Keeping bees

Indoor bee hives!!

I must make a gentle reminder; this thread is about keeping bees. Any beekeepers, or other enquiring minds, can discuss domestic bee keeping here.

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We had a banner summer and my three colonies are going into winter having made their own winter food, without supplemental feeding. I am very hopeful that this will keep them as healthy as possible throughout the winter. Will do one more mite count in a few weeks. If the numbers are at or above threshold, I will be using the oxalic vapor.... has anyone else used this treatment for varroa?

Frighteningly enough, yes, it was an indoor beehive.  Right in front of the kitchen window.

I was visiting a remote village a couple years back.  There were a couple of outdoor beehives (good to know they aren't all indoors).  I used to keep bees (way back in the 70's), so gave the hives what I judged to be a sufficiently wide berth while walking by so as not to annoy the bees.  One of the owners decided to prove that Chinese bees aren't aggressive and walked right up to the front of the hives without triggering any response.

I may have to investigate this further.  If Chinese bees really are that easy to work with, I may have to think about getting some for myself.  Think I'll keep them on the roof instead of in my kitchen.

Happy Christmas! They're all still alive! Woo hoo!!

Woo hoo! indeed. It looks like you have done some major work on the hives. A little bear-proofing?

Roofing paper for solar gain in the dead of winter. Foam insulation on top to reduce condensation in the hive. Electric fence is still up because the bears are not slumbering yet

Happy for you (and them), Camp!

Awesome news, camp! What would they be doing with no flowers around?

Scorpio Rising wrote:Awesome news, camp!  What would they be doing with no flowers around?

They forage for all sorts of things, water, grain dust, what ever they can find.

Interesting! I thought they were just pollen/nectar searching, well, obviously water , I put water out for them this past summer to lure them away from the pool!

Scorpio Rising wrote:Awesome news, camp!  What would they be doing with no flowers around?

 As well as water collecting trips they frequently they go on cleansing flights as the temperature starts to scrape the 10  o C  ( 50 o F )  mark , to discharge the gut contents that have accumulated  whilst stuck in the hive.

 Sometimes you see a car in the bee line or near a nest /hive absolutely spotted in 3/16 dia mustard coloured  yellow  splats .

 The yellow does not do white washing a lo of good either as it takes a bit of bleach & hot soapy water to remove the yellow.

plantoid wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:Awesome news, camp!  What would they be doing with no flowers around?

 As well as water collecting trips they frequently they go on cleansing flights as the temperature starts to scrape the 10  o C  ( 50 o F )  mark , to discharge the gut contents that have accumulated  whilst stuck in the hive.

 Sometimes you see a car in the bee line or near a nest /hive absolutely spotted in 3/16 dia mustard coloured  yellow  splats .

 The yellow does not do white washing a lo of good either as it takes a bit of bleach & hot soapy water to remove the yellow.

+1

Makes sense.

A little bee humor  

How are your bees faring so far? All 3 of my colonies are still alive.

My one hive is still going strong, 2 years old now.  My friends hive next to mine ate all their honey and left.  I feel like my friend took way too much honey from them and didnt feed so i think thats why theyre gone.

I won a package of bees at bee auction this last fall.  Also, I plan to split my hive, so i just bought 2 more hive set ups. My husband is now interested in learning so im giving him the package i won to learn with.

R&R 1011 wrote:My one hive is still going strong, 2 years old now.  My friends hive next to mine ate all their honey and left.  I feel like my friend took way too much honey from them and didnt feed so i think thats why theyre gone.

I won a package of bees at bee auction this last fall.  Also, I plan to split my hive, so i just bought 2 more hive set ups. My husband is now interested in learning so im giving him the package i won to learn with.

  I like the " Ate up & left " line.

 They will have most likely starved because there was not enough stores laid down in time for the no nectar periods.
I've never heard of a hive upping sticks so to speak .

There has always been something left either dead bees , very sick bees  or a small cluster from a series of four or five natural splits the last split being right at the end of the season . .

 That said ...of  the natural split .
 If left to it's natural conclusion the last of the swarms coming out of a hive can leave a hive so severely depleted that it is not big enough to keep up a survivable heat as they try and move around the frames to consume the laid down of stores in a long damp cold winter  .

It can also mean that there are not enough bees to stop a stronger hive or feral nest robbing them of their over wintering stores .
To help prevent that you need to use wooden  hive blocks to reduce the entrance space to a bees height & two widths so the entrance is easily guarded . )

R&R 1011 wrote:My one hive is still going strong, 2 years old now.  My friends hive next to mine ate all their honey and left.  I feel like my friend took way too much honey from them and didnt feed so i think thats why theyre gone.

I won a package of bees at bee auction this last fall.  Also, I plan to split my hive, so i just bought 2 more hive set ups. My husband is now interested in learning so im giving him the package i won to learn with.

I agree with Plantoid, the colony probably starved. 

Sounds like your friend needs to recognise taking care of bees means not robbing the pantry bare, especially if the colony is to survive another year. TIme for some better management skills/practice.

It was still unusually warm out and there were no dead bees left behind.  Not a single one.  Starved bees you see the dead buried in the comb or atleast some dead on the bottom board. There was none of that.  This was a very populated, strong hive. All honey & all bees gone.  Beekeeper i bought my supplies from thinks it could have been mites.

