Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

I took almost 20 gallons of honey this year. Way more than I need. I always seem to have more bees than I want, but bees make more bees, so what?chya gonna do?

I seem to get a little lazier every year. This year, I left one excluder on, on purpose. It?s not that I don?t give a frass. I really think my winters are mild enough that it may not matter. Christmas Eve, no fire, all the windows were open. Looks like a repeat tonight. We will see some cold, but it?s so inconsistent between 30 and 70F, maybe it doesn?t matter here. My bees fly 50-70% of the winter.
Anyway, back in the fall I moved the bees out of the middle of the back yard, and put them in the tree line, mostly shade.


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Winter clusters use more resources/faster when it's warm than if it would just get dark and stay below 40. The QX might bite you, obviously depending on other factors.

Our temps haven't been quite as warm as those of you out in the piedmont, but I am having to feed 3 colonies due to them mowing through their stores too quickly.  They haven't eaten the feed as fast, since it's gotten colder now.  I'm going to try and leave a little more honey next year, because it's been several years now that we've had a warm snap and some of my colonies run low before the solstice.   

Maybe I should go lift the backs of the boxes and check. I was gonna hit them with some OA soon anyway.


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Let's see if you repeat this statement this weekend. It is forecast yo drop to 13 Saturday night. :angry: :cheesy: :cheesy:

PS. The SHB are gonna love you for the shade. They can't stand the sun. You should be able to raise hundreds now.

Its 10f degrees 'here now' Iddee. My bees could use a little Sun and Global warning about now. And so could I!  lol   Where is it?  :shocked: :wink:

Quote from: iddee on January 15, 2024, 10:39:02 AM
It is forecast yo drop to 13 Saturday night. :angry: :cheesy: :cheesy:

Quote from: Ben Framed on January 15, 2024, 10:54:21 AM
Its 10f degrees 'here now' Iddee. My bees could use a little Sun and Global warning about now. And so could I!  lol   Where is it?  :shocked: :wink:

We're looking at a low of 7F on Sat.  Brr!  We were supposed to get snow today, but they changed the forecast to rain now that the high went up a little bit.

Quote from: iddee on January 15, 2024, 10:39:02 AM
PS. The SHB are gonna love you for the shade. They can't stand the sun. You should be able to raise hundreds now.

I have my hives in the shade and I don't struggle consistently with SHB, but I do get a bad year every few years it seems. 

Quote from: The15thMember on January 15, 2024, 11:30:10 AM
We're looking at a low of 7F on Sat.  Brr!  We were supposed to get snow today, but they changed the forecast to rain now that the high went up a little bit.

I have my hives in the shade and I don't struggle consistently with SHB, but I do get a bad year every few years it seems.

The lowest I'm seeing forecast for us is 14F. I can never figure out how it can be warmer to the north but it happens a bit.

Hi Folks, MATT,

Matt. Please explain the meaning of QX.

Does it mean *probability of death*? It seems to fit the discussion.

Sal

It finallly warmed up here.  It's -8 F.

Quote from: Michael Bush on January 17, 2024, 10:19:02 AM
It finallly warmed up here.  It's -8 F.

It' was +3f here in the Sunny South when I got up this morning! The Bees are nestled in their beds hoping for a little of that promised Global Warning! Where is it? lol  :wink: :cheesy: :grin:

Quote from: salvo on January 17, 2024, 09:55:42 AM
Hi Folks, MATT,

Matt. Please explain the meaning of QX.

Does it mean *probability of death*? It seems to fit the discussion.

Sal

Queen EXcluder. 

Quote from: Ben Framed on January 17, 2024, 11:01:53 AM

Quote from: Michael Bush on January 17, 2024, 10:19:02 AM
It finallly warmed up here.  It's -8 F.

It' was +3f here in the Sunny South when I got up this morning! The Bees are nestled in their beds hoping for a little of that promised Global Warning! Where is it? lol  :wink: :cheesy: :grin:

We were at least into double digits this morning.  But I'm pretty sure I get up later than you guys.  :wink:

It?s 3am here. Just got up because I couldn?t sleep. 70 degrees here. I guess it all balances out. You guys are getting some cool weather up there. You would have to puta beer in the refrigerator to stop it from freezing. :cheesy: :cheesy: :cheesy:

Quote from: Lesgold on January 17, 2024, 11:51:00 AM
It?s 3am here. Just got up because I couldn?t sleep. 70 degrees here. I guess it all balances out. You guys are getting some cool weather up there. You would have to puta beer in the refrigerator to stop it from freezing. :cheesy: :cheesy: :cheesy:

Les I Might have to get in the refrigetaror myself just to keep from freezing! lol   :cheesy:   :wink:

Phillip

We went down to 11 here last night, supposed to climb to 22 or so today. Yesterday we got about 3" of light snow, which the wind has piled nicely in my driveway. I'm hoping that my loader works for me today, it likes to act up when I really need it.

