Checking out the bees..

[Primerump]

Had a look at the bees today, just checking hives for any issues, most are beginning to fill honey reserves, this frame shows them
close up..

 

[Primerump]

here's six hives of 9 in my apiary.

 

[Firstime RVer]

Looks like a great nectar flow.. Temps here in NJ in the 60's and with the spring bloom, I'll bet they were busy.. Temps dropped into the high 30's and they're back inside keeping warm.
We kept honey bees as a hobby for about 20 years, until the supers got heavier than I wanted to lift.
We still visit apiaries in South Jersey when rv ing in that neck of the woods.
Best of luck in the upcoming season.

Safe travels and all the best.

 

[RayIN]

I wish you all well with your bees; there is a nationwide issue with dying hives.
I studied bees and beekeeping in high school helping my dad, but that was 68 years ago.

 

[Primerump]

Looks like a great nectar flow.. Temps here in NJ in the 60's and with the spring bloom, I'll bet they were busy.. Temps dropped into the high 30's and they're back inside keeping warm.
We kept honey bees as a hobby for about 20 years, until the supers got heavier than I wanted to lift.
We still visit apiaries in South Jersey when rv ing in that neck of the woods.
Best of luck in the upcoming season.

Safe travels and all the best.

thanks.
many flowers blooming early this year, bees are very busy collecting pollen, large clumps of the stuff on their
legs, hopefully we will have a good harvest, last year we collected 85lbs in the spring flow and 35lbs in the autumn flow.

 

[Primerump]

I wish you all well with your bees; there is a nationwide issue with dying hives.
I studied bees and beekeeping in high school helping my dad, but that was 68 years ago.

I lost one hive over winter for some unkown reason, all the others are strong and I did an early split to make up for the lost hive. after a feeding period of 3 weeks on syrup they are growing fast.

I do hope this hive death issue is related to something man made and easily fixed, and not some genetic issue.. we need as many of these critters as possible to pollinate food crops..

 

[Firstime RVer]

thanks.
many flowers blooming early this year, bees are very busy collecting pollen, large clumps of the stuff on their
legs, hopefully we will have a good harvest, last year we collected 85lbs in the spring flow and 35lbs in the autumn flow.

Be careful the hobby is addictive. A friend and I started with just two colonies and ended up with 20.. in multiple locations!!!
At one point we extracted over 1,300 lbs in July and a bit over 600 in September!!!! Got to be way too much work for us!!
Best of luck
Safe travels and all the best.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

My neighbor is a beekeeper and uses my yard as a hive staging and overwinter area. My garden gets well visited by bees and I get honey from time to time. No bee suit, hauling hives or scraping frames so only upside for me.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Arch Hoagland]

In California, bees are legally considered "fish" for the purpose of protection under the state's endangered species act. This legal classification allows for greater protection of bumblebees and other invertebrates that might otherwise not be covered.

 

[Cmprman]

 

[cwilt]

My brother does removals, he did this one yesterday.

 

[Wasillaguy]

I wish you all well with your bees; there is a nationwide issue with dying hives.
I studied bees and beekeeping in high school helping my dad, but that was 68 years ago.

Thanks for the link to the article. Confirms what we've observed up here. Last year we had very few bees, wasps, or hornets. Butterflies were rare too, and songbirds. Normally I'd look out my window and chickadees and nuthatches would be flitting all around but it's a ghost town out there and has been for 2 years.

 

[Lou Schneider]

My brother does removals, he did this one yesterday.

View attachment 1112401

View attachment 1112402

What was the box containing the hive originally used for? It's hard to visualize it's purpose as anything except a bee hive or a bat house.

 

[cwilt]

What was the box containing the hive originally used for? It's hard to visualize it's purpose as anything except a bee hive or a bat house.

I'm not sure but I'll ask him.

 

[cwilt]

What was the box containing the hive originally used for? It's hard to visualize it's purpose as anything except a bee hive or a bat house.

He said he wasn't sure either. All the upper windows in the building had one like that.

 

[Firstime RVer]

Cool, we like to call them "Free bees"
Even though its a fair amount of work to get them
into hive bodies, or just a nuke box for that matter.
Safe travels and all the best.