General bee keeping advice

[raldog]

Yup, thats how it starts. Next thing you know you're giving away 5 gallon buckets of honey and saying you would really appreciate it if they could return the bucket quickly. Are you running double deep brood boxes? Easiest split in the world is to get double deeps really healthy and do a walk away split when you see a few queen cells. Best advice I ever got was to focus on keeping 4 hives super healthy until they were busting at the seams and then figure out where you want to be. With 4 you can share resources between them and survive most beekeeping problems. Sooner of later with friends and friends of friends they all start offering to pay to get to the top of the list next year and you realize that pretty easily you could make and extra 10k per year without much effort. I used to sell quart jars like hotcakes in key west for $25. There seems to be a trend in the last 5 years to replace sugar with honey.

[OBLIGATED]

Probably have to do the boxes tomorrow.Local stores are selling honey around 6 bucks a pound.Local farmer has a deal for 400 bucks a year you get a basket of fresh vegetables every week.Going to ask if they want to barter.
The hive is LOADED.Im thinking I can do a split this month and they will be good for winter.

[OBLIGATED]

My advice for anyone thinking about getting bees is get a bee suit.Jeans are not bee proof.Evidently neither are the bee gloves
Really pretty honey.Sort of has a rose color and a a lot of flower essence to it.
Only did one box.Got about 12 bites and was sweating like a beast.
Benadryl is my friend!

[popgun pete]

Just love honey and almond slices made with good honey. https://www.donnahay.com.au/recipes/...y-almond-slice
https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recip...ecipe/o4tk5js0

[OBLIGATED]

Going to have to try the Almond bars.If I can resist dipping them in chocolate I MAY actually lose some weight.
Bees settled down some but bit my oldest a couple days ago and one nailed me right between the eyes.I keep a stockpile of Benadryl in the house.

[rojodiablo]

Originally Posted by OBLIGATED

My advice for anyone thinking about getting bees is get a bee suit.Jeans are not bee proof.Evidently neither are the bee gloves
Really pretty honey.Sort of has a rose color and a a lot of flower essence to it.
Only did one box.Got about 12 bites and was sweating like a beast.
Benadryl is my friend!

Amazing to find this thread; I have been off Spearboard way too long!!!
I have several hives, have been collecting and relocating for almost two years now.
Allergic to Benadryl; I get bad reactions from taking it, much worse than stings!

Anyway, anybody seeing collapse issues in some of their hives? I'm having an issue, that isn't Varroa mites. A hive will be growing, cranking along, and within two, 3 weeks it's a total dead out.
I'm to the point now that I'm going to melt all frames down and render the wax and forgo the honey stores from them, in case it's a pathogen somehow in the frames on the wax, etc.

We are talking 20,000 dead bees in a 2 week period, and then all brood gone, no guards, and a moth invasion on the wax. MY beetles are pretty under control, not real bad. Ideas would be appreciated!

[OBLIGATED]

Originally Posted by rojodiablo

Amazing to find this thread; I have been off Spearboard way too long!!!
I have several hives, have been collecting and relocating for almost two years now.
Allergic to Benadryl; I get bad reactions from taking it, much worse than stings!

Anyway, anybody seeing collapse issues in some of their hives? I'm having an issue, that isn't Varroa mites. A hive will be growing, cranking along, and within two, 3 weeks it's a total dead out.
I'm to the point now that I'm going to melt all frames down and render the wax and forgo the honey stores from them, in case it's a pathogen somehow in the frames on the wax, etc.

We are talking 20,000 dead bees in a 2 week period, and then all brood gone, no guards, and a moth invasion on the wax. MY beetles are pretty under control, not real bad. Ideas would be appreciated!

I hope that wont happen.I lost some to mites,bees fighting and absconding.Sort of like horses,dogs and boats,keep saying Im tired of this crap and a few years do it again.

[Tyson Brown]

Originally Posted by rojodiablo

...
Anyway, anybody seeing collapse issues in some of their hives? I'm having an issue, that isn't Varroa mites. A hive will be growing, cranking along, and within two, 3 weeks it's a total dead out.
I'm to the point now that I'm going to melt all frames down and render the wax and forgo the honey stores from them, in case it's a pathogen somehow in the frames on the wax, etc.