Quote from: Lesgold on January 17, 2024, 11:51:00 AM
It?s 3am here. Just got up because I couldn?t sleep. 70 degrees here. I guess it all balances out. You guys are getting some cool weather up there. You would have to puta beer in the refrigerator to stop it from freezing. :cheesy: :cheesy: :cheesy:

70? This must be a typo?
It is heating up here again and the humidity is  a stinker.
I had people picking up two nuc's last night and I had a hard time getting the blighters into the box ( I'm talking bees)
I used a spray bottle with cold water. Creating some artficial rain generally helps.
I don't like to smoke the bees when they have to travelled.
With a bit of luck the last nuc for the season will go tonight - the end of another splitting/queen breeding season.

Nice to have a bit of cash too.
I have already spent some on a new SS container with one of these specai taps.

The sun is out right now but the first shower for the day can't be far off :cheesy:

Quote from: max2 on January 17, 2024, 05:35:22 PM
70? This must be a typo?

I'm pretty sure Les put the temperature in Fahrenheit for the benefit of us Americans.  :happy:

If it wasn?t in Fahrenheit, we could be in a bit of trouble. I think it might be time for you guys to change over. I grew up with the old system and feel comfortable working it both. I was told many years ago as to why America has resisted. If it is true, you guys are pretty smart. Being a strong manufacturing country that exports all sorts of machinery, when spare parts are required, they are generally sourced from the manufacturer rather than being produced locally due the the different measuring systems.

Interesting, I've never heard that before.  I just figured it was because we were lazy and didn't feel like learning something new.  Or because we just like confusing the rest of the world.  :cheesy:

You may be right there Reagan. You also drive on the right side of the road which basically means Aussies drive on the wrong side?..

Well, they don't call it the "right" for no reason.  :cool: :cheesy:

I had to learn the metric system when I was in grade school 60 years ago. They were planning on switching back then. Congress was supposed to set a cut off date for the switch. They have been afraid to do it ever since, afraid to upset their constituents.
When I design something for my 3d printer I always prefer to use metric measurements. Much easier.
Jim Altmiller

Quote from: Lesgold on January 17, 2024, 08:22:10 PM
You may be right there Reagan. You also drive on the right side of the road which basically means Aussies drive on the wrong side?..

I heard that yous drove on the wrong side of the road so you could shoot at each other out the window when you passed.

Quote from: BeeMaster2 on January 17, 2024, 10:03:53 PM
Congress was supposed to set a cut off date for the switch.
Jim Altmiller

They are probably trying to coordinate it to line up with the REAL ID deadline.


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Quote from: Terri Yaki on January 17, 2024, 10:41:56 PM

Quote from: Lesgold on January 17, 2024, 08:22:10 PM
You may be right there Reagan. You also drive on the right side of the road which basically means Aussies drive on the wrong side?..

I heard that yous drove on the wrong side of the road so you could shoot at each other out the window when you passed.

We got the guns, sounds plausible. Modern day jousting.


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Quote from: BeeMaster2 on January 17, 2024, 10:03:53 PM
When I design something for my 3d printer I always prefer to use metric measurements. Much easier.

I use metric pretty frequently too, especially mm for small measurements to avoid fractions of an inch.  I also read a lot of scientific literature, and almost all that uses metric of course, so I've got a decent working idea for linear measurements in meters and smaller, and I'm pretty good with liters and smaller too.  Kilometers and Celsius I still have to look up every time.  Or just ask Siri.  Unit conversions are the only thing Siri is really good for, in my experience.  :embarassed:

>I had to learn the metric system when I was in grade school 60 years ago. They were planning on switching back then. Congress was supposed to set a cut off date for the switch.

We officially changed to the metric system in 1975 by order of Congress.  But we're Americans.  We do what we like.  The problem, in my opinion was the way they taught the metric system.  They had us doing all these conversions.  That's not how you use a measuring system.  You just use measurement that is in that system.  When I was a printer I had a "pica pole" which is a ruler that has inches, picas/points, cm/mm, ms and ns.  You measure in whatever you need to by reading the correct scale for the units you want.  If we would have done that to teach metric we would have seen how much easier everything was in metric.

When I was in England briefly I was surprised to see all the highway signs in miles.  Apparently they didn't completely change over either.

I like it when my cars have some of each (SAE and metric) on them.    :cool:

Yea.  It used to be either the car was metric or it was SAE.  Now they all seem to be a mixture of both which makes it twice as hard to find the right wrench.

