the shim with the opening directly above the queen excluder. Just like a Cloake board without the insert.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Interesting placement, any particular reason?


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

It keeps the bees from drawing comb in the gap, i. e., maintains bee space on the top.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Good point. I have a 1.5" shim, but I think putting one over the queen excluder calls for a shorter one. I don't want them building comb from the bottom of the frames to the excluder. I may just opt to put a hole in the box and one of the round pick-a-size spinner covers.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I have both 1-1/2" abd 3/4" shims. I had the 3/4" in mind as an entrance. On another note, my first incubator queen of the year emerged today. Put her in a JZBZ cage, made some candy for the plug, and have her on the countertop. She looks Italian, lots of yellow. Shows how badly the local drone pool is diluting my dark bee stock. I plan on getting her in a mating nuc tomorrow after these storms pass. Hope she survives the next 24 hours.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

That is great news. Very happy for you. Will you be keeping her in the incubator over night? A little sugar water should hold her over, I would think. What are you using for an incubator? I'm thinking going that route may improve my hatch rates. I've seen people use chicken incubators and I have two different types of those. Temps are dropping into the upper 40s tonight, so they are still having to keep things warm.

I'll drop my shim on it then and see how it goes. You haven't found issues with the gap in the middle of the hive? I've used it on the top of the hive before. It has three 1/2" holes in it. LOL, It just occurred to me that I could have used it over the winter to help moisture escape.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Never go in the hives at night... Well, I went in and pulled the cells. We used a heated damp rag to keep them warm on the walk back into the house. Hive was rather calm. However, apparently two climbed up my pants leg and one stung me. I forgot to tuck my pants into my socks. *bangs head*! There is just no way to get your pants off as a bee climbs up your leg without freaking it out and having it sting you. At least, no way I have found. 

How delicate are the cells? One fell off the nicot "stand" in the incubator. The off brand just don't fit well.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Update:
#1- going strong
#2- added 10fm
#3- strong, still housing frame w/ queen cell -used as cell builder
#5- red queen sighted, going strong, expanded into 2nd 10f
#7- left alone, hasn't finished filling 20 frames
#8- found queen, marked her- looks newly mated, small but an egg was seen on her butt, only a few eggs have been laid, very dark queen
#9- going good, still room to expand
#10- no queen, eggs, or larvae
#11- found queen, marked her, laying, hasn't filled 10 frames
#12- plenty of room
#13- found queen, marked her, eggs & larvae
#14- green queen sighted
#15- no sign of queen, eggs, or larvae, queen cells did hatch
#16- found queen, marked her, still has space to grow
#17- marked queen sighted, added sugar & pollen

Appears that we are at 13 queen right.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Mixed news on the latest graft. None of them took. Good news is that it is because they draw out 8+ cells on the brood frame I put in there. I forgot to check to be sure they weren't doing that. Oh well. It is foundationless and easy to cut off clusters since they were all along the bottom. Set up 4 tiny nucs from that and a 5th from a frame I found in a hive with a huge queen cell. Also found a newly mated queen has returned to one of the mating nucs.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Pretty decent getting eight quality cells. So it wasn't from the grafts, you and I both need to work on that. I am trying again with the double mating nuc from Mann Lake. Came home last night to find a newly emerged queen in the incubator from a cell I had thought was a dud. Made up a nuc with about a cup and a half of bees, smoked em good, and released rhe queen into the nuc. We will see how it goes.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

We'll both keep at it till the kinks get worked out. I'm sure we will get there. I'm running out of places to pull bees from to set up hives. I don't want to pull from my big 3, which I want honey from. In part due to this, hubby is not wishing me failure as he wonders how we will handle many more queens. I just laugh and say watch this...


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

Keep after it folks. At some point in time, you will be able to pull resources from mating nucs. The more you try to graft, the better you will become.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

The three cells we had in the incubator hatched. Unfortunately, they went back into the cells for food and two of the three died. The survivor has honey water in the roller cage now and will be going into a nuc this afternoon. I've got to figure out how to adjust my resources to still get honey, but still practice grafting. Nearly out of boxes, but more importantly, we are running on fumes for pulling frames for mating nucs. I need to get to the point that the nucs can provide a frame each week to boost some hives into honey production and provide the needed frame for the mating nucs. Space in the yard is an increasing issue as well.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

We finally got our binder put together and I love it. So much easier to see what is going on and cut down on unnecessary work. 

I was checking the mating nucs for hatched cells and spotted a really tiny queen. I wasn't sure if she was actually a queen, but I think she was. Of course, right as I was thinking I should put it back in the box, she shot straight up for the trees. I hope she had already been on a mating flight and will come back. Just my luck.

One of the hives with a virgin queen only has a palm sized amount of queens. Do you suggest finding a way to add to the hive or just hope she returns with lots of friends?


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Hi Heather, i sure hope that young queen comes back. Say, i use the 5 frame nucs allot. Mine get 3 to 4 high before i rob from them. Thats a space saver, and equipment too. Seem that the nucs grow very fast for me. This year my splits are 5 frames of bees and brood, and if i have nectar or honey frames i can use, i top them off with a 5 framer of resources. So far so good, i got queen cells for all my splits, and when she comes back mated the hive is packed with bees, and lots of laying space, with generous amounts of stores for the new brood. After my losses, im slowing a bit. Not being as aggressive for the number of splits, but quality of the splits . Sorta my goal, to have stronger hives, for honey and bees. Fingers crossed. Hope you get your system working for you also. Numbers are great, it's all that darn equipment to build up. Then it's the lack of drawn frames, or the lack of resources. Whew...lol but I'm like you, I want a bunch of bees, and honey too. I do like your queen operation trials there. I bet it uses lots of resources too. All in it for fun, and a little knowledge... keep me posted rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

You have a good point with going up instead of out. I look forward to when I no longer am short on equipment. Does that every occur?

Question for you all: Do you think there will be a difference between introducing a virgin queen to a 3 frame nuc with a frame of brood (or 1 brood & 1 honey) vs doing it in a five frame nuc? Empty space is filled with empty frames.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Equipment shortages...what's that..lol
I like 3 frame nucs as you stated. Easier on the resources, once she starts laying stack the boxes up to 3 high, then be ready with 5 frame nucs. 3 high then to 10 frame equipment. I do prefer 5 framers if there is lots of brood frames, to start them with. I did mine 5 frames of brood/resources with 2nd box above as honey/pollen frames. They are busting loose now. After 3rd box with bees in 2 bottom, I can move them to 10 frame x2 high.. the plan anyway, or do a small 3 frame split from it.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I came home from the monthly bee club meeting to find this lovely young thing waiting for me. She will get direct released into a mating nuc tomorrow evening. Note how small the cell she came out of is. I was not sure it was even a good cell.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Richinbama said:


> Equipment shortages...what's that..lol
> I like 3 frame nucs as you stated. Easier on the resources, once she starts laying stack the boxes up to 3 high, then be ready with 5 frame nucs. 3 high then to 10 frame equipment. I do prefer 5 framers if there is lots of brood frames, to start them with. I did mine 5 frames of brood/resources with 2nd box above as honey/pollen frames. They are busting loose now. After 3rd box with bees in 2 bottom, I can move them to 10 frame x2 high.. the plan anyway, or do a small 3 frame split from it.


I plan to use tone brood frame, no matter which size box I use. The extra space will be filled in with empty frames. I'm just not sure if the extra space will be an issue. If not, it saves me time and resources.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JWPalmer said:


> I came home from the monthly bee club meeting to find this lovely young thing waiting for me. She will get direct released into a mating nuc tomorrow evening. Note how small the cell she came out of is. I was not sure it was even a good cell.
> 
> View attachment 48047
> 
> ...


