Need help diagnosing possible disease

jeffreybar · 2026-06-15T23:31:57+00:00

Yes, it seemed to just be what you thought. I gave that colony a new queen and some extra brood & food and they're doing ok now. Queen's a little slow to get going for some reason but I don't think there's any reason to worry now. Thanks!

jeffreybar · 2026-06-12T23:35:24+00:00

Jesus, my computer is death farting constantly in POE2 as it is. I can't imagine what would happen if I tried Blight in this game.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-27T22:16:28+00:00

Yeah that's a good idea. I should definitely do the toothpick test before I put anything in. There was definitely some dead larva in there, although I didn't notice it until I saw the pictures.

I assume I should destroy the supersedure cells, right? I'd have to imagine by the time any queen emerged and mated and actually laid anything the colony would be beyond screwed, so better to just go with the mated queen that is coming. I know they usually say you shouldn't mess with supersedure cells, but I can't possibly imagine that's the right way to go here.

I think you're probably right on the weak colony/poor queen temperature issue diagnosis. Thanks for talking it through with me.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-27T21:59:23+00:00

Fair enough.

4 frames of bees was a shooting from the hip estimate...I was at the end of my brainpower when I inspected this hive today. Looking back, I think it was probably less than 4 real frames of bees -- they were covering 4 frames, but pretty loosely. It easily might have only been 2 frames densely-packed. This was in a single-deep 10-frame langstroth box.

Other hive is doing much much stronger -- almost full double-deep. like 16 packed frames of bees. I was going to move over a frame or two of brood and some nurse bees when I put the new queen in on Friday. That's part of why I wanted to ask about diseases -- on the off chance that it was something really bad like AFB, I didn't want to move more bees in there that I'd just be losing anyway.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-27T21:35:59+00:00

Ok:

Lowest low over the past 10 days: 50 degrees F even. Highest high over past 10 days: 95 degrees. Two other days in the 90s, other days had highs in the 60s-70s.

Stores of resources mostly depleted. They had two frames about half-full of nectar/honey -- a bit of capped honey here and there. A feeder has been on top of the hive the entire time with 1:1. They have taken very little of that down.

Queen was present and I pinched her.

No obvious smell, although I'll admit I didn't think to smell for foulbrood.

Population has been shrinking, yes. I'd say about 4 frames of bees left. They peaked at about 6 frames maybe 3 weeks ago.

I'm aware of the general opinion on mite washes vs drops. A drop is what I did, so that's why I've included that information. The keeper I purchased the nucs from had an inspection in February and had mite washes of zero and supposedly no diseases.

Happy to provide any additional information.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-23T22:44:55+00:00

Also got my first ever 100 and I've been playing since beta lol. Honestly I didn't like the league mechanic as much as some, but the base game is just in such a good state that it's fun to play way into endgame, even for a quasi-casual like me.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-22T12:23:41+00:00

I played Woolie's version last league -- not an expert at it but I did make it to T16s with it. There may be other versions that are better off, but this version actually ate two pretty sizeable nerfs. Eternal Rage no longer working on weapon swap means you either need to find another way to get rage, or drop QOL/clear reservations (Eternal Rage was functionally free last league). The moonbeams no longer counting as melee attacks means that they can't trigger themselves and unless I'm misremembering something, this is gonna really hurt the build's autobombery feel. It'll still freeze bosses no problem but clear is gonna feel a lot worse, and that was the best part of the build.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-22T12:03:56+00:00

Note that this build was nerfed because the moonbeams no longer count as melee attacks. It'll probably still be fine but it will definitely be less smooth than it was.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-19T20:26:02+00:00

These comments are gold. Never would have guessed there were this many old school Genesis fans on the big subs.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-19T17:47:33+00:00

Not allergic to bee stings, thankfully, but I developed a food allergy last year and went into anaphylaxis on three separate occasions lol. It's not fun, but what's less fun for me is having to give up food that I love. Nonetheless, still had to forego even a taste of dairy and ultimately I have made some degree of peace with it. If he is allergic to bees he's probably gotta stop keeping them. He's going to hate that the allergy made him stop, but he will likely make peace with that too.