Friend checked his hive maybe 5 times last year.  2 of those times were to collect honey and he didnt do a hive check.  I was furious.  He knows better.  He kept his hive on my property bc he lived in an apt.  Now he lives in a house, could keep bees there, but wants to keep them here where i know he wont care for them. Its a frustrating situation.  I refuse to work his hive while he reaps the benefits.  We were suppose to do this together and hes flaked out on me.

R&R 1011 wrote:It was still unusually warm out and there were no dead bees left behind.  Not a single one.  Starved bees you see the dead buried in the comb or atleast some dead on the bottom board. There was none of that.  This was a very populated, strong hive. All honey & all bees gone.  Beekeeper i bought my supplies from thinks it could have been mites.

 A beekeeper stole them & left clean frames behind. ???  It happens .

 Even with mites there is usually dead bees or sealed / un-sealed cells still in the hive as the nurse bees do not leave brood or baby bees unattended .
 
My experience of a total varroa wipe out left the hive floor littered with mouldy corpses , still some honey in the outer edges of the supers and in the outer frames of the brood box.

What will you do if a swarm ( likely to be yours  takes up residence in the other persons empty hive ?

Leave it to go feral , get a neuc or two made from it for your own purposes ,. feed it over winter  or unite it with yours  late in the season using the old newspaper trick then feed the hive like mad to leave a full brood box and two supers of stores for it to over winter for a big strong  hive in spring ?

 It's worth setting out the ground rules with your friend if they are considering leaving un-worked hives  to go feral . Especially if you have neighbours & are likely to be answering any consequences for hives on your property .
I had two Nuns living in a house with three hives in their fully enclosed by a six foot wooden fence 20 x 40 foot back yard in a city ..
They were into using bee stings to cure their arthritis .. they were too old & frail to work the hives .. They got a nuisance summons against them , which  led to me being called in to remove the bees & hives .

It has been known for leave alone hive owners getting a couple of pints of gas /petrol poured into their nuisance hives  by upset bee keepers or neighbours ... suddenly no bees and the hives can be moved / sold or burnt  when the gas has evaporated .

I've also seen it where someone has treated a nuisance hive on the outsides with a long term residual insecticide paint .  The owner a pious  vicar was so pleased someone had spray painted his hives a nice countryside green ..till they snuffed it a few days later ..

Jeez, all that sounds terrible....we need bees!

R&R 1011 wrote:It was still unusually warm out and there were no dead bees left behind.  Not a single one.  Starved bees you see the dead buried in the comb or atleast some dead on the bottom board. There was none of that.  This was a very populated, strong hive. All honey & all bees gone.  Beekeeper i bought my supplies from thinks it could have been mites.

That sounds about right. Especially if there was plenty of honey left over.
http://www.michiganbees.org/2016/why-did-my-honey-bees-die/

plantoid wrote:

R&R 1011 wrote:It was still unusually warm out and there were no dead bees left behind.  Not a single one.  Starved bees you see the dead buried in the comb or atleast some dead on the bottom board. There was none of that.  This was a very populated, strong hive. All honey & all bees gone.  Beekeeper i bought my supplies from thinks it could have been mites.

 A beekeeper stole them & left clean frames behind. ???  It happens .

 Even with mites there is usually dead bees or sealed / un-sealed cells still in the hive as the nurse bees do not leave brood or baby bees unattended .
 
My experience of a total varroa wipe out left the hive floor littered with mouldy corpses , still some honey in the outer edges of the supers and in the outer frames of the brood box.

What will you do if a swarm ( likely to be yours  takes up residence in the other persons empty hive ?

Leave it to go feral , get a neuc or two made from it for your own purposes ,. feed it over winter  or unite it with yours  late in the season using the old newspaper trick then feed the hive like mad to leave a full brood box and two supers of stores for it to over winter for a big strong  hive in spring ?

 It's worth setting out the ground rules with your friend if they are considering leaving un-worked hives  to go feral . Especially if you have neighbours & are likely to be answering any consequences for hives on your property .
I had two Nuns living in a house with three hives in their fully enclosed by a six foot wooden fence 20 x 40 foot back yard in a city ..
They were into using bee stings to cure their arthritis .. they were too old & frail to work the hives .. They got a nuisance summons against them , which  led to me being called in to remove the bees & hives .

It has been known for leave alone hive owners getting a couple of pints of gas /petrol poured into their nuisance hives  by upset bee keepers or neighbours ... suddenly no bees and the hives can be moved / sold or burnt  when the gas has evaporated .

I've also seen it where someone has treated a nuisance hive on the outsides with a long term residual insecticide paint .  The owner a pious  vicar was so pleased someone had spray painted his hives a nice countryside green ..till they snuffed it a few days later ..

Funny you mention bees going feral...after last winter his very nice, calm hive got very mean.  They were stinging my family and I unprovoked, when we were no where near where the hive was.  It was awful.  Finally got him to come over and kill his queen.  Problem solved, they chilled out after that.

Its tricky, i will talk to him.  I just dont want to hurt our friendship over it.  I dont mind him keeping a hive here, but he needs to care for it.

Also, we took his hive down after we found it empty.  He made the mistake of leaving his empty nuc outside last summer and wax moths took over and destroyed all of his frames.  My chickens enjoyed the fat moth larvae though. 

Friend has already ordered a new package.  I plan to split my hive before they swarm.  Last year, my hive swarmed before i could split and i lost a good number of bees and a brand new queen.  Took awhile to get my hives numbers up.

I'm going to this workshop on Saturday. http://www.nature-museum.org/upcoming-events/2016/3/12/organic-beekeeping-with-ross-conrad

Ross Conrad has written some good books. Watch the video .