I wonder how she even fit in that thing. I guess you just never know until that hatch.


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

I have been using one brood frame and something with a bit of food on it in a 5 frame box with remainder plastic foundation in wooden frames. Sometimes the food was in a feeder. Mediums and deeps... sometimes mix and match. I try to straighten things up as the queen begins to increase laying and provide correct frames and comb where I can.
I have also bought mini mating nucs from Mann Lake. Unfortunately they back ordered the tempQueen that I want to use on me.
Sooo... I can feel you pain with thin resources. I seem to be sailing on that lake too.
Have you thought about your exit plan for later? Getting the bees and boxes ready for your winter...


----------



## tpope (Mar 1, 2015)

JWPalmer said:


> I came home from the monthly bee club meeting to find this lovely young thing waiting for me. She will get direct released into a mating nuc tomorrow evening. Note how small the cell she came out of is. I was not sure it was even a good cell.


Thanks for sharing those pictures JWPalmer. I have some cells that I was on the fence about...

Hope she does well for you.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

tpope said:


> I have been using one brood frame and something with a bit of food on it in a 5 frame box with remainder plastic foundation in wooden frames. Sometimes the food was in a feeder. Mediums and deeps... sometimes mix and match. I try to straighten things up as the queen begins to increase laying and provide correct frames and comb where I can.
> I have also bought mini mating nucs from Mann Lake. Unfortunately they back ordered the tempQueen that I want to use on me.
> Sooo... I can feel you pain with thin resources. I seem to be sailing on that lake too.
> Have you thought about your exit plan for later? Getting the bees and boxes ready for your winter...


Good to know that the five frame is working for you with one brood in it. I think that is what I'll build this weekend. For winter, I have had no issues wintering in nucs. I may even play with the idea of setting up a few deep nucs for sales.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Interesting bees in the inspection today. One hive had some really nice almost reddish tint to the yellow. Another hive had what I think is newly hatched due to the very fuzzy tan thorax and barely any black. They looks so much lighter than the older bees that are probably from another hive. I wonder who she mated with.


----------



## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

Jadeguppy said:


> Interesting bees in the inspection today. One hive had some really nice almost reddish tint to the yellow. Another hive had what I think is newly hatched due to the very fuzzy tan thorax and barely any black. They looks so much lighter than the older bees that are probably from another hive. I wonder who she mated with.


A hot Italian sounds like.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

Running irrigation thru my main field the last several weeks gave me two ideas. I ran three sprinklers that cover all my hives. Throw one switch and I can protect them from fire or stop a robbing session which is more likely. But I thought of it because I was planning to burn the block they are in front of. So I waited till I had the sprinklers in place and pre soaked the grass. Worked like a champ. While I was at it I added a place to attach the hose under the only tree out in front of the hives (that I catch all the swarms on) and I'm going to ad a water feature with an automatic timer
so they always have fresh, cool, water. Haven't added the time or water feature yet, it will have to wait till I've finished the irrigation.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I'm nearly sure that my nuc that absconded ended up in my swarm trap. Timing matches. Happy we didn't lose her. On the down side, the flow seems to have slowed. Comb building slowed and I'm weeks passed when I expected to be doing my first harvest. Some of the other keepers in the area are experiencing the same thing. This should be gang busters time. I hope the recent rain kicks the nectar back into production.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Looks like our mini dearth may be coming to an end. It looked like a bit more honey was starting to come in a few days ago and the popcorn trees are starting to bloom. They are invasive here and growing wild in many areas. With all the new construction and habitat destruction, I hope there are enough for my girls to pull in a few boxes each.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Glad your mini dearth is ending. Rain hurts us here, as bees cant forage as well. But rain is good. Hows your queen rearing going? Im sure your packed full with em. Are you selling to any locals? Would be a nice little profit stream. !!!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Rich, queen rearing went south about the same time that the nectar was drying up. I haven't given up though. Some of the guys I have met said I can probably sell all the hives I want in the spring if I have them. Some of the locals had to do a group buy and drive a bit to get hives this year. One of the reason I am interested in selling locally is to help prevent import bee problems. Although, I don't know if that is even possible being so close to I-10. The trucks are north of me, but disease spreads.

Looks like we were wrong about the swarm trap. It looked like foragers going in and out, but when we took it down there isn't any comb started. Disappointing. Also, both the bees-in-homes calls we got ended with happy people, but no bees for us.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

It is official. Three hives slimmed, all very young and small hives. Bees are still in there, but I don't know if the queens are. No problems until the heat wave of June hit. We are removing the frames and trying to salvage what we can.

On a up note, I spotted a queen in the cut out box. The majority of the bees did not survive the vacuum, so I doubted she would. However, there is a queen excluder on the bottom and she is a big queen. I wonder if the workers balled around her to protect her. She has already been laying up a frame. They are now in a 3 frame nuc box. Just not enough bees for bigger. I had given them a frame of larvae and eggs and no queen cells were drawn, also indicating she is the cut out queen. Hopefully they were from a survival feral hive in the nearby national park. We also found some other new queens that successfully hatched and returned to start laying. Happy to have the wins.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Ouch ...slimmed. ? Hive beetles or wax moths ? I live by beetle busters. And wax moths, I'm thinking if a hive is strong you won't have them bad. I put 2 beetle busters on ends of each box. On each layer. Veg. Oil in them. Havnt seen but 1 or 2 so far this year. But, all my hives are super strong, as well as the splits. I put like 3 frames of brood and bees in 5 frame nuc along with pollen/honey frames on outside. Then I do a 2nd 5 frame box with 2 frames in center with brood and bees, and 3 frames 1 honey/pollen, and 2 frames with foundation. They hit fast, and I also take queen from original hive, or if q.c. on frame I use it. They bust at the seems in 2 weeks, and ready for 10 frame hive, or I really like adding a 3rd five frame box. After 1 month, 2 10 frame boxes and 20 frames. It like putting 10 frames of bees, and 5 frames of resources at the get go. They pop for me. I changed up from last year. Less splits, but make stronger ones at the beginning.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

The weak starter splits were fine earlier in the year, but shb slimmed them this week. Same time that the heat did a jump into the 90s. I know I lost one queen, but the others may not have made it back. I shouldn't have had so much comb in there. They just couldn't defend it. Live and learn. Starting mid-May I will have to be sure all mating nucs or splits are strong. We have a few more to do and will build them stronger. They no longer have as much time to build up anyway so they need the head start. Current queen count is 17. Goal was 20. Almost there. Honey goal was 10 boxes. I don't think we will make that goal, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can get close.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Despite the setbacks, your Q+ hive count continues to grow. SHB has not become a problem up here yet this year. Only found a few when inspecting a bunch of the hives last weekend. Those I did find got the ol hive tool test. As mentioned in the past, my bees are heavy propolisers, I say this because there were corrals built on the ends of the top bars, yet there were no beetles in them. Do the bees predict the infestation and take preemptive measures? I woundnt have thought so but I know a SHB corral when I see one and there was one on the warmer end of every frame in the upper brood box.

