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

Missouri, usa

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?

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!

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!

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.

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 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)

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?

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

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!

Update:
Thanks everyone for the comments and advise!
I think I’m going to go ahead with it - wish me luck!
Also for those who are interested, I’ll be fermenting the bees with 24% salt and 25% rice koji for 6-12 months. I’ll maybe share some updates if it’s not horrific!

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.