Whoopie! Just caught our very first swarm!

[Latestarter]

Man... you should get together and say a simple prayer with the Mrs. more often!

Not only did He show you a swarm to get you started, then He gave you one for the trap you placed, then He had it rain a bit to get those bees to all go inside for you (side benefit of watering the pasture for the sheep), then He had a friend, who just happens to also be a master beekeeper just stop by out of the blue with time enough to help you not only move the trap, but check all your other hives at the same time! Does He provide or what?!

Ummm looking at the picture of the anti-ant stand you made, it appears to me that those hives are pretty high centered... Aren't you concerned that a stiff wind might blow them over? Were it me, I think I'd screw in some anchors and strap those down somehow to make sure they can't blow over. The pic may be lighting/angles/whatnot, but it appears the front one is leaning back a bit, and the back one is leaning forward a bit.

 

[soarwitheagles]

Man... you should get together and say a simple prayer with the Mrs. more often!

Not only did He show you a swarm to get you started, then He gave you one for the trap you placed, then He had it rain a bit to get those bees to all go inside for you (side benefit of watering the pasture for the sheep), then He had a friend, who just happens to also be a master beekeeper just stop by out of the blue with time enough to help you not only move the trap, but check all your other hives at the same time! Does He provide or what?!

Ummm looking at the picture of the anti-ant stand you made, it appears to me that those hives are pretty high centered... Aren't you concerned that a stiff wind might blow them over? Were it me, I think I'd screw in some anchors and strap those down somehow to make sure they can't blow over. The pic may be lighting/angles/whatnot, but it appears the front one is leaning back a bit, and the back one is leaning forward a bit.

Laterstarter,

Thank you for your encouragement. Yes, we believe in miracles and we also do our best to pray and get into God's word daily...in the am and the pm. Our lives changed dramatically after putting the Lord number one. We began to experience His presence and have life changing encounters with Him and also began to see His hand move and intervene in incredible ways and now we never want to let our prayer times diminish.

I hear you on the hives looking kinda high up on this stand. It may be the angle of the camera or something. Then again, maybe the hives are too high! We have had some 50-60 mph winds last month, so I suppose the hive stand passed the test. But I have seen people put on those ratcheting tie downs and I was thinking of doing so...although my motive was more out of protecting the hives from skunks and such...

Remember, we are surrounded 360 degrees by very dense Eucalyptus forest trees towering 60-80 ft. up, so I think this creates a mighty wind break for us.

The first ant proof bee hive stand was a little crooked. I have modified it since I took that pic.

I finished the next stand in 4 hours. The first stand took me two days, so I am improving. We need special ant proof beehive stands because we have over 7 species of ants and they can kill beehives very effectively.

I need to build several more stands. I will work on em' this week.

I am posting pics of my new ant proof bee hive stand but without the inverted PVC caps filled with high temp lube.

I hope to paint it tomorrow and then install the PVC caps filled with high temp lube.

I am also posting pics of the build process just in case anyone else is having challenges with the ants.

Soar

 

[Ferguson K]

 

[babsbag]

Wow, you are blessed. I can barely keep a hive alive and yours are multiplying like crazy. All I can say is I guess I am supposed to raise goats and struggle with bees. That is just so neat that you caught a swarm like that. I caught one once, pretty sure it was my own bees but it only stayed a short while and then disappeared like most of my bees have.

Love the stand, I will keep that in mind when the chalk and DE doesn't work anymore. I did a mote around the hive once; it worked ok and gave the bees a water source but I had to remember to fill it with water.

 

[soarwitheagles]

Wow, you are blessed. I can barely keep a hive alive and yours are multiplying like crazy. All I can say is I guess I am supposed to raise goats and struggle with bees. That is just so neat that you caught a swarm like that. I caught one once, pretty sure it was my own bees but it only stayed a short while and then disappeared like most of my bees have.

Love the stand, I will keep that in mind when the chalk and DE doesn't work anymore. I did a mote around the hive once; it worked ok and gave the bees a water source but I had to remember to fill it with water.

Babsbag,

Yes, we are blessed and experiencing multiplication in wonderful ways.

So sorry to hear you are struggling with your bees. We did too the first two years. The struggle forced me to do much more reading, much more asking for mentoring, and much more hard, hard work! I am thankful that we were able to meet a master beekeeper who has a deep love for bees. He has been extremely kind and helpful in so many ways. Now we consider him a precious friend too.

