Super beehive

I've got 2 hives that are absolutely booming this year. It's a good thing since I lost 2/3 of my hives this winter. I put 2 more supers on this hive today. It's now standing about 7 feet tall, including the stand. Our main flow has just started so this hive should be able to put up 3-4 more supers of honey but it will slow some since I'm now out of drawn comb to put on them. They filled the last super in 8 days. I pulled a frame of eggs from this hive this morning to make new queens with.

That's awesome. Wish i knew more. I have youtubed and googled abd every different site i learn something different.

That's the best way to learn. I guarantee you don't know less about bees than I did 4 years ago. I dug in and researched them on a daily basis. There is no telling how much information I have read about bees in the past 4 years. The only problem with Youtube is that only about half of what you see on is correct or works.

Pay attention to the color of the bee suits or jackets that the people in the videos are wearing. Most of them are snow white. New suit, new beekeepers, making videos and telling the world how they keep bees. They don't know squat.

When I started I watched every one of fat bee mans videos. He's pretty good, but a lot of the stuff that he preaches, either isn't good for bees or doesn't work. I don't know if he still does this but he fogged Food Grade mineral oil to "kill" mites. The only problem is that research has proven that doesn't work.

He also feeds essential oils to bees. Research has shown that feeding essential oils and/or Honey Bee Healthy (which is a blend of essential oils) actually harms the microflora in bees intestines. So that's not good.

His info on split making is pretty good.

Then there are people that claim that using small cell foundation will keep bees from having mites. It doesn't work, but that doesn't keep them from preaching it's miracle properties.

Then there's a guy in the Gadsden area that sells hundreds and hundreds of bee packages that told me this week that my bees would do much better if I gave them antibiotics every month. That's complete BS. Antibiotics should NEVER be given as a routine treatment. I have never used antibiotics in any of my beehives and if I had one that needed antibiotics I'd kill them off and replace them with new bees. This guy sells no telling how many quarts of honey a year too. I wonder how his customers would feel if they knew they were eating honey with antibiotics in it?

There's a whole lot of self proclaimed bee experts in this world. I don't claim to be one of them either. I just stumble through the best I can.

IMO the best place to learn about bees is beesource.com

The pollinator's Mexican came by this afternoon and said he would bring me about 400 hives next week. He said they had a real tough year losing hives this year, lost something like 20,000 hives. He said most of it was due to pesticides being spayed where they were not suppose to.

Thanks Fur. I see the queen excluder but how many are brood boxes and how many are honey supers?

Also, how do you store your drawn comb? I put mine (only 1) in a trash bag and put a moth ball in it based on what a guy told me last year. When I got it out to air out a couple of weeks ago the comb was real brittle and a couple of the frames actually looked moldy.

Thanks as usual for the advice.

No queen excluder. I don't use them. I think what you are seeing is an "Imirie shim." It's just a rim I made from scrap wood, the same dimensions as a hive body. It's about 3/4" thick and I cut a 3" wide 1/4" tall dado in it for an entrance. It just gives the bees an upper entrance so they don't have to carry the honey all the way up through the whole hive. They don't use it as much as I thought they would. The shim is about the same thing as an inner cover, without the plywood in it. Just a rim of wood, if that makes sense.

I run an unlimited brood nest. Earlier this spring the queen had brood in both deeps and the first 2 supers. They've pushed her down into the first super and both deeps now.

When I extract, I put my comb in a deep freeze for a week or so, then I stack the supers up, crisscrossing them so light can shine in the boxes and air can circulate in them. Supposed to keep the wax moths at bay but I lost a lot of brood comb last fall, but thankfully no honey super comb was damaged to the point that the bees couldn't fix it. White comb always gets brittle when you take it out of the hive, until the bees have worked it more than one year. Just stick it back on the hive and let them clean up any mold and they'll rework the comb.

I want to come up with a better way to store comb so I won't lose any to wax moths. I found out there is a strain of BT that kills wax moth larvae but doesn't hurt bee larvae. I'm going to spray that on any brood comb that I store but I don't want to spray it on honey comb. It's BT aizawai.

