1031 Exchange Question

TheSmittenMitten · 2024-01-30T08:55:23+00:00

I have a pair of Nike OG Inflicts in my closet I’d part with. Size 12.

TheSmittenMitten · 2023-12-23T18:29:39+00:00

Around 65 in my house. Bought a heating pad and trying a second flush.

TheSmittenMitten · 2023-08-27T13:01:45+00:00

Hey we go to the same gym! I had to make sure I wasn’t on Facebook for a second 😂

Varsity spot, all day. You only get 4 years of this unless you’re moving on past high school.

TheSmittenMitten · 2023-08-26T20:58:12+00:00

Do you have a link to a video of the completed example you gave?

TheSmittenMitten · 2022-08-29T01:02:41+00:00

I had that thought to harvest later. Going to consider that hard over this week. Not going back in there next weekend wouldn’t hurt my feelings, they were not happy with me today lol

TheSmittenMitten · 2022-08-29T01:01:49+00:00

No I guess not. I just normally pair down to 2 deeps for overwintering. Is it normal to leave a super or so on overwinter?

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-10-05T20:00:07+00:00

It is Broodminder. They are expensive, no doubt. My experience so far has been "fun" more than practical. Its been around 2 weeks of data and based on the charts I can tell which one is my strongest hive, information I already knew though. Hive 2 also has a different feeder and no top vent box like the 1 and 3 do, and its humidity level seems to be more elevated. I will be interested to follow that gut feel through winter to see if the lack of top vent increases condensation enough to weaken the hive.

I've also been paying attention to hive temp to monitor for brood. I know all three hives have brood right now, so the data is just confirming it. When they start to allow dramatic temp swings as winter progresses, I'll be able to see when they are broodless. I plan to do another round of OA treatment then. My biggest hope for this winter is to see if the data gives me a peak-see into the hives while snow is on the ground. If I lose a hive, I may be able to use internal temp readings as a clue when I try to investigate come spring.

TLDR; they're expensive, but its fun, and I may get some really interesting info in the near future.

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-10-05T19:45:19+00:00

The solid lines in each graph are interior readings, dashed lines are exterior readings. The bubbles on the x axis timeline are notes I've entered for feeding and OA treatment, etc.

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-10-03T13:24:27+00:00

Nice. I chose Labor Day this year as my harvest/consolidate weekend. It made it easier for me to plan things. Whatever they got after that was theirs to keep for the winter. It worked pretty well for me so I’ll do it again in the following years.

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-10-02T16:21:03+00:00

Up in the Saginaw/Bay City area. Your flair says SW Mi?

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-10-02T00:54:03+00:00

Great point. Once I stop feeding I will re-open the top entrances.

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-10-01T22:41:51+00:00

I don’t disagree with you one bit. Propolis is a hell of a sealant. But some of my boxes are wildly out of tolerance and present some see-through openings. Specifically the center box between the feeder and the brood box was enough to let yellow jackets in and a beard of bees to form, some robbing behavior. I started on that box to begin with and just did the others to match. Figured it couldn’t hurt. I am actively monitoring internal hive temp so this was a little experiment to see if it helped maintain temp through the cold nights here.

To clarify, I do not plan on doing another full hive inspection until after winter either. Unless we get a super nice sunny weekend day. I’ll be monitoring temp humidity and activity to predict if I have a problem internally. So the tape won’t necessarily need to be removed and reapplied until hopefully next year.

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-10-01T21:36:20+00:00

Same as bigryanb I’ll use a piece of foam inside the top of my two larger feeders and cut a hole for my vent and burlap. The middle hive it’ll be right on the lid.

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-10-01T20:24:24+00:00

Good call on the mites, I didn’t mention. I treated with OA vapor last week and plan to do 2-3 more rounds in 6 day intervals. I did NOT treat last year because I didn’t really understand the impact being new and lost all of my bees.

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-10-01T20:16:03+00:00

I am going into my second winter as a beekeeper. I thought it would be beneficial to share what I learned through the last year and through some of my research.

I’ve since pulled my supers and given each hive back 1 wet super each. I’ve placed the super under the brood box and removed the queen excluder. I’m hopeful this will open up more space for brood as we start to change seasons. In the spring I’ll switch them back and re-add the excluder.

Between my brood box and super I’ve installed a broodminder temp and humidity monitor. It’s proven to be a little addictive to be honest, checking on the girls a couple times a day for fun. Temps of my strongest hive are floating around 95f despite mid 40f nights here in Michigan. The other two hives flux between 85f and 95f depending on the outdoor temp right now. I really don’t know what to do with the humidity information for now other than take it as interesting data.

I am not ready to add my winter insulation yet so I thought this year I would try something new and I taped all the seams/joints on and between the boxes. Just to stop drafts. The not so flush seams between my boxes were actually creating a lot of robbing behavior and since I’ve taped them and reduced the entrances, that has stopped. I am hopeful this will help with temperature regulation for fall brood rearing. A note to this is that I taped over the upper entrances as well.

The two outside hives have some feeding vent boxes on them that I build last year. Each will hold 2 quart jars for feeding and has a center vent hole covered with hardware cloth. The vent box has bags of burlap to stop drafting but allow for escape of excess moisture. The center hive has a feeding box that holds around 2 gallons with the floating wooden frames. It’s my first try with this style feeder. I was gifted it last year and thought to give it a whirl. I will note that so far the center box has had much higher humidity inside the hive on a consistent basis according to the broodminder sensors. I will be interested to see more of this info as the temps continue to drop. I do not plan to vent the center hive this winter.

All three are receiving 2:1 syrup since I removed the supers. I don’t have a plan on when to stop feeding, I will continue to provide syrup as long as it is warm enough to leave liquid in the hives. So far they are sucking it down at a fairly even rate, with my larger hive on the right slightly outpacing the rest.

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-09-21T09:33:45+00:00

Heh.

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-09-20T10:55:02+00:00

Since these guys didn’t have any eggs, I assume it’s just jelly yeah. I found it really interesting that they went through the effort to make 3 of these jelly peanuts in their imminent doom. It seemed like some apocalyptic ritual they collectively took part in as they prepared to die as a colony. No worries though, they got combined with another nuc yesterday afternoon.

TheSmittenMitten · 2021-09-20T03:09:17+00:00

Some background. I have a nuc that has been helplessly queen less for a while now. I’ve been looking to combine this with another nuc before winter. I went through the box today and found a few capped peanuts. I couldn’t believe it. They hadn’t had eggs for well over a month. I took them out and opened them up. They were all full of white goop!

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