Newer beekeeper in the New England area, and I am just finding out that I should have removed my queen excluder when I winterized my hive. Am I already out of luck? Or is there a chance that my queen will survive the winter? It looks like the following week I might have a day where it gets up to 50, is that too cold to open up the hive? I will most likely not be able to do this very quickly - I have a deep and a super that are filled to the brim with honey and very heavy. Any insight/advice is greatly appreciated!!

I have two hives and saw one bee fly in and out but just had two family members bees leave somewhat recently so worried but don’t figure they come out at all during 20-50 degree temps

I HAVE HONEY BEES!!!! I have for years been lovingly calling this one very friendly little Bee Mayor B. I know it’s stupid, but I do it anyway, and now for the first time in the two years that I have seen this one little be that floats around there are a whole bunch of them. What do I do? I want to encourage their grow growth and also protect them from anything that might want to harm them.

Hi there, new 1st yr in Central TX. 10 day forecast shows cloudy w some rain- highs of 60-70 and lows around 48-52. I just did my winter prep inspection in which I was just counting frames of honey and planned on putting a sugar cap on/pulling feeder frames. I did an inspection about 1 mo ago with a mite wash and only 2 mites in hive one and 1 in hive two. I had a very successful Apiguard treatment in September (late for this area, I know) but bc of low count on alcohol wash, I didn’t do the late fall formic pro treatment. Upon inspection today in hive 1, I visibly could see a mite crawling out of a brood cell in one brood frame. There is really only 2 frames that are each about half full of brood and the rest is honey stores and a little pollen. So my question- is it too late to do a formic pro strip? Would it be worth a shot to knock mites out before winter is here? We have very mild winters btw if that matters. Thanks for your input.

Currently have 32 hives (7th year beek - SW Ohio USA) and plan for 2025 is 50-60. I currently have an older (rusty, higher maintenance) GMC sierra 1500 for beekeeping and as my vehicle for farmers markets and other market that I sell honey. Truck is fine for beekeeping but the constant load/unload bee stuff to switch to market stuff is getting old. Anyone using a cargo van for beekeeping? What pros, but especially cons do you have?

I was wondering if there is a method or kit that can be used safely and easily to detect

adulterated honey, making it suitable for use by non-professionals. If not, what are the main physical or chemical differences between pure and adulterated honey that can be used as a base for these types of tests?

Raleigh, NC

Just curious what kinds of bags/totes you use to transport your tools (if anything) when you're working on the hives. If there's one you like in particular, I'd love to know what it is!

I love using my beekeeping gloves when decorating live Christmas trees. Happy holidays to all!

I added a spacer on top of my brood box so have feeding space, and it seems like my bottom exit is getting fairly plugged up with the dead/icing. So i was wondering if I could drill a 1/4 inch hole (or so) in the spacer so I can put my bore scope in for checking feed or checking their status.

First year. My first honey only lifted 1 frame left the rest for ma ladies

What causes these bubbles? They will eventully form a tight foam at the top that can be scooped off but looks bad to sell. If I scoop off and repour I get bubbles all over again. Honey from anther yard didnt do this. Warm or cold will do this.

50s and 60s still, here in the Lone Star state. The girls just keep finding more supplies. Constantly astounded by them.

Quick background - second year keeping, lost my hive last year because I didn’t winter them well. Restarted fresh this past spring, hive had been doing well, filled out 2 10 frame deeps and started adding honey to a Flow box on top.

Went out today to wrap my hive for the winter, somewhat warm day, decided to do a quick check. I incorrectly assumed that the hive was frozen, that I’d lost it again and started scraping out the “dead” bees. Brought the queen inside and realized the HUGE mistake that they were just dormant as she came back to life. I’ve now hand picked up about 200 bees that I scraped out and am warming them back to action inside.

Is there any recovery here? If I place them back in the hive what are my chances of success? Is this enough mass to survive the winter? Any other steps I can take to improve my chances?

Hi Beekeepers.

Just an FYI, Paul Kelly from the University of Guelph will be visiting us for an AMA on the 3rd of December. Keep an eye out for his post, and prepare some questions in advance. If you’re not sure what to ask, why not check out their YouTube channel first, and see what type of things they cover.

This channel comes highly recommended here on this subreddit, so we.. well… highly recommend you check it out beforehand.

Thanks!

PS. This is not the AMA - don’t ask your questions here

We just got over a foot of heavy, wet snow. northern NE. My hives are wrapped double deeps with candy board, inner cover, homasote, and 1" foam insulation under the telescoping cover.

My question is should I clear the foot of snow on the top of the hives so the sun can warm the tops or should I leave it for insulation? It's forecasted to be pretty chill next week...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I have a small backyard with a grass lawn about 20x5m 50m squared (60yards squared). Would I be able to keep bees here? Neighbours on either side too.

Edit: from NZ. Bylaws where I am allow it

Tasmania

Any other beeks with this feeder that have modified it? Im a new beekeeper and filled mine up with 2L of 1:1 and noticed a few bees had drowned in the corner sections.

I've read you can add a sock to improve traction but not sure how you would do that on the corner bits.

Anything I should do to improve my feeder to stop bees drowning? Should I be filling it up to the very top so they don't have to crawl so far down and then drown?

Over the last 8+ months I’ve noticed bee hives being dumped in the same location (near a small lake in Southern California, USA). It looks like a service that removes bees from properties just dumps what they’ve removed from the job, but i can’t confirm this.

I have 0% knowledge on beekeeping and have a few questions. Feel free to point me in a different direction if I’ve missed a resource and/or should look elsewhere.

1 - Is this legal? 2 - Will the bees just “figure it out” and build hives in the nearby trees? 3 - Can the bees be rehomed temporarily and then released?