Fur,
Are there some hives that are just meaner than others? I have caught 4 different swarms, and all 4 have been right at dark or even after dark. # of them have been very gentle and easy to work with. But the one I caught Weds. evening/night seems to be really mean. I caught most of the bees that night , and left the box there all day yesterday to get the rest of the bees. I stopped by yesterday evening, and they were working like crazy in and out of the hive. I waited until about 10:00 to go and close them to move, and they were still guarding the entrance and would come out aggressively at every noise or the light. I went back this morning at 4:00 and was able to get them closed up, moved them and set up at new home and when I opened they were ticked. They just seem super aggressive.

Yes some are meaner than others. Swarms and cut outs are a good way to get mean bees. I still catch swarms, but I now requeen them with my genetics as soon as practical. My first hive came from a swarm and they were aggressive. I bought some packages of Italian bees (big mistake) that first year too and they were very calm. I could work them without a bee suit or gloves. The Italian packages didn't last long and I bought some nucs from a guy up close to Valley Head. All his bees are descendents of feral bees from a tree cutout he did in 1997. They are highly mite resistant and they are a little meaner (hotter) than straight bred Italians, but they aren't super aggressive.

I have raised many queens from those first Valley Head bees and most are a little hot but not too bad.

I have one hive left that has a daughter queen from that first swarm I got. They are bad news. I can't get within a 100 feet of their hive without my bee jacket and leather gloves on. When I robbed their honey last year, as soon as I popped the top of the hive I had 100 bees on my veil. Within about a minute I probably had 1000 bees on my veil and by the time it was over I had several 1000 bees trying their best to sting me. I decided then that I was going to kill off that hive. I wish I had done it last summer like I intended to do, but I didn't.

I killed that queen about 2 weeks ago, let them get to the point that they had no more eggs or larvae to make queen cells from. I then went in the hive and tore down every queen cell. I shook the bees off every frame to make sure I didn't miss one. I put a mated queen in with them Tuesday and left her in a queen cage for 2 days. I checked yesterday and they had eaten out the candy plug to release her but she was still in the cage. I removed the screen covering and about 30 bees went in with the queen. I couldn't tell if they were trying to kill her but then I saw one try to sting her. I brushed it off her and she went down in between 2 frames.

I am going to check them again first part of the week and if they did kill the queen, I'm going to put an empty deep box on top of the hive, put duct tape across the entrance and fill the empty box with dry ice and kill the hive. I want to kill the hive in a manner that I can reuse the drawn comb. If not for that I'd just pour a bucket of soapy water on them and kill them.

I've read it's hard to get a hot hive to take a new queen, and the only way to do it is to make them hopelessly queenless. I did that by making sure the larvae were too old to make a queen from and by cutting out all the queen cells. I can hardly believe they'd kill their only hope of having a queen but I think they did.

Interesting stuff WAY over my head

BTW Fur, that honey that I got from you a while back is GOOD stuff

Glad you like the honey! I'll tell the girls they did good.

Fur. I have a box now. Going Wednesday or Thursday to cut em out......need to video it for sure.

What kind of foundation do you have in the frames for them to use?

Fur, How much does a super with frames and foundation cost? I have three older ones, but am running short on time and need to add some yesterday. Thanks

I really don't know. I make all my supers. I buy frames 100 at a time and foundation 25 lbs at a time. Best prices are generally at Mann Lake if you order $100 at a time you get free shipping.

You can drive to Cullman, Birmingham or Guntersville and buy what you need since you need it quick. Werners in Cullman at least use to carry bee hives, Guntersville Feed carries bee hive supplies and I know a guy in Birmingham that sells stuff out of his house if you want to go there, PM me for his number. He's right off 65 and 459.

You can check greenbeehives.com in Trussville too.

Can you PM me the guy at 65 and 459 too. I drive by there everyday and I hope I will need a couple more supers this summer too.

