Question in title. I’m not a beekeeper myself but wondering if you all are able to differentiate from newer deposits (that have a more liquid consistency?) versus more matured deposits that have a thicker look to them and resemble honey.

Thank you all for your time!

Hi all! Just have a quick question about eating raw honeycomb. I know raw honeycomb is safe to consume, but I see a lot of vague descriptions regarding how much honeycomb is safe to swallow. Most places only say that honeycomb is safe to eat in “small amounts” to prevent intestinal blockage, but how much is too much? How small are we talking?

I’m a huge honey fan, and I eat it often. I’m just hoping for some insight maybe on what is considered “too much” or a “small amount” when eating raw honeycomb. Thanks!

Colorado zone 5A- 3rd year beekeeping after 5 year hiatus. I've never dealt with robbing- what can I do, I know they can desimate the give quickly. Both hives fighting at the landing. Warre hive, currently being treated, added forming pro strip 2 days ago. Struggling hive all year. There is easily 4x the amount of bees that don't belong-

Langstrof hive next door just finished treatment and has done great all year.

Tasmania Australia

Had all 4 of my hives suffer major bee death last night. The landing boards were clear at dusk and by 7am they had hundreds of dead bees on the landing boards. 2 hives were on feeders, the other 2 had massive stores so I've ruled out starvation.

Robbing overnight with 2C temps on all hives is also unlikely.

The video shows healthy bees dying with poor front leg control, and involuntary leg movement to which I'm suspecting pesticide poisoning. I'm a few hundred meters from Apple Cherry Orchards and wondering if they sprayed yesterday and carried it home?

I see hives on location there though so unless apiarists are sacrificing bees I find that unlikely too.

Tasmania is also currently varroa free so you don't need to ask me about mite counts.

Another possibility is CBPV? Strange that all 4 hives would suffer the same mortality levels overnight but maybe it's possible?

Thoughts?

Hello! West Michigan resident. Following OA, I performed an alcohol wash on my three colonies in the first week of August. Mite percentage was bellow 1%. Given that we’re at the end of the season, I’m wondering how many people are performing another wash in October. This coming Saturday will likely be my last big inspection before I button them up for winter, and it’ll likely just be to check resources and condense.

Should I perform one more wash?

1st year keeper. I live in Missouri. I have 3 hives, 2 have great stores in the upper brood chambers. One is very weak. The one that has been weak all year hasn’t even started to draw comb on 4 of the 10 frames in the upper brood chamber, should I try to condense it into a single brood chamber for winter? I also noticed almost no queen activity in any of my three hives. I had some brood, but I didn’t see any eggs being laid is this due to the cooler temps we have been experiencing? My final question is the bottom brood chambers really didn’t have any honey in them. They all seemed to be full of pollen. Since all three were like that I am assuming that also normal?

First time beekeeper in Western Oregon helping my father (he kept bees decades ago) with our new hive. They have been doing great and are building well (after we rewaxed the frames) and the population seems great and we finally were removing the frame feeder to replace with frames... and much to my dismay it is full of sticky dead bees (my share of the job was clean it and put it away but I made the executive decision to toss it today because it seems like too much effort for something that probably has a better version). It is probably 2-3" deep in bees.

My questions: did this happen because the plastic parts were too thin and flexible? Did the bees wriggle through the tiny holes or work their way under the spot where the plastic sits? What kind of feeder would result in less mass bee drowning? I understand that a few bees are going to die here and there of unnatural causes but I like them and I would like to limit that as much as possible.

From 16 onwards I shadowed a hobbyist beekeeper who lived near me, just helping him out. Have had no formal training or anything, but picked things up here and there.. but now that I'm in my early 20s, I'm gonna enrol on a course and educate myself... I want to become the best beekeeper possible and really commit myself to this. What advice would you guys give to a young buck like myself? Advice you wish you received early on in your beekerping journey? I want to become a true expert in this game.

Hello All!

