Questions and answers from the Beekeeping Community app — beekeepers helping beekeepers, worldwide.
Skåne, 8 years. I've been informally mentoring a neighbour two villages over — second season, two hives, lovely guy, completely allergic to monitoring. His position: "the…
Alentejo, 6 years, and I've accumulated about 9kg of rendered wax from cappings and old comb. The local market has a clear appetite for beeswax blocks — the soap and cosm…
First year, one hive, Yorkshire. For the past three weeks my colony has bearded every warm evening — big calm curtain of bees on the front, which I'd learned to accept as…
Second year in Vermont and the goldenrod along my back field opened this week — my notes from last year say August 28th, so we're a solid two weeks early. The bees found …
Małopolskie, 5th season, twelve hives. Main extraction is done but I've got six shallow supers where the outer frames are only 60-70% capped and the flow here is over. Op…
Georgia, 22 years, and this is my first season running oil trays under screened bottoms on all eight hives instead of just the worst two. Since folks ask about SHB every …
Fourth year in Devon and having a comb reckoning. Some of my brood frames are from my very first season and they've gone properly black — heavy, opaque, can't see light t…
Second year, three hives, southern Ontario. My middle colony's queen has failed — laying pattern collapsed over two inspections, now multiple eggs per cell in a small pat…
Not looking for a flame war, genuinely trying to think this through. A guy at our association — decent beekeeper, not a crank — hasn't treated for varroa in three years a…
Texas, four hives. Yellowjacket pressure is ramping up like it does every August and I want traps out BEFORE they get bad, not after. But last year I used a homemade soda…
Kent, third year, five hives. Inspection yesterday on my 2024 queen's colony: two capped queen cells, both on the FACE of the comb (not the bottom bar), colony not conges…
Promised the club I'd report back, so here it is. Put robbing screens on all seven hives in mid-July when the dearth hit here in Oregon. Fair warning to anyone installing…
Third year, four hives in the North Carolina piedmont. Put Formic Pro (2 strips, full dose) on my worst mite hive Saturday evening. Daytime highs have been 84-86F, so ins…
Southern Hemisphere check-in. We had two mild sunny days in a row here in Wellington and this morning I watched foragers coming back with pale yellow pollen — the early w…
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…
Quebec, fifth year, seven hives. My breeder has mated queens available next week and two of my colonies are strong enough to spare resources. The itch: make two 5-frame s…
Galway, second year, and I've properly messed up: my split from June clearly never got a mated queen and I missed the signs for weeks. Yesterday's inspection showed the c…
Bought one of those $30 honey refractometers and finally checked it against a club member's calibrated one at extraction this week: mine reads a solid 2 points high. Hone…
G'day from the other hemisphere — while you lot argue about dearth feeding, I'm staring at four clustered hives in a Victorian winter. Fifth year, but this is my first pr…
Third year in Uppsala, five hives. After watching a neighbour's yard get robbed out last week I've reduced everything — but now I'm doubting myself on the two really stro…
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