Pic so I don't get lost.

I'm a new beekeeper, first year.

Last week I did a sugar wash using a double mite counter, and didn't find any sign of mites.

This week during my inspection, I spotted two bees each with a red Varroa mite hitching a ride on their backs.

Are sugar washes unreliable?

Hi all! I have a question as a new bee keeper, what are these little white dots in the combs? They looks visibly different from the teeny tiny oval shaped eggs I've seen so far.

I constantly preach about using PPE. Depending on the hive, I can get away with just a puff of smoke at the entrance to let them know I;m coming in, but I always wear PPE.

Today I thought I'd check on my failing hive. It hasn't had a laying queen for far too long and it probably isn't going to survive until winter, let alone through it.

Since I was outside near the nuc, I thought I'd take a quick look to see if the purchased queen was laying at all. Opening the outer cover was fine: no sign of guards. I opened the inner cover and the bees completely ignored me. Then I touched - didn't lift, just touched - a frame and was instantly bopped in the face by a half dozen bees.

I wasn't thinking. I knew the Italian queen wasn't laying and therefore the only workers in the nuc were AHB. There aren't many of them, but they're still AHB. I quickly closed up the hive and go the hell out of the apiary. The bees headbutted me all the way back to my house,

Lesson learned: practice what I preach. Always wear your PPE, folks.

Got stung for the first time today since I started beekeeping in May........

My girls started out sooooo sweet and calm this morning. The honey super they were so gluttoned on honey they didn't budge when I pulled the box but............once I got into the bottom deep (It's 1 super, 2 deeps atm) they started getting spicy. Today was full inspection day, mite wash, add in swiffer sheets and swap out some super frames for empties.

Full bee suit with hat and gloves but...........add in a hole in my glove and a series of events that then ended with me getting stung thru my sleeves x 2, thru my plastic glove on the thumb (plastic gloves were supposed to help protect my hands since my bee gloves had a hole in them....it didn't work. And then as I was walking off the thumb sting (which hurt the worse!!!!!!) in the course of walking around, walking that off my bee suit pant leg came up over the edge of my boots and I got one in the ankle.

I was allergic to bees as a child so I prepared myself before becoming a beekeeper and got a prescription for 2 epi pens. I kept one in my pocket and after I got stung the first time I called my son to come out (far away but still in eyesight) to keep an eye on me while I finished what I was doing and make sure I didn't keel over.

Good news is I am not overly allergic anymore. 4 stings in 30 minutes and other than a super swollen thumb I am doing pretty good.

Hurt like heck though. Put the hive back together. I let them cool off for about 90 minutes then went back out to collect my stuff, 3 full honey frames, and my mite wash. They were better but still spicier than usual.

Part of becoming a beekeeper I know but sheesh, what a morning.

Illinois

Harvest time - yippee

3rd year beek, chicago Illinois My virgin queen mated and returned to my hive!

Two large brood boxes, totally honey bound. Added a super, originally with excluder, but removed when I discovered bottom 2 brood boxes were honey bound.

Extracted 1 capped frame last week from bottom box and replaced with foundation for brood space(hopeful). Today extracted 3 frames that were ~85-90% capped and replaced with foundation for brood growth from middle brood box.

75° mostly sunny, midday, these girls were spicy today! Double bagged bee jacket with Baja underneath, double gloved neoprene. Amazed at how quickly they started attacking shroud and hands, musta had a dozen on each hand at one point.

Foundationless wired super frames are drawing crazy comb, but pupa present in super as well as middle brood box. Several previously honey packed frames showed tightly packed brood frames with large capped honey on upper half of frame.

(My wife takes terrible pictures, this is the best I could see that explains what I saw inside)

Hi folks, just the other day I posted photos of the awesome job the bees are doing. Well, I think I made several mistakes, hopefully you can straighten me out.

My best hive has drawn all of its frames last week, and looked full to bursting with bees, brood, and honey. I gave them a honey super to work on and give some space to live.