We are talking 20,000 dead bees in a 2 week period, and then all brood gone, no guards, and a moth invasion on the wax. MY beetles are pretty under control, not real bad. Ideas would be appreciated!

I have no actual experience, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Here are a few things I've read about in the past:

There are plenty of spore-based bacterial and fungal diseases like American Foul Brood. Here's a site with some info on symptoms you could maybe correlate - have you noticed any dead bees in sealed cells?
https://beeaware.org.au/pest_categor...blished-pests/

You might know that AFB spores, for example, survive just about anything except irradiation and the only practical cure is to burn the whole entire hive....

But it could also be pesticide on nearby flowers, right? If bees are coming back to the hive contaminated, they could spread the pesticide to the hive.

Good luck

[OBLIGATED]

Originally Posted by Tyson Brown

I have no actual experience, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Here are a few things I've read about in the past:

There are plenty of spore-based bacterial and fungal diseases like American Foul Brood. Here's a site with some info on symptoms you could maybe correlate - have you noticed any dead bees in sealed cells?
https://beeaware.org.au/pest_categor...blished-pests/

You might know that AFB spores, for example, survive just about anything except irradiation and the only practical cure is to burn the whole entire hive....

But it could also be pesticide on nearby flowers, right? If bees are coming back to the hive contaminated, they could spread the pesticide to the hive.

Good luck

If you are in a residential area you have a high probability of the hive being harmed by pesticides.Im in a pretty rural area and the farmers(beef)next to me do not spray their hay fields.Several other farmers nearby and they dont use pesticide and fertilize with the chicken waste from the chicken farms.
I use Neems oil on my flowering plants,grapes,vegetables and apple trees.I dont want to use pesticides too much because of the bees,my hens and I have lots of Hummingbirds that come to my deck.

[raldog]

American Foul Brood is pretty easy to check for with a toothpick in dead brood. Only seen it once and no cure gotta burn the whole hive. One I haven't seen but hear is a problem here in Chile is nosema. From what I understand it is pretty rapid and you can tell the bees get dysentery and its all over the entrance. Best bet is find an old timer near you and ask. Not too much they havent seen. Good luck.
Travis

[raldog]

Also a great resource for all things about bee problems. Very in depth

scientific beekeeping.com

[popgun pete]

Without bees the world would be in deep shit as they pollinate all our crops. No bees, no food, no human race.

[rojodiablo]

I lean toward pesticides. No foul brood; I have good hatch on larvae on all hives.

It's VERY frustrationg; to see a 4 deep box go dead in 2 weeks....... is heartbreaking. They worked real hard to make such a good hive, and then it fell apart so fast.
Not seeing lots of dsentary, and not seeing the tracheal mite issue where they look like they are wheezing and dying. These bees live, then DIE.

[rojodiablo]

Time to check in, the bees are coming out and finding pollen pretty regular now. Hive size is up on the primary hive; the oldest hive requeened on their own, much to my surprise in December. New queen is rolling along and looking like she will make a strong hive out of what was a perpetually anemic 4 frame underperformer.
Third hive was removed from a tree in October, they have been small, but have a good queen. Things are looking up.
Pretty sure it was pesticides that smashed my hives last year. Hoping to avoid it this year, will relocate the captures and splits to more remote locations.

[POL]

Originally Posted by rojodiablo

Anyway, anybody seeing collapse issues in some of their hives? I'm having an issue, that isn't Varroa mites. A hive will be growing, cranking along, and within two, 3 weeks it's a total dead out.
I'm to the point now that I'm going to melt all frames down and render the wax and forgo the honey stores from them, in case it's a pathogen somehow in the frames on the wax, etc.

We are talking 20,000 dead bees in a 2 week period, and then all brood gone, no guards, and a moth invasion on the wax. MY beetles are pretty under control, not real bad. Ideas would be appreciated!

Were the dead bees in the hive on the bottom board, in front of the hive with missing heads, gone and only scratches on the hive.
Don’t discount predators such as skunks, wasps, etc.
And you need to be more specific about the signs and symptoms.
For instance. Brood gone, as no sign of it, or dead. Were the hives queen right. Did the empty brood cells look normal (smooth) or were chewed out. Etc.

Could simply be that they didn’t like the home and left if there is no sign of them.
A skunk can wipe out a hive in a few nights, wasps can do the same.