First honey of the season. The second established hive will probably give about 10 times as much.

This hive died, the queen didn’t make it and they were not able to rear a new one quickly enough. When I checked it today, it was totally dead, so I harvested the honey in the super and closed up the brood chamber with some apivar.

In the fall I will get this one going again. My other hive is doing amazing.

Mite counts were low on both hives, and I do preventative treatments.

  • athos77
    link
    fedilink
    31 year ago

    Oh, that looks lovely, but I’m so sorry to hear about your second hive dying :(

  • @wallybeavis
    link
    English
    31 year ago

    I know nothing about beekeeping, so please forgive my ignorance, I just find the subject very interesting and hope to get into it as a hobby.

    Do you have your hives sitting on your property where you can keep an eye on them, or are they off in a field/meadow out of sight? Also, do you have to worry about local wildlife taking an interest/damaging your hives? If so what are some precautions that you take?

      • SpaceBarOPM
        link
        English
        31 year ago

        I keep several wild.bee “hotels” on my property too.

      • @wallybeavis
        link
        English
        11 year ago

        Thank you for the link. I hadn’t considered the impact honey bees would have on native pollinators. I guess I always thought of honey bees, when people referred to bees in general. Thanks to a little additional digging I found out my state agriculture dept has an official Apiarist. I’m going to go over their website this weekend when I have more time

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      31 year ago

      I have a few hives at my house. I’ve never had any wildlife mess with the hives. You do have to worry about mice getting in the hive as the weather gets colder. For that I use a metal mouse guard at the entrance.

    • @wallybeavis @Spacebar I have hives in both situations. At home, I can see them, but it’s just because that’s where I have room for them. I also manage several hives at a farm, those are away from the road.

      We don’t have wildlife big enough to mess with them here. Some people use ratchet straps, attaching hives to strong stands. Others will set up electric fencing as a deterrent.

    • SpaceBarOPM
      link
      English
      21 year ago

      I live on 3.5 acres of land. My hives are on my property in the back.

    • @NerdyApex
      link
      English
      11 year ago

      I’m super fascinated by this as well. More info please.

  • edric
    link
    fedilink
    English
    21 year ago

    Question: When the hive dies, where does the rest of the colony go?

    • SpaceBarOPM
      link
      English
      21 year ago

      Hive and colony are synonymous in this case. The queen died and the bees that were left were never able to raise a new queen, so they all died out.