a couple pictures of my setup

marliah · June 12, 2008, 06:25:41 AM

my hive when I first set it up (may 08), I put them right where I need them, the big vegetable garden, this garden is all planted and in now :)

the other garden/feeding grounds

the small veggie garden garden

big old apple tree out back

Theres also a huge growth of blackberry and raspberry bushes on the other side of the yard that I am sure they will enjoy.

and here's my hive now :) (I swear its level, don't know why it looks crooked in the pic)

thats natural comb baby! w00t! on the other side of the hive, there is natural comb all full of honey. Such a pretty sight to see! (whats on the top right in that pic? is that freshly laid brood comb that they are covering up?)

the building up mess they made in the top box, sadly I could think of no way to fix this, so I cut it out. :/

and lastly for the people wanting a picture of me, here ya go. The hairs not all pink anymore, but half of it is ;)

Thats all for now, I have many more bee pics, but my internet connection is acting up and crashes on me whenever I try to upload to flickr. So I'm waiting for the ISP to fix the connection before I upload anymore.

budhanes · June 12, 2008, 09:18:32 AM

Sweet urban setup! Very orderly.

Scadsobees · June 12, 2008, 09:36:46 AM

Nice setup. Now all you need in the back is a fencerow with 25 more hives!! The hive doesn't need to be that close to the garden, in fact you may eventually want to move them if you work in the garden, since that is where they all are flying, and you can sure get a lot of them flying in front! But if they don't bother you then it is a great spot, inside the fence.

I'm amazed at what there is in a neighborhood for them to forage! Most of my bees don't forage in my yard.

As for your brood pictures...the right upper side of the frame that is capped honey. The entire frame that you display is all drone comb(capped), which happens often with foundationless :-\ (why I don't care for it). They need drones, but if you pop that in the freezer for a day and put it back in they will drag the dead drones out along with the DEAD MITES and that is one non-chemical mite suppression mechanism.

Rick

MollySuesHoney · June 12, 2008, 09:41:52 AM

That's a nice garden plot. My parents have some pictures of veggies grown in Maine when we lived there. They are some of the largest beets, carrots, turnips and tomatoes you will ever see. None of the root crops were woody either from what they say. I can't remember I was less than a year old.

wvbee · June 12, 2008, 11:08:49 AM

Just a bit of help, when they draw crazy comb like that, you can take it out, straighten it up and rubber band it back into the frames so they can continue to build it out.

marliah · June 12, 2008, 12:27:18 PM

thanks :) yeah that drone comb is only that bad on the one frame, the rest aren't nearly as full of it. Most of the pics we took didn't turn out though and that one showed off the natural comb quite nicely ;)

heres one of a better looking (well as far as drone comb goes) frame. This one isn't natural though, its one of the ones the nucs came in on.

thats worker comb right? most of them look like that or are full of honey.

I didn't know you could freeze a whole comb for mite treatment though....thats good to know.

I have the bees fenced in cause I have 3 young kids (all under age 10) and my 7 year old really likes to play with the bees, and isn't always gentle LOL. So its more for kid saftey that they are enclosed in the garden than anything else ;) I am hoping to add a couple more hives. I started out thinking 2 full setups would be nice. But you all know how this is....now I'm trying to figure out how many I can fit if I just go all across the back fence of the garden, maybe 6-8 ;) hehe. Its such a fun thing to be involved in. I always wanted bees, but had I know just how much fun this is I would have jumped in LONG ago!

Scadsobees · June 12, 2008, 02:04:33 PM

Quote from: marliah on June 12, 2008, 12:27:18 PM

heres one of a better looking (well as far as drone comb goes) frame. This one isn't natural though, its one of the ones the nucs came in on.

Quotethats worker comb right? most of them look like that or are full of honey.

That explains the full frame of drone brood. If they have full frames of worker brood on foundation they will fill the next empty frame up with all drones. When starting out 100% foundationless they will draw all of the combs 90% worker or so and a bit on the bottom as drone.

QuoteI didn't know you could freeze a whole comb for mite treatment though....thats good to know.

As long as you make sure that it is all drone brood, and capped.

QuoteI have the bees fenced in cause I have 3 young kids (all under age 10) and my 7 year old really likes to play with the bees, and isn't always gentle LOL. So its more for kid saftey that they are enclosed in the garden than anything else ;) I am hoping to add a couple more hives.

I fenced a couple of them when my youngest was just starting to walk 'cuz he tried sticking his hand in a hive once. It ended well but was scary. Now they (4 boys,ages 3,4,7,9) mostly leave the bees alone, except occasionally when they want to catch "daddy bees". They learn after getting rough with the bees, it will usually take only 2 times or less :roll:

Rick

annette · June 12, 2008, 07:03:57 PM

Beautiful photos Marliah of the yard and bee hive. And let me be the first, (ha!Ha! I will beat all the men to this)to say that you are a beautiful women and I just love that photo of you. I will miss the red hair.

Stay with the natural foundationless frames. You will be very happy and so will the bees. Yes, you will get a certain amount of drone brood, but that is what they want. Do not kill all the drone brood, or they will just keep on making more until they have what they want. For mite control, Michael Bush told me one frame of drone brood should do it. I usually take out one frame every few weeks.

Good luck and share more photos whenever you feel like it.

Love
Annette

tileguy · June 12, 2008, 11:43:56 PM

Very nice pics. Thanks for sharing, Oh and I kinda liked the pink hair.....
T.G.

GaryMinckler · June 13, 2008, 09:59:19 PM

Nice!! It must be real cool when garden is going good and the bees are flying. A good feeling. Thanks for the look.

SgtMaj · June 14, 2008, 03:52:52 AM

I really like your hive. I've been kinda looking around on the web, but I can't find anything quite like it. Where did you get it from, or did you make it?

I really like your whole setup there.