Guilfordbeekeepers.org

If robbing attempts are persistent, I suspect and look for queen issues in the victim hives. Queenlessness or failing queens may lead to a hive not being as defensive as others. If you find queen issues, the robbing attempts may continue until you get that resolved. As for water, you can use a spray...

July 3rd was the first day the bees showed interest in the nectarometer this year. They really show interest in wet frames, but so far, the flow isn't so slow that cleaning frames triggers probing/robbing--yet.

I set up another bait hive at the house yesterday, and somewhere around 2:00pm today, bees moved in. I only saw 1 or 2 scouts this morning, so this was a bit of a surprise. I'll take a look inside the hive tomorrow and make plans for moving them from a deep to a medium set up.

I don't have a specific answer for you, but you might want to take a look at the link below--kind of like putting SHB lures in our hive beetle traps.

https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-gard ... pping-trap

On 6/19/23, a neighbor texted me a warning and a ring doorbell photo of a young bear coming down my street toward the park and walking trails. Fortunately, it didn't stop in for a snack at my hives. Do we need to try and get a speaker at one of our meetings on the topic "Bear Fences for Back Ya...

I had a small swarm sneak into my bait hive in the last few days. The activity in front yesterday looked like strong scouting, but activity continued into evening. I took a quick peak in the hive and there appeared to be about 1 medium frame of bees in number. They had built enough comb to lead me t...

I have been using captured swarms this season to get comb drawn. I have kept feeders on most of my swarms and have been giving them frames & foundation to draw after they have drawn 2 medium boxes to live in. I remove a frame when the majority of the frame is drawn deep enough for a queen to lay...

I have read that the North Carolina average is 35 lbs/hive. Some produce none-others much more than the average. I have been told that you want the equivalent of a medium box of honey over the bees going into winter-about 40lbs. That being said, I remember Wally's question to me long ago before drou...

They generally won't accept a mated queen but I'm not sure about a virgin. Didn't Nancy Ruppert say something about a virgin queen less than 3 days old not having the pheromone profile of an older virgin queen? I think she was saying this at the Beez Needz field day in the context of a direct introd...

You probably had a queen in the colony that had not started to lay. The timing seems too soon to have a queen made, get mated, and start laying. I have had bees make and cap queen cells and remove them when the established queen started performing to their satisfaction. I'm glad things have worked o...

That is beyond my abilities, but hopefully, Internet Archives will be around for a long time.

OA can be used with honey supers on if you have the label that says you can. That change was approved about two years ago. https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/ppls/091266-00001-20210430.pdf Formic Pro/Mite Away Quick Strips can also be used with honey supers on. OAV is quicker and the bees s...

I don't see any way a queen installed on April 2 should be laying doubles. If you haven't had fertilized eggs laid in the hive, like Wally said, there is no way they could produce a viable queen cell. I would go with Wally's advice. It gives you a good shot at determining what is going on AND a good...

What signs of laying worker did you see. If you were seeing more than 2 eggs in cells and/or eggs on top of pollen, those would indicate laying worker. If you were seeing some cells with 2 eggs, this could indicate a queen that is just starting to lay. I haven't seen a situation where there was a qu...

That sounds like a reasonable plan. Your eggs and larvae should be capped around day 10, or in 6 more days. Once that happens, brood pheromones should not be involved in calling for feeding. Look to see if foragers are returning with pollen after all the brood has been capped. If they are, it is no ...

Number 8 arrived at the bait hives around 2:40pm. I moved the oldest bait hive swarm into a medium super this afternoon, and set up another bait hive. I'm not sure, but I think it may have scouts looking it over. I had 3 bait hives sitting side by side. All collected swarms.

Arrival number 7 at the house. They came in between 2 & 4 pm today. I have 1 more empty bait hive for now.

Arrival number 7 came between 2 & 4 pm today. I have 1 more bait hive that is unoccupied. It has a few bees looking. I'm not sure if they are leftover scouts from the swarm that came in or potential occupants.

Tough situation that can be made easier if you have another hive that has brood. I would take a frame with eggs and put it in the questionable hive. Check it in 4 days. If the bees are making queen cells, the hive is likely queenless and it would be a reasonable gamble to buy a queen, knock down the...

So far, I have had 6 arrivals at the house and some scouts are evaluating one of my bait hives now.