There is a lot of discussion on the pros and cons of solid bottom boards vs. screened bottom boards. I’m not convinced that bees need additional ventilation or that having a screened bottom will reduce mite counts. However, the screened bottom board that I have has a tray that can be used to examine what […]
May 4th inspection. Starting to see some good coverage or both larvae and capped brood on the frames that had built out wax when the hive was initially assembled. So far, there does not seem to be much interest in building wax on the foundation frames. I’m starting to think that these may be lazy
I moved the bees/frames from the cardboard NUC back on April 14th. It has been a couple of weeks since then and it is time to do my first hive inspection. The new hive is the “Bees Rules” boxes. The original five frames were moved to an eight frame deep with 3 frames of foundation.
Well, the spring weather here in Maryland was a lot colder and wetter than usual. My bee supplier (prudently) pushed back the delivery date on my NUC from April 1st to April 14th. The 14th turned out to be a nice day for transferring the NUC to my hive box. Kevin had taken the precaution
So my first NUC colony is planned for an April 1st delivery. March has been a rather un-cooperative month for beekeeping in Maryland. We have had four nor’easters in as many weeks. Lots of below average temperatures. To top it all off, the last storm dropped about eight inches of snow and is keeping the
So I’m settling in on the idea that one of my first priorities in getting beehives working is to have a good inventory of frames that have had the wax combs built out by the bees. Bees only create the wax comb when there is an active nectar flow on and they need some place
I have come to the determination that the very first thing that I need to make this beekeeping “project” work is to develop an inventory of built out comb frame. Comb frames are movable frames that are used by the bees to store food and raise young. This is the hexagonal wax honeycomb that first
Whew… Getting through Winter here in Maryland. The groundhog stuck his head out of the burrow and scurried back in for another six weeks. So what are some of the things that I know now that I hadn’t considered … The pine that BrushyMountain and Mann Lake use for their hive woodenware it not the
Wow, Nearly February. I have one of my traps located, but not baited yet. I did get my beehive stand located and have set up two (unoccupied) hives on it. Getting frames set up with foundation and waiting for April. Spending lots of time reading forums on the internet and watching interesting videos on YouTube.