July is a good time to start watching for mites in new colonies. This is a quick way to see what is going on and can give you a heads up if you need to do more in depth hive sampling. We will periodically put the trays in during the summer just to get a […]
Posts geared towards new beekeepers
What a fun year! We have the most honey supers on some of our hives in Twin Falls than any other time in the last 2 decades, yet our hives in Malad Valley aren’t going to produce any surplus honey. We are in a dearth, there has been no rain so non irrigated areas have […]
People keep asking what they can do for mites during hot weather. Powdered sugar is really one of your best options! will still need to tackle your fall mite treatment, this won’t save your hive if it is all you do, but it will help! More effective on a screen bottom board. Can be done […]
Quick check of first year hives that were started on bee day. We are currently dealing with hot weather and are starting to experience a nectar dearth. in our area because there hasn’t been a lot of rain and natural bloom. This generally happens each summer when the heat really hits. Depending on your location, […]
This week we see hives full of bees but they are not yet putting a lot away in the honey supers we added last week. The top deep box is full of bees, brood in almost every available cell, the population is really taking off! If we get a nectar flow they have the population […]
We have experienced some really hot days! You may see something like this and wonder if the are running out of room or just hot. Either way its easy to fix it.
1st year package hived on April 24 and 25 2021. We will be getting ready for honey supers in these hives. First big nectar flow is starting in our area, bees are just hitting exponential growth. These packages went into hives with drawn comb, if your bees are in new hives or in a colder […]
Here is the hive check on the package bees we hived on April 23 and 24. We will also walk you through how we do a hive inspection, what we are looking for, and what is happening season wise as it relates to these 4 colonies. Hive check part 1 https://youtu.be/ymvNAPLnOzc Hive check part […]
Daniel (age 5) started his first hive this year, he is getting to do his first big check since hiving his package. He is proud of the desert camo pattern he painted his boxes. This package went into drawn comb on April 24. We see good brood pattern, population is getting ready to grow exponentially, […]
This package went into a colony with established comb so we didn’t have to remove or repair comb, they are already building straight. Have fun, we had trouble finding evidence of a queen, but we finally did find it! This is a week after hiving.