Photograph via snooOG

r/Beekeeping - Beekeeping education and help, with tolerance.

/r/Beekeeping

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27

Encouraging to see on an unseasonably nice day (48F) in the Seattle area.

3 Comments
2025/01/09
22:34 UTC

5

Oxalic Acid Vaporizer Use In Wisconsin

I am considering purchasing a vaporizer from Lorobees. I was wondering if any members of the community have a few years of experience with oxalic acid vapor use in the Wisconsin area? And going off of this have you had any issues with treatment and when do you start treating with it. (I will be using it as a fall treatment if I go ahead with getting the vaporizer.

16 Comments
2025/01/09
18:09 UTC

8

Pee & Bees

Hello, good morning everyone! I’m an outsider with a question that I hope doesn’t bother anyone. From watching TV shows, I’ve always heard that bees chase you when they’re angry. So, during harvest, if you urgently need to go to the bathroom, what do you do? Is it safe to open your suit, or is that too risky?

25 Comments
2025/01/09
13:24 UTC

18

Just bought some land and want to help the bees. Need guidance.

I’ve always loved bees, and while I’ve considered keeping bees of my own I’m not sure it’s something I would enjoy. However, with this new property that I own, I plan to have a nice sized garden, lots of wild flowers, and some fruit bushes. I would love to make my property bee friendly and maybe help support some native species that need a little extra help.

The home is in Northern North Carolina. Are there any bees I can build homes for that can help pollinate my garden? I’m not interested in harvesting honey but I could provide food and a safe place to live for any natives that might need help repopulating.

Thanks!

17 Comments
2025/01/08
21:47 UTC

5

Collecting Honey AND Wax

I'm being gifted bees in the spring, and I'm doing research. For Christmas, I got "The Beekeper's Bible," and I want to utilize as many different products of the bees as I can, like it says in the book (eventually, not while I'm getting started and building up my bees). I know ways to get honey, but is there an easy way to get honey and wax? Or would it be better to have one set of bees to harvest for honey and another for wax?

35 Comments
2025/01/08
19:09 UTC

2

Hive box swap and a little on the cool side…whatcha think?

Like to do a hive box swap here in Florida today but it’s 57 degrees and sunny. Think I can do it quick or hold off? No inspection, just frames to new box. Quick in and out. Whatcha think?

13 Comments
2025/01/08
16:35 UTC

1

Apps or technology for beekeeping?

Hey everyone!

I'm a software engineer and I live on a farm, and I always wanted to modernize some of the processes that exist in this kind of context. One of the things I found is that beekeeping is very "old school", so I don't see much technology here.

My mum is a beekeeper and I see that she has a lot of issues, for example, she sometimes can't remember which hive she checked or doesn't know when she has to apply some medicine or things like that. Also, she doesn't remember which hive is more aggressive or more docile, and she doesn't have the information of the production of honey.

She tries to take notes on paper, but sometimes those get damaged or were added in a rush, without context, so she struggles to find the correct information.

Naturally, with my software engineer brain, I think about an app that store all the information safely and very clearly on the cloud, but I don't know if people would use something like that. In my mum's case, she's old, so she sometimes struggles with technology, so I don't know if the rest of the people would use something like that.

So my question is, do you use something like an app to take notes or to add important information? Do you prefer to keep it all on paper? Would you use something like that? And finally, if you would use an app, what would you want to see in one? What do you think it's important to have? Or, do you think it's something useful to have?

I found some apps in my research, but they seem very hard to use, and the interfaces aren't very friendly.

I asked a lot of questions, but I'm really curious about this, so any comment would be very useful!

20 Comments
2025/01/08
16:27 UTC

56

Cold weather (foam hives in Germany)

I'm always amazed at how other countries have to protect their bees in wood hives from the cold. For this reason, here in Germany, especially in northern Germany, we almost exclusively use foam boxes. I only know beekeepers who use foam boxes in northern Germany, they last a long time and also keep moisture out better.

Last year I looked at a beekeeping facility in California and learned that some beekeepers had even moved their colonies into the living room or garage.

16 Comments
2025/01/08
14:12 UTC

2

How far do bees travel when they swarm?

I have read a swarm will cluster around 100 yards away from the original hive and then send out scouts. The swarm will then move a maximum of 6 miles.

My question is if that 6 miles is rare and bees usually only travel a mile or two?

14 Comments
2025/01/07
20:57 UTC

1

Bees behaviour at winter and work you should do on the apiary.

1 Comment
2025/01/07
15:01 UTC

1

How to ensure your bees have enough food over the winter

Hello fellow beekeepers!

I am starting my beekeeping journey this spring. I have been doing a ton of research on overwintering my bees as I live in Ontario where we can get very cold winters.

From my research I’m seeing that bees need anywhere from 70-100lbs of honey depending on their size for the winter.

I’m also seeing that you should not leave a super of honey for your bees over winter as this can attract pests and will require the bees to work harder to keep warm.

