Beekeeping - New and exciting additions

you guys are really making me think about all the meds. i have been worried about the AFB coming back. My boss uses meda and is now using formic acid I think it is for mites, both types. He learned it in Canada and supposedly they have been using it for years.
I think I will lay off the treatments a bit this year until fall. The books make it seem like it is doomsday for the girls.

Well, tommorow I will be reversing my other colony, but most liekly I will be making a split. i cut a branch off the tree over it the other day and took a peek under the outer cover and wow I am starting to worry abouth them swarming on me. So I'm sure I will post how it went. you guys will be the only ones who care.lol

Formic acid just got approved for mites, don't know where to get it or how to use it. Mites are the BIG problem and the only thing I treated for. The small hive beetle can be controlled by keeping the hive full of bees which risks swarming. That's a little different from the way I am used to running a hive but we all learn new tricks as needed. Plan to treat for mites mid to late summer depending on your area, when you see bees with deformed wings you are already in trouble, already been there a couple times. There are a lot of ways to control mites but it looks like we will never get rid of them so it is a ongoing battle. Gotta run, ;D

Hi guys, Formic acid is used with a fume board. I don't know if it's true but i've been told if you leave the fume board on too long you can burn their wings enough so they can't fly. I use essentials oils to medicate my bees. It's natural and it seems to work. I don't want anything in my honey that I don't want in my mead.
Formic acid can also be used to remove the bees from the honey supers. Just put the fume board on top and the bees scramble out of the entrance. It's nasty stuff!
Well I gotta build a new bee yard this weekend so take care, Dennis

Hey guys, im wanting to start a hive myself. But i have a few questions.

I live in the city i want to put a hive in the back yard. In my backyard is also a small forest, the backyard is about the size of my house.
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houses on both sides of us. Is it legal to keep bee's this close to other houses?

can i point the hive towards the forest or how should i do that? There is a apple tree very close by.

Is there a newbie guide somewhere, or someone with pictures showing me how to build my own hive and anythign it needs? My understandin of what these bee's will require of me is also limited.

Im sure this comes up a thousand times, can someone go into detail about all this? Then we just point all the noobs like me to this thread or w/e.

Thx

The first thing you should do is check with the local zoning board to be sure that you are allowed to keep bees at you house. A lot of times bees aren't allowed in a strickly residential area, you need to be in a agricultural/residential zone. If you know somebody who has a farm then you should be able to set up a beeyard out of the way on his property. There are a lot of books out there on how to start a beeyard, can't recall any at this time though. I'm not into building equipment, the store bought stuff is cheep enough when you compare it to buying the wood, cutting it and assembling it. A lot of information can be found at the vendors the supply equipment, try Dadant & sons or Mann Lake. It is not an easy or inexpensive hobby to get started in but can be a lot of fun. Research it first before jumping in and good luck.

Good day Hellbringer,
Beeboy is right, look into your local zoning first! The web sites he gave you are all top notch. I use them both plus a couple of others. I agree with Beeboy about buying your equipment. I made my first 50 hives and had to take them apart and re-cut them just a hair because I didn't have the *bee space* right. Bees are very fussy about *bee space*. Most bee books are good enough to get you started and they will tell you how important *bee space* is.
Hey Beeboy. Have you tried the foam Bee Max hives yet? I switched over to them 3 years ago. My bees over winter much better in them.
Back to weekend chores, Dennis

Haven't tried the foam Bee Max hives yet, been using a mix of equipment I've picked up over the years, most is 45-50 year old Kelly stuff that my dad used, kept it when he died in '91. Lots of problems with bee space when you mix equipment manufacturers. Started to use Mann Lake frames two years ago, a lot heavier that the Kelly frames and should last a lot longer. Even have one of the old Kelly twin frame extractors, a real classic, had to paint the inside of it with food grade epoxy cause of all the rust, besides that it works great. Would like to go to a stainless steel one but just don't want to spend the money on it. A lot of my supers are getting beat up and you can only repair them so much, will try the foam supers when it is time to replace the stuff I'm using.
Just finished requeening my laying worker hive, took both supers out away from the orignial location, set up a new super with two frames of brood from the good hives and the queen still in her cage. Then shook and brushed the bees off the frames about 25 feet from the orignial hive. Ended up shrinking the hive down from two supers to one using some of the frames that didn't have a lot of drone brood. Trying to mix the hive up and then treat it like a package. Scattered some of the other frames into the other three hives. I'll let the bees rob and clean up the rest of the frames before they go back into storage.
Was a bit surprised, the three new hives have already have drawn out most of the foundation in the second supers put on three weeks ago. Even have brood and honey moving up into them, forgot one of my beekeeping rules, when you work a hive bring a bowl to put burr comb in, ended up with a pile of burr comb on a piece of plywood, still tasted great but dripped all over. Will super the honey shallows next weekend, hoping for a good crop this year.

