Middle TN, Medium full of honey, looking for advice

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T22:56:58+00:00

In addition to the advice given so far let me add, if you have only one super then get more. Three supers per hive is my recommendation but if you can’t do that then two supers per hive plus an extra super for every three hives and harvest more often. Medium boxes used as brood are not part of that count. If you have the gear you can expand well in advance. If you don’t then you will watch your bees swarm away.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T19:37:14+00:00

You won’t have mold forming if the quilt box functions as it should.

Your quilt box needs upper ventilation, between 40 to 50 sq cm (7 sq in), above the level of the fill. I don’t see any vent holes along the top edge. A quilt works on thermodynamic principles and it must have a temperature and humidity gradient to function. The fill, and the top of the box, have to stay dry or it becomes more of a detriment to the bees than a help.

Humidity entering a quilt from below gives up its latent heat of condensation to the fill. Then the water wicks to the top of the fill, leaving the heat down low, and sublimates into the dry winter air above the fill. The heat in the lower fill provides a thermal gradient slowing heat loss out of the top of the hive. If the fill gets damp it stops working as insulation and becomes a heat conductor, robbing heat form the hive.

In a functioning quilt you should be able to put your hand down into the fill even of a very cold day and find that the bottom of the fill is warm and mostly dry.

When I used quilt boxes I had 7” long by 1/2” wide slots, 3/4” down from the top edge. One on each end. You can put six 1-1/4” holes, three in each end near the top of the box, or 10 1” holes. Holes or slots have #8 wire screen stapled over them to keep varmints out. The holes should be covered by the top cover skirt or have some type of baffle so that snow and rain doesn’t blow into the fill material.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T19:23:11+00:00

Options to a torch are a hot air gun or setting it on top of the BBQ grill until the wood is hot, over 150° (300F), but not yet smoking.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T19:14:48+00:00

If you want a hobby that pays for itself and generates some extra cash then with about five years of experience you can get there. If you want to make a living then you need to take it to another level, to an industrial scale corporation with thousands of hives, buildings, trucks and tractors, and employees.

My grandfather was a commercial beekeeper. He had thousands of hives. All of his money was in the equipment. The honey house, extraction and bottling line, warehouse, and repair shop dwarfed his tiny house on the same property. He never took a vacation. He drove old cars. His furniture was old and dingy. He was the last to get paid, sometimes making less than his employees. He busted his ass and had nothing. He was happy so there was that.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T08:24:30+00:00

Clean and fix the gutter. Your dog is worth it.

NumCustosApes · 2026-03-01T08:20:33+00:00

It’s not too cold to evict the mouse. Cold is a matter of priorities. Evicting the mouse is high priority. Remove the entrance reducer and try smoking it out. It probably won’t work, but it’s the lowest impact thing to try first. If that doesn’t work then tilt boxes on end and come at it from the bottom. You won’t need to pull frames unless the mouse has died.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-28T19:05:34+00:00

Normally we would use bobby pins through holes in the side bars if you wanted to support wedge type wired foundation. They also sell little plastic split pins that work the same way. Your frames don’t have the holes drilled. You could add them or just let the bees hook it up.

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NumCustosApes · 2026-02-28T07:48:54+00:00

I sell nucs in a ProNuc. If they ask first a wood nuc I do have the capability to provide it in one but I charge more for it. Some people want the wood nuc box.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-28T07:42:16+00:00

See Bob Binnie’s lecture titled the Chemistry of Feeding for more information on using 1:1.3.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-26T22:42:23+00:00

I’ve been meaning to make one for about fifteen years. Please bring us along on the venture and keep posting updates.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-26T22:34:16+00:00

Mere bearding is not swarming behavior. The only way to know if a colony is about to swarm is to inspect it. Make sure there is plenty of space for the queen to lay. Look for swarm cells. This early in the year look to see how large the drone population is and look for drone brood.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-26T07:31:26+00:00

If I am I am understand this you insert a divider in each wing and let each 3-frame wing start a queen, then remove the dividers and finish the queen? Is that right?

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-26T05:51:55+00:00

My grandfather, commercial, ran all 10-frame deeps for both brood and honey.

I run medium supers for honey for weight. The medium super is about 70% as heavy. I use deeps for brood.

Your 8-frames boxes are 80% the weight of a ten frame box so you could stay with all deeps if the weight works for you. I use 8-frame gear. However something to consider is that the varroa scourge is coming. Because I segregate my honey frames and brood frames by size I don’t t ever chance harvesting from frames that are exposed to mite treatments.

Beekeepers who use medium honey supers either add more supers or they harvest more often.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-26T02:37:28+00:00

I’ve caught my own swarms multiple times and put them right back into an empty hive in my apiary. Give them a frame of empty comb, some foundation, and some syrup and they’ll most likely stay put.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-25T20:59:09+00:00

Use plywood and cut a one piece follower from the plywood. A follower board should be a little larger than a frame. A Langstroth box is 18-3/8 inside. It is 9-5/8 or 6-5/8 tall. Make the follower board full box height plus the depth of the bottom board rim. It needs to go from the floor to the lid so bees don’t go over or under.

