# 2022 What are your projects?



## E.T.'sBees (Nov 28, 2021)

2022 is here!
What projects have you planned for the year?

A couple projects I have, are to build a loader on my trailer.
And a Honey stick machine that has no failure. 

You can check out my video of sneak peak of the Honey stick machine here 




HAPPY NEW YEAR!


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## Wil-7 (Sep 4, 2021)

Lol, I have already accomplished so many projects for the bees for the coming of Spring that I had better get back to shoveling horse manure.


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## ifixoldhouses (Feb 27, 2019)

I'm building 35 new mini mating nucs from Green foam board.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Shift a couple more colonies to single box 10 frame Dadant depth frames. Set up 2 Layens 25 frame 18" deep hives. Hoping to have access to another location where I will put 4 colonies on a trailer with self contained solar powered bear fence.


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## LarryBud (Jul 19, 2020)

Splits and queen rearing. See if these fat Irish meathooks at the end of my wrists can graft.


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## AHudd (Mar 5, 2015)

I too, am going to start raising queens, although a honey house has been on the top of my Honey Do list for a couple years now. My wife wants me out of the kitchen, permanently.

Alex


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## LarryBud (Jul 19, 2020)

AHudd said:


> I too, am going to start raising queens, although a honey house has been on the top of my Honey Do list for a couple years now. My wife wants me out of the kitchen, permanently.
> 
> Alex



With about 600 more pound in 5 gallon buckets, yeah, momma feels the same way as we start another jarring run in her kitchen today. Maybe I'll get my barn done by the end of THIS summer


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

Finish painting and stocking three used BeeMax hives that I adopted. Set up stand and stock new client's apiary.


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## A Novice (Sep 15, 2019)

Working on building new hive boxes and frames with improvements based on last year's experience with the previous winter's iteration. I have it close to perfection, just need to try a few things that should make things go more smoothly. If everything you build works as expected, you are going about it all wrong.

Complete a patent application for a beehive - more work than I anticipated.

Re do the front porch-kitchen annex to keep my wife happy.

Run 80A feeder to my mother in law's garage, so I can get my wife's kilns out of my garage. They make poor work tables.

Build digital kiln controller for my wife's bead kiln. (It is just a little one I got for cheap at habitiat, but doesn't have temperature control.)


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## G3farms (Jun 13, 2009)

AHudd said:


> I too, am going to start raising queens, although a honey house has been on the top of my Honey Do list for a couple years now. My wife wants me out of the kitchen, permanently.
> 
> Alex


Honey house is on the radar also, need bee junk out of kitchen and garage.


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

Grafting queen cells from my new Buckfast breeder queen for other beekeepers. Will try a roof top mating yard. Started the Virginia Queen Bee Breeders Network to connect beekeepers with breeder queens to beekeepers who are looking for better bees.


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## E.T.'sBees (Nov 28, 2021)

Wil-7 said:


> Lol, I have already accomplished so many projects for the bees


OK now now you are just showing us all up 😀


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## E.T.'sBees (Nov 28, 2021)

ifixoldhouses said:


> I'm building 35 new mini mating nucs from Green foam board.


This is really neat, I like that idea


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## E.T.'sBees (Nov 28, 2021)

crofter said:


> Set up 2 Layens 25 frame 18" deep hives.


I haven't seen any of those hives, any pictures to share?


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## E.T.'sBees (Nov 28, 2021)

AHudd said:


> I too, am going to start raising queens, although a honey house has been on the top of my Honey Do list for a couple years now. My wife wants me out of the kitchen, permanently.
> 
> Alex


 I think my wife wants the same thing 😃 I have some temporary plans for this year.


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## E.T.'sBees (Nov 28, 2021)

A Novice said:


> Complete a patent application for a beehive - more work than I anticipated.


Sounds like some fun projects, How does this whole patent application work?


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## E.T.'sBees (Nov 28, 2021)

Those queens cells look good, mine always look kinda runty


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## joebeewhisperer (May 13, 2020)

LarryBud said:


> Splits and queen rearing. See if these fat Irish meathooks at the end of my wrists can graft.


The beauty of that is it only takes ~24hrs to figure out whether they liked your grafts. (Probably a lot less, but good rule of thumb)

If you’re totally sure there’s not a queen or queen cell in the colony, pull the frame the next day and see if there’s wax around them, bees all over each one, and jelly in the cups if the light is right and it’s feasible.

If you want to do a complete no-risk, graft a bunch over a queen excluder. I was finishing over excluders, but now and again I would just drop a frame of grafts in a queen-right hive. They may start half, and only finish part of what they start, but all you’ve lost is the real estate of one frame. If it’s May-July around here (when they’re interested in making queens anyway), they kick out a few unless the grafts are unacceptable.

That said, having a nuc or hive with zero queens or any way to make them will be more forgiving. I’ll bet you’ll post a rack of queen cells in a few months. 😃

As far as my own stuff, I’m fighting the urge to go sell stuff. Last year bees took most of my daylight (and some dark) hours. By August it was stressful and my fun relaxing bee time had turned into dealing with other folks schedules, mixing sugar and such.


