Eastern WA state, USA

This isn’t really beekeeping, but dealing with the products of it. I’ve been trying to clean my wax and the last thing I did was heat some water and put the wax in. It melted into a nice cake (I skimmed scum off the top), but the bottom is all dirty. I thought the impurities would sink to the bottom of the water, but I was wrong. I don’t remember this happening last time I dealt with wax cappings and I’m not sure how to clean it farther.

Any tips or tricks?

South Florida, apis mellifica

Hi all, a week ago I installed 2 nucs into hives in my backyard. They're in an 8 and a 10 frame langsroth each. I have flow supers I want to put on but it's been a bad season for bees in the area so am thinking it's better to get an early start on winter prep given Canberra has cold winters. I've been told I should add an extra box on each hive so I can have 1 box brood and 1 honey for winter.

If I do this I'd prefer to work with the tools I've got which is a heap of foundationless frames. I've already used some in the existing brood box with success, avoiding any cross comb. But each of the foundationless frames were put in between existing full frames. If I add a second box to avoid cross comb I was thinking to try and checkerboard the new frames across both boxes to give the guidelines to avoid cross comb.

Does anyone have any advice on how to do this best, any risks moving the frames up and down between boxes, anything I should keep in mind? Would I be okay just to stick to one brood box and instead put the flow super on and then feed them for winter?

In my area other keepers have said there's a flow emerging but I haven't confirmed. I'm happy to feed them to help build their strength and get prepared for winter.

Photos are examples of successful foundationless frames.

Location: Canberra, Australia.

Hi everyone,

As you Can see on the photo my second batch of candi IS more brown than the first. Recipee was very simple: 3kg sugar, 800mL water, heat to 116°C, cool to 55°C, mix and voilà.

Honnestly if I hadnt done the first batch perfectly white I wouldnt have questioned the second one but here I am, wondering if it's still ok? I Heard overheating the sugar IS Bad for the bees.

Thanks for your opinion!

Does anyone have experience with rabbit bush honey? What does it taste like?

NE Oklahoma, USA I rescued some bees from a cut down tree on Monday. There was almost no capped honey and no brood at all. I’m not sure how long the tree was on the ground before I got there but at least two days. Is there any chance the queen is still there? I have no chance of finding her since they’re all balled up for the cold. I plan to just add them to another hive.

Hi all, beekeeper in Southern California with a question. This picture attached was sent by a beekeeper friend asking what the white stuff was on a frame from their hive. I'm stumped...They said this frame isn't a brood frame...The hive is on the weaker side with reportedly 2 frames of brood and currently at 1 box. Any thoughts?

I built a 2 deep brood, 1 medium super kit to start my hive in the spring. However I would like to maximize honey production. I am in Texas and I’ve heard that unless you have long harsh winters you don’t need 2 deep boxes; which here there are very mild winters. My question is can I use one of the deep brood boxes as a super excluding the queen from it and isolate the brood to only the bottom deep box or is this not a viable option for some reason?

I’ve seen some nice jars posted in the past but I’m curious what y’all’s go-to jar is for giving honey as a Christmas gift.

I live in Maine, and I have had two hives for less than 5 years, usually each gets 2 medium honey supers over the summer. I've put my bees to bed for the season, but due to some dumb missteps I ended up with only 1 out of 4 supers with capped honey. The other 3 are almost entirely half-full cells.

To harvest the unfinished honey, I'd end up with stuff that doesn't have a low enough water content to be stable or even be honey, but I don't have fancy equipment that I could use to dehydrate it all.

If I just store the supers and let the bees take care of it in the summer, the existing honey may ferment or rot or mold. (I would freeze them first and store them in pretty airtight spots over the winter.)

What would you do with them? Neither one feels ideal to me.

Not a beekeeper but a quick question to you noble pros out there.

How can I know if my honey is made from sugar feed? I recently bought some honey from Apiterra (claims to be from Turkey) and it is so much sweeter and more syrup-like than my previous honey that I am genuinely suspicious. It seems to pass the home tests of paper towel, water, and vinegar but I just cannot help but be skeptical that there is some scamming going on. Their meador honey tastes almost like Lyle's refiners syrup and the mountain honey is not far behind.

I fear the company/beekeepers have few qualms about cutting their costs or bulking with sugar feed if it means selling more in the USA.

Any thoughts?

Hello im a 16 year old girl living in norway. Reasently i have been intrested in beekeeping and am thinking of starting. My parents support me so does my grandparents. The only thing is that im scared im to young and it will be to hard for me. I have been reading and watching videoas and Are looking to take a beekeeping course. I would love some tips, and you Are welcome to share your exspeience with beekeeping!

Zone 6a.

In years past we always removed the inner covers and replaced with a feeding shim and then a quilt/moisture box. The quilt box was stuffed with pine shavings in a burlap bag and topped with a piece of .5in foam insulation and then an outer cover. Intent is to be a condensing hive. Last year all our hives made it through winter.

This year I'm thinking of leaving the inner cover in place. On top of the inner cover would be the feeding shim, quilt box with foam piece and the outer cover. Inner cover notch/vent plugged. Again, intent is to be a condensing hive.

I'm just not sure if enough warm air will get through the inner cover's center hole to effectively keep the area between the inner cover and quilt box warm enough so that condensation does not occur under the inner cover.

Checked the group's wiki, but didn't glean an answer from it.

Would really appreciate others' thoughts.

Thanks.

Hi, its my first year beekeeping, and first winter overall. I have big fear of by bees dying over the course of winter. I did everything I could for them in my knowledge and power, treated them against varroa, fed them.

I installed mouse guards months ago when temperatures started to drop a little, and today I came by to reduce enternce to '1 bee space' because there isnt any bee activity anymore. As I was doing that I saw one dead bee on enterence of each of my two hives.

My question is how to tell my bees are okay, those two dead bees kinda scared me. I dont know what is going on inside and its cold for any inspection. I did hear buzzing inside so I know the are still bees there.

Thank you, and sorry for dumb Q.

I don’t know where to get them from and just need ones that are able to last outside and wear and tare.

Can anyone recommend a vaporizer that can be used with an Apimaye hive? I found one at Lorobbees but they are waiting for parts.

As well as inventing the Manley frame system (still in common use today, and you likely use a variation of it), R. O. B. Manley is the source of the practice of feeding sugar to bees in its modern form, and propagated the idea of using thymol, which was effective against varroa (although his initial reasoning was to prevent fermentation and the growth of mould in syrup).

Eugene OR, I had to go away for some business for a month before I left I checked the hive and it was absolutely FULL of honey and the hive was doing great I had someone feeding them once it got cold but now that I’m back the hive is disheveled I see more dead than alive everyday. Is it too cold to open up the hive and check inside? I’m kind of depressed about the status of my hive I don’t hear the same hum as before and I no longer smell the honey and propolis like I did a month ago they’re going through their sugar water very slowly. What is a good way to check on the health of the hive?

So I requeened due to being broodless and the hive being teaty about a month and a half ago. 13 days later and I had some big slabs of brood and plenty of eggs.

Treated with 3 rounds of apilife var and upon checking today I'm basically broodless again.

Not sure if the treatment put the kabash on the brood or if she's just done laying before "winter". It's till 85 in CFL so it's not like we have weather to deal with.

I didn't look for her when I was in today, but I saw her 2 weeks ago and saw no cups of any kind so I'm 99% sure I still have a queen. Brood break for winter maybe? Not sure what to think.