Rod Foster

ha!

oh man
my next hive is gonna be a warre hive....i like the hands off approach to bee keeping and just letting them "bee"

i think for me, the htbh has been a wonderful learning tool and experience for myself and my family and glad i went that route to start...but i started reading up on warre hives about a year ago and it just seems a bit more up my alley in terms of the amt of honey you can harvest

thanks for the responses!!!

baklava season is upon us

you'll need to take out the queen cage within less than 24 hours after install

in my hives i don't hang the queen...direct release and snag the cage as it still will have the queen pheromones on it and the bees will build comb around it (hanging or sitting)

cool.

i still have the original queen in there (she came marked) and the temperament of the bees has been docile and non-aggressive.

i think mainly if i do manipulate i try to focus on moving the honey stores to the back and keep the brood to the front and throw in some empties here and there (give them more space and something to do)

do you take a more non-interventionist sort of approach? do you have swarming techniques that are less invasive? how do you like to "work" your hives?

do you just like to poke in and make sure they're not cross-combing (assuming you have a HTBH)

and as far as having pure carniolians..i am not at all concerned with that...i want healthy bees, healthy comb and just enough honey for my toast and my wife's baklava

also
on les crowder, bush, and hemenway's advice

i opened the broodnest for some swarm control and had a great successful hive

BBEBBEBBE b for brood and e for empty bars...

about the only form of swarm prevention i partake in is making sure the hive is not overcrowded...i do not cut out queen cells or clip the queen's wings.

i've not made any hive splits...YET...but we'll see...i'm really new at this and love the peace and zen and joy these bees bring into my life and i love just watching them go in and out of the hive.


From Bush Bee's Site...michael bush is a wonderful, intelligent, and very helpful beekeeper i've had the pleasure of conversing w/ over @ beesource forums

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesswarmcontrol.htm

tel jetson wrote:pretty pictures, Rod, though I hear color is available these days. what are the smoker and veil for?

my wife took the shots and she chose black and white
the veil and smoker were for installing 3 three pound packages of bees

i ended up not needing the smoker but kept it out and smoked myself. i have my original hive and i don't wear a veil to work them but these were newbees and i decided to go safe on the first round...so far these bees are not aggressive at all and pay no attention to me or my dogs

install for all 3 took less than 30 minutes.

i'm only in my 2nd year as a beekeeper but have been involved and around bees since 2005

i'm w/ peter on this one.

get rid of the bad comb...that will only give you headaches.

get a small bucket and fill it with clean pebbles rocks and fill so the rocks/pebbles are not completely covered...allowing the bees to land dryly and gather water

David Miller wrote:I have an Anatolian and a Anatolian/StBernard. If they even once tried to knock down the hives, they'd succeed. They would certainly get stung but they'd really mess things up in process. Better safe than sorry

Ha! always a good rule to live by

David Miller wrote:I would have preferred a roof based hive really, wouldn't have had to electric fence my dogs out but advertising to the neighbors was a big negative.

what do you mean fence your dogs out? were they going after the bees? didn't they get stung and learn their lesson?

it took only a sting for each of my pups and they keep clear...i have my 4 hives in my backyard (it's fenced) and my dogs don't go near em..