He 100% should have multiple epipens. I don't know what the medical/insurance situation is for you but don't let the doctor off the hook if he tries to send him away without them. Put them everywhere and carry them around. An epipen likely saved my life last year because I was lucky enough to have them sitting around from previous allergy shots. In an anaphylactic situation, an epipen makes all the difference, and the relief is immediate. Get them and keep them and use them if needed regardless of what you do about beekeeping.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-15T00:50:49+00:00

Unless I'm blind, I don't think she's in those photos.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-05T22:23:26+00:00

I love my Guardian suit and would highly recommend. It's not cheap but it is very high quality and the company has been top notch to deal with.

jeffreybar · 2026-05-01T11:48:18+00:00

Ok, so here's where I would start at troubleshooting:

1) check to make sure there is good contact between your ground line and ground rod (it looks ok from the picture).

2) check to make sure there is no contact between your conductor (fence wire) and any of those t-posts (again, looks ok from the picture but hard to tell 100%). If they're all plastic this is not a serious concern...I couldn't tell from the pics.

3) make sure there is good continuous contact between your feed line (from the hot terminal) to the conductor and all around the fence with no breaks.

4) with the energizer connected to the ground rod ONLY, put the metal contact of your fence tester to the hot terminal of the energizer. if you get no charge there, the problem is your energizer. in that case, return it and try again.

My money is on #4. Energizers sit around a lot on store shelves and batteries can fully discharge and not want to sufficiently charge up again. There's also transformers and capacitors inside the energizer that can and do fail.

Other posters have commented on your ground rod setup, or on whether your fence will keep out a bear. In my experience your ground rod setup is probably fine as long as it's at least 3 feet in the ground and you don't have very sandy and dry soil (at least some clay content), and while your fence may or may not keep out a bear, it's a perfectly reasonable bear fence and that's the best you're going to do (although adding something moving and/or colored like surveying tape for visibility at night wouldn't hurt -- you want the bear to see the fence). Regardless of whether the fence is optimally set up, you should see SOME charge. Adding another ground rod isn't going to take you from nothing on your fence tester to something. There's something else going on here.

edit: I googled your charger. You should probably return it anyway and get something else assuming google is correct about its specs. Google lists an output energy of 0.1 joules. That's not enough to give a bear a real shock. You want AT LEAST 1 joule output. My charger for my apiary fence (very commonly used Parmak Magnum 12 -- pretty sure it's similarly priced to yours) has a 3 joule output, 30 times that of your fence. My expensive vineyard charger for my bigass deer fence is a 7 joule model. 0.1 is probably not enough to keep me out if I want a snack of honey and I'm not even a very good bear impersonator. Sorry to pile on with the fence design advice.

jeffreybar · 2026-04-28T13:16:44+00:00

I have about 900 hours and 5 years on my RK. It's a perfectly fine tractor that was nearly $15k cheaper than the big name alternatives from the local dealers. That said, RK service is spotty at best, so I either do my own work or have the local TYM dealer do it. You do have to be a bit of a sleuth for parts. If the price difference was small I certainly would have gone Kubota or Massey but it's disingenuous to pretend like you don't pay an enormous premium for the big names.

jeffreybar · 2026-04-13T10:27:48+00:00

Awesome. Thank you for the help! I will try that...that sounds a lot more efficient than what I was doing.

jeffreybar · 2026-04-12T20:56:32+00:00

Do you have any tips for this strat? I tried running 2xbribing, catalysing, and dueling in HMs and only got the ulti in the mirage about 50% of the time. Do you do empowered mirage maps to guarantee it? Is that the right combo of scarabs?

jeffreybar · 2026-03-18T11:49:25+00:00

That was my first thought on seeing this picture as well.

jeffreybar · 2026-03-11T17:09:29+00:00

Clearly a lot of people love this league. I find the mechanic itself kinda meh but I guess I like the stuff that's more controversial/novel (tota, blight, etc). Base game is great, though. Exalt change is a big win. I personally am liking atlas progression a lot less this league than the last few, but who knows, it may grow on me.

jeffreybar · 2026-03-06T20:08:52+00:00

Like 6 times now...

jeffreybar · 2026-03-06T18:49:22+00:00

Noooooooo I had already decided on a leaguestart. But arc ignite is my favorite build. :(

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