Fur you mean like a screened or solid? I have a pic but can't post here i don't think . Let me try

I give up. i can't load a pic apparently

You said you had a box now. I'm guessing that meant a box and the frames for it. You may be running foundationless frames, but I figured you were using foundation of some kind. I use Acorn double waxed, or Ritecell, or natural wax foundation, I was just curious what you were using.

Oh. Between the frames there are black in color and look like a pattern of a comb. My brother picked them up. They have a weird sticky feeling to them. Sorry that's all i know. I built them today but didn't know if i needed to put all together with it o leave some blank.
http://www.landmsupply.com/department/fa...1cJdhoCP0Pw_wcB

Looks like this.

Wade, here's a link to the guys website: He seemed like a real nice guy, his name is Adam.

http://www.foxhoundbeecompany.com/contact/

Ok, that looks similar to what I use. It might be the same exact kind, I can't tell from the picture. The "weird sticky feeling" is wax. After you get the bees in the hive, if they don't draw comb correctly on it, melt more beeswax and paint it on there with a foam paint brush. I really like plastic foundation but it doesn't work well at all unless the wax coating is pretty thick.

If the hive has some decent sized comb built, and I imagine that they do, try to save the comb with brood in it and also what has nectar and honey in it. Take the foundation out of some of your frames, and put the comb from the hive in it and use rubber bands to hold it in place. The bees will reattach the comb to the frame. Put any frames with brood in the center of the box and the frames with nectar on the outside edges of the box.

You'll need another box to put on top of the box you put the bees in, soon.

And yes, take some pictures and videos!

Fur, I found a local guy, but thanks, and I'll keep the other places in mind.

Ten for fur. We going to try to get tomorrow evening.

PLEASE take pictures and video. If you can't figure out how to post them, PM me and I'll put them up.

Ok. Ive googled and you tubed enough we will see. Gonna be Afghan adventure for sure. Especially after Yall see our bee suits.

Same here. I'm probably going to start mason bees and leafcutter bees in my orchard next year...they're more efficient pollinators, but no honey. Also thought about inviting some other beekeeper to place a hive in the orchard, just have to wait and see how everything goes, I reckon.

Docile my but. I been stung 50 times. Cant find the queen though. Looking though.

Fur we never found the queen. I know she was there cause of the eggs and larva all in the comb. Looked abd looked. Not saying we didnt get her but never laid eyes on her. We left the box there to let them calm down then going to go back today or tomorrow and plUg the entrance amd bring em home. When get them home were gonna look hard again for her. If not what you recommend.

I wouldn't dig around looking for her. If you have her in the box, you'll know it and here's why. If the bees are still in the box, you got the queen. If you go back today and the bees are back in the wall, the queen is still in the wall.

Aside from the time I busted the seat out of my blue jeans I got the worst sting yesterday I have had. I went to look at removing a hive in a chimney. I contorted around and got to where I could look up in the chimney with a flashlight. As soon as I opened the damper door one flew down and tagged me on the lower eyelid just below my eyelashes. I haven't swelled any fro a bee sting in a long while but me left eye looks like I took a punch to it from 1990 Mike Tyson

Fur i have pics. There were not many bees left. We scooped them up carefully and put in box. We tore whole outside wall off. Again we have pics to show what wer
we did. They been there longer than what we thought i believe. I don't know how long out takes to make comb but there seemed to bee a bunch.

Oh and that honey is the best i ever had. Send me an email and i will send some pics fur.

Since the hive had been there for a while what yall probably saw on the wall was a swarm getting ready to leave instead of one arriving.

Or it could have been a swarm moving into where a hive had had previously been.

Fur that's exactly what i told my brother.

Email sent. Dont laugh. Me and my brother are sometimes too tight yo spend money if we can make something work.

Wow.

fur how I get the bees home in this.. plug the hole up and ratchet strap it down to bed of truck?