If you are.keeping score, I am at 24Q+,.1LW, and 1 to be mated. I have a capped qc in a mating nuc to give to the LW hive at a later date. 19 of the 26 are in 10 frame equipment and 7 are in nucs. The LW hive is in a nuc now as there just weren't enough bees left to cover the the frames they were in. Hope to start grafting again in two weeks. I want to make a 5 frame cell starter this weekend. Speaking of this weekend, I will be attending a workshop given by Kirsten Traynor this Saturday. Hope to fine tune my splitting technique


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

I hate them.darn buggers. Sounds like ya did ok with the queens. 10 boxes would be nice. Hope ya get it. !!! 
Me started with 1 hive and 1 nuc I believe. 4 strong hives right now , and 1 nuc started this weekend. No queen or queen cell. Making their own. But they are strong right now. Will pull a frame of foundation this coming weekend, and add another frame of bees and brood to them. I'm looking at between 3 and 4 med. Boxes of honey to pull asap, before dearth hits. I'll be feedin pollen sub, and sugar water then. Also, will pull syrup frames to freezer be for fall flow. And put them back before winter after harvest. Then throw the syrup to them again until cold hits us. Just got to protect from them darn rats better this winter.
Rich


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

grafting queens, making up nucs, 20+ hives...

sounds like you are off and running and really making good progress jg!

i think it's time we graduate your thread out of the 101 subforum. good job!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JW, That sounds great. I am tinkering with setting up a cell starter and having another go at grafting. I haven't grafted in weeks and needed somewhere to put an unexpected swarm cell, so in the cell starter it went and she is going gang busters. I've got to handle my equipment shortage first though. Only about 30 frames, no nuc boxes or hive boxes, 1 10 frame lid, no bottoms, no nuc bottoms or tops. We ordered hive boxes and frames, but I've gotta get to work on the rest. School year is over as of yesterday, so I'm looking forward to some time to work on it.

Rich, That sounds like a good harvest for you. I may have overplayed my hands and cut myself short on honey harvest. Hopefully the box or two we plan to harvest Thursday will help get more in since they won't have to build the comb for it. I can't imagine how much honey I would have if they weren't constantly building comb. I'll have 200-300 more frames comb by the end of this year.

Squarepeg, Thanks for the kudos. You are one of the ones that helped me get here. I'll be starting my first out yard shortly. Only taking two up there until we decide the location is critter safe and the homeowner is comfortable. His neighbor has a single hive, which is also a concern for us. Breeder hives are staying here.

off topic side note- The process to pull the boat engine is finally scheduled to start Friday. *fingers crossed* that it isn't as bad as we think it is.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

Jadeguppy said:


> Thanks for the kudos.


:thumbsup:

there was some discussion a while back about creating a subforum for folks who were taking the time to journal their experience like you are doing in this thread jg, but it hasn't happened yet.

your skill level and the thread discussion has matured beyond the 101 level. i'm going to 'graduate' the thread to the main bee forum for now, and if/when we end with up with a subforum for those journaling your thread will end up there.

many thanks and please keep us posted!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Yea. I've officially graduated.  Kinda cool. I'll keep updating. Hopefully I can pay forward what you all have done for me.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Way to go Heather! You are certainly beyond the 101 stage. In fact, you are now ready for a bee related tattoo. Some ink to show the kids when you go back in the fall! Maybe I'm kidding, maybe I'm not.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JWPalmer said:


> Way to go Heather! You are certainly beyond the 101 stage. In fact, you are now ready for a bee related tattoo. Some ink to show the kids when you go back in the fall! Maybe I'm kidding, maybe I'm not.


LOL. When I started teaching all ink had to be covered and the kids weren't to know we had it. I had a strong dislike of needles, so it has never been an issue for me. However, beekeeping related things posted in my room are a definite, including a bottle of honey on my desk for coffee and tea and when my throat gets sore. Maybe next year I should keep a running count of how many times I've been stung.

Bee plans for today have been rained out. I hoped for a long enough break to do a couple of things, but I doubt we will get it. That means no building of wooden ware either.  Double bummer, that means inside house chores.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Looks like comb building has ended for some of the hives that aren't fed. I was surprised to find empty frames in the bottom box of my strongest hive. Looks like three mediums for brood may be more than she needed. I'm disappointed that they still haven't capped all the honey in the top deep and didn't finish building out every frame in the box below that. I really expected to be harvesting it. We are at the end of the flow and rain hit yesterday and will continue off and on for the next five days. This may be end of the season and start of dearth for us. I hope I'm wrong. Even a trickle to slowly fill out the remaining supers would be nice.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Some of the hives are getting stronger, but we lost one of the marginal hives. The smaller ones that don't have honey stores are starting to have trouble and require sugar water. Still hopeful to get a few more splits in before the dragons flies ruin queen breeding and end the season.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

I gotta pull all my honey yet. I still havnt ordered my extractor yet. All my hives are strong so far. After honey pulled I'll do splits and feed, and pollen patties to all of em. Ouch dragon flies. I don't see em here like you do there. Of course, the creeks are all around me, so dragons are too. I see them a little here


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

How much honey do you think you will get? I'm only get to honey off some hives. Most were too busy building up or too late in the flow to store full boxes. I don't expect to make my 10 box goal, but may get closer to it than I thought I would a couple of weeks ago. Maybe we will get lucky and have a strong fall flow to finish out 10 boxes.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Heather, I think ill get about 3 full boxes. Of course I'll have any extra going to splits and leaving a little to existing hives. Then feed them to prep for winter. I'll not pull any at fall flow. Wow, 10 boxes. That's great !!! I'm sure you will make that. Did you ever locate a 2nd yard.?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I have a homeowner about 45 minutes from me that can probably take up to ten hives. The guy next door to him has a hive, which concerns me. I may put robber cages on the hive and offer him one to limit drift and robbing. Someone with a single hive makes me think that he may not be preventing collapses, but I hope I'm wrong. I will keep my breeding stock at my yard.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Yup, sounds like a plan. I'll do an outward or 2 on my place in the future. No bee keepers near me for miles. Thank goodness. But, there are allot of wild/federal colonies in woods around me though.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Richinbama said:


> Yup, sounds like a plan. I'll do an outward or 2 on my place in the future. No bee keepers near me for miles. Thank goodness. But, there are allot of wild/federal colonies in woods around me though.


That is the best situation. The feral should help provide good genetics and a lack of locals helps keep you from having imported issues.


----------



## Westy53 (May 18, 2019)

Question, I see in you signature block you say you are in Hardiness zone 9a. Are you referring to the USDA Hardiness zone? I thought Northwest Florida was zone 8b. Is there another "zone" map for bee keping?
Thanks for your time.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Hi Westy. We use the same USDA zone map. Jadeguppy lives on the water near Pensacola, so her temps stay just slightly warmer.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Most of NW Florida is zone 8b, but Palmer is correct. I am so close to the Gulf of Mexico to my south and have an additional body of water slightly north of me that I am in a different zone than the rest of my county. I was a bit surprised to see it, but it explains some of the differences. Robbin lives just ne of me, and we have had some differences that are most likely due to the slight climate difference. It has been interesting to see.

Edit- Westy, I just noticed you are in Santa Rosa as well. I'm very close to the 87/98 connection. Once you go from 98 up 87 toward the Eglin wildness area it changes somewhere around that area. I believe Milton is zone 8b.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Harvested a few more boxes today. We seem to be averaging 23# per box. On the low side, but I'll take it. How much are you all averaging per box?