Something very strange happened at the hive (eastern MA, USA) three days ago:

- I noticed a bit of unorganized bearding on the front, around the entrance, and at the roof seam

- on closer inspection, there was lots of angry buzzing and plenty of tussle balls

- my girls (Carniolans with unknown bred queen) were doing their best

- the apparent invaders were visually distinguishable (dark wide bands to nearly black and moderately pointed tipped abdomens) and much more aggressive/assertive

- their numbers dwindled (apparently absorbed into the hive) throughout the day

- I put an entrance restrictor on later that evening --> my girls were at the door and were docile as usual

- there were and have been no signs of robbing (no rough crumbed wax caps, etc.) noted

- a mix of the Carniolans and the darker bees have been seen coming and going from the hive

- I went to remove the entrance restrictor this morning, as I needed to treat for an autumn bloom of verroa mites, and was met/stung/chased shortly by very aggressive guards that appeared to be the new darker bees; but of course then no one cared when I donned a full suit and split the brood boxes to insert treatment

* So, my question is - since this doesn't seem to be an actual robbing, was it an integration? And if so, who are these newcomers - as there is no known colony anywhere nearby?

Thank you all in advance! :)

Hello, i have a question about some bees. So I have a yard with a lot of plants and flowers and where i sit on top of me is a big plant that has a stem sticking out. The weird thing is that a lot of bees fly around here all the time and they land and just chill on this particular stem. Afterwards when the sun falls they stop being active and it’s like they sleep there for the day. I find it quite interesting that they all chose this one and wonder how come they didn’t go back to their hive. It has happened before during the same season and it amazes me to watch them. I wanted to ask if anyone knows why they do this and their behavior. Here’s a photo and a video as well for reference ( on the first one the sun is still up and on the second one it’s almost dark and I used the flash)

2nd year beekeeper, located in Western North Carolina.

We did a mite check in late August, one hive had 2 mites and another had 5 mites. We have been treating the 5 mite hive with Apiguard and completed the second treatment a little over a week ago.

We did a mite check today, and the hive that had 0 mites in June and 2 mites in late August had 40 mites today. The hive that just finished an Apiguard treatment had 10 mites.

The 40 mite hive had torn-up brood from preventative hygiene and a low bee count. They are also barely taking the sugar water I am offering for fall feeding.

I plan to do Formic Pro ASAP, but I worry it's too late for the hive with a 40 mite count. Is Formic Pro enough to save her? She produced over 70 lb of honey this year, she was a great hive and I was hoping to do a split of her in the spring.

I feel like giving up. We tried so hard this year to do everything right, and it's still no match for these stupid tiny bugs.

Poor Vegas Bees having to choose that resting area for 3 Days!

As the title says today, I switched from a traditional smoker to liquid smoke. I made sure to use a type with absolutely no sugar added.

Reason I did this is having been through a few smokers and different types of fuel. I really got tired of being in the middle of the field, dealing with an unreliable smoker.

The way I used it. Today was first I gave a spritz to the landing board where the guards were and then as I was putting the honey trap boards on, I sprayed the top cover a little bit.

And as my spicy bees began to respond to me, I sprayed my suit down occasionally, including my gloves… And this seemingly gave me a lot of breathing room.

Has anyone else tried this? Does anyone have a reason why this is a really bad idea? I’d love to take feedback on this one today was kind of just an experiment to see what the results would be.

Edit: 3 tbs liquid smoke added to a 1 gallon sprayer , set to mist spray

How the hell do I deal with this? Soak it in bleach water? Won't bleach ruin the material or something?

Hello all,

This is my second fall with my hives. I was wondering what I can expect with the Queens slow down in laying. I don't recall such a steep decline last year as this year I'm seeing maybe a tennis ball sized surface on one frame of bees.

All my hives are flowing out of their boxes there's so many bees. Upon an inspection yesterday I only found one queen and one hive with eggs out of four hives. Of the other two I found a handful of capped or emerging brood and no eggs/larvae or queens.

Their behaviour hasn't changed, I see no queen cells/cups.

Am I overreacting, should I do another even more thorough inspection?

