buzzzzzzzzzz new adventure

[j.w]

I've seen some of those wooden bee hive set ups and all of them are painted white. Is there a reason for this and are you going to paint yours white?
I thought I heard some hammering lately coming from the N.E. :cheerful:
Hurry up addy we are wanting to move into our new homes by Springtime

 

[addy1]

The hives don't need to be painted, most paint them white, less heat absorbed. They suggest, if you have more than one, painting the front of the hive with a different pattern, the bees sometimes drift to the other hive if they are plain white in the front.

I am going to paint them white, latex paint, only on the outside. Get some different colors to put on the white in the front to help the bees find the right home to fly into, lol

Jw I have until may to get them done, slowly hammering away, gets hard on the hands if I hammer too much. Main thing is to have all done and ready for bees when the bees are ready to come to their new home.

 

[HARO]

I've got two words for you, Addy;..... PNEUMATIC NAILER!
John

 

[addy1]

lol we have one for BIG nails and actually just recalled I have not one but two brad nailers in the garage, one electric, one air. Guess what I am pulling out! Unless we have hauled it to florida to work on the house down there.........need to go check........tomorrow, dark now and being lazy

 

[j.w]

You have plenty of time and gives you something to do over the long cold winter addy. How do the bees arrive? I just never thought about it before and wondering if you get a bunch and just drop them in the box and they do their own thing or what. I know they have to have a queen and what happens when they procreate and make more queen babies? Do they fly off and start their own colony in the wild?

 

[addy1]

You can buy a bee package, usually 4 lbs of bees and one queen in a box with a few nurse bees. The queen stays in the box until the nurse bees eat their way out (sugar plug) by then the 4 lbs of bees know her scent. You shake the bees into a brood chamber, insert the queen in between two frames.

Or you buy a nuc (few more bucks) the nuc has 5 frames of comb, honey, workers, a queen, eggs, drones. Gives you a real head start on the summer bee season. For our cold a nuc tends to do better the next winter with that head start. With a nuc you just put the 5 frames into your brood chamber with 5 more empty frames.

As the bees fill the frames with comb, eggs, larvae you add another box before the last two frames are used.

I am getting a nuc.

Queen babies are only made when the hive deeds it necessary, they feed a egg royal jelly which makes it a queen, the first to be born kills the rest of the queens to be.
They decide when the queen slows down, weakens, or dies that it is time for a new queen.

They recommend you replace your queen every two years or so

 

[Mmathis]

Fascinating, Addy!

 

[HARO]

.





They recommend you replace your queen every two years or so

That might work quite well with your presidents also! :biggrin:
John

 

[addy1]

That might work quite well with your presidents also! :biggrin:
John

No kidding, not doing the job take them out ............. umm not the way the bees do it though! lol

 

[addy1]

Another little tidbit,

The honey bee hive is perennial, they overwinter with large numbers of bees feeding on stored honey. Early spring the queen gets busy laying eggs this is when the already large population explodes in size, when the flowers begin to bloom there are thousands of bees to collect it, 20-30 thousand. By mid summer the hive has approx 60000 bees.

 

[nancyp]

Very interesting! You sure have learned a lot about bees! I will keep following this thread and learning too! Thanks. :blueflower:

 

[j.w]

We will all learn right along w/you. I knew very little about the bees but I bet when you have taught us all you know we'll all "bee" very "bee" smart in the end

 

[MitchM]

Are you going to be producing your own honey as well, addy?

We have a meadery about 5 miles from us that produces bee wax products and honey wine. http://www.fallentimbermeadery.ca/

 

[sissy]

my dad left a bee keeper put his hives on our farm in trade for free honey and he only used milk paint to paint his hives .He took care of the bees and watched out for bad bees so they would not cause problems with his hives or cause them to leave the hive .The honey was great though .

 

[addy1]

Are you going to be producing your own honey as well, addy?

We have a meadery about 5 miles from us that produces bee wax products and honey wine. http://www.fallentimbermeadery.ca/

We may or may not get honey the first summer. Since we are getting nucs there is a better chance of getting some. The first summer the bees are working their little buzzing butts off to make a home.
Once we start getting honey we will probably sell some. I tend to give away stuff, but the investment cost and work makes it dumb to just give away the honey.

my dad left a bee keeper put his hives on our farm in trade for free honey and he only used milk paint to paint his hives .He took care of the bees and watched out for bad bees so they would not cause problems with his hives or cause them to leave the hive .The honey was great though .

I tried to get someone to put some hives on our land, just could not find any takers, after I bought all the stuff I did find someone that had interest, but too late lol. Now we are going to be bee keepers.

It keeps the brain young all this learning, exercise the brain cells.