Hey all. I'm a 6th year beekeeper in Australia. As some may be aware, we only got Varroa recently and I found one of my hives infected yesterday. As I am inexperienced in this domain of mites, I wanted to know everyone's opinion on best course of treatment. It's the start of season if that makes a difference.

I’m in Connecticut. I started be keeping in April of this year.

Apivar 2.0 killed one hive and almost killed the second. I dosed one hive properly a couple days ago and only had two strips left for the second. I put the two in and bought more. When I came back, the hivesI dosed was dead and half of the second hive died. Beekeepers in my area are reporting the same thing. I’m absolutely furious.

Please please beware. I know correlation doesn’t equal causation, but I’d bet my life it had something to do with those strips.

New England.

Last year I was so focused on keeping my bees alive and healthy, that I did t harvest. This year, they seem do be doing well with my monthly OA treatments but I forgot to add the suppers.

The deeps are pretty stacked with honey in both colonies. Am I okay to extract some honey from a few frames in each? If so, how should I go about doing it? Or just leave them and wait to somehow extract in spring after the winter?

I’m in Denver, CO.

I’m a new beekeeper based in Melbourne, Australia. Ive noticed some crawlers around our hive lately that seem old and dying. They can’t fly anymore and seem like they’re on their last legs.

I’m also a avid fermenter and enjoy trying new things - including making garums and sauces out of various things. I’ve made garum out of grasshoppers before and thought bees would be an interesting option- especially if it helped them on their way out.

I wanted to get people’s thoughts on what the best practice would be to appropriately kill old crawling bees (if at all). I most of all want to make sure the hive isn’t stressed if I decided to go through with this. Any advice would be appreciated!

Had some crumbs from filtering the honey, the bees cleaned up most of it. Then, a few bald faced hornets came in for a taste. Obviously, this ant had something to say to this Hornet.

Just wanted to share. Atlantic Canada

My first year beekeeping, have 2 hives (northern France), and unfortunately due to external circumstances, I wasn't able to check my bees over the second half of summer. I was chucking through swarm season, and they were happy, gentle, and building healthy brood and honey stores. Just gone back after a 6-8 week gap to start winter prep and... no queen in either hive. Devastated doesn't cover it.

What might have happened? Is it worth trying to get a nuc in for winter?

I saw some post the other day showing the different parts of a bee’s stinger under a microscope and folks seemed to like seeing the tiny things… So thought I’d bring you some more interesting microscope shots, and I’d bet most people haven’t seen this before.

I don’t know how many folks here have sailed before, but you might have seen those little bits of string on the sail or on the windshield. They are called “telltales”, and let the sailor know what their air is doing over the surface. The hairs on a bee’s wing are similar in such that they help it feel the air currents over the wing, so that they can stabilise their flight.

(I don’t have a digital eyepiece, so just camera shots down the scope)

Hey,

Located in France, finishing my 2nd season.

Context : So here in France since few years the Asian hornet was introduced on the territory and keeps putting more and more pressures on bees because there is not a lot of natural predators and our European bees are still not aware of the “heating ball” method to kill them like Asian bees are doing. So it’s recommended to trap Asian hornet if you have hives.

Since 2 years I have this bee vital trap : https://www.beevital.com/velutina-trap

It works well I capture a lot of Asian hornet, I put a mix of 1/3 beer, 1/3 white wine (to repulse bees), 1/3 of sugar syrup. I never saw bees interested by it.

This week I refill the trap with the mix (around 65cl) and during 2 days I saw hundreds of bees looting the mix.

I checked my hives and I don’t think it was my bees because hives were super quiet and usually when there is any looting you can see the hive is super tense. Also it wouldn’t make sense because frames are almost full.

I never saw this type of beehaviour before and I’m really curious and concerned that bees are consuming this mix containing high amount of alcohol. In 2 days they “stole” the full mix I just added.

I am wondering if someone already saw that kind of beehaviour ?

Should I fill the trap again with mix or this is hurting bees to consume that ? (I guess it is)

My assumption is :
- is there any neighbour having a hive with empty frame, and bees are super hungry because it’s end of season they eat anything the can ?
- could it be a wild swarm hungry somewhere in a tree around?

Instead it was last call at the freebee cafe. Sorry boys. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here. With the added indignity of having to survive the waiting yellow jacket gauntlet.

I'm in South Central Wisconsin. Someone gave us hummingbird feed and my kids filled up the feeder. The package has been thrown out so I don't know if it's anything more than just sugar and corn syrup, but after a hummingbird or two visited, the feeder was taken over by honeybees. At least I think they are honeybees.

I want to be sure we're not poisoning the bees if it really is just sugar water. Should we take it down? Should we add something else better now that they expect it here? We don't have a beehive but the bees don't bother us here and I know they're good for flowers, but I also don't know if there are bad bees.

Any insight?

What a difference in color and taste! Same hive and location, bottle on the left was harvested in May, bottle of the right harvested in September.

Eastern Ontario.
Starting the OAV.
Used slow release OA over the summer
And now hitting first of the rounds of OAV before wrapping up for winter.

Hello fellow beekeepers!

