Hi,

I grow a lot of vegetables and flowers around my back patio. I see bees on a daily basis out and about in the flowers of my container gardens

I was wondering if it is worth getting one of those small bee shelters to hang up nearby. I like the look of them but am also aware that it's all too common for a marketed environmental product to have no positive effect or even a negative one

Just to be super clear I do not want them to have a queen, or create honey, anything like that. Just a small enclose they can rest or take shelter in

Something like this:

https://images.app.goo.gl/neGX1vWragFWK8wKA

Do these actually help the bees in any meaningful way?

The barkeep says “Wow bees, uh what can I get you?” All three bees order a half drop of mead. The barkeep finds an eye dropper and dispenses their order. Full of curiosity the barkeep asks “So do bees drink a lot?” The first bee replies, “No… just enough to get a buzz on”

Joke Stolen from the bad beekeeping blog.

I got my nuc back in mid to late May. It wasn't a big colony, so I've been giving them sugar water and waiting for them to fill the two deeps with comb. Since I don't plan on harvesting any honey, I haven't put on any supers.

I'm in Oregon, and summers are not usually this hot. The heat started early, and my colony wasn't strong enough to treat before the heat came on. We've now set a record for the number of days above 90 and have no rain forecasted for the rest of the month--really crazy for Oregon.

The past two years, I've treated for mites in August and the bees absconded, so I'm concerned. Should I hold off until September rolls around to treat for mites, or should I try to squeeze a treatment in before then?

The past two years, I've used Hopguard. This year, I've bought Formic Pro.

Any advice for this newish beekeeper?

See a free full-text article here:
Anderson, K.E., Allen, N.O., Copeland, D.C. et al. A longitudinal field study of commercial honey bees shows that non-native probiotics do not rescue antibiotic treatment, and are generally not beneficial. Sci Rep 14, 1954 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52118-z

Also noteworthy: hidden in the et al., part of the author list for this article is none other than Randy Oliver, who wrote this up in a somewhat more layman-friendly format for the May 2024 issue of ABJ, and then republished it on his website at https://scientificbeekeeping.com/8601-2/, where he talks about the results of the study in a practical beekeeping context.

From the article in Sci Rep: "Here we show that non-native probiotics marketed as a beneficial medicine for honey bees have no effect on pathogen prevalence or the honey bee gut microbiome." Which is being . . . unnecessarily kind, maybe.

Oliver is a bit more forthright; he comes right out and says that if you just go by size and weight of the colonies, a control group that just received plain sugar syrup outperformed BOTH of the experimental groups that received probiotics. This is worth taking note of, because he's using weight and size as an economic metric--if you're getting tooled up for an almond contract, you need your colonies to grade at a specified minimum strength.

The scientific article gets farther into the weeds on this stuff, because the study was more broadly interested in determining whether you can treat your bees with antibiotics (as in an outbreak of AFB or EFB) and then use probiotics to help them recover from the massive disruption that takes place in their hindguts (for a direct analog, consider the diarrhea that often follows from a heavy dose of antibiotics in human beings).

But again, the result was not ambiguous. The currently available products don't help. They do not provide the benefits that they are claimed to provide.

Melting some old comb and coating new foundation for the first time

Having trouble getting an even coat.

I’m some cells the wax is cooling quickly and filling the entire cell

Should I try to fill all the cells? Or is this too much wax?

Zone 5 New Hampshire for context

First year beekeeper, I have a feeling this is going good... (correct me If I am wrong.) This is one frame from the top brood box. 🥰

Did anyone ever get hear of any updates about Pauls research into mushrooms and their role in preventing disease in Bees?

I read that he was going to release the 3D model so people could print themselves but haven't been able to find anything online.

https://preview.redd.it/9f7qw3xdugdd1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=2cade77486152121648650d33b666fcbd429512f

I used the soapy hot water method to exterminate a very aggressive hive, but there were some still buzzing around the area. I have another much gentler hive of Italians nearby and I could tell the stragglers were trying to invade. I put the entrance reducer on to keep them out. Any advice?

