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First year, two hives in Minnesota. I mixed up a big batch of 1:1 last weekend (about 2 gallons) and filled both top feeders. Went to top them up today and there's grey-w…
First year in Yorkshire, one hive from a May nuc. The flow's clearly stopped — hive's lighter than three weeks ago when I heft it, and inspections show them backfilling n…
First year, two hives, Minnesota. I put a bucket of syrup out in the yard yesterday because everything looked hungry and the flow is clearly over. Huge mistake apparently…
First year in Minnesota, one hive, and I put it somewhere dumb in May — right where the snow slides off the garage roof, which future January me would not forgive. The be…
Third year in Uppsala, two hives. Sat with my coffee yesterday morning and watched workers wrestling drones out of the entrance — some getting dragged, some just blocked …
Hi, Should I add sugar to my hive?
First year, one hive, Minnesota. It hit 34C here today with awful humidity and when I got home from work there was a beard of bees the size of a dinner plate hanging off …
Retrospective thread! Last spring I started with one package and one nuc, side by side in the same Vermont yard, partly as an experiment. Now feels like a fair time to co…
First year, two hives in Minnesota, and I have a confession: I've seen my marked queen exactly twice since April. Every video says "make sure the colony is queenright" an…
Ontario, second year but first time raising a colony from a nuc instead of inheriting a going concern. Picked up a 5-frame nuc mid-May, it hit a full deep by mid-June, I …
Third year in Uppsala and I'm noticing a trend I don't love. Year one, stings were a red bump for a day. Last year, hand stings puffed for two days. This spring a sting o…
Galway, second year, two hives, and the west of Ireland is doing its thing: forecast is drizzle every day I'm off work for the next week. I'm due an inspection — it's bee…
I feel absolutely sick. First year, two hives, and today during inspection a frame slipped out of my grip and fell about a foot onto the top bars of the box before slidin…
A thread for the Southern Hemisphere crowd, since the forum is understandably wall-to-wall swarms and supers right now. It's cold, grey mid-winter here in Wellington and …
Bit of a soft question tonight. I'm five years in, out in rural Quebec, and the man who taught me everything — 40 years of beekeeping, could read a frame like a newspaper…
Second-year beekeeper near İzmir with 3 hives that sit in full sun all day — everyone told me full sun is good when I started. But the forecast says 38°C, maybe 40°C, for…
Uppsala, 3rd year, two hives at the bottom of a suburban garden. One swarmed last week (my fault, missed cells), and it briefly clustered in the neighbour's apple tree be…
First year, one hive, Minnesota. Every single time I finish an inspection, within a few minutes there's this carpet of bees on the landing board and front of the hive, al…
Took the kids to the county fair yesterday and the local association did a bee beard demo. Fascinating and slightly unhinged. For anyone who's wondered how it works: it's…
Posting this as a warning to fellow slow inspectors. I have a 3-frame mating nuc from a split, maybe two cups of bees. Yesterday was warm and I spent a good 25 minutes go…
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