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Heather, I am averaging about 3# per medium frame using a motorized extractor. These have been mostly first year comb so they are not drawn as deep and were run 10 to the box. I managed to get four 1-1/2# or better sections of cut comb from a few foundationless mediums and two jars of chunk comb honey from some wonky comb I had to cut out. Learned an important lesson too: 
Do not leave your black plastic foundation comb on the deck for the bees to clean up. Apparently the black foundation gets real hot...as in over 140°F. Yep, destroyed five nicely drawn combs. Oops.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Ouch, that is hot. These are all newly drawn out as well and were shallow. I haven't been able to talk hubby into selling comb honey. *bangs head*

Did a walk away split today and expanded three of the hives I made earlier in the year. Big fracking mess was made on one of them. They apparently draw out part of a frame to around the width of three frames. Psycho bees. That turned into big chunks and honey falling all over the inside of the hive. That particular hive has still been doing a lot of bearding today. I can just hear their little brains cursing me for the horrible mess I made.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Hi Heather, havnt seen ya around much lately. Hope all is well, and the storms pass around you.. Rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

It looks like my late June-July splits are all failing to return mated queens. I'm about to give up and start recombining.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Hi Heather, my splits didn't do so well either. I did several, and recombine all but one. I'm going through that box either today or tomorrow to check if a queen made it back. If not, I'll end season with only 5 or 6 strong hives. I wasn't as aggressive this year, as I lost allot last winter to the rats/mice. But a good year anyway. Not sure why they didn't come back. Mabye they were eaten by birds, got lost or something else??? One of those seasons i guess. Ill try a couple more if i see drones in hives though. As id like to end with about 10 if do able... glad to see you back. Rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

At this point of the year, I suspect the dragonflies are snacking on mating queens down here. I had thought I got many of the splits in early enough, but I no longer think that. Looks like May will be the end of splitting in the future. I plan to focus on February splits and nucs sales next year anyway.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I was doing a hive inspection Sunday am, looking for a frame of brood to add to a failed split and had a dragonfly swoop down right in front of me, grab a bee, and take off. Right in front of me, the nerve! Hoping the queens fare better.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JWPalmer said:


> I was doing a hive inspection Sunday am, looking for a frame of brood to add to a failed split and had a dragonfly swoop down right in front of me, grab a bee, and take off. Right in front of me, the nerve! Hoping the queens fare better.


Wow! That was salt being rubbed into a wound.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Yes , dragonflies are here also. I saw hornets around, but they didn't go into hives. Many guards, or bees on front of entrance. I'd say several hundred or more on each hive. Also, my nic is queenright !!! 5 frame x2 and 6 frames capped brood !!! I added a third... More details In my rich in bama page here. I'll write my inspection report there. Hope all is well Heather & j.w. ....... Rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

That is great that the nuc has a queen. Dragon flies are beautiful, but I now feel a sense of disappointment when seeing them and knowing queen rearing is at an end.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Sometimes it is good to be wrong. All but one queen made it back. I have reached my hive number goal and many of them are very strong. Once again we are running short on comb. Temps are still high enough to build comb and a few a stimulated to do it.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Hi Heather, hope your bee season went well !!! Havnt seen ya on here lately? Hope all is well. Rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Richinbama said:


> Hi Heather, hope your bee season went well !!! Havnt seen ya on here lately? Hope all is well. Rich


 I've been way too busy since school started back up. We managed to get up to 20, but have lost a few since then. I broke down and did an oav treatment. The queens that I received from Fat Bee Man are not handling varroa as well as my other bees. How are you doing?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Went out to check that they aren't building up moisture and to put some sugar trays on and we are down to 14. Nearly every hive we have lost was from a Dixie Bee aka Fat Bee Man queen we bought this year. The varroa losses appear to all be from those queens. I'm never buying from them again. All hives ended up treated with OAV, but it was too late for some. Not sure if the feed went in too early, but I'm off work and can check in a few days. Only two hives were showing hive beetles and they had a bunch in jail. Temp has risen back up to about 70 with night temps in mid 40s. We are giving the open air frame stand a try for storing frames. With the collapses and taking supers off, we have way more than will fit in the deep freezers. Some of the hives are down to slightly smaller than basketball sized clusters while others still fill two boxes. Moisture is starting to be a issue, so half of them had small shims stapled to the lids to lift them up a tad. Couldn't find the political sign boards, but had plenty of paint stirs to break and staple in.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Thanks for update Heather. So sorry that your experiment with supposedly superior bee stock fell flat. I lost a few nucs recently also due to either insufficient stores or robbing. All I saw were dead bees and empty combs. Looking forward to the T-day holiday and several days to play with the girls. OAV and sugar bricks are high on the list. Probably top off all the feeders with 2:1 while I am at it. Picked up a few Ceracell feeders for the remaining nucs. They hold a lot more than the pint mason jars I have been using.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Sorry to hear about your losses. I didnt do many splits this year. Actually only one. I'm at 5 and holding, till spring. Then it's on !!! I got lots of equipment up, and will make more before spring. All 5 are doing well, and full of honey from fall, and syrup I've been feeding . Open fed. The late split is full of bees, and packing in the syrup also. I'll be putting mouse guards on this week though. Lost 5 last year to them... I did finally get my extractor. A.manual one off Amazon. 4 framer. Did a nice job though. I only processed 5 gal, and was a bit late. Some.nice honey though. Was spring and fall honey, mixed. Was a med. Dark color, and taste really nice. Sold 4 gallons, as soon as I put it up for sale. Gave away some, and plenty in the pantry for us. 
Say, j.w. I really wanted the electric extractor you mentioned. I'll probably spring for it after next season though. Sure looked like a nice unit !!!. Hope all goes well this winter with the bees. Keep us updated. Also, glad to see ya back Heather. Happy holidays... Rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JWPalmer said:


> Thanks for update Heather. So sorry that your experiment with supposedly superior bee stock fell flat. I lost a few nucs recently also due to either insufficient stores or robbing. All I saw were dead bees and empty combs. Looking forward to the T-day holiday and several days to play with the girls. OAV and sugar bricks are high on the list. Probably top off all the feeders with 2:1 while I am at it. Picked up a few Ceracell feeders for the remaining nucs. They hold a lot more than the pint mason jars I have been using.


My other hives from local queens and some hygienics I bought two years ago are doing well. Biggest problem with them is the goldenrod coming in a month late. How many hives are you at atm?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Richinbama said:


> Sorry to hear about your losses. I didnt do many splits this year. Actually only one. I'm at 5 and holding, till spring. Then it's on !!! I got lots of equipment up, and will make more before spring. All 5 are doing well, and full of honey from fall, and syrup I've been feeding . Open fed. The late split is full of bees, and packing in the syrup also. I'll be putting mouse guards on this week though. Lost 5 last year to them... I did finally get my extractor. A.manual one off Amazon. 4 framer. Did a nice job though. I only processed 5 gal, and was a bit late. Some.nice honey though. Was spring and fall honey, mixed. Was a med. Dark color, and taste really nice. Sold 4 gallons, as soon as I put it up for sale. Gave away some, and plenty in the pantry for us.
> Say, j.w. I really wanted the electric extractor you mentioned. I'll probably spring for it after next season though. Sure looked like a nice unit !!!. Hope all goes well this winter with the bees. Keep us updated. Also, glad to see ya back Heather. Happy holidays... Rich


That is a fast sell. How did you advertise? Did you sell it by the gallon? Sounds like you are in a good place to have a booming spring this coming year. I'm still using my manual two framer. I don't think we will be taking our numbers any higher, so it will probably work well enough for me for at least the next few years. I hope the guards do the trick for you this year.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Hi Heather, I sold all mine as pts. And qts. I sold over Facebook local marketplace. Also, a few to neighbors, ect
Sold all of it in about 3 days. Could have made more honey, but several boxes (3-4) were uncapped, but wouldn't drip from frames if shaken. I opted to leave it for the bees winter feed. 
How many hives do you have now? I know you grown a bit this summer. .. rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Topped out at 20, down to 14. The weather took a couple out due to starvation. The others appear to the from the queens I bought from Fat Bee Man/ Dixie Bees that crashed from varroa. My locals and hygienics I bought the year before are still going. I'll never buy from there again. I'm about to do another round of oav just in case. I"ll give Facebook a try. How many pounds did you sell that way?