Tools and small measurements are easy with metric as recognized in the conversation. The confusion for me is temperature. As Les kindly pointed out 70 degrees (f). This pointed out for our convenience a clear understanding of the temperature and this was very courteous of Les to do so.

If he had instead said 21.1111111 C; for me that would have been totally foreign until I would have converted C to F. 
Until I converted, I would have had no idea of the temperature Les intended to relate. Thanks Les for your courteous consideration.

Though a little inconvenient the cross over formula is not hard really.  Simply subtract 32 from 70 and divide by 1.8 and there is your temperature in C.

For the reverse simple reverse the formula,  multiply the  21.1111111 C by 1.8  then add 32 to get 70F


Millage? As the English (as described by Michael) I usually don?t even try unless it is within a subject that really interest me. Such as when OldBeavo describes how far he moves his bees during pollination for example. 

Speaking of which. Has anyone heard from Oldbeavo recently?

Phillip

About all I know is 32F=0C, 212F and I think that 24C=about 74F. IIRC, 100C=212F. For the rest I just make a guess. Oh, and they converge at -40.

Quote from: Terri Yaki on January 18, 2024, 10:47:05 AM
About all I know is 32F=0C, 212F and I think that 24C=about 74F. IIRC, 100C=212F. For the rest I just make a guess. Oh, and they converge at -40.

Yes about;
By using the above formula will give you 75.2 C

Quote from: Terri Yaki on January 18, 2024, 10:47:05 AM
About all I know is 32F=0C, 212F and I think that 24C=about 74F. IIRC, 100C=212F. For the rest I just make a guess. Oh, and they converge at -40.

Yeah, that's about where I'm at. 

I like quick math. (Cx2)+30=F
For most general conversations, if I?m within a couple degrees, I can gather if it?s shorts weather or if we need jackets. I?m not talking critical measurements. If you go camping and the temp is off by 5 degrees, you should still make it out alive. You?ll notice a bigger difference between 60F in the sun vs 60F in the shade.


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When accuracy is not a concern that will do.

I?d probably be closer than the weatherman was.


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>Though a little inconvenient the cross over formula is not hard really.  Simply subtract 32 from 70 and divide by 1.8 and there is your temperature in C.

For estimate purposes I've always just done: subtract 32 and divide by 2.  I can do that in my head and it's close enough.

Hi Folks,

I've,... We've all used Craftsman tools farevah! I have my hoard in the cellar. All sizes, since I was a kid. Some other brand names are there too, Snap-on, Cornwall, SK, Williams,....

My new mother-in-law bought me a pretty good set of Craftsman, both metric and sae sockets in the 70's, when rice burners were becoming popular. It's still like brand new in the case, little use. The sales slip is still in it. My wife bought me a set of Metrinch metric/sae tools in maybe the seventies, a hundred bucks, not cheap then. That's been my go-to since then for the small stuff. Excellent quality. And that *wobble* does come in handy.

All us baby-boomers are *moving to Pheonix* (re dying). I see so many great hoards of sockets and tools at estate sales,... CHEAP! But my old ones still work. I CAN'T buy any more. I don't have enough time to wear them out.

Sal

In class, an aspiring engineer and an aspiring chemist (obviously both males) were placed on one side of the classroom and the hottest chickie in the class was placed on the other. The professor told the two to approach her at half distance repeatedly and when they got to her, they could kiss her. The chemist sat down and said, "I'll never get there" but the engineer said, "I'll get close enough".

Quote from: Michael Bush on January 19, 2024, 06:53:10 AM
>Though a little inconvenient the cross over formula is not hard really.  Simply subtract 32 from 70 and divide by 1.8 and there is your temperature in C.

For estimate purposes I've always just done: subtract 32 and divide by 2.  I can do that in my head and it's close enough.

Yes; That works well when only an estimate is satisfactory. In the 70F example given by Les, you will only be off a couple degrees, (cooler), in C.

For the most part I guess I use Fahrenheit only on the extreme ranges of my own scale ...  F-hot, Hot, Warm, Comfy, Cool, Cold, F-cold

Quote from: animal on January 19, 2024, 01:25:30 PM
For the most part I guess I use Fahrenheit only on the extreme ranges of my own scale ...  F-hot, Hot, Warm, Comfy, Cool, Cold, F-cold

I laugh at the thought of what the two extremes are for you. On the hot end, I'd probably agree with you but on the cold end, I expect that our definitions would vary. And if I ever got the heat that you do, I'd probably die from it.

BTW, we're having a snow day here today. It's a slow, steady snow all day long so the roads will be covered until tonight after it stops and they put the effort in to clear it. No wind and about 30F out there so it's not too bad that way.

It is also snowing here at the moment, but we'll see if it continues long enough to accumulate.