Always wondered the same thing about when they bring a ton of bee hives for farmers. Always pictured the hives on a truck and a bunch of bees following behind it.

the hole they using

redneck intervention yes that's a corn sack and safety shield.

cutting to them.



looking for the queen

hope she is in there


this was really fun doing.. hope it works out and we got the queen. my wife was at my mother in laws and called earlier saying they are not flying around or looking as mad as they had been the last few days. also when we pulled the out paneling off a big comb fell between the studs.. looked all down there for the queen also. to no avail from what we saw.

the next day we went back and these few were in the corner of the shed still. we scooped them out and my brother thinks he got the queen out of it since there was one three times the size but after he googled and thought about it he thinks it may of been a big drone. 90 percent of the bees were still in the box though. this is a pic of the only bees in the shed the next day

Fur the queen is in the box. We found her today. We are For sure it is her.

I'm glad you found the queen and I'm glad you figured out how to post the pictures. I was running late on posting them for you. I just got home. I got your emails but haven't been home since 630 this morning and was in GA most of the day.

To move the box take a piece of screen wire and put it in the entrance and put them in the bed of your truck, like you said. I usually wrap the whole hive with a ratchet strap to keep it held together. Move them real late one evening so most of them will be in the hive.

Every single bit of the comb that I can see in your pictures is brand new. It was obviously a swarm that your brother saw moving into the wall. Any comb use for brood comb from last year would be really dark brown, almost black by now.

It takes a lot of resources for bees to draw comb. I have read that it takes 8 lbs of honey to make 1 pound of comb. I would try feeding the bees 1:1 sugar water and if they'll take it, keep feeding them. A good goal for you will be to get that deep box and 2 medium supers drawn out this year by that hive. Once the flowers slow blooming they'll definitely take sugar water and you'll need to keep feeding it to them constantly to keep them drawing comb.

It's easier to keep them drawing comb than it is to get them to start back once they've stopped.

If you plan on using any plastic foundation, buy some beeswax, melt it and paint it onto the frames. I have been using Ritecell foundation from Mann Lake and it comes waxed, but the bees will draw comb much faster if I add another coat of wax to it.

I'm trying Acorn double waxed foundation for the first time this year. No need to add more wax to it, it has a thick coat on it. I don't know how well it works yet, I just started using it. I found a source for it in Birmingham or it would cost too much to buy it after I paid shipping on it.

We got it moved last night to the house fur. I just drove by there and there are very few bees flying around. I cracked the cover and seen a few though working over the comb we put in. Will they generally be flying all over the place or does the sun need to be up a bit more.

They'll be flying at daylight but much more when the sun comes up.

One thing I figured out the other day. Park your truck right in front of the hive. I'm talking 2-3 feet in front of it. Sit there for about a minute then back up and watch the entrance. Some of mine will have 1000 or more bees go in the entrance after one minute of backing up outside. They won't go in with the truck sitting there.

It gives me a good idea of how strong they are and how much foraging they are doing.

I don't remember what day you moved the hive, but if you're sure you got the queen I'd check it 5-7 days after you put them in the box to check for queen cells. Sometimes disrupting a hive will cause them to think the queen is failing and they will often times try to replace her.

I found out last year that honeybees don't like somebody wearing dark sunglasses.

We just moved out last night. Checking it now and they are eating sugar water and flying all around it probably 30 eating the sugar water. There also going in and out of the entrance

Fur. They eating and look to be thriving. Pulled a frame up and they already have it combed in around the partial we put in. They have a white film on the closest frame to the three Frames we put brood in

Good deal. I caught another swarm this evening, that makes 4 for the year. Fortunately the beekeeper the guy called didn't have time to come get them so the beekeeper called me. It's not a big swarm but big enough to make a hive. I bet they have a virgin queen with them.

Fur,

When you rob this hive, do you take all of the capped honey off? How quick do you get supers back on to give them room. And, how many supers will you leave on to take them thru the winter?