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Jadeguppy said:


> Topped out at 20, down to 14. The weather took a couple out due to starvation. The others appear to the from the queens I bought from Fat Bee Man/ Dixie Bees that crashed from varroa. My locals and hygienics I bought the year before are still going. I'll never buy from there again. I'm about to do another round of oav just in case. I"ll give Facebook a try. How many pounds did you sell that way?


Honestly I didn't weigh any. Did sell 1 case pts. And 3 qts. I had 8 pts in reserve for us to use. I harvested a little over 5 gal. I could have taken 2-3 more boxes
I left em on the hives, weren't capped, but were ready. You couldn't hardly shake a drop from them. Bees will eat well this winter.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

I'm ending with5 very strong hives. I'll split heavy this spring from 2 of them. The3 others are honey production. I may have to split em at some time though. Don't want a swarm !!! Lol


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Checkerboarding up kept my strongest from swarming. You have to keep on top of them though. I was using empty frames since I didn't have extra comb.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

I used starter strips in my frame because of lack of drawn frames 2 
I did checkerboard allot and kept all hives from swarming, and only did one split . Worked well for me also. I should have plenty of drawn frames after spring flow this Year. Now for an extra freezer for all that. Was a great year for bee keeping , and lokk foward to a even better on coming up. Say, if you want to sample some of my joney, p.m. addy I'll send you some. I have a few 1/2 pint jars left.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I'm late getting back to answer. Rich, how about I take you up on that after the coming flow?
Down to 14, but staying steady after the fast loss of fat bee man queen's hives. Good riddance of bad genetics. I've started advertising nuc sales in my area. Not sure the demand, but many of the guys say I will be able to sell whatever I make. The club had to do combined orders on road trips last year. Honey sales are humming along. Starting to get repeats from new customers. May actually have a market for the little bit I produce. We may be picking up some lumber new years day to make some deep nucs for those that prefer deeps. I've been busy repotting orchids and trying to save what I have left there after too much neglect combined with a spider mite outbreak. Temps have been hitting the low 70s lately and bees have been flying. I'm wondering if we will have an early buildup...


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

The season has officially begun. After multiple rain spoiled scheduled attempts to check the hives, we finally got a look. Temp today- 57F. Down to 11 hives. Several are strong enough to add a super. Those all have capped drone in them. We are starting our first splits of the season. A few of the hives still look like winter clusters. This is the first year we will be going into with plenty of old comb to start splits with. We used the open air method to store them and it appears to have worked well.


----------



## Jtcmedic (Apr 7, 2017)

Same here had open drones last week soo gonna look tomorrow if nice, to see when I am gonna start splitting. Gonna be a nice warm week here next week


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Glad your bees are doing good there Heather. Yes, plenty of drawn comb is kewl !!! Early drones aren't bad either. I've had brood all winyer I think. Havnt been in hives last couple of weeks. But, I've seen orientation flights outside hives. Also, lots of pollen coming in. All hives seem fairly heavy right now. Splits for me mid March or early April I'm thinking. Lots of rain here this winter, and less cold than usual. I'll check in hives in next week or 2 . I'm sure I'll be doing swarm prep sooner this year, as all hive are looking very strong a few weeks ago. These warm days are sorta tricky. So, the bees may be starting ? A bit early. Good and bad I guess. Good for spring build up, but if cold steps back In... may be an issue.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Yes, a bad cold snap to kill buds could be an issue. It has been a mild winter, but drones show early enough here for splits to be made and have laying queens by the end of February many years. This is just the first I've been this proactive this early. We are looking forward to this year.

BTW, does anyone know of a good source to read up on how to target nectar flows?


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Jadeguppy said:


> BTW, does anyone know of a good source to read up on how to target nectar flows?


A recent topic of discussion.
https://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?359427-Resources-on-Nectar-Flow-Timing


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

JW, Thank you

Update: We went to split a double nuc that we saw packed Saturday and 90% of the bees were dead at the bottom. It looks like they starved. Massive pile of dead bees. Heart breaking. The queen is still alive so we knocked it down to a single, added a frame of hatching brood with some nurse bees, and two feeders. That was to be a split for a guy who wants two nucs. Disappointing set back.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Sorry you lost the hive that was to split. I've been checking the weights of all my hives through winter. All mine seem fairly heavy , except one. I'll open feed a bit in the next week after this rain. All my hives are popping, and bringing in tons of pollen. Before this 3 days of rain. I'll put out some 1 to1 or 2 to 1 syrup Fri or Sat.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I'm not happy with how some of them are starting the season. This has been a mild winter. Not sure how much is due to that or other factors. I'm nearly positive I've lost ALL the fat bee man queened hives. Good riddance to those genetics.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Marked a queen late morning, early afternoon. 4:15, we went back out to put in some pollen pattie and found her balled at the entrance of a much bigger hive, four boxes down. Her hive was the smallest. We caged her in a roller cage and put her back. I'll check tomorrow and see if she made it and can be released. Any ideas on why she left her hive and tried to get into the biggest one? Is there something different about Painters brand than POSCA? I"m going to go ahead and post the pen question as a stand alone.


----------



## Cloverdale (Mar 26, 2012)

Jadeguppy said:


> Marked a queen late morning, early afternoon. 4:15, we went back out to put in some pollen pattie and found her balled at the entrance of a much bigger hive, four boxes down. Her hive was the smallest. We caged her in a roller cage and put her back. I'll check tomorrow and see if she made it and can be released. Any ideas on why she left her hive and tried to get into the biggest one? Is there something different about Painters brand than POSCA? I"m going to go ahead and post the pen question as a stand alone.


I think you might have had a queen in there and they were balling her and she got away to another hive or there was something wrong with her; not sure about the paint.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Good news on the queen that was balled. We forgot she was in a cage, but three days caged and all was good. They were feeding her. She was released Wednesday. Tomorrow I'll check for eggs. I suspect it was the pen.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Hoping for eggs !!!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Things are booming here now. Good flow and getting queens back. Working from home, like many. Starting to run out of some of the woodenware, which I didn't expect to happen.

My car was totaled. It is the one we use when transporting bees. For now, we are a one car family. Working from home has actually taken some pressure off us. I do need to figure out what we want that will also work for bee equipment.

Swarm season is in full swing. We got a call to help cut hives out of a house's soffits. Multiple hives, all look new. Few days later a call came for a swarm in a tree only blocks away. Somewhere there are hives spitting out swarms that seem to all migrate to these few streets. The tree swarm was big and is doing great. I'll take those calls all day long.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Way to go Heather. Swarm season on !!!. Sorry bout your car. Hope you all doing well. Rich
Oh, glad to see ya back online.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Happy Easter Heather and family !!! Hope you guys are doing well, in sunny Florida 😊


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Hi Heather and hubby !!!
Just checking on you guys. Havnt seen many post from ya lately. So, how are you guys and the bees doing? Hope all is well down south in sunny florida !!!


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Thank Rich. The schools went virtual and we had to MacGyver a month of assignments in what amounts to less than two days. Then figure out how to use the online program, document contact with 140 students each week, many of whom ignored phone calls and texts, and do it all over again from May. Very unusual events lately. However, we are doing well. After two months with no car, I finally have my own wheels again. 

