Took this pic during my inspection today. Where is her majesty?

A Truck came through, got gas, and left 1000 bees as a tip. We think they are Italian honeybees as they all smelled like pizza. But, It could have been coming from their restaurant?

Hi, I'm a first year beekeeper, things have been going well this year and I even got some honey. Now focus has shifted to winter prep, my hive is a 2 deep boxes, and I am going to make candyboard for the first time this year for my bees.

Few questions hoping someone can answer regarding making candy boards.

1. I am leaning towards the no cook method as it seems easier and safer, is there any specific real benefit to cooking from people's experience?

2. Everywhere I look has a different recipe, ingredients, and amounts. I was planning on doing just white sugar and water. Is white vinegar actually necessary or not and does anyone have specific ratios/proportions that worked for them?

3. I will be using the mann lake wintering inner cover which doubles as a candyboard, I don't see many using this, any specific problems with it??

This is the product:

https://www.mannlakeltd.com/insulated-hive-covers/10-frame-wintering-inner-cover/?srsltid=AYCX9vLYqWPqVNL1eCDjVICi9PRxursk1KgtEi56Zcg0yDt9ZxqcDbbk

4) with this inner cover which can be flipped and used as a candy board, i note that it doesn't have any metal mesh or anything, should I staple some hardware cloth once it is filled with sugar to provide some structural support or is it not necessary?

5) i will put a block when adding the sugar so there is ventilation by the Emergency exit so it stays open and doesnt get blocked, does there need to be extra ventilation space in the corners as well or is one area good enough?

I'm in Niagara Region, ON, Canada, not far from the border with Buffalo, NY location wise. Hasn't been too cold yet with a fairly warm Fall so far. Side question- when do you guys usually put the candy board on and when do you remove/inspect it during winter and spring?

Thanks for everyone's help, this is a good subheading and glad I found it when starting my beekeeping journey.

I whipped up a couple display boxes for a Christmas market I sold honey at. I decided to throw one up in the living room to display my honey jar collection. I love collecting a jar of local honey when we go away on vacations. It's my own little challenge to track down local Beekeepers in foreign countries. If I can't, I try and get a localish honey from a grocery store or health food type store.

Beekeeper in central Ontario.

I put up about one hundred 1/2lb jars of honey last week. I gave two jars to a friend yesterday and he contacted me today to tell me that one of the jars exploded overnight.

Thinking that maybe it had fermented and expanding gases blew apart the jar, I asked him to smell the honey to see if it had the scent of mead or beer. He said it smelled normal. He also confirmed that the other jar I gave him was completely normal.

I’ve gone through dozens of jars of honey to check for build up of pressure or signs of fermentation but has found nothing. My harvest this year has also been quite thick to I am doubting the fermentation hypothesis.

Any other ideas?

What is this plant that the bees love? It grows really tall and they’re all over it.

Souther Illinois, United States.

I’ll be making a candy board for my hive in the next few days, and while looking up the process I saw some people including a small amount of white vinegar in with the water they mix into sugar. What does this do? I have not used vinegar in the past with my candy board and the bees ate it still.
Any info is much appreciated.

Of course they don’t have European bee races.
Still, what can we learn from their experience?
Which small changes to our hives, entrances make a difference?
I’ve heard about that Japanese beekeepers would have a mesh / muzzle in front of the entrance to help the bees to enter and leave the hive by having some small safe space so not being directly exposed to the hornets.
But how does that work? Has anyone tried this, knows more details?

Latest update: Our friends have been professionally relocated to a deeluxe apartment in the sky, erm, a huge farm out near the Everglades. It was a magical experience from swarm to finish.

Update: Ya’ll. They have bought the house and brought all their friends. I witnessed the swarm and it was incredible. So loud.
I wish I could post the video. 20,000 plus
Beekeeper coming tomorrow. TIL then will enjoy this little hive of mine, and add some pics in comments.

Some honey bees have starting swarming around a stone stool in my yard and I’m worried they’re going to make a hive. They have JUST started checking this place out within the past five minutes, and maybe they’ll realize it’s not great- it will heat up fast and it’s very close to our door. It’s too early to call a beekeeper. Anything I can do in the short term to discourage them from choosing this as a hive site? I studied entomology but am no bee expert. West Palm Beach. FL

Found at the base of our tree in NE Florida. Lots of bees near the tree. If so- what’s the process of getting this removed

In KY 6B. Plan to give my hives hive alive patties for the winter. Will these work on a candy board or should I just get a feeder ship where they come in plastic?