Checked my 2 hives yesterday and I have a deep and a medium full of honey and added a super to each hive. I'm up to 4 supers on each one with 3 deep and one medium on one and 2 and 2 on the other one. I guess I'm going to have to get some more supers if I keep up this bee stuff. Just wondering what to do to get ready to rob them. I'm probably going to rob them in mid June and then let them build back up for the winter.

When is the latest you could take some brood and bees from this hive and do a split? Thinking about starting a new hive from my best hive but not sure when to do that now.

Wade, I just came in the house from making 2 splits. I have grafted, capped queen cells to put into them so I'm about a week ahead of where you'd be if you made a split today. IMO, it's too late to make splits unless you plan on feeding them. Our main flow will be over here in another few weeks. If you don't feed the splits after the flow is over, they won't build up strong enough to make it til fall. Our flows in the fall are hit and miss anyway.

I lost so many hives this past fall and a few more this winter that I had already planned to feed this summer to get built back up.

I've made splits in July that did fine, but I fed them pretty much constantly until September. A 3 frame split won't break the bank eating sugar water.

I will rob my honey mid to late June. I don't put the supers back on. I kept them "wet" this past year and put them back on wet this spring and they did great. I'm going to try it again.

The hive in the picture overwintered this past year in the 2 deeps and one super. Most of my hives have a single deep, and on those I don't leave less than 2 supers on them. If there were no brood in the first super, I guess one super would probably be enough but most hives will run at least one deep and one medium as a brood chamber this time of year. They're already slowing down on making brood and the brood nest has shrunk from a deep and 3-4 supers down to a deep and one. I do not run queen excluders, I just let the bees push the queen down and back fill the supers. She won't cross a solid honey dome to lay eggs.

countryjwh, how is your hive doing?

Thanks, good info as usual. I appreciate the feedback.

What is "wet"?

Fur. So far so good. All i habe is that one box though. Are they gonna male it or do i need to get a super on there? Still feedibg and they are going through 3/4 quart a day. They don't have all the frames filled in though. They only have four or five. What's my next step. Me just going back there watching them everyday probably ain't helping.

Countryjwh,

I apologize for laughing but when I look back at the picture of you in a klan hat and chain saw cutting your way in the bathroom to pull out the transgender guy using the wrong toilet just cracks me up.

Wet with left over honey. Not cleaned up by the bees.

Have you checked it for eggs and larvae? If not, you need to make sure the queen didn't get squished.

You do need to try and get a super of comb drawn out this summer. While they are drawing comb, keep them drawing comb. I've read that feeding them 1 part sugar to 2 parts water will keep them drawing comb but I don't know that to be true from experience.

Be careful feeding, if they start plugging the brood nest with nectar they will swarm. If the frames with brood are spotty, with nectar and brood mixed through the frame, they are plugging the nest. If that's the case, slow down on feeding them.

EDIT: Watching them doesn't hurt a thing. If you have time it's actually a good thing because you can tell when they slow down bringing in pollen, meaning the flow is about over.

Fur. There is no doubt there are larvae being produced. So do i need to add a super on it with a quenn extruder or what??

If they've only got 4 or 5 frames drawn you don't need to add a super yet. Just watch the brood nest to make sure it doesn't get plugged up with nectar. It may already be plugged up. I would suggest checking it.

Also, when you put a super on, don't put a queen excluder on the hive. The bees don't like to cross it and it will slow down the comb building.

It's going to be hard to keep that hive from swarming next spring with so little drawn comb. You may have to try a Taranov split. Remind me early next spring and I'll explain how to do that or you can look it up on Google.

Why are they going to swarm?it's there a possibility of another queen cell in there don't see or just because it's not built up yet.

They aren't going to swarm now. Next spring... Well, actually they could swarm if the brood nest gets plugged with nectar but I was talking about next spring.

You need comb to open up the hive in the spring to help keep them from swarming.

K. Bout to read up on swarming .

Sure looks like they building a queen cell

Neighbor had o ne split up the road. Saw the swarm in the tree. Walked inside to get his suit and came back out. They were gone. Weve looked to no avail.