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## Hoot Owl Lane Bees (Feb 24, 2012)

Finish my honey house and get ready for spring.
Link to Honey House thread. https://www.beesource.com/conversat...sale-on-craigslist-in-your-area.213377/unread


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

joebeewhisperer said:


> As far as my own stuff, I’m fighting the urge to go sell stuff. Last year bees took most of my daylight (and some dark) hours. By August it was stressful and my fun relaxing bee time had turned into dealing with other folks schedules, mixing sugar and such.


Mike Rowe, when interviewing an acquaintance of mine, correctly pointed out: "When your avocation becomes your vocation you get no vacation." I have a habit of getting in something WAY too deep, and then since I wanted to do everything, I had no time for anything. This winter is forcing me to sort of "dry run" all the things I want to do with bees and actually discard some ideas which would have buried me if it was bee season.

My projects for this year:

Paint my new boxes
Get my frames assembled
Move two nucs (on deeps) to new boxes (which are mediums) somehow - assuming they make it
Receive two more nucs in May-ish
Receive two more queens in June and attempt something along the lines of Roger Patterson's two-frame nucs for them
Keep six hives alive and healthy
Man, as I list that out it seems like I may have bitten off quite enough.


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## SuiGeneris (Feb 13, 2018)

My bee's aren't getting squat this year. I am building myself a small shed in the beeyard to keep all my kit in. I'm tired of having to hoof stuff clear across the farm, only to realize I forgot something in the house or barn.


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## LarryBud (Jul 19, 2020)

Lee Bussy said:


> Man, as I list that out it seems like I may have bitten off quite enough.


That's a thing about beekeeping and we all learn it. As you know, I went from 5 hives to 30 plus last year and didn't get a single day out on the river with my fly rod.


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## Wil-7 (Sep 4, 2021)

" didn't get a single day out on the river with my fly rod. "
You too? And I only have one hive. lol I really do have to learn how to schedule my time better.


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## ursa_minor (Feb 13, 2020)

Preparing my spouse to accept that my bees might die during this long cold winter. If they do, I have all the equipment I need, if they don't I am going to build my own supers and frames.


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

ursa_minor said:


> If they do, I have all the equipment I need


Now that’s practical thinking!


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

I really do not need a lot of new equipment, but will need to make up special sidebars for the 11 5/8 depth and 13 1/4 depth Dadant style boxes. I will decree which is the best looking 4 colonies for honey production and the rest I will start feeding some syrup to, to get resources for mating queens. Last year was so poor for forage that I got neither much honey or much growth on the new colonies I created. Wound up having to feed heavy to all colonies in the fall to get them up to wintering weight. Might as well face it and start sugaring the resource hives from the get go. If mother nature comes on heavy we will cross that bridge when we come to it.


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## ursa_minor (Feb 13, 2020)

Lee Bussy said:


> Now that’s practical thinking!


That type of thinking comes with age, can't do squat about it if they die so take it in stride. Do what needs to be done and move on.


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

ursa_minor said:


> That type of thinking comes with age


If that were true, I'd be a lot wiser by now.


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## ursa_minor (Feb 13, 2020)

I did not specify at *what* age, for some it is a birth, for others, never. LOL.


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## E.T.'sBees (Nov 28, 2021)

ursa_minor, 

Some of us are insane, we just keep doing the same thing hoping for different results


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## Wil-7 (Sep 4, 2021)

ursa_minor said:


> I did not specify at *what* age, for some it is a birth, for others, never. LOL.


I resemble that remark.


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## Gray Goose (Sep 4, 2018)

ursa_minor said:


> Preparing my spouse to accept that my bees might die during this long cold winter. If they do, I have all the equipment I need, if they don't I am going to build my own supers and frames.


ursa
I find myself in the exact place.
this year I put 43 queens into the winter.
IF they all make it I could need 120 supers, and I have 40, so I "May" need to sell a few over wintered NUCs in lew of building 80 supers.
so 5ish dead outs are expected, there is always a few, but a "good winter" will be a busy spring and summer.
with the supply chain junk and spring price increases, I "Should" order some frames soon as I still do not build those.
however if I get a 50% loss then I do not need to order anything... Decision, decisions.

I'll take my Flir out here late in Jan and get a rough count. 

GG


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

ET - the key to life is the ability to act crazy without being insane. It's a fine line.

Crazy Roland


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## Balus Creek Bees (Aug 14, 2021)

I need to do some splits from my horizontal hive in the hopes of it not swarming this year. I plan to make a Parkinson hive this winter, just to see how it works. I also need to do a better job treating for mites this year.


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

Balus Creek Bees said:


> I plan to make a Parkinson hive this winter, just to see how it works.


I'd never seen those. Seems like Dwayne Parkinson believes it solves all the issues ever experienced with beekeeping. So did Langstroth. 

I joined the FB group to read up on it.


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## Balus Creek Bees (Aug 14, 2021)

Lee Bussy said:


> I'd never seen those. Seems like Dwayne Parkinson believes it solves all the issues ever experienced with beekeeping. So did Langstroth.
> 
> I joined the FB group to read up on it.


Yes, he seems to feel that way. But then he built his "extreme climate" long lang, so maybe it didn't. Still, it looks interesting, and I'm into bees for fun, not business. I'm in the FB group, but there's not much posted there.


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