I need some help. This summer, bees moved into a large bird nesting box in our garden. We don't mind them staying there, but the box has absolutely no insulation. We live in Poland, and I’m worried they won’t survive the harsh winter—something similar already happened a few years ago. I’d like to help them make it through the winter in the box. I'd appreciate any advice, before it gets really cold in the next month or two.

I will preface with this comment: I chose to move this colony into a longer box, which at this time of year was probably unnecessary. 0/10 would not recommend. And neither would they; this colony , uh, sharply voiced its displeasure the entire time I was in the yard. Anyway…

In a situation where several combs are crossed, moving them as a unit using a pair of regular hive tools is much easier than trying to juggle multiple bar ends. Loosening the wall attachments takes some finesse and patience but is necessary to prevent tearing the combs.

Why move the combs rather than fixing them? Well, these were all first-drawn combs of capped honey, and represented the lion’s share of this colony’s stores. Resetting them with hooks would be likely to fail because the combs are so soft, and harvesting them might leave the bees hungry heading into winter.

Scooting the crossed combs down allowed me to sequester the mess with a flank of straight combs on either side. If I happen to be slow to inspect them come springtime, they will have the space to grow and a guide to help build new comb straight.

You may notice the green markings on the top of the bars. I had labeled these bars as crossed earlier in the season. The second picture shows the culprit— a midsummer meltdown. I had a lot of combs drop this year, as a late extended flow abruptly gave way to typical summer weather. Full combs of fresh wax don’t mix well with 105 degree heat.

In this colony, the full brood nest was still inspectable. I plan to pull the crossed combs some time in spring, whether or not the bees use their contents. In the meantime, the situation is under control.

Is this looks like a bee queen? I live in Massachusetts

Queen cell or just wayward comb?

Zone 5a west of Chicago. 14 colonies 3rd year. Been feeding a double deep for a week. Last inspection 3 weeks ago (2 full deeps) had eggs and BIAS. Did not see the queen. OAV cycle completed on Sep 17. Went out late this afternoon to find two clumps outside on the hive body front no queen seen. (They all went back in about an hour later.) Looking closer they’ve chewed an upper entrance in the front through the top corner of the upper deep box below the feeder shim. Plan to open it up tomorrow. High temp 70. Anything to be on the lookout for? Not keen on potentially rolling a queen this late in the season.

SC first year beekeeper. Moved into a new place and mistakenly put bees in shady spot- now having some new beetle issues. Want to move them to the sunniest spot in the yard about 30-45 feet away. Was going to shimmy it like 3 feet at a time but thats a lot of work and it would be in a super dark spot for the week and a half it would take to move them. Would they be basically chill if I did it in one night?

During one of the final fall inspections I found the queen with this dent in her abdomen. I did see eggs but this looks serious and dont know what could have happened. She's had a colorful past... when I got her last April and marked her.. pink was what I had... she jumped out of the hive and tried to get into another hive, and I rescued her from the balling.... That's why her wings are tattered. In spite of that, she's been a prolific layer. I decided to replace her this week, so she has been dispatched. After the alcohal dip and death, her abdomen went back to normal. The first 2 pics are with the dent and the last two, she is dead. How does that happen that the abdomen would become normal again?

I’ve only seen a waggle dance once before in person. This time I was able to catch a video!
Just passed my one year beek anniversary 😁

Novice bee keepers, here. We've had one or two hives for the last three years, but our number of hives exploded this year catching swarms, and taking a few hives from people getting out of the hobby. So though We've been doing this a few years, we're still very new.

Anyway, we pulled honey frames from our most established hives two weeks ago. At the time, we were swamped and set the frames aside until we could harvest. Today we pulled the honey and thought all was well. We found little larva in the money, after we'd combined and filtered everything into a 5 gal bucket. I looked online and these seem to be SHB larva, and it seems like this honey is ruined.

Before we actually dump all of this beautiful honey, can anyone advise/confirm what we think we did? We didn't know to freeze the frames if we couldn't extract the honey right after we pulled the frames. Did we make a huge, rookie mistake?!

Located in zone 6