It's common to have queen cups in the hives all the time. I probably have them in all my hives. It only becomes a queen cell when it has a larvae in it. I use to tear them down every time I saw them, but they just build them back.

No larvae so we are good then.

Got 7.5 frames with wax on them and most have eggs at least. I guess its time for a super?

You can tell the number of bees are growing. Probably tripled from when we started. Any thoughts or concerns.

Looks pretty good to me. The bright white caps are honey and the tan is brood. I would put another super on and let them put up as much honey as possible for the winter. Looks like the swarm recovery work is going to be worth it. See what Fur says, but I think you add the super and let them work.

Solid advice.

I don't know how far south you are but if the Chinese Tallow trees aren't bloomed out try to find a bunch and move the hive to them. They produce a lot of nectar and you can get a super or two of comb drawn out.

That first frame pictured, where the bees drew the comb "wonky" needs fixing or culling, but I wouldn't do that until next year.

Comb like that is hard to manage. It's a good place for swarm cells and queens to hide. It took me several years to learn this but I don't let not perfect comb stay in the hive very long. It causes problems.

Also, those look like straight bred Italian bees although there's no good way to know for sure. Watch the amount of honey in the hive closely this summer and fall. They'll raise brood until the have nothing left in the hive to eat. You'll want to give them 1:1 sugar water when there is no natural nectar coming in.

There are multiple trees within 100 yards of the box right now. We were actually discussing them yesterday cause there were no bees on them but they are just starting to bloom.

Too close isn't always good. Bees don't forage heavily within so many feet of their hives. I don't remember the distance but I'm sure you can Google it. Now early in the season when there isn't much blooming they wrap up any Holly bush in my mothers yard. Those are all 100 or more yards from the hives. The same may be the case with your Tallow trees. There may not be much else blooming.

They will occasionally forage pretty close but IIRC it's something about their "waggle dance" that doesn't work close up.

I am now back up to 16 hives, counting nucs that I have, and I have seen about 5 bees on plants around the house all day.

There's way over 500,000 bees within 1/4 mile of my house and I rarely see one unless I'm standing at the hives. Now a "neighbor" about 3/4 mile from here has them in her yard all the time.

I am definitely not an expert on Tallow flow since we don't have any/many here, but I have read a good bit about it. Supposedly it's a very heavy flow and hives can run out of room quickly. If you don't have a super on your hive yet, I'd get one on there and check it every 5-6 days and see if they need another.

Theve quit eating from the jar. I know that. There is a clover field half a mile behind them i am assuming they going to.

Them not taking sugar water is a sure sign you're on a good flow. If you're on a flow, they should be making wax. Take full advantage of the wax making time.

It is strange about the way they feed. We have a number of flowers around the house and we don't see many honey bees either. The pollinators have about 350 hives about 400 yards away from the house.

Yeah, there's a whole lot I haven't figured out yet about bees and the feeding part is one of them.

I have figured out that time of day has a good deal to do with when certain plant species have nectar. Also, rain has a great deal to do with it too.

Not all flowers are honeybee plants either.

fur. we put a super a while back when we were posting in the thread. looked at it today and they have half the frames with comb and honey. pretty remarkable from what i can tell. started feeding again a few days ago and they drinking it up. half a quart a day or round about. i.actually think i may need to add another super in the fall if not before then.

How far will honeybees travel to gather nectar?

ive read 3 to 5 miles

If they are drawing comb on feed that's great. If they stop drawing comb and keep taking feed, make sure they aren't filling the brood nest with nectar. I hope you do need another super before fall and that you can keep them drawing comb. You'll definitely need the comb next year.

I've read a 3 mile feeding radius is normal, however our shop is right at 2 miles, as the bee flies, from our farm and I rarely if ever see a honeybee there feeding on the clover. I figure they fly as far as they have to, to get nectar and pollen.

fur. we been feeding and the last few days have been crazy the amount of feed we going through. usually there is 30 bees around it but the past few days its like this. assumming nectar flow over? do yalls surround it like this usually.

