Before I post this, I want you to know that I tried so, so hard not to. Possible tw: weird semi-horror site. Also, bees. http://www.scp-wiki.net/bees
Hive 3, or "Gamma" didn't get enough frames put in because we didn't have enough when we were dealing with the swarms, so now it has huge chunks of comb hanging from the roof of the hive, so now there isn't room for more frames. I'm just, "aw, bees." Beta hive is still really tiny. My tiny baby hive. We'll see if it grow big enough to survive to next year. Alpha is ready for a second super! the problem is, the size of box we need we put Beta in, so we need to transfer Beta to a new box and then put that box on top of Alpha. Hopefully pheromones from one hive won't make the other crazy.
Moved Gamma to a better location (was near the kid's sandbox), took care of aforementioned huge chunks of comb where they aren't supposed to be. Unfortunately they had larvae in them, but they had to be removed so space can be used efficiently and air can circulate properly throughout the hive. But this does provide me with the opportunity to provide you with a picture. I usually have my hands full when I'm actually working with the bees but we brought the comb inside and I got a pic of the larvae. They're tiny, so probably pretty recently hatched. Spoiler: baby bees! cw for trypophobia, honeycomb. If you can't see them, they are the squiggly white lines.
Gamma hive wasn't doing so well after removing the comb that wasn't supposed to be there, so we combined Beta and Gamma. I made videos documenting it: 1 2 3 4 sorry this one wouldnt upload so no actual link 5 Also sorry I have a weird voice/accent.
Can I say that reading this is really helping with my melissophobia greatly? Like, I didn't know you could essentially harvest and incubate wild bees like that, and not have it be a major and sting-ladden deal on the human side of things (even if it's probably a surprise to the bees). Is there any difficulty in merging small hives, like with Beta and Gamma? Like, do you need to find and remove one of the two queens, or can they just co-exist? Or is there no queen for one of, or either of, the hives?
I'm extremely nauseated today because we're harvesting wax from a wild nest we got called in to deal with. Unfortunately my da didn't rinse the wax before heating it so now my house smells like dead larvae.
BEES. This is so cool, Soul. I'm feeling very enabled right now. For work reasons, I do actually know that beehives are allowed in my municipality... But eesh, that sounds unpleasant. You okay?
Yeah, I just have an extremely sensitive nose plus the idea of dead bees bothers me anyway so. We got enough bees from the nest to give to another beekeeper we know but once comb is removed the bees aren't likely to go back to it, so everything in the comb couldn't be saved. But even more of the bees would have died if we hadn't gotten to them because the owner of the shed they were under is afraid of bees and would have had them exterminated.
As mentioned in other threads, we've been harvesting honey at my house the last few days. Alpha hive was about full to bursting with honey and it's not even the end of gathering season, so we harvested a box of honey early. We got three gallons of honey from just the one box. Honey harvest, extraction, and purification is extremely sticky work, as you can well imagine. I've had honey everywhere, like in my hair and everything.
i find myself really interested in learning more about beekeeping lately; any resources you'd recommend?
:bump: You mentioned harvesting wax along with honey. Would you be willing to sell the wax? I have a possibly unhealthy love for beeswax candles and such.
We don't harvest a ton of wax (like, we have maybe a few ounces), and the stuff we do have my mum's been using to make lip balm. Maybe next year though, I can keep you in mind if we get more hives.
So we put the hive that was dying in the greenhouse so they'd maybe survive winter. They all died anyway. I only have one hive again. Also I went to feed my bees today and I upset them and I wasn't wearing protection because I never get stung. I am no longer Space Royalty. #that's a Jupiter Ascending reference #but you guys probably actually picked up on that #no one IRL ever does #NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME BUT THE INTERNET
So we have three hives again. One of the hives is impossibly small, but continues to surprise and survive. Our main hive is still going strong, the other two are splits from it getting too big. This year I've learned how to transplant frames with queen cells from an existing hive to a new hive so the new hive can raise their own queen.
I'm glad I found this thread, been searching for one where there's more shop-talk wrt beekeeping! I've always wanted a beehive, but I've always been weary to jump for it. Only recently have I had my own back-yard and even then it's pretty small (and the S/O has a bee phobia. Wasps? Those are fine. Bees? He cries even though he knows they're usually docile). I also didn't want to like place a hive in my suburban back yard and end up with some poor neighborhood kid stung and finding out they're allergic to bees. I am upset though, as I found out I'm allergic to wasp stings and that made me fear that I was allergic to bees as well (though I found out that wasp allergy =/= bee allergy most of the time). So I'd want to get a full allergy test for me (and for the s/o) before starting anything.... ANYWAY this comes up because I've been watching a really cool playlist of a beekeeper following a year of beekeeping. He makes mistakes (and explains them when he figures it out, or in the comments) but he's really good. Long story short, I will be moving in about 2 years or so up to GA. I'll be able to get land (because housing there is nearly 50% cheaper than it is here jfc) if I shop around. I'd want a beehive but I also don't want to like, cause constant panic-attacks in my s/o? Since I have weight lifting constraints it would be a top-bar hive, and I know this is like super far future thought but I also like to be prepared. You know? Anyway, if you read this whole thing you are a champion.
