FordPrefect Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 I have 8 hives, plus 2 nucs...2 are TBH and the others are Langstroth hives, I am using plasticel with bees wax sprayed on and cells started, my bees love it, mice can't desert it, when in storage. I use custom frames with no foundation in TBH, makes it easy to harvest honey. Here are some pictures of the TBH: http://s1138.photobu...Za/Topbar hive/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Dang! I got another feral swarm yesterday evening and the "bee killer" is coming out this evening. No wonder I'm always broke, it's always something, better he kill them off than me or the dogs get attacked, that's really expensive to have the fire dept. charge you a $1,000 to come save your butt from the "killer" bees, it's only a $140 for the "bee killer". I'll sure be glad when the hives quit splitting for the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fe-Wood Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Sorry to hear that bentiron! Nothing worse than spending money on pests! I've had 2 swams in the last week myself!! They have landed in the same place on the same branch. I live above Latitude 39 so they are keepers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 How do you go about getting them to go into a box? A big net or just how do you coax them to settle in one of you big white boxes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundsau Posted April 20, 2012 Author Share Posted April 20, 2012 My friend was gracious enough to give us a free split. It was made last Monday and we brought it home last night in my Trailblazer. After re-orienting themselves to the new location they are bringing in pollen already. Now It's a waiting game for them to make some emergency queen cells and looks like some may already be started. Allen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fe-Wood Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Bentiron- This was possibly the easiest swarm retrieval ever. I used a honey supper because thats all I have. I took 4 frames out of the middle. I put a honey supper on top of a 4' ladder below the branch. I gave the branch a couple good shakes, more like a hard bump. All the bees feel in the supper. You want to make sure you get the queen! Otherwise the bees follow her. I left it that way for about 1/2 hr. until the bees had settled into the box a bit then put the frames back in and put the top on. The bottle on top is full of sugar water. I like to feed new hives to make life a little easier for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cross Pein Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 I have been a beekeeper for several years. All our hives died last winter (2010-2011). It was a real bad one here in the Northeast and many hives were lost. We decided to take a year off. Then just as the time was approaching to order packages for this year, we found out that my wife needed heart surgery. She came home yesterday, but the recovery will be several weeks. So I won't be doing the bees this year. I miss them. Love watching them come and go. Enjoy the bees Allen - it's another great hobby. Bill Just shows how things can change in a short time. Last night my neighbor from across the street knocked on the door. She had a swarm in her back yard. Hour later and I have a hive. Fairly large swarm they look good and comfy today. Making some sugar water to put Fumagillan on them. Supers go on next weekend! Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 A gift from the Creator of All! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Einhorn Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 How do you go about getting them to go into a box? A big net or just how do you coax them to settle in one of you big white boxes? Somewhere I have a bee catch box that I made from instructions from a beekeeping course I took in Maryland a few decades ago. Following the instructions from the instructor/Maryland-bee-inspector I acquired an old metal canister from a vacuum cleaner at a junk store, cleaned and painted it, then installed a queen excluder in the lid so that a queen could not exit. Now all you have to do is scoop up bees into the canister until you find the queen. Once the queen in in the canister, put the lid on, and all the other bees will follow. Since the workers are all full of honey they are not inclined to sting. Any suggestions on finding good nucs or bee packages? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundsau Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 David, we just picked up a package of bees from Keeny and Ziegler Apiaries yesterday. They brought up about 500 packages from Georgia and may have some extras. But you have to call asap or they will all be gone.Keeney & Ziegler Apairies 9351 Old Rt #22 Bethel, PA19507 717.933.8565 Bentiorn, some folks put out bait hives which is a large deep super (the white box you see on a hive) with some frames in it and a few drops of lemongrass oil. Since you get so many swarms, do you have a place to put one or two near your house? Here is what ours looked like: Here are some shots from yesterdays package bees pickup. It was cool and rainy so I decided to place the entire package they came in into the bottom super so they wouldn't fly around so much in the rain. There are two frames of capped honey and two foundationless frames in there. The can of syrup that came with the package was placed up on two sticks for easier access. I'm taking the box out later today and will place more foundationless frames in its place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I live kind of in south middle of Arizona. We do not need to identify the bees here,,recent news said all of them are africanized now. A couple of things about them: May be a false sense of security to think if they are fed well they are not a threat. We are told they attack to defend terriitory. If they feel threatened you are near their hive they attack. Suggested space cushion to get out of their zone is about a hundred yards. If they are attacking a quick sprint that distance gets you out of harms way maybe. A 100 yard dash for me has long since past. As a first responder in past years dealing with these attacks I have some thoughts: If they are near you and feel threatened you are gonna get stung..a lot of times. If there is history at your house of them colonizing it gives you good information as to where they do it and how they enter. A proactive plan will eliminate all of the entry sites. That of course does not mean they will not find others. We have had three colonies here and they all found similiar entry points. those are plugged now. I expect they will find another way in but it has been quite a few years since the last. Our orange trees are ending the blossom time and there are bees arouind them most days, I have not been stung when near them but then that is not where they live.I expect if you have any bees at all sometime in the future the nasty ones will join them. They told us years ago they simply would never cross into the USA as the winters up here would kill them off. Ha! In the urban areas here the fire departments have full protection for the crews from bees. They will not just kill a swarm unless poeple have been stung or threatened. That happens often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordPrefect Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 I am expending the number of hives to 10 hives and the bees I am getting this year are these: http://www.glenn-apiaries.com/smr.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundsau Posted April 24, 2012 Author Share Posted April 24, 2012 Forgot to add: our bees came from Wilbanks Apiaries in Georgia and have mated queens. FordPrefect, is this the first time you are getting VSH bees? I'm interested in how you make out. Allen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordPrefect Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Grundsau, That is the first time of me using VSH bees, I usually get Italian bees. I loaded four hives today, I got a call to pick up the bees, so I had to load the bees today: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 The fellow down at the State Dept. of Agriculture does not recommend that one try to capture a feral hive. As Rich Hale has said these bees are very aggressive and unless you can run a 100 yards in Olympic time forget having a hive of them around. They go for the face, typically mouth, nose and eyes, nasty bees all around. In most of cities around here bee keeping is not encouraged which is too bad as the guy at the state said that almost grantees that almost all hives will then be feral and not domestic but that is the way it is. One of my old preachers used to keep bees at his house and no one was the wiser until it was hijacked by an Africanized queen and he ended up in the hospital with a whole lot of stings and that was the end of his bee keeping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundsau Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 What I was getting at is that your house seems to be a swarm magnet. If it was my house, and if the property layout permits it, I'd try putting out a bait hive. You would then know almost immediately that a swarm has moved in and wouldn't have to have chemicals pumped into the house all the time. You aren't trying to capture one to keep but rather to kill it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexandr Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Hi. In this way, I find bees. My apiary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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