I don't feed that way. That looks to me like it might set off a robbing frenzy.

I use frame feeders, which are okay, but you have to take the top off the hive to fill them.

I am thinking seriously about making a couple of feeders out of 5 gallon buckets, like you have with the quart jar and sitting them out.

I bit the bullet and bought a couple of top feeders from Mann Lake. I have one on the new split and put one on my weakest hive at the farm. I finally got around to putting 3 gallons in it today. The bees cannot get to you thru the screen. The convenience factor is definitely something to consider. All I'd do is pick up the top and fill them.I will let y'all know how they work in a couple of weeks. I can report the new split has lot of bees in the top getting syrup.

Wade I wish I had just started with top feeders and been done with it. I hate feeding bees but sometimes it's just got to be done.

I may get motivated today and make a 5 gallon bucket feeder.

I finally nutted up, put the bee jacket on and checked a few new splits this afternoon. They have gathered some pollen and had finished off the syrup I put in the frame feeders in each hive. I'll refill the feeders tomorrow. I would have done it today but I was out of sugar.

I was surprised to see as much brood in the hives as I saw. I guess feeding them syrup stimulated them to keep raising brood.

I got a swarm call this evening about 7:30. The swarm was clustered on a mailbox in the Martling community. This is by far the latest in the year I have seen a swarm. It's a small swarm, maybe a quart jar full. If a beekeeper hadn't caught them, they would have died. Nothing is blooming this time of year, especially with the drought. I'll put a feeder in with them in the morning.

Sweet. How lucky can you get? I'm guessing you could have sprayed those down with sugar water and had them in a super in 10 minutes. Congrats on the free bees.

BTW: My split is looking better every day. Practically eating a half gallon of syrup a day. Sure is nice walking 75 feet to feed them. I let the feeder go dry just to see how much they are consuming. Right at a half gallon the last two days. Gonna top it off tomorrow. Probably take a look inside this weekend too.

It really took about one minute. I got a guy to run up and hit the mailbox from behind while I held a nuc under it. They all fell in, I put the lid on. Easiest swarm catch ever. I just wish it had been about 5 pounds of bees.

I'm glad your split is doing well. So far I am well pleased with those queens. I have 15 more of them on order for April 1st of next year so if you think you might want some let me know and I'll up the order. I'm gonna make some splits with mine.

Any idea what kind of queens those are? Just curious. Mine seem pretty calm so far. Cut grass 10 feet from them and can take the top off and add syrup and don't even get buzzed with either action.

If they stay pretty calm, I'm definitely planning to requeen my weak hive next spring.

Gotta get some supers off my weak hive I think. Left a medium on with the idea of keeping syrup on so they would draw the comb. Getting a little worried after looking at the amount of bees going in and out today.

Wade all I know is that they're from bees that have been raised in that location, Danville Arkansas since the 30's. They bring in some Italian genes from time to time to breed with their bees. That's what the lady told me.

They are pretty docile. I've been out working in the garden all around those splits today and never even got buzzed.

They most likely won't be as calm when they get strong hives going. Most others aren't anyway. Surely they will be calmer than my bees.

Does high wind ever blow them hives over when stacked that high?

I've never had one stacked this high before and I may never again, but I see them online this tall quite often. I have never had a hive blow over.

The bees glue all the boxes together with Propolis. They are stuck together to the point that they have to be pried apart with a tool.

A hive the size of the one pictured probably weighs anywhere from 300-500 lbs depending on how full of honey the boxes are so it would take a pretty good wind to blow it over.

Do ya'll sell your honey or give it away? I can't hardly eat it, too sweet, but the polinators gave me 5 or 6 cases this year. I give it away to friends.

A friend of mine went down to Wewahitchika a few weeks ago to the tupelo honey festival, he was going to buy a case of it. He said he changed his mind as it was $600 a case.

I give my parents and my wifes parents a good bit and sold quite a bit. I didn't make enough this year to sell. I had to make bees this year to replace my losses from last year. Can't make both.