New beekeeper. Located in the Sierra Nevadas NE of Sacramento, CA at about 4000 ft. Noticed that the hive wasn't growing as quickly as I would expect. I put it down to a late start in the season (got the bees June 1) until I saw mites on the workers. Just did a grid count and I have 59 mites per day which I take it is high. Want to start formic acid treatment but worried about the high temperatures (90s peak during the day).

1. Are there any other treatments I can do in this heat that will allow me to still harvest honey?
2. I couldn't find a mite counter sheet so I made one that you're welcome to modify/use: Word and PDF.

Thanks for the help!

Nasty fat mite on worker bee

Okay, I need to increase ventilation in my hives because it’s HOT in Oklahoma, and very humid most of the year. Last winter I wrapped my hives and got mildew inside and out, although the colonies came through strong.

I use Mann Lake top feeders. I like these Honey Run Apiary all-season inner covers. My questions are:

1. Will this add an appreciable amount of ventilation when placed over a top feeder? It feels like the top feeder will reduce the ventilation this provides to a mere drop in the bucket.

2. For wintering, once the insulation is added are all the ventilation benefits rendered moot?

I’m trying to economize on an inner cover that does year-round duty. Ventilation will be key.

It’s been extremely hot the last couple of weeks.

I live in the NWT Canada and just got a call about a hive under someone's deck I have not seen it yet but I have never recovered a hive other than a fresh swarm. What should I know to successfully capture this hive and transfer it to a box so that I have some success or know if I should walk away. Currently have 9 hives active and this would make 10 and I have sufficient equipment to recover the hive. Any advise would be appreciated.

There are only 4 of us keeping bee's and the one guy with the most experience has bad knee's and I am probably the most fit of all of us to be crawling under a deck.

Hi everyone! I'm not a beekeeper and know nothing about bees except that they make honey (and build hives, unlike bumblebees who dig trenches?!) anyway, my son noticed this thing going on, and it's been there for more than a day.

What are these bees doing?? Thanks

UPDATE: So I took a nice long thin knife, and was able to separate all of the frames. There was damage, but honestly not nearly as much as I anticipated. I put a new box as the foundation with one frame of brood/honey from the original, all other frames are empty. The original box is now on top, with 9 frames that I could save, 1 fresh frame. I fully expect them to to build wonky comb again, in which case I’ll probably leave the box be, move it back to the bottom after the fresh box starts filling out, and live with the fact that I can’t pull resources or do checks on that box. I didn’t see the queen this time, but I saw plenty of evidence that she’s there (assuming I didn’t just kill her). Thanks for all the input. This went a lot smoother than anticipated thanks to y’all.

I’m in western North Carolina, in the blue ridge mountains zone 7b.

I removed a feral hive (first time) from an awning on June 3d. I took the comb they had, and rubber banded it to open frames. It was a very healthy hive with a queen, lot of comb with honey, brood, and all the good signs of a thriving colony. I gave it a second box after about a week and didn’t really look at the bottom box for a while (lesson learned). When I checked it yesterday, the comb is completely out of control; I can’t even pull any frames to check for a queen, brood, or the like. View from the top looks like a lot of honey. What am I to do here? They aren’t moving into the second box I gave them (recently waxed frames- no built comb). Going back, I would have moved a couple frames from box 1 to the new box to encourage them to move up. Anyway, I can’t look at the frames, I’m only assuming the queens in there, but I really have no way of knowing. I’ve got other hives that I have options of either combining, or using their resources, but I need to properly inspect to make any decisions. What do I do with the box that I can’t inspect? Try shaking the bees into a new box, and just tearing the original box up and letting them start new? Let them keep the wonky comb box and never check it? If I do that I’d assume the colony is queenless, as the population is suffering. Again: I have options in the apiary- I just need to know what’s going on in that original box with their original comb.

I feel like I went on a tangent writing that…my apologies. Thanks for any input y’all may have. Also, it is my first year, try to be kind.

Hey all, long time listener, first time caller. Im in south east Virginia, near Va beach and installed 2 nucs into 10 frame hives several months ago. I gave them some feed but took it back out after their current feed store started filling, for fear of them blocking available brood space. Every inspection shows roughly the same, bees covering frames, capped & uncapped brood, food stores, and usually a queen seen in both hives. My question is why are the not expanding? Very little frame drawing has happened at all. They have plenty of space. Is it dearth, I have lots of sunflowers blooming and a very big wildflower patch that is always buzzing with pollinators of all sorts. Is it possible the brood nest got too cold earlier in the year, and the capped brood stagnanted and the adults aren’t removing them? The capped brood seems relatively unchanged between inspections, but maybe I’m just too inexperienced to notice them changing.

