What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

[Terri Yaki]

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to give this a try. I contacted my mentor and he said pretty much the same. Queen frame plus two more brood and bees plus one each pollen and honey. My queen cell is on a medium frame and my nuc is a deep box. I figure I'll just put her in on that medium frame and let the bees do what they want. My next question is...there is some brood on medium frames that is older and likely to hatch sooner vs later. Should I use any of those or just go for deep frames in the bottom? Anything in the middle box is going to be younger since it's only been on there for about ten days. And I didn't pay attention but it is possible that the medium that the queen cell is on is full of capped brood too. Which would give me the faster hatching stuff I'm thinking would be nice.

[The15thMember]

It's not a huge deal, but faster hatching brood is what you'd like, because all the foragers that get transferred will just return to the parent hive.  If you put more than just the medium frame with the QC in there, just be sure you don't have two mediums next to each other, or things could get messy comb-wise. 

[.30WCF]

It usually takes several boxes deep with a QX at the bottom before they don?t think there is a queen in there. Just 1-2 supers over a QX generally won?t make the bees think they are queenless. I can?t remember the name of the method right now, but some folks control swarming by pulling 4-5 frames of brood above the QX every week or two.


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[Terri Yaki]

Well...I'm done and I forgot to start the camera so I guess if it's a failure, I can just act like it didn't happen. Just one medium frame was used and two deeps full of brood one good honey frame and one not so good pollen frame. All they had was two not so good pollen frames. I don't know what that will do to the program. And I put up an orientation barrier in hopes of keeping as many bees around that hive as possible. Right now, there are no flyers but the entrance is being guarded. I checkerboarded to replacement frames so I hope they like that too. I'm guessing I look in what, three weeks to see how they look?

[The15thMember]

Two weeks would probably be enough, since the QC is already capped, but if you push it to 3 weeks, it probably won't hurt. 

[Bob Wilson]

I have two nucs left from the spring, but after preparing them with resources, marking the queens, and closing them up for sale, the buyer ditched me on pick up day with no explanation. It was the second time he no showed.
C'est la vie. I will keep them through to the winter, and they will be bursting at the seams next February.

[Ben Framed]

Feed both pollen sub and sucrose after the flow and they will probably be ready to split by mid August? If so you may wind up with 4 nucs going into winter..

Phillip

[Occam]

Got home a litte early yesterday and decided to do a quick inspection on my split to make sure there was a queen. Found eggs first, all placed in the bottom and center of the cells which was a good sign. Found the queen on the other side of the same frame. Since it was a spur-of-the-moment moment inspection I forgot to get my marking stuff out there with me so she'll have to be marked later. Not going in there again for a while and they have some frames to build on, probably won't be in there again till July when I harvest a little honey. They were decently heavy on stores since they havent had a laying queen. Checkerboarded in a few frames that needed building between out frames since the flow is still on. Let the other hives alone for now.

[Terri Yaki]

I didn't do much out there today but I did peek in the top of my newly created nuc. They're in there mulling around so so far, so good. I previously scraped excess propolis off of a box I got from my neighbor for his swarm trap and I left it in a pile on top of an old 55 gallon drum I have out there that I roll around for a table. My bees have found the pile and they were out there filling their pockets with it. And apparently, my bees have found a spot where my swimming pool filter hose leaks a little and they're using it for their watering hole. They seem to have no interest in the chicken waterer that I filled with pool water and put out near the hives.

[The15thMember]

I've found bees to be extraordinarily particular about water.  I have a water dish out for them as a backup if it the weather gets dry, but they will choose the most random places to get water, a particular potted plant, a specific spot on the driveway, the roof of the house, and I have no idea why.  They know better than me, I guess! 

[.30WCF]

Found some new sunscreen at the Dollar General. I work without a veil a lot and I am getting tired of my face and neck getting sunburnt. Going to try it here in a few.




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[Occam]

Let us know if they enjoy the scent

[animal]

This might explain something that happened to me ...
Occam's comment caused me to Google "banana scent bees" and bam! articles about the scent being like alarm pheromone.

I had been getting bad leg cramps about 2 weeks ago, so had started to eat a banana or two a day, cramps got worse, added a magnesium tablet and bingo! cramps gone.
I noticed the bees have been more irritable in the the last 2 weeks but haven't connected it to bananas until now. The bees are normally really chill and I can usually open the hive and check on things without bothering with smoking, and not get stung(unless I squish one) The last time I went to open it, I pulled the lid and got 5 stings before pulling a frame ... and figured the heck with it if they're being little "b-s" and put the lids back on. Also one popped me a few days ago while weedeating, and that's never happened before.

I'm gonna lay off bananas for a few days before I try to check the hive again, and see what happens. Then eat a couple of bananas and check again the next day for giggles(and maybe stings).

I hope the fake banana scent doesn't trigger them for you (if there's anything to it)

[BeeMaster2]

I have purposely eaten a banana while in a hive just to prove that banana scent doesn?t bother them.
The artificial banana scent may bee closer to their sting pheromones so bee ready to run. Good luck.
Jim Altmiller

[Michael Bush]

Alarm pheromone is iso-pentyl acetate.  Artificial banana flavor is iso-pentyl acetate.  The main part of the smell of an actual banana is iso-pentyl acetate.  If most bees went crazy when smelling it, we would be in trouble every time a bee gave off any.  Luckily only the F1 crosses of AHB seem to do that lately.

[The15thMember]

It was up to 82F (28C) today for really the first time this summer  The humidity was low though, and it was nice and breezy, so I painted some boxes.  My mis-tint white paint that I bought a few years ago was all dried up, so I just used some leftover house paint, which is a nice muted warm grey.  My youngest sister has gotten into painting recently, we've discovered she is extremely talented, and she's been asking for some hive boxes to paint.  I can't wait to see what sort of art they will be turned into!

[jtcmedic]

I made a mess got 30 deeps and 30 mediums ready and hand holds on and pre drilled

[Bill Murray]

Im glad someone else has a mess. I was feeling like the lone ranger.

[The15thMember]

I made a temporary mess, but I had to clean it up before I went in because the we have a goat who gets freaked out if she has to walk by things that are out of place in the garage to get milked.  Something large that is new or has been moved is an unacceptable level of change in her mind.   

[Bill Murray]

Thank you member, feeling better all the time.