Here is a hive in the process of being robbed by strong colonies. You can see the fighting and the frenzy. What to do? Keep strong colonies, if you catch it you can put a sprinkler on top to discourage bees from coming in. Robbing screens and reducing the entrance can help. On this hive […]
Checking for mites in drone brood is a great way to get a feel for what is coming as far as mite loads. If you have trouble seeing mites, they show up on the white larvae. Ideal is purple eye stage for seeing mites. This hive also has a lot of brood but is going […]
Checking hives for weight, this hive is not heavy enough. We just pulled 2 supers full of honey off this hive, so lets see what is going on! A couple of things we see. There is lots of brood, no pollen stores, bees are just starting to back fill. This colony lost their queen mid […]
So, the bees have done well and it is time to harvest honey! How do you get the bees out of the honey supers so you can extract them? Bee escapes work great if you plan ahead, there are several different options, they essentially create a one way door so that the bees can exit […]