Guilfordbeekeepers.org

The two old poplars in my Greensboro neighborhood I usually watch for the first signs of blooms definitely have some open flowers now. There seems to be a range of fully opened flowers down to solid green unopened buds on the same tree. My home bees aren't quite acting like the serious flow is happe...

I got a call from a neighbor on Wednesday about a swarm at the base of an AC unit. This particular house appears to be a magnet for some reason, as I had responded to them last spring when they had scout bees coming down their chimney and entering the living room! This time they were on vacation, so...

Well, I thought they might wait until tomorrow, but I just got reports of two swarms in my neighborhood here in central Greensboro. Both literally within 30 min of the sun coming out a little bit ago! I have no good way of estimating weight, but both are soccer ball sized. My guess is the next few d...

How many are you looking for? I plan to check all my colonies Fri/Sat, and am sure to run across some in swarm mode... If so, I'd be glad to cut out some good capped cells and share.

I had my first encounter with a drone-laying queen this week. I had noticed this colony was a little weaker and slower to build up than the rest, but in my recent quick inspections I had found the queen and had seen eggs/larvae, so just assumed they were slower coming out of winter... The other day ...

Yes, Wally is absolutely right! If you have the opportunity to start with two hives instead of one, definitely choose that route. The sharing and switching of resources, combined with the ability to make comparisons, is very valuable when starting out.

Michael - welcome to the group! There is really no "right" setup. Some folks use one deep brood box, with additional mediums for brood and honey. Other folks use two deeps for brood, with mediums for honey (this is probably the most standard). Even others (like me) use all mediums, althoug...

Sounds like you're on the right track. Just in the past 10 days almost all my colonies have now drawn out full 10-frame deeps without any liquid feed from me. I'm now seeing redbuds and hollies blooming all over the place, so there should be plenty of nectar coming in to encourage wax-building. Like...

OK, you have both talked me out of it... Glad I asked! I do have a bunch of 5-frame equipment laying around, so it makes perfect sense to keep the queen in reserve rather than just pinching her, and pulling some brood frames and bees out of the original hive to relieve congestion. Unlike last spring...

I'm thinking of a scenario where a beekeeper is not interested in (or able to) expand their apiary, has no interest in selling bees, and therefore does not use splitting colonies as a means to control swarming. Would it be possible to find a colony in swarm prep mode, locate and pinch the current qu...

Well, I think I spoke too soon about my own colonies. I checked my home hives on Thursday afternoon, and the strongest one did have at least one uncapped, charged swarm cell with larvae and jelly. I removed two frames of brood to boost a weaker colony and replaced with empty drawn comb in the hopes ...

I just got an unverified report of a swarm here in the center of Greensboro on Thursday. Unfortunately, the neighbor just contacted me last night about it... I assume they are long gone by now, but I do plan to go check if we get a break in the rain later today.

My bees definitely seem to be weeks behind compared to the past few years, so as soon as folks begin to see charged swarm cells, I would love to hear about it! So far, I am not seeing any real swarming preparation or swarm cells, even in my strongest packed colonies. I am certainly seeing tons of fl...

All of my hives overwintered this year in 2, 10-frame mediums. I put a deep box with heavily waxed black plastic foundations (only) on most of them Feb 10. As of the other day, all but a few weaker colonies had started drawing out those foundations. The strongest 3 or 4 colonies had almost fully dra...

Long story, but I put deeps with new heavily-waxed plastic foundations on all my hives on Feb. 10. They still have plenty of honey, and I am supplemental feeding with Hive Alive fondant (no liquid syrup yet). I thought it was worth a shot to see if they'd consider drawing them out, and maybe I'd get...

Is it possible for drones to overwinter in a hive? I thought not, but I did a thorough check of some hives on Monday and found plentiful numbers of mature-looking drones on frames. I guess it's possible they are this year's drones, but that means those eggs would have been laid AT LEAST 24+ days ago...

Is it possible for drones to overwinter in a hive? I thought not, but I did a thorough check of some hives on Monday and found plentiful numbers of mature-looking drones on frames. I guess it's possible they are this year's drones, but that means those eggs would have been laid AT LEAST 24+ days ago...

I stopped by Cooperative Extension on Thursday to see the tree in bloom. It is almost certainly a gnarly old red maple (not a silver or sugar maple), and the bees were certainly working it! I haven't seen any others blooming to this extent in the area, but would love to hear what you folks are seein...

As Wally suggested, I took the opportunity yesterday to peek in all my hives, check weights, and make general observations. In 2 of my 19 hives, they are now starting to build comb inside the feeding shim (mainly drone comb). In fact, one was already laid up with eggs! They have definitely been burn...