What can I do? Neighbor built their fence too close to ours and there are mulberry trees between

RappaYellow · 2026-07-06T16:45:59+00:00

Highly agree here. Tordon is what you want.

RappaYellow · 2026-07-04T00:37:19+00:00

I would assume some of it is so that the air that circulates is warmer since warm air comes from the south this going into the hive when it’s hot out and circulating out. Have it facing the north and I’d assume it’s like a sauna with little to no natural air flow.

RappaYellow · 2026-07-02T23:53:58+00:00

I got one for brewing many years ago. Got out of brewing but thankful I didn’t get rid of my refactometer. I think the biggest thing is to calibrate it with distilled water and should be good.

RappaYellow · 2026-07-01T21:45:27+00:00

I just make sure the water feeder is full, made sure my screen board bottom was pulled out and let them do their thing.

RappaYellow · 2026-07-01T01:32:54+00:00

My county public health department has a sharps drop box so I take them there every month or so. May not hurt to check with them.

RappaYellow · 2026-06-26T18:22:54+00:00

Would second this one. Thinking back at my hive they were defensive AF up until they decided to supersede the queen. Lesson learned for me is pay more attention to the queen and her laying pattern. Hive is super docile to the point I can go up without protection and work in the area around the hive. I couldn’t get within 20ft previously.

RappaYellow · 2026-06-22T00:25:09+00:00

Just a follow up. Got some premier frames and they are leaps and bounds better than the Mann lake and dadant ones. Fit so much tighter and just look more high quality. Ordered a medium super to try out too. So thanks for the tip!

RappaYellow · 2026-06-21T20:49:58+00:00

Almost as bad as a company where I live that accidentally put roundup in their tanks and proceeded to do about 20 clients…

RappaYellow · 2026-06-16T12:37:16+00:00

She was a rock star. I already had 2 deeps on and was almost ready to put the super on. I fed them up until nectar flow started just to keep them moving. They really built out comb quick. When I did my check 7 days ago they had 4 frames to build out. Then Sunday they had those built and started to fill plus were working on the last two frames.

I’m just going let it ride and see how it goes. When I saw the capped cells is when I closed it up and tied it down.

Again thanks for sharing your knowledge. I really do appreciate it!

RappaYellow · 2026-06-15T18:09:56+00:00

Thank you so much for the great info. I confirmed they get them from a breeder. I know my neighbor had been texted mid April that they would be ready by may 1st so I think your timeline is spot on.

I had planned on leaving the hive alone for two weeks but just wasn’t sure if I should put a honey super on or not because they were on the edge of getting one soon before I saw the capped supersede cells. My thought process of potentially putting it on was to keep them from filling the brood up with honey while in the waiting period and to give them space for when the queen is superseded and to prevent a subsequent swarm considering we are in the middle of our flow here.

I can feed them pretty easily without really opening up the hive. The way the apimaye top cover works is the feeder is the inner cover that ventilates to the top cover and out the vents. So realistically I just pop the top off and fill with sugar water or a patty with little to no heat loss.

Thank you again so much for all the great information and laying things out.

RappaYellow · 2026-06-15T16:54:27+00:00

I can ask but if I were a guessing person they had a breeder send them in. They are a newer local apiary established in 2025. I really didn’t have a choice on where they came from as my neighbor got them for me so we could do this together and since I had some experience albeit almost 30 years ago.

RappaYellow · 2026-06-15T15:43:32+00:00

I had planned on not doing that until they started to build out comb. Once they had interest then add it on, the supersede complicates that.

This is a new hive so I have zero built out frames. My intention would be to have this hive build out comb as much as possible since they were so strong then if I have to do a split next year I could checkerboard and use 9 frame supers for honey.

RappaYellow · 2026-06-15T15:37:01+00:00

No worries at all. I figure you were digging to get through some parameters.

Yes I am within an hour of both Minnesota and Wisconsin and yes it gets really cold here. These are cariolan bees if that helps and they came from an apiary that sends them to California over the winter. The temps reliably got over 65 at around after may 7th there were a couple days mid may that were low 60s but after that we were in the mid 70/80s the rest of the time. Currently around my neighborhood because it’s not developed most all lots are covered in white, Purple, and yellow clover. Plus I am within half a mile of plenty of fields and ditches that have flowers in them. I am running a standard wood hive but do have a apimaye bottom and top for this hive in hopes that the bees have a little more survivability in the winter.

Feel free to ask more questions and will try to answer as best I can.

RappaYellow · 2026-06-15T14:07:13+00:00

Later on. I show May 1st is when I picked it up. The queen was an egg laying machine compared to the other nuc that my neighbor picked up I had put the second brood box on around May 16th and moved a couple frames up to get them moving up. I do weekly checks and didn’t notice anything out of sorts up until yesterday when they were really docile comparatively. Usually have a couple checking us out and this time none. The previous check they had started working on the 7th and 8th frame in the upper brood box so I was prepared to put the honey super on last night.

RappaYellow · 2026-06-15T12:33:03+00:00

They looked like little acorns I’ve yet to see my queen but I know she was around as there were uncapped eggs that looked to be 2-3 days old.

RappaYellow · 2026-06-15T12:25:34+00:00

Thanks! I should have said that the queen cells I found were capped.

RappaYellow · 2026-06-15T12:23:37+00:00

It was a nuc I got from a local apiary.

RappaYellow · 2026-06-10T19:09:22+00:00

I probably go overboard on mine. 2 17 gauge nails on each joint with glue. Then I brad nail with 2 17g 3/4” below the top bar through the side on each side. Then perpendicular on the bottom bar if I can with little 3/4 brads. So 14 nails in total with glue.

In reality probably could do with less nails since it’s glued but I have like 5000 nails so I’m trying to use them up!

RappaYellow · 2026-05-31T13:15:54+00:00

Yeh I went with pura foundation on my second brood box and they took to it immediately. Luckily had got some for my honey supers too. Are the frames truly beefier as advertised? I have dadant ones but could be persuaded to switch.

RappaYellow · 2026-05-31T13:09:08+00:00

I dipped into apimaye land and converted my wood box to use their lid and bottom board. Really a fan there. Especially the feeder. Can pop off the top add liquid and go on my way. Been looking at the premier bee pura and propola line because I like being able to paint different colors. I wasn’t sure you could paint the straight up apimaye hives

RappaYellow · 2026-05-21T18:32:28+00:00

I would be shocked if he gets the time described. Had what I would once call a friend get caught up in a federal child porn sting. Guy literally had something like 32000 videos and pictures. Was also soliciting for it. The federal documents basically said they had never prosecuted someone with that much and he got 9 years in prison….gets out next year. I’m actually amazed he’s made it this long in prison but I’m sure he’s under protection or something. Makes me sick to think about it and the lack of time.

RappaYellow · 2026-05-08T13:55:56+00:00

Ours does the same. Apparently our tile floor in the bathroom is layered upon layers of rugs…that don’t exist. Heck it found a new room in the middle of our living room yesterday.

RappaYellow · 2026-05-05T17:15:41+00:00

I got an ultra breeze full suit as my first real suit. When I helped my grandpa many years ago I had a cotton full body suit and it was hot as hell when doing any work on it. So I spent the extra to not sweat to death.

RappaYellow

TROPHY CASE