Almond Pollination Feb 16, 2022
Top Bar Hive Check Feb 18, 2022
Our daughter’s top bar hive is still alive! Good information on what is going on in all hives this time of year!
Should I treat a new package of honey bees with Oxalic Acid?
Should I treat my package Bees with Oxalic acid? Short answer is we don’t recommend it. Now for the lists of pros and cons. First off, O.A. is a great mite treatment when no brood is present. (we like it as a late season treatment) We also know that it is important to start with
Why don’t we recommend insulating hives in Southern Idaho?
Why don’t you insulate your hives? If the hive is strong, has low mites, health bees and plenty of food, it’s a non-issue. Insulation works by resisting heat flow. It also works both ways it can prevent a hive from warming naturally on a warm day. The ebb and flow of daytime and nigh time
January 2022 in the Bee Yard
Hi fellow bee enthusiasts, I haven’t posted too much this winter, when its this cold you should be leaving them alone. I know its hard! I do expect winter losses to be high. A warm Oct, Nov and December is hard on overwintering bees, allows lots of mite migration. In the past this type of
Last week of October 2021
Here is a look at what is happening! We are having an abnormally warm October, this isn’t great for the bees!
Fall crowding in bee hives.
It is fall, we’re harvesting honey, pulling honey supers, and taking our bees back down to 2 deep 10 frame boxes. We want them dense and full going into winter. In the spring overcrowding is a problem, if the bees don’t have room they may decide to swarm. In the fall, overcrowding isn’t as bad.
This is what robbing looks like!
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
Mites on drone brood, hive too light for early September.
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
Do my bees have enough food for winter?
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