re: Anyone here keep Bees?

quote:

---

I’m not sure about flower bed plants or flowers, other than lavender,

---

100% agree on the lavender

My wife has some planted in a bed and quite a few bees are there first stop every morning.

The also seem to really like mint which I found surprising, I mean really like it.

I have also found ANYTHING that flowers yellow is targeted.

Marked the queen on that swarm

Another cool video Columbia. Have you tried one of these? They make catching the queen and marking her much easier.

LINK

Tell me about it. I hate seeing dead bees in my pool. I may have to try the bird feeder with pebbles to help them out

Haven’t tried that catcher yet. May have to buy one.

I fed my nukes up until the flow. One hive backed off on taking it. The other started back filling comb so I just quit feeding. Not sure what to do when dearth hits. Just put honey supers on yesterday.

I have lots of questions on what to do with honey management going into summer dearth. Everything I’ve read says to remove syrup when adding supers, so I did that. But what about once dearth hits. I know I need to leave enough honey for them to make it through dearth period and through the winter. Yes, it’s my first year, so I may not get any honey for myself. So many variables and so many questions.

You have a head start on me. All the ones I have were caught swarms. None seemed to be massive. I checked them all the last few days. They vary from 6 frames filled to 3. I know I'm not getting honey this year. I just want to make sure they are beefed up and as ready as possible to survive winter. They should have plenty of food naturally where I am located. I planted an acre of sunflowers and wild flowers. They are coming up now. Hopefully that will help this summer.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but I don’t do it often. If I do a hive cut out during the dearth, I feed them to help them get re-established.

I admit that they do get pissy during the dearth if you don’t feed them though. They get extremely defensive of their honey at that time of year.

Columbia, after you harvest your honey around late June, you can start feeding them. The problem with feeding them before then is that they’ll be making “sugar water” honey instead of real nectar honey. That, in itself, is not a huge deal, but if you’re selling it, people say it’s not “real” honey.

Only what’s in the hive bodies. The honey in the supers is mine.

Great info. I caught three swarms and lost one to beetles. As long as they continue to grow I won't feed. If they seem to stall, should I? You want two deeps full going into late fall?

I need to move two hives. One about a mile and the other 50 feet. I'm not able to move them "16" miles away for a few days. I plan to block the entrance and move them before daylight. I've read if you put a lot of debri like twigs and small limbs in front of the hive, it forces them to recalibrate when they leave. Any advice on moving bees short distances?