Hives are doing well. Our strongest is actually the one we constantly pulled from to make splits. I've been reflecting on that and I think it helped to keep the brood area open for her to lay in. My back was strained this week, so hubby got into some of the hives. He said they had a lot of capped honey in the brood area. We are working to clear that out. I think I'm noticing the signs better and hopefully will do a better job preventing it next year.

We got a call for a swarm up about 12 feet on a tree limb. Hubby doesn't know how he got talked into it, but I didn't feel secure enough in my hold on the box so he ended up on the ladder that was on a truck bed, holding the hive box several feet under the swarm as I shook them down. What a sight! I really need to start recording this type of thing. Well, that swarm was a good basketball sized one and is now one of the hives with the most honey. They had six rows of comb on the lid before I had a chance to get frames in. Of course they ignored the frames in the bottom box. *bangs head*

We went through a drought. You may have heard of the Five Mile Swamp Fire. That was across the bay, north of me. One of the commercial honey operations had hives there. They say they lost thousands of pounds of honey. My girls had slowed down bringing in the nectar. Then it finally rained and WHOA they filled the boxes fast. I have two boxes they decided to go sideways with comb. Partly my fault for putting two empty frames next to each other. Oh, and I now have a deep full of honey. We are leaving it that way and will just put a container under the box when I start cutting comb and frames out for extraction. It will be interesting. First time I've had it so bad that I left it that way. Current estimate is that we have an much capped honey on the hives now as we harvested all last year. If the weather holds, I'll be opening up some more brood areas this weekend.

How are you all doing?


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Doing well here Heather. Lots of rain, and lost a few hives. I figure they were cooped up, and when it cleared, they flew the coop. I had 14 hives, now 9. All looking very nice, even the nucs. After I pull honey in next few weeks, I'll make splits, feed and grow em for our fall flow. 
Glad you got the car situation up and going again. And school, I know that's a drag doing all that extra, and no real face contact. I bet those kids are mostly just going through the motions. Kinda hard on the teachers trying to give them a quality education. 
And your Bees, glad they making you lots of honey !!! The big box with all the cross comb... I'd do same as you, let it be till flow over. Pull, crush and strain all you have to. Salvage the good frames. It does happen. I'll get a nice little honey crop, as mine are smaller but coming strong hives. I was down that my best 2 hives bailed on me though. I did lots of splits from them though. It was an attempt at slowing them a bit. Just didn't work out as planned with all the rain
I didn't get to get into them before It happened. Work, life, and all sometimes keeps us at bay on these bees...lol jeep in touch, always good to hear from you guys. Rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

We managed to open up a couple of brood boxes that were full of honey on Sunday before the rain hit. The winds were predicted to be 50 mph and it looks like strong winds came through. Bees are fine and they are flying today. I hope our season stretches out another month to fill out the supers we just added due to opening the brood boxes. Splits will have to start before dragonflies get strong. Interestingly, my three year old queen is still going. Not as strong as the younger queens, but I'm curious how long she will keep going before they replace her. I'll probably use the splits as brood breaks for varroa. Seemed to work well last year on my local queens.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Glad all is well. How big of a honey harvest do you expect this spring? I think mine will be fair one. Disappointed to loose 2 very nice and large hives to swarming.. I suspect. Lost half my honey on that issue. I've got to pull some boxes asap, and get the honey machine rolling. One hive is so heavy, I about tipped the stand weight testing/lifting the backside. All splits will keep theirs, and larger hives full, just need to extract, and let em clean up frames. Then back they go. Not sure how long our spring flow actually last here. Been so rainy, and all. I do have lots of clover , Dutch, and hundreds of acres around my 60. Most just pasture, and allot of trees and tree species. I'll be getting some wildflowers ordered soon. I'll want to sow them in late fall I think, in hopes of spring blooms for the bees next year. Wow, the prices are on the high side. I may try a small acre of buckwheat sometime soon, as the cows will love it after bloom. Have a good day Heather and hubby.... rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I expect the honey harvest to be bigger than last year. We are starting to pull today. The past couple of weeks kept us out of the hives. You are lucky to have all that land to play with. Unfortunately, building is going gang busters around here and the woods are being cut down left and right. Not good for the bees. I've lost a production hive and have some trouble shooting to do on two others. Posted in disease section. With the heat, I'm not sure what is safe to treat with or if a forced brood break will handle it. On those two, I suspect they need treated. I debating what to do with a few that only have a medium worth of brood space, but our flow is past prime. On one hand, I don't want to risk them backfilling, on the other I don't want to expand and have them ignore the extra space causing other issues. On the up side, some of the hives didn't show many hive beetles and this time of year is usually very heavy with them. Some did have a lot, but fewer than I recall from last year. It may be time to put down some more DE. I think we will be doing splits for new queens, swarm prevention, and prep for next year starting this week.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Forgot to mention that they have replaced the red queen. This was her third year and I was wondering how long she would last. The new queen is laying well.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Sorry about the habitat loss. And disease issues.... ouch, wht happened? 
My harvest went kaput.... I'll get one but I had that back procedure done. All looked well, and I worked hives thorough before it. 2 weeks later, most honey gone, and mlre than half my bees gone. All swarmed but 2 !!! I'll recover, but geez, I had truck and everything to harvest, and I pulled up.. Things looked quieter than normal.... boom, no honey to mention. I'll go back In a couple days , put all in order, and regroup. Lots of clover and stuff in bloom. I guess the rain has helped. But dearth is soon upon us ...


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Ouch, that hurts. I wish I had clover fields around here. Crepe myrtles are blooming, but only certain varieties are any good for bees.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

When the heat cranks up, as in now.. and the rains stop... So goes my white dutch...


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

The heat here has decimated the white Dutch for me too. Normally, it will tide the bees over until I get all the supers off and start feeding. Not this year. Went out last night and found three of my hives empty and robbed out. Down to 19 hives and two nucs. Two other nucs are Q- so I think they will die out before I have queens for them. Brooding has slowed way down, should find out this evening if I even have eggs to make some queens with. Picked up 200# of sugar at Wallyworld and broke open the new bag of Ultrabee sub.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

The bees are flying here, but I'm not sure what they are bringing in. Hopefully it will stay enough to maintain them until fall. Most have brood nests with lots of honey and pollen and I plan to leave them that way through the summer and splits.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Working on splits today. Darn swarm hive is still building like crazy. Love it. Hive 3, which is one I was concerned of disease is swarming with hive beetles. No larvae yet and the queen is back to laying well. We split out a nuc, tore the queened side to ten frames, and put the rest in the freezer. Hopefully we can give them back the honey afterwards. Don't like freezing capped brood, but it was crawling with beetles and a slimed hive is a dead hive. They were building swarm cells. Fingers crossed it works. This is the hive that was next to our large crashed hive. I think the nasties went to them.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Heather, I recently discovered that If you expose an infested frame to direct and hot sunlight, the SHB larvae will abandon the frame like rats from a sinking ship. Does not take long to become larvae free. Try it next time you have a frame. Just set it out on top of a hive, or better yet, on top of a pan of DE. They will fall off the frame by the hundreds.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I'll keep that in mind. The split all flew back to the original and the queen cups went downhill all within 24 hrs. Thought I had enough nurse bees, but guess not. I will probably end up going into winter a bit weaker than I wanted. We have one more hive that concerns me, but couldn't get to yesterday. With heat indexes near 115 on some days we are only working short hours in late afternoon.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

