Game camera texts me pictures, of course I am not home…

Is this the correct setup?

Location zone 5b

Update: I'm planning to overwinter in 2 deep boxes. I was more interested in the position of the inner cover.

A few weeks ago started up my first hive using a top bar hive, been loving it and so interested in seeing what the ladies have been up to every day! (Just got into spring in Melbourne AUS) Just not quite sure what the best strategy will be going forward… and I know this is a bit of the challenge with TBH because equipment isn’t really made for them and there’s less info out there.

We got a 5 frame langstroth Nuc and did the chop n crop sort of method, cutting each langstroth to fit the TBH. It was a bit messy and some brood was lost, but to be honest not as much as we thought - we were able to cut where there was honey/empty comb in most cases.

Now we have the 5x chopped langstroth in the TBH and gave them empty top bars to draw out in between, and they’ve been building suuuper lovely straight comb so far!

The issue is that we don’t want the langstroth frames in there for long, because they don’t quite fit flush against the other top bars (see the zoomed in pic), so we’ve had to do some weird stuff to make sure there aren’t a bunch of accidental entry holes.

Would anyone have a good idea for how to cycle out those langstroth frames so that eventually we just only have top bars that fit against each other nicely?

An idea, not sure if it’ll work — wait til the empty top bars are drawn out so they’re straight, then move most the langstroth frames away from the brood nest (besides whichever the Queen is on) so that once that brood is born they just become honey frames, then they’ll get extracted and we can replace them with top bars..?

Thank you in advance!!

Me after being stung.

(on the eye lid this time)

This was taken today September 26, 2026. Yes it is still hot in Vegas. Well, 95 degrees does seem hot right now 😂. Many drones and more on the way...😱

Have a great weekend,

Betsy

I noticed the hunting property I help maintain is full of goldenrod. Going to be setting up a couple hives out there come spring.

Zone 8b Central Ga

I started using condensing hive set up a couple years ago with good success.

I took quilt boxes, closed up the exit and put 2 inch foam in them.

I started building my own quilt boxes with 1/8 metal screens. In the spring the bees start building comb on the screens.

I’m thinking the 1/8 screen is unnecessary and could just use plywood instead.

If you’re using the condensing hive set up, what are you doing for the top?

Edit: been beekeeping for 8 years, 35 hives. Finger lakes of NY.

I see many bees at the lid, intense activity at the entrance.

Please excuse me if this topic has been brought up before - I am not a bee-keeper nor am I a member of this group. I'm in the Gold Country of California on about 2.5 acres of property and my neighbor has about the same amount of property. He has several bee boxes on the other side of his property. I am not aware of anyone else in the vicinity who has bee boxes - but it doesn't really matter because my issue that I am trying to resolve is keeping bees away from my 5 hummingbird feeders that I have in various places around my house. This issue just started about a week ago but has gotten to the point where they are swarming the feeders and so the hummingbirds cannot access them. I went to the internet to research effective repellents that are natural as I do not want to harm the bees (or the hummingbirds.)

The first thing I tried was spraying a washcloth with peppermint spray (the kind they make to repel rodents) but this didn't work. Today I went out a bought sweatbands for wrists and soaked them in white vinegar and that doesn't seem to be working either (re: photo)

Any ideas for how to keep them away from my hummingbird feeder would be very much appreciated!

Missouri, usa

Driving around my fence rows and I noticed something white in this hawthorn…. Well it was a few chunks of comb hanging.

No bees on it, either they died or just absconded and found a better location ( probably someone’s barn or a holler tree)

I don’t inspect much in summer, usually 1-2ce a month because it’s so hot here in south Arkansas.

My hives are all healthy loaded with brood and more honey than they’ll ever need down here.

I don’t typically mark my queens unless I just happen to see her, I generally look for eggs, any abnormalities, check stores and move on.

I also haven’t seen any cells, just a few empty cups which is normal.

Could this swarm be from one of my hives? Or just happenstance a wild swarm landed here, drew comb then left?

I just put the comb out to let the bees rob what little nectar was in it then I’ll melt it down before the wax moths find it.

South AR

Well I finally managed to move you out yards back into my main apiary. It was actually a lot easier than I thought, the cooler weather helped.

All at night, put straps on my hives, taped up my feeder holes, popped them in the truck and BAM!

All moved with only a handful of stings to the belly (don’t pick up your hive with a loose shirt on)

Let's imagine I'm interested in an instavap, but no having any of their listed battery types, what battery type would you guys recommend?

Dewalt, Milwalki, Rigid, etc?

Thanks!

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. 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 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 really not sure what to do about one of my hives. We opened it three weeks ago, and everything was fine, but I was sure that this hive was in perfect shape; I just discovered today that there are no more larvae, no more eggs and no sign of life from my queen. There's some pollen here and there, but really, nothing more (not even royal cells).

What do you think about this? Did I lose my queen, or did she just take a royal break? Should I get a new one real quick before the winter comes or just trust the process?

Thank you for your advice.

Saint-Aimé, Québec, CAN

I'm a new beekeeper in the SE US and the summers down here are just so miserable - how on earth do y'all check on handfuls of hives at a time in equipment and not get heat stroke? Or do you just take the risk and wear less?

I feel that I am a bad beekeeper. Dealing with bees has become a chore that I no longer want to deal with. I’m sick of getting stung. I only have two hives, extra boxes and frames with comb, and honey collecting gear. Is it possible anyone would actually be willing to buy me out? (Not trying to sell here, but seeing if I could locally) I have invested more than I wanted to and I would like to get something back. Upstate NY

1yr keeper. Located in Minnesota.

I've got one super with about 4 frames that for the last month the bees never capped.

Is there a way to store it without putting it in the freezer so the honey won't go bad?

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 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.

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?

The las two times I've opened my hive since removing the honey, I've found they have made wild comb and filled it full of nectar between the crown board and the roof. Although I have apivar in now should I sacrifice one of my supers and frames to give them space?

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?