Worldwide Beekeeping

Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: Zweefer on May 11, 2022, 04:08:33 pm

Title: hive headaches
Post by: Zweefer on May 11, 2022, 04:08:33 pm
went into the hives quick before another round of storms come through... Had one hive come up queenless....
I stole a frame of eggs, larva and brood complete with nurse bees from my nuc and put it in the hive.

Then thought better of it.  $30 later, I have a new queen in the box and will check on her Friday to make sure she is out.

On a positive note, the dandelions have started to come up here. saw my first one yesterday!

*edit* I have a friend who is 10 min drive from me with queens banked, thus the ability to replace her so quickly.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Jen on May 12, 2022, 12:46:09 am
I don't know why, but for years I have had plenty of dandelions in my large yard and I'll be darned I have ever seen a bee on one of them  ???

When I first started on this forum years ago there was only one other beekeeper in the area that I knew of. I had to order queens from Mann Lake and Dadant about 150 miles south, over night shipping, came to about $70 queen. But now we have a bee club in our county and this club keeps a hybrid queen bank. Plus we have another commercial beekeeper about half hour away that keeps Italians.

Zweefer, what breed of queen do you like best?
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Zweefer on May 12, 2022, 06:44:44 am
I’ve had the best luck with Russians.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: The15thMember on May 12, 2022, 10:28:18 am
I’ve had the best luck with Russians.
So have the Washington Capitals.   8)   :D

Seriously though, local bees are the best.  I was fortunately able to get local bees when I got my first packages, and they have done so well for me.  It's great to see clubs working on breeding local stocks. 

Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Jen on May 12, 2022, 11:43:02 am
I would have to agree with 15th on local queens. Although the hybrid queen bank we have here comes from central Calif, those queens genes include russian stock because they are evidently huge honey makers.

I prefer the italian queens because they are laying machines. But would like to try carnolian queens as well. Then there is the Saskatraz bees who are bred in Canada and do real well in cold weather.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: LazyBkpr on May 12, 2022, 02:09:02 pm
Split my BIG hive today, I'll go in and look a the other hives this weekend and decide if and when to split depending on how crowded they are getting...   Didn;t see any queen cells in the big hive, but it was five boxes and packed full. The other hives shouldnt be too far behind it...   Didn't get stung today... strangely enough... maybe they are starting to love me?
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Jen on May 12, 2022, 02:40:53 pm
No doubt in my mind Lazy ~ How many hives are you running now?
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Zweefer on May 12, 2022, 05:24:27 pm
Walk away split, or did you put a queen in each one?
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: LazyBkpr on May 13, 2022, 06:14:19 am
Walk away split... Made sure both hives had eggs, and I'll go back in and check both in a few days looking for queen cells...   Hoping they have a couple extra to split a couple more hives with...   Unfortunately I dont have anyone ten minutes down the road with queens, so I am on my own unless I want to order them...     I am hoping to MAKE a few later in June to fill up a few nucs.. NOT having good luck overwintering nuc's and need to figure out how to get them through the winters better....     Mrs Jen.. I try to keep ten hives, and have five nucs by the end of july....
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Zweefer on May 13, 2022, 06:39:13 am
Still doing the double story 2x2 (side by side) for overwintering?
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Bakersdozen on May 13, 2022, 10:08:52 am

I prefer the italian queens because they are laying machines. But would like to try carnolian queens as well. Then there is the Saskatraz bees who are bred in Canada and do real well in cold weather.
I have Italian and Carnolian queens.  Italians winter over in larger clusters and require more winter food stores.  Carnolians go into winter with smaller clusters, don't require as much winter stores, and come out of winter in smaller numbers.  The colony builds up quickly and are not quite as gentle as the Italians.  I also have one Saskatraz queen.  I talked about how I acquired her in another thread.  https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php?topic=9057.msg104192#msg104192 (https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php?topic=9057.msg104192#msg104192)  I received her about a month ago, so it will be fun to watch how that colony does.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: LazyBkpr on May 14, 2022, 12:19:22 am
Saskatraz?????   Do tell!!!!

   The ones I still have are mutt leftovers from my Wayne's bees, doubt there is much left of the original genetics by now though...   Going through hives tomorrow, will be interesting!
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Jen on May 14, 2022, 03:09:17 pm
Hi lazy, Saskatchewan Canada is where the Saskatraz gene comes from. Pretty phenomenal queens! I'm trying to make room in my small apiary for a Sask hive. One of their great traits is that they are bred in cold weather... example... one of my bee buddies acquired a Sask hive early this spring, owners moved and couldn't take them. He said the Sask's are always the first bees to come out in the cold mornings.

Our closest source for Sask queens is about 2 1/2 hours south. California

 https://backyardbeekeeping101.com/saskatraz-bees-review/
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: LazyBkpr on May 14, 2022, 05:38:27 pm
Interesting.. I always liked Michael Palmer's bees for similar reasons.  Hopefully I can get back to working with them often enough to try some of these good genetics soon!
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: vvand111 on May 15, 2022, 05:29:48 pm
Lazy,   just out of cureosity what size boxes are you running.
I am running 2 deep 10 frame boxesand supers on top.
All of my bees r from Waynes bees out of nc.

Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Zweefer on May 15, 2022, 08:26:58 pm
hey there stranger! Nice to see you vvand111! :yes:
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: vvand111 on May 16, 2022, 07:43:55 am
Been busy zwee   had some real bad medical problems for about 2.5 years.  a lot better now. managed to keep 5 of my my 10 hives. I do not know how but purly lucked my way through.  I will be doing at least 3 splits in next week and then let them settle in for the rest of the summer.
                       look forward to talking with you guys more.
Would love to here from Idee as he really inspired me from the beginning
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: LazyBkpr on May 16, 2022, 08:15:03 am
VV I run all medium, ten frame boxes.... overwintering in three mediums instead of two deeps.....   a medium full of honey is plenty heavy enough for me.   :yes:
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: iddee on May 16, 2022, 09:01:38 am
Hello, VV. Good to hear from you. Glad to know the Wayne's bees are doing well.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Bakersdozen on May 16, 2022, 11:15:38 am
Saskatraz?????   Do tell!!!!

Sorry Lazy, I though I posted a response to this but I don't see it now.
The Saskatraz line was developed in Saskatchewan Canada.  Not only do they have have good wintering abilities, are similar to Italians in gentleness, but they are bred to be hygienic and adaptable to mite resistance.  Saskatraz are also supposed to be good honey producers.  This package I acquired, with the Saskatraz queen, was on the verge of starving by the time I got them.  I gave them 4 frames of drawn comb in a 10 frame brood box.  They are slowing down on the sugar syrup and starting to draw comb now that we have a bit of a nectar flow going.  They weather hasn't been favorable to foraging and  I am still feeding quite a few colonies while they build up.  They are taking it, so they need it.  She is laying where ever she can find comb.  So far, so good.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Jen on May 16, 2022, 12:25:31 pm
Hi Baker, when you say 'by the time you got them' how far did the Sask package/queen have to travel to get to you?
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Bakersdozen on May 17, 2022, 10:38:10 am
Hi Baker, when you say 'by the time you got them' how far did the Sask package/queen have to travel to get to you?
Sorry about not being clear.  A friend of mine who works for one of the large delivery companies called me.  Mann Lake was shipping packages by this company and one of the packages on a pallet had been damaged and bees were flying everywhere.  They contacted her to take them off her hands and they would let insurance settle the loss.  It wasn't clear how long the bees had been sitting on a dock somewhere but the packages were light as a feather because the feeder cans were empty or almost empty.  I said I would take two, because I didn't have that much woodenware setting around empty.  She didn't realize at the time that each package was labeled with the breed of bees.  It was dark by the time she got to my house.  I had sugar water ready and misted them down as a food source for the night.
My friend called me a day or two later to say that the breed of bees was labeled on each package and that some were Saskatraz.  Luckily, because I was lazy, I was able to retrace my steps and determine which hive contained the Saskatraz.  The other package was Carnolians. 
It was a close call for that pallet.  Another couple took 30 packages, I took two, and my friend ended up with a couple of them too.  She didn't have the woodenware available either.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Jen on May 17, 2022, 12:19:28 pm
Wow! That was an episode for sure. I'm keeping my personal apiary at no more than 3 hives these days, although I did take on 2 hives at our fairgrounds because they were in trouble. But if I had a chance at a Sask or Carni I would take it. Lucky you to learn about them.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: rober on May 19, 2022, 09:21:26 am
i've had good luck with italians & saskatraz. i like the carniolans but propolise the frames so heavily that they are hard to work. had good luck with michael palmer's queens to. i gave up on wayne's bees because his local post office could not get their act together to overnight them 3 mailings arrived 4 days, 5 days, & 4 days. none survived. wayne ate the charges. hopefully the P.O. insurance covered his losses. i'm currently raising some minnesota hygienic queens.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Zweefer on May 19, 2022, 09:48:55 am
i'm currently raising some minnesota hygienic queens.

Marla runs a great program at the U of M.  They are about 1.5 hours from here.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: LazyBkpr on May 19, 2022, 11:08:06 pm
Is Marla Spivak still running that? man I talked to her ages ago about those bees...
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: Bakersdozen on May 20, 2022, 11:35:12 am
Is Marla Spivak still running that? man I talked to her ages ago about those bees...
She's still there although I think I heard she is talking about retirement.
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: LazyBkpr on May 20, 2022, 05:56:20 pm
Very nice lady to talk to!
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: vvand111 on July 16, 2022, 09:05:00 pm
This is to all but IDEE specifically.  Idee you posted 1 time about somthing that really works well for wax moth protection. I cannot find it but I am in need.    As to the descendants of my waynes bees, I have just harvested and spun over 100full frames of honey today. Full day work as all bottled and labeled as well.   Now I am going to need to keep those frames safley until spring. Many will go back on hives for a small fall harvest , but many are left to store and I do not have enough room in freezer right now.
Super harvest for this little guy and more to go.

Thank you for your inspiration and knowledge you have shared with me.  I am now doing it for others.  Its very cool to see people get tuned into this.
     
Title: Re: hive headaches
Post by: iddee on July 16, 2022, 09:57:32 pm
Here are some posts to look at. Glad to hear the Wayne's bees are doing well.

https://worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php?topic=5867.msg75546#msg75546

Yep, it's enjoyable to watch the excitement of others as they learn these little bugs that fascinate us.
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