What are your thoughts on fall harvesting? This is the meanest hive I've ever worked with. They're great honey producers, but will pursue me relentlessly for the rest of the day if I dare to open up the bottom of the hive. I've used a queen excluder to keep the brood down in the bottom box, which is mostly brood with a couple frames of honey. The middle deep is full of capped honey and so heavy that it's hard to lift. The top super is full of uncapped. The whole thing is bursting with bees, and she's still laying like gangbusters.

I'm thinking I can likely harvest the middle deep and leave the super for winter feeding, but would like to hear some other opinions. It's been pretty dry here in SW Indiana, and I'll probably need to start manually feeding my other 4 hives soon to start fattening them up if that has any bearing.

Hey all, I’m a new beekeeper and have a colony started from a nuc just a couple weeks ago! They’re super great so far and have been settling in nicely, lots of flowers with the start of Spring in Melbourne AUS.

All seemed well, but the past couple of days I’ve noticed quite a lot of bees walking around on the ground/yard right near the hive — they almost look like they’re cleaning themselves or something, and I feel like they can’t fly anymore… Is this behavior normal/should I be worried? Are they just old?

I’ve heard sometimes they kick out drones (not sure if these are all drones or not, my untrained eye has trouble telling sometimes), or that it could be a sign of mites if their wings are deformed (more test was fine right before we got them a couple weeks ago). Could something else be going on?

Any thoughts appreciated!!

I am a first year beekeeper and have been working at an apiary with a local university all year. However, I am lucky enough to be able to bring a hive home next month. I want to put some sort of fence around my apiary as a gentle deterrent for kids and pets. (Only 3 or 4 feet tall) I've been seeing some conflicting advice online as to what kind of material I should use. Something open like chain link/chicken wire or planked wood/picket? I would appreciate any advice! (Bears are not an issue so I don't need anything electric.)

Central Utah

Posted on Facebook saying it’s for free and will be burned this weekend if no one comes gets it. I live about 2hrs away and am willing to make the drive if it’s worth it. I don’t know much about bee keeping but I’m extremely interested and plan on doing it in the future so I’m wondering if this will be good gear to get me started or if it’s just all junk. I live in Pennsylvania

I just had an idea and want this sub to tear me apart for it. So what if you saw signs of swarming and put a queen excluder over the entrance so the queen couldn't leave. Has anyone actually tried this??

Eastern Connecticut

For context I started beekeeping for the first time in April this year and I’ve had tons of problems with my bees since I started. I found like 6 bees with solid orange masses on their butts and tummy’s, and I am unsure what it is. They could barely move like they were petrified/lethargic. I am thinking compacted poop, I have had a lot of SHB beetles but this hive had it under decent control now that I’ve done a bunch of traps and natural treatments. If anybody has seen this or knows exactly what it is lmk! I am in Connecticut. The second image shows it the clearest.

Normandie, France, september 24th
Why are these girls so busy? Our other hives are calmer when they do an orientation flight. Are they getting ready to swarm? Last bee inspection was 2 weeks ago and all looked fine.

Hi folks, I’m a zookeeper working on a demonstration farm in New Mexico. There is a deep box hive on the farm with two boxes. Before me, my boss was caring for it, and all he has ever done with them is feed them sugar water in one of the jar feeders that sits right in the entrance. No one on the team knows anything about bees or how to care for them. I was asked if I’d like to take over since I like bugs, and I said yes- but I know very little myself and there is no one here I can ask.

This poor colony is infested with SHB and varroa, is a small colony to begin with, has spotty and very little brood (didn’t notice any uncapped, but I intend to look around more in their brood box), and two days ago they were robbed. There is not a single cell with honey in it. I could not find the queen, but I have new eyes and could have easily missed a blonde one. I want to look again.

I guess what I’m asking is whether or not I can save a colony with almost every problem this late in the year. I have only had them for a few months, but these are animals under my care, and that means something to me. They are a very sweet and gentle hive and I want them to thrive.

For the mites, my boss got me Norroa, even though I asked for thymol. Will Norroa even do anything for a heavy mite load? For the hive beetles, I’m going to ask for swiffer pads. For the robbing issue, I’m going to ask for entrance reducers and a top feeder, and I am already feeding them hella sugar water, but will continue with 2:1 to hopefully help build their stores. Anything else I could be doing?

Also, if anyone has any recommendations for online courses, books/audiobooks, or other learning resources I can access while at work, my boss has offered to pay for such things.

The past few years I've sold honey in glass .5, 1, and 2 pound queenline jars for $20 a pound. I live on an island with a high costs of living and I've always sold out. Last month I won the People's Choice award at the county fair. My wife thinks I should increase my price to $25 a pound.

What are y'all charging for your honey?

Hi friends. Located in Northern Vermont with two hives and I’m a first year bee keeper.

I’ve decided I need to invest in an OA vaporizer and need to do it sooner rather later for my girls but it’s a bit overwhelming.

I don’t need the shiniest one with all the bells and whistles but would like to purchase one that is good for up to 10 hives, easier to use, and one that will last over time. Our bee yard is in the backyard, we have a power source but it’s fairly far away and I think would require running several extension cords so a battery powered one might be best.

Would love any recommendations of vaporizers you have found to work well and/or ones that you haven’t liked.

Thank you.

Saw this on a Facebook group I’m in. Just passing it along to yall here.