What do you do when you don’t see evidence of a queen in your hive? Whether you smashed her during an inspection or something just happened to her, what are your options? This is a new package that ended up queenless as evidenced by no larvae or brood. Kirk walks through options, and decides to […]
It’s been 2 weeks since we hived these packages! Here are a couple videos to give you an idea about what we are seeing and what bees should be doing. Recommendations, check hives in the middle of the day when it is warm. You can learn a lot just by watching the entrance! If they
The million dollar question! If we don’t need the bees for a split we tend to choose supering for honey production when they have the workforce to take advantage of nectar flows. If we find that the colony has run out of room and already decided to start the swarming process (swarm cells in use
Keys for success with your new package! (Based on the mistakes we see new beekeepers make!) Feed, feed and more feed! New colonies have a lot of work to do and the more resources they have in the form of food, the quicker and more efficiently they can get it done. Don’t worry, about making
We hived packages on our bee day 2 days ago. Going in to see if queen has been let out of her cage and how they are doing. It has been cold and rainy here with intermittent moments of sunshine.
If you want to see how we recommend hiving package bees in Idaho, here are links to our videos!
The spring time dance of bees, they survived the winter but what influences spring survival and success. I’m writing this April 12, 2022. We had a week of 70 degree days, today it is snowing and 22. I’m writing this from my perspective and experience of keeping bees in Southern and South Eastern Idaho. Our
Hooray! The bees made it through the winter, now what! When should I start feeding them, should I feed them, how long should I feed them, what should I feed them? Spring weather is unpredictable in the spring, so the answer to that question is based on what the weather is doing. If it is
This is a great video showing very common causes of bees not making it through the winter in southern Idaho. Many people think that starvation, lack of insulation, or moisture in the hive are the main causes. Kirk shows you that these are usually symptoms of a bigger problem, varroa mites. He walks you through
So, you’ve gone out to check your hive in the spring and discovered they didn’t make it. What do you do now? The beeswax and honey stores in a deaddout can be a wonderful resource for a new package of bees. If it is a winter dead out and there was no sign of brood