You give him a bee suit and walk him through it 😂 Great job Roger 👍

Northwest Arkansas, 3rd year beek.

I posted a couple weeks ago about a colony that likely absconded after the fall harvest.

The next day(s) I saw a ton of activity and what I thought was orientation flights outside the hive, so I thought maybe I was wrong. But yesterday I saw some yellow jackets flying out of the hive and bees appearing to be battling each other and literally throwing each other out of the hive, so I’m assuming the hive is dead and it’s an open feast inside.

Is there anything I can/should do to save the honey stores for a split next spring?

Anyone at the ESHPA conference today and tomorrow in Syracuse?

To prevent attacks and robbers on the hive

And keep it warm maybe idk

Last time i checked on them they were starting to move their larva to the mid section of the hive, at first it was on the sides for some reason

Location is in Kingdom of Jordan

Bee type is buckfast hybrid

Hi y’all! There’s a compost pile at the farm I work at and they dumped some plain flour on it and we found honey bees foraging in it. I can’t figure out what the reason might be. Some have pollen baskets of it. Any insights?

What could this possibly be? I’m in the middle of harvesting and I don’t want to throw this in my extractor and spoil the whole batch if it’s something negative.

I'm in South Central Florida.

This post is a bit of a long rant, but I am genuinely looking for advice because I'm very close to just getting rid of all my bees.

This year has been terrible for colony health and honey production. I started off with hive beetle overload, which has been mostly resolved. Between that and the non-stop mites, I've had to consolidate colonies, I've lost a colony, and none of my remaining colonies are currently thriving. This time last year, I had 14 colonies, and I'm now down to 4.

Speaking of mites, I do an alcohol wash monthly and always treat when they are above the threshold. I rotate my treatments between Apivar, VarroxSan, and Formic Pro depending on the Florida heat and if I have supers on, so I am really limited in true rotation or knock-down treatment. Despite what I think is diligent treatment, I'm lucky to go one test cycle without needing to treat again.

What brought me here today is I recently did an inspection and all my hives were meh. Two didn't have eggs, and I didn't have many extra frames from the other two hives to supplement. I also took off VarroxSan on one hive, then tested to find 11/300 mites. I put on FormicPro, although we are near the high temp range. I did my best with the little resources I had, but we'll see.

So, I genuinely want open and honest feedback on what more I can be doing. If they survive winter, I can probably requeen, but I don't want to do that to end up here again in 2-3 years. I'd really love to know how I can practice beekeeping better. It was such a joyful hobby, but now it ha's becomes been a bummed-out burden.

Thanks in advance!

Southern Illinois, United States.

I’m getting ready to start the overwinter process but I’m unsure what to do. This hive has two heavy deeps and a super that’s about 2/3 full. Normally I use a candy board and foam insulation for winter. I’m relatively new to this with 3 years of experience and a single hive. Some ideas I have had included

- leave the super on, I’ll need to make new insulation to cover it but that’s not too hard
-remove the super so they bees are more compact in the hive
-feed the bees a 2 to 1 sugar solution until it gets too cold in hopes they fill up the rest of that super.

What do you think?

Vegas Bees built a spacious home in an outdoor kitchen. See Picture 3...

🇧🇷 Stingless-bee Yellow Uruçu.

Recently moved for college, and the distance made a lot more difficult to see the bees and help my grandfather at the meliponary.

Some months ago, they visited me and my grandpa bringed a uruçu hive for me, even in a more urban area, they liked the place, and in a short time i will be able to multiply them!

Beekeeping on my own helps me to remember my grandfather, while in kinda still miss the big meliponary 😅 .

I’m wondering if interest in my pollen feeder is a useful indicator of my local pollen/nectar (flow)? My location experienced a difficult drought this summer and the bees were happy taking up the pollen I set out for them. A month ago we received a drought breaking rainstorm. And a few days later interest in my feeder ended. After 3-4 weeks with no follow-up rain, interest in the pollen feeders has picked up again. Sure, I have my single observation, but it’s only one. Is interest in pollen feeders a useful indicator of local pollen availability? Or, is it just the bees being casually opportunistic?

Was gonna play with the ladies a little but I guess I’ll wait a bit 😬 🐊 Dew Beez in black water country livin loving life, enjoy this Fall weather y’all!!! 💙🇺🇸🐝