Will the brood box have enough honey to keep them fed over a long winter?

I’m also seeing that beekeepers feed their bees. Do they leave the food in over the winter? Or just in the fall in preparation for winter?

Thanks in advance! :)

8 Comments
2025/01/07
14:54 UTC

2

Bees survival without winter (warm/hot winter)

Hi ! I'm new in beekeeping and have started buying everything to start this year. I'm from Algeria and the weather here is worrying me. We usually get a winter with a temp of around 40-50°F/5-10°C. However this year we didn't really have a winter, the temp is between 54-70°F/12-21°C (a little colder in December for 2 weeks).

Is it dangerous for honeybees to not have a "real" winter ? Does it mean I will get to harvest honey all year around ?

And what about summer ? How to protect honeybees when it get too hot outside (90-115°F/32-45°C)?

What should I do and do you have any ressources to recommend about beekeeping in hot countries/weather ?

Thank you

7 Comments
2025/01/07
10:47 UTC

1

Pollen patty

I would like to ask if has anyone ever tried Mulberry LPC supplementation?

1 Comment
2025/01/07
08:29 UTC

6

This probably gets asked all the time here...

Hello everyone! I am not a beetle keeper but I want to be! I've done a lot of research over the past year or so but still have alot of questions before I dive in so I'm sorry if this is a lengthy post!

I'll start by saying I live in south east Tennessee.

So, for years I've been interested in bee keeping, live on quite a bit of acreage to spread out with no real neighbors and also keep chickens (and horses in the past) theres also a water source on my property kind of a swampy bog. So that being said, I feel like i have good potential to take care of bees.

My main hobby for 6 years has been my motorcycle, now I have a second child on the way and think it's time to put that on the back burner. I want to replace my hobby though and im exploring my options!

Here's my questions.

How much attention do the bees require? Daily? Weekly?

Is it expensive?

How often do you have to fight against disease or pests?

How often do you have to worry about swarms or hive splits?

Compared to keeping other animals, and really taking good care of them, how hard is bee keeping?

Even after tons of youtube videos I still don't know if I'm ready because I don't personally know anyone who owns bees so I don't really even know where to start.

Thanks!

18 Comments
2025/01/07
01:02 UTC

5

Hot (spicy) honey ... how to prepare?

I have been asked to bottle honey where the honey has a bit of a kick.

I've never done any infusion. So ...

How do I infuse honey to make it hot, i.e., how much of what do I add, and to how much honey is it added to, and for how long?

Clearly, if it works, I'll be a more impoverished hero . That being said, the ultimate goal is about 5 to 10 gallons of product one pound unit bottles.

Thanks

20 Comments
2025/01/06
23:14 UTC

9

Anyone try to use these for honey frames?

Has anyone tried this type of box to hold honey frames? As carrying the box can cause more bees to get in as I leave or honey leaks all over my bed of the truck and table, I could get a set of these boxes and fit at least one super, maybe be able to stack two.(just frames) I don’t know how well it’d work but it’s definitely cheaper than the hive butler. Anyone tried this? Or is it a junk idea

9 Comments
2025/01/06
22:51 UTC

4

Swarm trap cut sheet

Looking for a cut sheet that yields 4 swarm traps out of one 4x8 sheet of plywood.

I made some several years ago and cannot find the cut sheet.

Thanks

10 Comments
2025/01/06
22:09 UTC

15

Worldwide: How profitable is selling honey direct from the farm? What is your profit margin?

How profitable is selling honey direct from the farm? What is your profit margin?

72 Comments
2025/01/06
21:15 UTC

0

How does honey consumption help saving bees, and stop their population's decline?

I have read about declining bee population around the globe, and some say honey consumption helps to battle this issue.

Is it an opinion or a fact?

Edit:
"Bee populations in the United States are declining at a rapid, unprecedented rate. Since 2006, commercial beekeepers in the United States have reported honey bee colony loss rates averaging 30 percent each winter — startling, when compared to historical loss rates of 10 to 15 percent."
Source

Another article

29 Comments
2025/01/06
17:48 UTC

35

A lovely snowstorm Who is team brush away the snow from the entrance and who is team leave the snow at the entrance? Also, look at my pretty scene this morning. I 💙❄️❄️❄️!

14 Comments
2025/01/06
13:27 UTC

37

Is this really some kind of honey?

Got this as a gift from Cairo. I was told it is some kind of honey. Crumbly consistency- sweet taste. Can someone help identify this product?

22 Comments
2025/01/05
22:42 UTC

2

New to learning bees. Portland Oregon

Is it it possible to grow bees for honey and sell queens in Portland Oregon ?

12 Comments
2025/01/05
18:42 UTC

151

A Gift that I had this year.

I know it’s not something that is needed with so few hives but my parents bought it for me for this seasons harvest to help speed up Jarring.

I can do about 100 jars in a hour and I find it works really well.

40 Comments
2025/01/05
17:06 UTC

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