Experience 4 years general beekeeping Location east coast of canada

Been keeping about half a dozen hives for a few years now and I'm just looking for a way to add a bit of excitement/extra income to help offset the cost of beekeeping.

Is raising mated queens to sell difficult? Is it expensive? What's the cheapest way to do it and where can I find some really easy to follow instructions?

I collected as swarm on 10th July and treated it on 15th July with a Oxalic Acid Vaporiser before there was any sealed brood. I plan on treating my other hives with Apiquard at the start of August (regardless of mite count number) and then with Oxalic Acid in Dec/Jan when they are broodless. Given that the swarm had a broodless period and they were treated in the last month, I am thinking of skipping their Apiquard treatment. Any thoughts?

UK (Bristol) 2nd Year (6 hives)

i am not a beekeeper, however; the wife of a friend is! she had a pretty successful hive last year but when she went to check on the hive earlier this year, her bees had swarmed. she rebuilt that hive with good, mellow bees but she ALSO caught a chaos swarm. i'm determined to get my friend into making mead (all recipes for sparkling mead will be accepted!)

but my question, asked earnestly, is if both hives have access to the same food/water/etc, would the honey from the chill bees taste different from honey made in the chaos hive?

First year, still absorbing info as much as possible. Started with 4 packages in April/May, 2 from a local apiary and 2 through the mail. Located in CT. All 4 colonies have been doing very well, however there is a clear strongest / weakest in the bunch. Inspections have been pretty normal as far as my amateur eyes can tell, mite washes have shown nothing, good looking brood, good food stores, etc… all in all, I have been loving my new hobby. The variations in the 4 colonies have given me lots to observe and learn from. Summer dearth is upon us so I’m feeding again. They ran out of syrup yesterday, so today I mix up a batch - it’s still hot, so I’ll feed tomorrow. Figured I’d check in on the hives anyway. Since things have been going well, I let the ladies be for 2 weeks and kept filling top feeders. First hive I checked today was the weakest. They looked great, eggs, capped brood, lots of capped honey, very docile. Hive 2 is the strongest. I worked through this one, removed some burr comb, saw eggs, all the good stuff… closed that one up. Moved to hive 3 and instantly got swarmed. Not sure if it was the girls from 2 or 3, but holy crap were they pissed. I’d say about 50-100 on me all stinging the suit, swarming like crazy. I closed up the hive, calmly walk away and realize they ain’t leaving… now I’m running, got tagged a few times through the suit. Stop, drop, roll…. Run… holy crap - they wouldn’t leave. Kids in the pool watching daddy run around in a bee suit like a crazy guy. Had to smoke the crap out of myself to get them off. It’s a pretty warm day, late afternoon… I’m thinking they were just hangry??? I won’t hold a grudge against my girls, but that was not pleasant. Tomorrow morning I will fill the feeders up. I can get hangry sometimes, but holy cow - I hope that’s all that was wrong!

So while I was reading my book, this author was very adamant in medium supers. I’m a 6’2, 230 pound weight lifter. Is there any actual drawbacks from using deeps as supers besides they could get heavy? I feel having only deeps would be useful due to me being able to use them for brood or excess honey.

About a week since my last posts here in Montana and here is a photo of some of my bees I found dead inside my feeder (in the hive)

While I can’t post a ton of videos due to size, this photo you can see a lack of pigmentation in many of the bees. Their wings are not deformed but many have lost their yellow pigmentation, some have even lost all their black pigmentation (which I know is not CBPV but seems worth mentioning)

Hello! Aspiring bee keeper in Queen.

Besides doing research, most resources recommended finding some kind of bee keepers association. I've looked around and the only two groups I've been able to find in my area, NYC bee keepers associatio and the Queens Beekeepers guild, seem to be in active.

Does anyone have any recommendations for groups or resources I could use to find groups to join?