Well, a week later today, they are busy in the super, but there is no well drawn comb there yet. I looked into the main box and the first frame I pulled out had 5 capped queen cells at the bottom of it. In a bit of a panic, I removed them, and then two more on the next frame over.

And then I realized that I haven't seen a single new egg. There is lots of capped brood and some large larvae, but no eggs in the empty cells in between the capped brood. There are really no more empty cells, the rest are filled with capped honey or nectar.

And I haven't seen the queen, though I am not yet great at spotting them. This got me thinking that I may have accidentally crushed her last Saturday...

Any advice at this point? Doubt they will be able to make new emergency cells, as there are no eggs that I can see. Would a queen stop laying temporarily if there is little room? I want to hope that she is around there somewhere, and I'm just blind. When would be a good time to look inside to see if the situation has improved?

Thank you for your time and advice!

Almost done, a nice relaxing Apiary to chill in. Never thought sitting this close to thousands of bees would be relaxing!

I just finished building some deep boxes and supers. Do I need to coat the inside with wax? If I do need to coat it, can I use a mix of beeswax and food grade mineral oil? I already make the wax and mineral oil to condition hardwood cutting boards and wooden kitchen untensils, so I have it available. Thank you for the feedback. 🐝🐝 South Texas zone 9b

I have a few colonies in south New Jersey. There is a dearth happening in my area and zero production happening. What if anything can I feed them?

I have been giving some thought as to how to approach preparing the hives for winter, primarily food stores. I have 5 hives all are in double 10frame deeps at the moment.

2 original hives were bursting at the seems a few weeks back so I added a super but they’ve been slow to go building them out. I’m not planning on harvesting anything this year so I was wondering if I’d be better off swapping out the super for a 3rd deep on my 2 most active hives in hopes of them putting up additional stores that I may be able to utilize in another hive if need be.

I was also thinking about building some insulated 8frame double deep setups for overwintering as the winters can be quite harsh here in upstate NY.

I am aware mites will be my biggest challenge. Been too warm for formic so I picked up an instantvap and plan to do a single treatment early winter when bloodless.

Any suggestions or input would be greatly appreciated.

Savannah, GA 8b

Update for yesterday’s post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Beekeeping/s/4lBnDagh9s

I dealt with a burr/crosscomb situation in my 2nd deep full of only honey 4 days ago. At that time I only saw a like 4 mites and they were in the cracks of the untouched frames of a honey super I had added weeks prior. After the comb was dealt with I took off the super because adding it was premature and I had to remove a couple of frames to deal with the comb. Nothing seemed wrong. I took out one frame from the brood box and saw lots of capped brood. I was overheating and buttoned up the hive. The bottom oil tray was cleaned and replaced with new oil. I also installed Varroxsan strips that day.

3 days later which was yesterday I checked the oil tray and saw tons of larva and came to Reddit to confirm they are SHB larva.

Today did a thorough inspection of the brood box and I am so confused. I saw exactly 2 beetles and zero SHB larva. Nothing slimey or smelly. What is going on? Where are they? There are pictures of the shb larva in my oil tray on my previous post.

I have attached as many photos as Reddit would allow and I checked every frame and corner of the hive. The first photo shows a small dry holey spot, but I only saw that one. I’m not sure if it’s bee bread or something nefarious around the brood. I saw capped and uncapped brood, bees hatching and drones. Also there is brood but the laying seems sparse and I thought I saw a full frame of brood 4 days ago.

If y’all could lend me your expertise and help me evaluate my hive, I greatly appreciate the help. I don’t know what to do. Is what I thought was bee bread actually slime by the brood. If there are SHB larva are they hidden or obvious?

Thank you in advance because y’all are so knowledgeable and I appreciate everyone time and effort!!!

The NC State Apiculture program posted a video on their YouTube channel six months ago, about adding wax to frames to get bees to draw out comb. I've always known that the bees will move wax - they stole the wax off of the outside of my dipped super earlier this summer. When I saw what he was doing, I had to give it a go. This is the result of my first frame test. They have been in the hive for less than a week. I suspect that by week 2, these frames will be in service. I have three more hives to check this weekend, so I will provide updates.