The first beek we met was super nice too, in his early 20's, and he suddenly and unexpectedly died. It was a total heart breaker.

We lost our first hive to the ants. We nearly lost our second hive to the varroa mite. I was so close to giving up. I began to think it was way too much time with way too much loss.

Suddenly, everything just seemed to go vertical. But not without the hard work. Massive reading. And then weekly hive checks. Then, with the young, small, and weak hives we also did a lot of feeding of syrup and pollen substitute. Now the beehives are strong and they do not require the extra help.

One of the most important things we have been taught is to do a careful count and monitoring of the varroa mite numbers, then treat as needed.

Regarding moats, cinnamon powder, hive legs in oil buckets, etc. for us, it was all a complete total waste of time and huge nightmare [massive numbers of bees drowning, etc.].

For us, the ants always found a way around these attempts to keep them out. Finally found a beek named Charlie who came up with the idea of using the high temp brake lube. I modified his design to meet our special needs, and ever since, not even one ant can touch the bees.

Total, sweet success!

And now, the best news of all...

The hundreds of thousands of Eucalyptus all around us are just beginning to go into their all out 2 year bloom [these specific trees bloom every two years]. If everything works our right, we should be seeing 50+ pounds of honey per week per hive at the height of the bloom.

Now I need to discover the best honey extractor within our budget!

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[babsbag]

50+ of honey per hive per week is a lot of honey. Can I be just a little jealous ? ...just a tiny little bit as it know jealously isn't really a good thing. I don't put enough time in on the bees and I know that. It is so stupid hot here in the summer I feel like I need to be in the hive at about 7 AM or it is just miserable; and I am usually milking or doing goat chores at the hour. My DH said he would take over the bees but he never did so they are still my responsibility.

I have learned a lot over the years, and mite treatment is probably #1 on my list of "have to dos". I mistakenly thought that I wouldn't have to treat a package the first year so that cost me. I also made the mistake of not checking for brood when I go into a hive. If they are in the bottom deep it is hard for me to move that top deep without taking many of the frames out so I was just skipping that check and hoping all was well. That didn't work to well either. Also, I had hives that were 10-15 miles from my house which made it even harder to get to them to check on them. Right now I have two at my house and then a failing hive (laying workers) at another site. I think I will stick to just the two at my place and feed the heck out of them this late summer and fall and hope and pray I can keep them alive.

I bought two nucs with 2 year old queens; I could get them earlier if I took older queens and I wanted them here for the apples and blackberries. Come summer I will requeen which should help with the mites. I used Hopguard for mites last year but never did the official counts. Well those hives are gone so this year I may do the oxalic dribble in the fall and then actually do a count. I have to either pay closer attention or just give up.

Keeping bees makes raising goats look like a picnic.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Wow, 50 pounds of honey a week! CA is such a dry climate that we don't get honey yields like that!

I purchased my extractor from Maxant. I'm very happy with it, and I specifically wanted one that is US made. I have a thread here in the beekeeping section about it.

babs - I've used Apiguard with great results for mites. I'm considering trying MAQS this year, as it kills the mites under the capped brood as well as the mites on the bees. We'll see when that time rolls around.

 

[Latestarter]

MAQS?

 

[babsbag]

Wow, 50 pounds of honey a week! CA is such a dry climate that we don't get honey yields like that!

@Happy Chooks.... @soarwitheagles with eagles IS in CA so that makes it even more amazing. And he isn't in a nice wet cool spot either.

I have some apiguard that I bought two years ago, maybe I will try it. @Latestarter Mite Away Quick Strips

 

[Happy Chooks]

@Happy Chooks.... @soarwitheagles with eagles IS in CA so that makes it even more amazing. And he isn't in a nice wet cool spot either.

I have some apiguard that I bought two years ago, maybe I will try it. @Latestarter Mite Away Quick Strips

Wow, that kind of yield in CA? Amazing!

I'm hoping with all of that rain we had this winter that it's going to be a great honey year. I'm building my hives up super strong and will split them if needed to keep them from swarming. The queens are laying like gangbusters!


@Latestarter - yep Mite Away Quick Strips. I'm hearing great reviews on it, but I've had such good luck with Apiguard, I'm cautious on changing.