Rotating Frame broodnest -

I thought I'd do some research, because the Beekeeping subject is one I know little about. I was looking at equipment when I ran across this...

http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/rotating_broodnest.htm

Anybody know anything more about it, or if there is an US distributor?

I also found this about a fungus that kills the mites...
http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/fungus_attacks_varroa.htm

I found both articles here...
http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/

The more experienced of you have probably heard of both of them before, but these were the two most interesting things I found in a hour of surfing.

Wrathwilde

Great articles, the rotating brood nest is different to say the least, wonder how you would extract a round frame, all the extractors are made for the standard designs. Every few years a new idea comes across, sometimes better, sometimes worse. All the bee equipment had been standardized by the manufacturers and there is a resistance to anything of a different design. Looks like he spent a lot of time and energy with the idea, bet it works too.
First time I've heard about the fungus, boy we can really use it with the mites. Wonder why there isn't more hype about it.

WOW! I've been off line for a few days so I just saw this post. I'd like to try the fungus on the mites but I don't know about those round frames. Rotating frames???? WOW! Well you'll never know unless you throw.

Dennis

Honey Farmer,

After quite a bit of digging I was able to come up with the email address of one of the main researchers, I have emailed him asking for any further information he can supply, and asked about the possibility of individual beekeepers volunteering for further trials. I will keep you informed of his reply. The only commercial product using Metarhizium anisopliae was BioBlast and it was used for killing termites, the company seems to have gone out of business. :'( After contacting a pest control company that still has BioBlast listed for sale on their site... they say they sold out about two years ago. I also contacted the 2 different phone numbers for EcoScience (BioBlasts mfg.) both of which are now assigned to completely unrelated companies.

Wrathwilde

That is really interesting, it means that the fungus has been comercially produced and marketed, maybe not for mites but still the ability to produce it in large quanities have been developed. Sounds like it needs to be approved by the US Department of Agriculture as a mite treatment next. It's got me thinking, hummm

I have just discovered the RFDtv network ondish network. I'm guessing on the bigger channel packages you can get it on cable and other satillite providers.
Anyways my wife caught a show called Honeybees and beekeeeping. i guess it is a series they are running through may and june. Their website has no iformation about the show on it.
anyways another episode will air tonight at 7:30pm.
It is channel 9409 on my satilite guide.

Couldn't find the show on cable, oh well have my own bee keeping show going on right now in my back yard. The problem hive was requeened about a month ago, boy did the lady at the post office give me a real strange look when I picked up the queen. Haven't been able to tell if the queen took but saw some fresh brood on last inspection which is a good sign. The hive still doesn't seem right though, not building up fast. The other three hives are on a roll, supered up with the second deep, honey and brood began filling them up fast so dropped on a queen exclude and a shallow super. Had some problems getting the bees to cross over the excluders so pulled them out for four days to get some movement up to the shallows. By then one hive had already got some brood started in the shallow, didn't expect that, so had to add a second shallow, think that this one hive will be a monster. I'm not sure what the honey source is but the burr comb I was able to scrape off was loaded with a light, almost white honey. Need to get out this weekend and tear down the problem hive to see what is happening. Also need to check the other three to see if the supers need to be switched and check for honey. Work the bees, Drink Mead, Work the bees, brew Mead, Life is good.

Wrathwilde said:

After quite a bit of digging I was able to come up with the email address of one of the main researchers, I have emailed him asking for any further information he can supply, and asked about the possibility of individual beekeepers volunteering for further trials.

Click to expand...

All quiet on the research front... No answer to my inquiry.

Wrathwilde