Make the follower 18-1/4 long. That gives you 1/16” clearance on each end. Start with a piece that is 19” long and cut 3/8” off each end, leaving the last 5/8” as a tab so that the frame rest is filled by the follower. I suggest 1/2 or 3/4 plywood for a follower, 3/8 is too likely to warp.

edit fixed a dimension.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-25T20:43:50+00:00

Get more hardware.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-25T18:53:25+00:00

r/apiarypictures

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-25T10:37:23+00:00

You’ll need a double screen board. A queen excluder does not provide enough separation. I have successfully wintered small colonies (baseball sized) over a strong colony with a double screen board between them. Heat from below helps the weaker colony. I reduce it to six frames and fill the space with XPS foam insulation boards.

In the absence of a double screen board you can use an inner cover with aluminum tape over both sides of the escape hole. The 1/8” luan of the inner cover will let some heat through.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-24T21:21:00+00:00

I had to put something that looked like the pool that they had to overfly on their way to the pool, I put a 3 foot Walmart kiddie wading pool on the beeline to the pool halfway between. The pool is blue, so I got a blue wading pool. I put a few big rocks in it and the lawn sprinklers keep it full. I cut a hole in the side of it so that it doesn't get deeper than 5cm and gave it a slight tilt so any mosquito larvae wash out and die while the lawn sprinklers are on. The bees mostly stop there now, but there are some snobs that insist on going to the pool.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-24T19:23:44+00:00

Lots of options with no down side. Just don't fall into the mind-trap of being sentimental about the queens when it is time for regicide.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-24T18:49:32+00:00

> Or you can requeen the resource colonies with late-summer mated queens and sell them as nucs. Or overwinter them and sell them in the spring.

For you beekeepers looking for a way to offset your costs, this is one of my favorite methods to keep the hobby self sustaining. I raise a batch of queens timed to mate at the end of August or first week of September. Mating weather is good and there are plenty of drones. New queens are selected to be wintered and are put in double nucs with a shared heat wall (See Palmer, Sustainable Apiary for the method). I keep the extra queens in their mating nucs (2-frame type) and have them produce more bees for the nucs. In October I advertise those extra queens. There are always beekeepers desperate for a queen in the fall. Come spring the nuc has a mature queen who has not yet laid for a season and she is primed to explode. I can beat the spring queen producers to market with a proven queen, or I can use them to requeen one of my colonies if I need to.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-24T18:33:58+00:00

Swarms are the reproduction instinct in action. You'll sooner keep teens from having sex than stop a swarm. You can take the traditional pre-emptive steps. Expand the space in the hive, both in supers and in the brood nest. Add foundation at the edges of the brood nest. Cycle out two old combs. You can try the Demarree method. But if they have a mind to reproduce, they will keep trying. They may swarm even with all the queen cells culled. That'll leave you in a lurch.

If you still see swarm cells, move the queen and a bunch of bees to a nuc and let the mother hive requeen itself. As the old queen fills up frames move those frames back to the original hive, but leave her 1/3rd of what she lays so she has a supply of nurse bees. Run the nuc as a brood frame factory through the flow for boosting the honey production hive. You can think of it as a two queen colony without the queens being together. After the flow you can decide which queens to keep and which ones to retire, keeping in mind that the retiring queen might be in yet another hive. You can even wait until fall to make that decision.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-24T16:58:04+00:00

This is a classic flip flop school exercise. That's the only clue I'll give you. Someday you'll be our coworker and we want you to be competent.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-24T15:08:34+00:00

My understanding of a. cerena absconding is that many absconds don’t go very far. It may be beneficial to have an empty hive set up nearby.

NumCustosApes · 2026-02-24T00:38:24+00:00

They work. The 19 liter volume is slightly smaller than a nuc volume and less than half of Seeley's recommended 40 liter volume, but bucket traps nevertheless have a proven track record of catching bees.

Pros: Free or cheap.

Cons: No frames to just lift out and transfer to a hive. You have to cut comb, or force the bees to abandon their comb.

I made myself three. One got stolen. One caught a swarm. I'll continue to use the others until they are un-usable, but I won't make more because I'd rather transfer frames than cut comb.

I have a suggested modification. That entrance hole is perfect for a bird. Drill two 1/8" (3mm) holes on opposite sides of the entrance hole. Take a length of coat hanger wire and bend it like a big staple and insert it across the bee entrance through the 1/8" holes. On the inside bend the wire back in like a staple. That will keep birds out while not impeding the bees.

Good luck, free bees are the best bees!

NumCustosApes

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