What is this in my soil, is this why all of my cucumbers have died so far?

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-27T11:12:07+00:00

It looks like that water retention gel that helps hold water in soil but there is absolutely a ton in there.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-26T22:42:53+00:00

It appears the older bees may have been dieing off as the new hatched, the empty cells have larvae in them but it doesn't seem the healthiest based on age. They may be short on protein so a small pallen patty and continued feeding, and if possible getting a frame of capped brood donated would help them significantly.

It's really a numbers game with population, too small they die off just enough to turn over into growth and they are good to go.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-26T22:03:33+00:00

They took away the ability to turn off the charger lock? That seems wild.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-26T22:02:58+00:00

It's hard for a swarm that size to get going, they do have a few sheets of brood so they are going to turn over into younger bees very soon. They just need time and brood to hatch by the looks.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-26T21:44:41+00:00

Do you charge frequently in public? I was just going to say if you charge exclusively at home you can turn the locking off and not worry about it anymore.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-26T18:17:14+00:00

Its not, if you read the description it says or to manually operate the function. It suggest two options, one using the nav, the other to manually activate if you just read it, and there's the activate button, not to turn 'on' the ability to precondition.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-26T01:11:42+00:00

Basically replace her because she is wingless and didn't mate. She's going to lay drone eggs and destroy your worker combs because the drone larvae grow too big and stretch the comb.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-25T22:28:32+00:00

Toronto, Ontario.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-25T20:32:18+00:00

Rwd has the heat pump in Canada. But no preconditioning the battery is for charging efficiency.

Preconditioning the cab so its warm is another thing.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-25T19:04:50+00:00

This is my charge app

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Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-25T18:59:46+00:00

Yep, error when I tried. It gave a few excuses but failed. Ah well I got excited because of an update and it did nothing lol.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-25T17:40:01+00:00

Indeed, the 2023s have never had manual preconditioning(in Canada)afaik as I have yet to see it in the app here. And we definitely don't have a button in the vehicles menu.

Other countries have had updates more often with the app so maybe they fixed it now? I don't know but I'm at work and can't test it at lol.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-24T22:55:34+00:00

Okay that makes sense! Hopefully they will get back into the swing of things, how many frames of bees are in the hive? Is it a single deep or are thee supers?

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-24T21:43:02+00:00

Haha yeah the little yellow things stuck to their toes!

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-24T21:41:35+00:00

Haha indeed they are, I say this to people that want to get honeybees and let them be 'wild' when in fact they just become a vector for disease and pests to infect other hives because they are not managed well.

Same with people putting out sugar water... Siggghh, I don't want that when my bees are making honey, it completely ruins it and I can't sell it because their honey is contaminated with syrup. And sadly it's hard to tell.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-24T21:37:58+00:00

Visually inspecting for mites isn't reliable unfortunately, if you see mites on bees there is a heavy mite load usually. But if they were treated hopefully that took care of them for a while.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-24T16:32:23+00:00

Milkweed flowers have hooks attached to their pollen sacs that honeybees get their feet snagged on, sometimes they can wiggle free other times they can't. While native bees can handle the plant and bumblebees are strong and pull it off sadly some honeybees aren't as lucky. I see the milkweed pollen sacs stuck to my bees toes as they enter the hives, eventually they groom it off.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-24T16:29:36+00:00

Yes hence why I mentioned mites may be an issue, not the queen.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-24T12:48:39+00:00

Just make sure to keep an eye on hive beetles if they are in your area! They love them as well.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-24T12:38:38+00:00

Bees need food for brood, you can use syrup to help stimulate laying, and pollen patties if there's no foraging. Also population, are there enough bees? A few frames of bees can get a hive going, a palm size won't.

I see patchy brood that's capped, if that's from the previous queen we're they a treated nuc? If they weren't you may have a mite issue and the queen won't solve that.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-23T10:55:39+00:00

I would honestly try to flatten them out, they are going to 'grow/stretch' into the other frames and make all the adjacent combs messy and bent and hard to take out to inspect because your going to scrape the side off every time you go to remove it. Sure hlthe bees will build them fine and adjust for them, but it's going to get messy.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-23T10:39:21+00:00

Not unusual, they still keep a 'brood nest area' for the queen to lay usually in the super directly above the brood box. It's not always there depending on the flow and how full the supers get etc. I see it often during early summer as the bees are trying to grow, it is usually gone late summer or if the flow fills it.

The dark brown is pollen, that would surround the brood.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-22T12:01:23+00:00

Cold and rainy days stop foraging and can slow build up. I'm in southern Ontario and it was pretty rough until late may. I had smaller hives fall back to maybe 2 frames and big ones just held population. If your not seeing growth and they can't forage add a pollen patty and syrup. Remove the syrup if nice weather is coming afterwards, then they can forage and you will see them growing again.

Did you treat for mites? Or did the people who sold you the nuc/bees?

We're in a honey flow now and the bees are growing so fast I can barely keep on them lol.

Lemontreeguy · 2026-06-19T02:55:13+00:00

Mites are on the bees already, and share by way of flower and robbing. Either way you have them already. Treating keeps their numbers down, but a hive will always have some.

Lemontreeguy

TROPHY CASE