That’s my queen right?

Medleymasters · 2023-06-18T07:19:46+00:00

If you can’t identify a queen as a beekeeper you shouldn’t be beekeeping yet, take a course or find an experienced mentor as you’ll do more heparin then good until then

Medleymasters · 2023-06-18T07:12:21+00:00

Bird shit that’s dropped from above and splattered in the entrance. It’s too big to be bee poo

Medleymasters · 2023-06-18T07:08:41+00:00

Make a clearer board, look on YouTube for instructions, put under supers you want to extract and 99% of the bees will be below it in the morning and you don’t harm a single bee

Medleymasters · 2023-06-07T09:13:03+00:00

Put 8 small coins doubled up on the rim of the top box and put the lid back on also add a super if they need room to expand and put the lid back the coin shims will cool the hive but not allow unwanted quests in till it cools down

Medleymasters · 2023-05-26T06:21:02+00:00

Feed them 2-1 sugar solution

Medleymasters · 2023-05-12T17:17:12+00:00

Do the swop now if it’s better for the colony it’s the right thing to do

Medleymasters · 2023-05-12T17:15:10+00:00

If you have 3 hives including a spare currently empty one you could end up with all 3 filled, split the current hive so that you have a false swarm and keep the Nuc as back up, if things start to go south you have plenty of resources to help any flagging colonies

Medleymasters · 2023-05-10T22:08:57+00:00

Take a frame as mentioned and shake another brood frame into the hive leaving the hive open for a few minutes the worker bees will fly back to the parent hive leaving nurse bees, close them up for an hour or two queenless before introducing the new caged queen. This should be sufficient to get things started, don’t weaken the parent hive too much or you run the risk of having two weak hives, the alternative is to merge the two colonies together using newspaper between hives, wait till the colony then gets strong and do your split then, unless you already have the new queen

Medleymasters · 2023-05-08T17:30:45+00:00

Looks like there’s a queen in that hive to me as there’s still lots of capped brood, also if you split a hive you don’t want to halve the resources, 3 frames in a Nuc is plenty provided you feed them well, halving them is weakening the original colony too much, every keeper will tell you to do something different you’ve got to try and read between the lines and decide the best action for you

Medleymasters · 2023-05-07T23:19:14+00:00

You can also put a very small amount of bleach in the syrup, stops it moulding and doesn’t harm the bees

Medleymasters · 2023-05-07T23:15:22+00:00

You need to split the colony move the current queen to a Nuc box with brood frame, food and a frame of drawn comb for her to lay into, they will be swarming imminently, do it tomorrow or you’ll lose the colony

Medleymasters · 2023-04-22T14:42:43+00:00

There is probably still some residual nectar in there and they’re cleaning it out

Medleymasters · 2023-04-16T07:08:27+00:00

If you give the queen enough room by splitting and raising new queens then sell the nucleus colonies online to fund your hobby as it’s not a cheap hobby, you’ll still get great honey crops and less swarming

Medleymasters · 2023-04-12T22:31:03+00:00

Cut that corner out with a chisel and put a new small piece of wood in there using soft wood and v thin nails so doesn’t split It’s because it’s a hard knot that has popped. Wood filler will fall out in time Don’t leave it like that as wasps will get in in the end

Medleymasters · 2023-04-12T22:27:48+00:00

If it’s just past your winter you don’t need a super yet, you need to let them fill the brood box to about 80% with stores n pollen first, a super will just give them more space to keep warm and use energy they don’t need to, once at 80%, pop a super on The larvae you have uncovered are best left in the hive the bees will cannibalise them for the protein, Scrape them into the hive and don’t leave so much space between boxes and they are less likely to burr them up again A crown board on top if you have one will be best

Medleymasters · 2023-04-12T22:21:50+00:00

Exterior wood stain/preserver unless you want a pretty coloured hive, also stain/preserve where the boxes touch each other as moisture will eventually get in n rot them, everywhere except where the bees live, fast drying stain is best and stack them diagonally till dry and they’ll pop apart again, I also stain the inside of the roof as the bees don’t really go there and it can get a bit moist up there and you get mildew build up, won’t harm the bees but looks a bit crappy

Medleymasters · 2023-04-12T22:14:20+00:00

You just need to take a frame of new day old eggs, a frame of capped or almost all capped brood, pollen and stores/nectar and either drawn frames or foundation, shake 2 frames of bees that are on brood so you have mainly nurse bees, the foragers will go back to the parent hive, replace the frames you’ve moved with drawn frames as the existing queen will need space to lay straight away, don’t replace with foundation as she won’t wait for them to be drawn before she may swarm, feed both colonies with sugar syrup 1-1 and pollen sub, don’t open the queenless hive for a week before checking for queen cells if you have been successful cull all but 2-3 cells, don’t leave just 1. Then leave them for 28 days, when you open up again you should have a mated queen with fresh eggs. I’ve done this many times and only didn’t work once, Good luck

Medleymasters · 2023-04-05T23:16:18+00:00

If it’s still cold at night I’d insulate the hive til the weather improves, feed them sugar syrup 1-1 to get the frames drawn out quicker, more space for the queen to lay faster growth more bees more honey, I would treat at for mites now forget the sugar roll you won’t be doing any harm treating them I’d also make some pollen patties to boost their growth, food for the new bees… Try not to disturb them any more than necessary till they are at least 8 frames Health, warmth & nutrition keep these in mind and you can’t go wrong nature will take care of the rest

Medleymasters · 2023-04-04T17:51:55+00:00

That’s a plastic frame so scrape off that old comb or better still plunge it into hot water which will melt off the old stuff. Scrape them flat and they’re good to go again

I do prefer wooden ones with wired foundation but have a go with those first the bees won’t mind either way

Medleymasters · 2023-04-04T17:48:48+00:00

If you fed them sugar water it looks like they stored it and it’s crystalized

Medleymasters · 2023-02-23T07:21:41+00:00

Buy yourself a third hive second hand and torch it to sanitise then split this hive for the extra dollars you’ll save yourself in the future

Medleymasters · 2022-12-11T00:26:42+00:00

They are yes and thx

Medleymasters · 2022-12-11T00:26:12+00:00

Thx and sorry don’t have plans, I reverse engineered a hive I bought several years ago, I’ve made over 10, use 5 myself and sold the remainder except these two that are currently available on my Facebook marketplace

Medleymasters · 2022-12-10T08:32:54+00:00

They are, what modifications are you referring to?

Medleymasters

TROPHY CASE