I understand the heat. We have been hitting 100 for the past few days now with fairly high humidity. No idea what the heat index is. Comb left outside the hive melts and make a huge mess. Killed a virgin queen that I was getting ready to install into a queenless hive. Set her on top of the second hive body to help get the bees get acclimated to her while making sure the hive was still queenless, and she was dead when I went to release her. Box was in direct sunlight. Oops.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Ouch. Lossing a queen of any type right now is a set back that can push into the no queen return time period.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Lost 4 hives. Most were failed splits that probably flew back home since I only have this yard, but one was the strong mother hive left after a split. Oh my, is it just me or are the hive beetles out of control this year? I've noticed what looks to be higher numbers and they took over in no time. I am also wondering if hive beetle numbers tend to be higher if you have more hives. Stronger smell?
@13 hives currently


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Hi Heather, I do believe that all the rain, and high humidity has helped the beetles out this spring. And I feel they are coming in droves to our hives. Despite good mgmt. And allot of attempts, I've lost several to them, and really fast too. 3rd yr. And the worst yet. Also, allot more swarming this year, than in the past. Just my thoughts, that may not be reality...lol

Oh, how's the back?


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Ok. Not just my imagination then.

I end up in a lot of pain if I learn over the hives to look in them and am not daring to pick up boxes. Hubby is having to pull frames and hand them to me. It is sounding like multiple surgeries will be in my future.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Hive beetles are out of control this year. I'm not sure why they choose certain hives, but they have. Bought beetle traps, the clear ones and in one week a couple of hives had them full. Many were fine and only had some in them, but wow the ones that filled them to the point the beetles were crawling out of the traps. The hive we had downsized after treatment and the queen was laying gangbusters, now has beetles in most of the open cells and all over the capped brood. We think the queen and at least half the bees are gone. The remaining ones were taken over. Not slimed out yet, but it is as good as gone. I've never seen the beetles this numerous. I wonder if the very mild winter was a factor. The chickens now recognize the feast they will get when we move a hive box near them. Oh how they paced back and forth waiting to get out to eat the maggots. On the up side, we enjoyed watching a few very fat lizards that hang out around and on the hives.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Hi Heather, I pulled my honey yesterday. Very small harvest. Of my 7 hives, I got 1nfull box. I didn't pull any uncapped, and most uncapped were dry enough to pull. I lost allot of honey and hives to swarming. I think spring and early summer rains, and cooler than normal set up the swarm season for me. Hives packed with bees , and all the rain. When the rain quit, the beea did the okey dokie on me. Beetles were bad this year, i assume all the moisture, and not hot and rainy days allot here, helped them out allot. Should be a good fall flow though, if continues as is now conditions.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Sorry to hear you didn't get more honey, but glad you did get some. Seems everyone I talk to around here says hive beetle numbers are super high this year. I hope you are right on the fall flow. Last year was a dud.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

I'm seeing light pollen come in now. Hope the nectar starts soon. Did a little cleanup from beetles. Grrr. A struggling nuc was emptied, and found eggs, so queen still there. Removed and cleaned all webs, and bad comb frames. Put in good comb from extracting the other day. New bottom board ect. Man, I hate them beetles and moths. But, they should recover well. I added a good frame of almost ready to cap nectar. They were out of stores. Next mission is to do 4 weeks of o.a. asap. As fall on the way. 
Hope you are doing well, and the bees thrive for ya... Rich


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Hi Heather!!! How are the fall bees coming along? Havnt seen ya on in a bit. Rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Hi Rich! Yes, those beetles have been unbelievable this year. School started and it is a mess. The district wasn't ready for kids to be some in brick and some remote and the remote was completely a mess. We still can't get answers to some basic questions or reliable access to programs. Between the massive amount of work for that and the continual doctor appointments due to the car wreck, I had to ask my husband to take over the care of the bees. I have avoided lifting, looking downward, and most everything else in order to manage a lower pain level. Unfortunately, he didn't understand the importance of feeding the smaller, newer hives and we have lost about half our hives. I managed to go out last Sunday and almost all the hives were on the verge of starvation. I've only seen a few stalks of golden rod open up the past few days. I'm looking at possibly being put back to where I was two or three years ago. Wish I had better news. The up side is I have started pain management and the preliminary impact is promising. It will be 2-3 more months until they can finish the rounds of shots for both regions. If you even get in a car wreck and see it coming, go limp. You don't want to go through what I've been dealing with. Just go limp and let the body swing.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

I do understand the pain of hurt back. Ive had mine for almost 20 years. It had gotten so bad, i had to do pain mgmt a few years back. To avoid a surgery, and just keep on working. Be careful with the meds. Docs get mad at me for insisting onnminimal ammounts. Surgeon wants to fuse back, and install rods up my back. There goes my business, and my farm to boot. So, i just keep pluggin along. Back issues are real, and no fun.. ever. 
As to the bees... It's been a ruff year on mine. I'm down ton6, but looking good there. Feeding a few light ones. The pest, beetles, and then moths were murder on me . I'll get to pull a little honey, and feed like crazy. We're in a late flow here. About 2 weeks left I'll guess. Then rains, and colder I'm guessing. Won't be freezing here till December I'm thinking. Keep me updated, as as you can. Be kewl, rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Will do. WE just lost our biggest hive. It was one of two that didn't get oa. Had hoped it would be fine with splitting, but it was too strong for its own good. Not getting out there is killing my apiary. I've got neck and lumbar, rotator cups, digestive, throat, and joint issues from the wreck and I walked away. Finally got on pain management, but it isn't pills. Shots between the vertebra. Has been helping, but I turned my head sharply Friday and felt grinding. Hurting since. Lost 50% of the range of motion, but shots were helping get some back. Check out Laser Spine Institute. My friend worked with them when local docs want to fuse and use rods. One week recovery and he has been great since then. From what I understand they take a different approach. They also sign off that if your insurance backs out of covering the surgery, they will write it off. That happened to him and he only paid his deductible. They wrote the rest off.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Night temps have dropped near freezing lately. Much earlier than usual and that is for years they actually get that low. We are down to 4 hives and I'm not sure more than two will make it. Build up usually starts in January and queens are breeding in February here, so I'll know soon enough. About to go in for surgery, so locking them down for winter has come at a good time. Solid feed is on the hives and now we just monitor for moisture issues. Hopefully I will be able to move frames for inspections by February and maybe pick up light boxes in March. I hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying their honey!


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Heather, Good luck with your surgery, Hope to see you back on the board soon.

PS, we got out first snow of the winter today (approx.1"). Snowed on and off for about 6 hours and within another hour it was all melted.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Jadeguppy said:


> Night temps have dropped near freezing lately. Much earlier than usual and that is for years they actually get that low. We are down to 4 hives and I'm not sure more than two will make it. Build up usually starts in January and queens are breeding in February here, so I'll know soon enough. About to go in for surgery, so locking them down for winter has come at a good time. Solid feed is on the hives and now we just monitor for moisture issues. Hopefully I will be able to move frames for inspections by February and maybe pick up light boxes in March. I hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying their honey!


Hoping the surgery works out well for you. Rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

First snow, is this early for snow?

Thank you for the well wishes. I'm looking forward to being in better condition to care for the hives.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Jadeguppy said:


> First snow, is this early for snow?


Not really. What is unusual is that the temps have been well above freezing for the entire time with the exception of a few night downs in the mid-20's. One year we had several inches on Thanksgiving Day, last year I don't think it snowed at all.