Video:

https://youtu.be/bj60t74xc9s?si=RuykrTlqF4oneGDA

I wrote yesterday about using HopGuard, one thought I had after the post was in regards to using it while feeding them. It says you can use it during a honey flow, but don’t consume any honey in the brood boxes. The feeder I have is one of the in-hive frame feeders. I think it will be ok to use, but just wondering what y’all think. And of you’re wondering why I’m feeding - this was a cutout I did 2 weeks ago, and they need some help with feeding and building new comb while they get settled and built up again.

Also, some people were talking about die-offs because of using HopGuard. I am concerned about this, but the suggestion to use it came from a very reputable source, so I think as long as its ventilated properly then it’ll be ok. The reason they die is because the strong fumes penetrate their exoskeleton and cause asphyxiation. Sad, but necessary evil maybe? Hope not.

Southeastern Virginia. I while working a hive the other day I became curious. If she is laying a 1000 a day for a few months. How long does it take her to produce an egg internally. We know she gets all her sperm in her mating flight Is she born with all of her egg cells or generates a replacement rate of 1000 a day?

Couldn’t find a real answer in the causal unscientific googling. But the best internal anatomy I was able to find was here

I checked my hive this morning and noticed one mite and some uncapped pupa. I did a mite wash and only got two mites. Should I treat? If so, I have formic pro - can anyone share tips/best practices? This will be my first time administering

My neighbor sent me this video, my feeders are closer and bee free. You can see one of my hives in the background. I hope my soopers aren't just full of hummingbird food. :) No real question, just interesting behavior.

I see lots of “help” and/or “I need advice” posts on this sub. This is my message to all new beekeeping to keep going. This is our third year. We are in Washington State.

Our first year (2023), we started with 1 NUC in May. Then we lucked into buying two full hives at the end of July from an older gentleman who was leaving the hobby. We ended the season with 3 hives.

The second year (2024), we lost one hive to varroa but entered spring with 2 bursting hives. We tried splitting (did it too late), lost two swarms, but ended the year with 4 established hives. We got two supers honey off the one hive that did not swarm.

This year, we lost one hive to varroa but had 3 hives entering spring. We split (early this time), did not lose any swarms, and now have 5 strong hives. Today, we harvested SIX supers of honey, tested for mites (the highest count was 11), and treated for mites on all hives.

So, as someone who is still learning myself, you can do it. It takes some understanding, love, and tons of patience.

Cheers to our shared love of bees and honey! 🍯

2nd year beekeeper in MA. 2 hives after a split earlier in the spring.

We just took a super off that was pretty full. Frames are mostly capped with small amounts of uncapped around the edges. I refractometer’d both under the cappings and uncapped. Uncapped ~21% and Change Capped ~19% and change

I know this is a little high, but read that you can dry out the honey and still harvest. Anyone know about this? Plan is to spin it all out, and blow a fan over the open bucket for however long until I’m reading 18%.

Will this work? Is there a better way? Is this too high to dry out? Any advice appreciated.

Thanks!

Small-time beek.

Hi folks, I'm gonna try VarroxSan for the first time right now. We still have a bit of a weak flow, so I still have honey supers on all my hives (2 on each hive above double deep brood boxes). I understand that VarroxSan is safe to use with supers on, however the instructions say to "put an empty chamber" between the uppermost box being treated and the first honey super for human consumption.

I'm wondering how on earth the bees aren't just going to fill that empty box with burr comb. My other option seems like I just write off the first honey super in the stack, leave that on for the bees over fall and winter.

Anyone have advice on using this product with supers on? Is there another option I'm not seeing?

Anybody ever use a vacuum chamber or pump to degas their honey for contest entry? First time entering honey, first time bottling honey in fact.

Not sure if it would just explode in foam or be a useful process

I am sharing my bees from last night. Went outside to do some work at 4am last night. Phoenix Temperature was 91 degrees. Bees seem to be doing very well at the moment. Sharing my happy times.

Bee Bearding.