----------



## roseywilly (Sep 10, 2020)

I lived in Pensacola. The surf is okay every once in a while. It can get really good but its routinely 30 degree air temp so you need a wetsuit anyway.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Richinbama said:


> Hoping the surgery works out well for you. Rich


Hi Heather!!! Hope you and hubby doing well there. How did your surgery come out? Hope it went well, and a speedy recovery.!!! How's the bee yard looking for you guys? Mine a bit thin after losses early. 3 very promising nucs left. All 3 are 5 framers x 3 high. So, if surviving ? Winter, nucs to be split early. Not a great year here. Such is life I'd say. Sure does get rotten seeing nice hives go. Well, keep in touch, and merry Christmas and happy New Year, sorry late.
Rich


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Jadeguppy said:


> Many of you read that I lost my hives. I have two nucs on order locally and will be putting swarm traps in two locations, more if I can. I'm going to try to keep this post updated in hopes that my mistakes will help someone else succeed.
> 
> My first concern is setting myself up right not this year. I would like to end the yer with 40 pounds of honey and as many hives as I can split out. My goal is 10 at the home location. I currently have drawn comb for 1.5 deep boxes and about 3 mediums. I will be running 10 frame deep with 9 frame mediums over it. I have an addition 100 new frames of ritecell mediums. The nucs are expected to be ready at the end of February, start of March.
> 
> ...


Hi Heather, sorry about your bees. Update on new nucs? Hope your better after the surgery? Shoot me a line sometimes. Rich


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Rich, I do not know that Heather lost all her bees this year, the quote you posted is her original one from 2018. Her last post had 4 remaining, two of which were pretty strong. I truly hope that both she and her bees are doing well.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

I lost a lot of hives the last two years, pure neglect I'm ashamed to say, thou I had valid family and physical reasons for the neglect. So I'm rebuilding this year. In jadguppy's old post she wanted to produce honey and raise more bees. I've always heard that will not work, you either make honey OR you make more bees. I've resigned myself to no honey, and won't depend on raising my own queens. I've already placed two orders to be delivered 6 weeks apart. I lose at least half my queens on their mating flights, and I can't afford that while trying to build hives. I also intend to feed the entire time, I started that about two weeks ago. I lost about 300 frames to wax moths. I will start adding wax to foundation next weekend, first mite treatment this weekend. First batch of boxes are ready for fresh paint, they will happen this coming week. Wish me luck, lots of work ahead of me this summer.


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Robbin, I have decided that raising bees generates far more revenue than selling honey and is more fun. 60-100# of honey per year is plenty for mead, table use, and gifting. I can get that from two or three hives. My focus now is on nuc production and next year I hope to start Breeding queens, not just raising them. Still have crappy returns during the summer months but that is also why I have signed up to learn instrument insemination this year and purchase the necessary equipment.


----------



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

JWPalmer said:


> Robbin, I have decided that raising bees generates far more revenue than selling honey and is more fun. 60-100# of honey per year is plenty for mead, table use, and gifting. I can get that from two or three hives. My focus now is on nuc production and next year I hope to start Breeding queens, not just raising them. Still have crappy returns during the summer months but that is also why I have signed up to learn instrument insemination this year and purchase the necessary equipment.


I thought about the insemination, but the cost of the equipment is high. If I were trying to make money I would do the same, but I'm not. For various reasons I will not allow anybody on my property and if you're going to sell a lot of bees, you have to be able to do that. Keep us informed on the insemination, I'm curious how it works out for you. I could sell queens and ship them, but I work and drive 11 hours a day as it is. I do this as a hobby to keep my family stocked with honey and it satisfies part of my prepper instinct. NOTHING except Guns an ammo are worth more in the long run the hives that produce plenty of honey to a prepper. 😁


----------



## JWPalmer (May 1, 2017)

Question: How much ammo do you have?
Answer: Not enough.
Almost the same when it comes to beehives


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Hello everyone! I'm back into things. As many of you know, I had to stop beekeeping due to a car wreck in 2020. Lost all the hive, but the summer of 2021 a swarm moved into a box I let set up in holes a swarm would find it. Did a late split. One made it to the start of the flow. Now to try to rebuild a little. 

I've had three surgeries. None are fully healed yet and they need to go back into one knee. Spine damage is pain management until I can't manage it, the surgeries. I'm at the point that I can look down on my good days. At least long enough and with breaks to get through the two I have. If things work out, we will be at three soon and I plan to just build those up until summer and then split then.

Spent today with hubby trying to clean up the equipment and figure out what is still usable. Darn fire ants made a home in one area.

I hope everyone else is doing well! I may not ever be able to get back up to what I had, but I hope to manage enough to be self sufficient and not require buying nucs.


----------



## Litsinger (Jun 14, 2018)

Welcome back, Heather. Glad to see you are on the mend, and best of success this year.

Russ


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Thanks! It feels great to get a little normalcy.


----------



## Litsinger (Jun 14, 2018)

Jadeguppy said:


> It feels great to get a little normalcy.


Hey! Are you insulting us? 

Just poking a little fun- glad to have you back amongst all us 'normal' folks.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Jadeguppy said:


> Hello everyone! I'm back into things. As many of you know, I had to stop beekeeping due to a car wreck in 2020. Lost all the hive, but the summer of 2021 a swarm moved into a box I let set up in holes a swarm would find it. Did a late split. One made it to the start of the flow. Now to try to rebuild a little.
> 
> I've had three surgeries. None are fully healed yet and they need to go back into one knee. Spine damage is pain management until I can't manage it, the surgeries. I'm at the point that I can look down on my good days. At least long enough and with breaks to get through the two I have. If things work out, we will be at three soon and I plan to just build those up until summer and then split then.
> 
> ...


Hi Heather, glad your doing better. Sure hope things get closer to normal for you. We missed ya around here. Glad you have some bees back in your life again. Rich


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Thanks guys. 

Na, normalcy is relative. I doubt most people would consider beeks normal and that is just fine with me. Lol 

Rich, did you get hit by the recent storm? Schools closed here, but most of it went north of me.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Storms were pretty nasty here. Winds got very high, and lots of rain. Farm didn't get much damage, as far as I know. I still have to check back side of pasture, and fence lines. Bees were untouched. All hives with bees remained intact. Some without bees or any weight in them got blown over. Restacked them, and seemed ready for the next batch of storms to blow em over again.


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

Glad to hear that. I've been amazed at times what occupied hives can withstand.


----------



## Richinbama (Jan 15, 2018)

Jadeguppy said:


> Thanks guys.
> 
> Na, normalcy is relative. I doubt most people would consider beeks normal and that is just fine with me. Lol
> 
> Rich, did you get hit by the recent storm? Schools closed here, but most of it went north of me.


Hi Heather, storms past us up fairly small amount of damage to bees here. All but one were without any damage at all. 1 weak hive got tossed around, and had to pick up the pieces. Put it back together, but not doing so well at the moment. Looked better last week, now very little traffic in or out. Going to do all my hives inspection Saturday. This one may not pull through. Has lots of resources to distribute if failing beyond repair? Fingers crossed...


----------



## Jadeguppy (Jul 19, 2017)

I hope it makes it for you. My two new ones were looking to be on the right track Sunday. They need hatching bees before I'll feel they are stable. That will put me back at three. I'll probably stick with that until midsummer and then split them. I think that is all I can manage for now. All three surgery sites have been mad at me. I guess I got too excited working the bees and yard again. Lol Sure is nice though! Maybe I'll finally be able to build the ramp to my shed this year. I bought the wood two years ago. Fingers crossed


----------

