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Pit Beekeeping Thread

TSY, my wife was curious how she should be using the lotion bar.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
TSY, my wife was curious how she should be using the lotion bar.
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Anywhere but around her eyes. Its a mixture of beeswax, coconut oil, shae butter, and a little lavender extract. I use it mostly on my hand, feet, and elbows; however it can be used anywhere on the skin. I said avoid the eyes, just because I'm not sure how the lavender extract would react with the eyes. It's essentially a harder version of liquid lotion.
 
tsywake said:
Added second deeps to my hives today, and plan to take the supers tomorrow. Looks like the mild spring helped with the NC flow. I'm anxious to see how my cut comb turned out.

The 2 acres of buckwheat is coming in full, so I'll throw the supers on again and see if I can get some buckwheat honey during the dearth.
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A few updates for those that may be interested in the bee economics. I spent roughly $160 on 100 lbs of buckwheat seed for the 2 acres, plus another $10 or so in diesel fuel for the tractor.

During the dearth, when nothing else is producing nectar, I was able to have the girls draw out approximately 8 frames of supers, and still pulled 4.75 quarts of buckwheat honey. I tilled the buckwheat under when it went to seed, and should get another round out of it before the first frost. Hopefully it'll reach seed and will grow back in the spring, and we'll continue the cycle.

I've been very happy with the buckwheat and feel like it was a great use of the land and resources. Anything that naturally reduces the need for sugar syrup getting the girls ready for the winter is a huge win in my book.
 
I was able to get a second round of buckwheat this fall, but I saw mostly butterflies and bumblebees. The honeybees were working hard bringing in something else.

I started a 5 gallon batch of whipped honey tonight. Half a gallon of starter to the 5 gallon bucket. In a few weeks, it should be ready for sale.
 
Happy New Year Beeks!

I ended the summer with 4 hives. One absconded, and I checked today, a second looks to have not made it through the winter, so I'll be heading into the spring with 2 strong hives.

Good news though, I've got half a dozen friends who have agreed to let me set up swarm traps on their property this spring. I'm hoping to grow the apiary. Doubtful that it'll be sustainable enough to quit my full time job, but it's a fun hobby that is bringing in some additional revenue.

We've expanded to sell raw and whipped honey, beeswax candles, lotion bars, and lip balms. Oddly enough, the raw honey is probably my least favorite to sell. I love our lotion bars, but I've been most impressed with the lip balms. Just need to get the word out.
 
May want to artificially "swarm" your hives if they really are that strong. Obviously later in the spring when honey flow is strong.
 
I did a few walkway splits last spring to both of those hives. The original hive kept going strong and the splits ended up slowly dwindling down. I'm not sure that the new queens were properly mated, and at the time, no local queens were available.
 
[mention]tsywake [/mention] I think I'm going to be in town for uva. If it works out I'd love to buy some of your stuff. I'll reach out
 
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The warmer temps in NC are causing the girls to start being more active. They're bringing in pollen, as it's still a few weeks until the red maples start blooming. The red clover I planted in the fall is starting to come up. Banged out a few 5 fame swarm traps in the shop today.
 

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I dove into my two surviving hives today, and they're going strong. As soon as there are drones out and about, I'll split them as they're busting at the seams. Also finished some swarm traps to deploy this spring.
 

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I've been Apivar strips for a few years, but am looking into investing in a Instavap. Anyone have experience with that system?
 
So, I took my Costco rewards and used it to buy an Instavap. Oxalic acid treatments are in my future later this year.

I dove into the 2 remaining hives with @WFFaithful this afternoon. The hives are strong with good stores and brood, so we condensed them down to single deeps with a queen excluder between the upper brood box. No swarm cells yet, so my swarm prevention methods seem to have worked. I'll probably add a few foundation supers this weeks between the brood boxes for them to draw out since we're expecting warmer weather. In a couple weeks we'll start the NC spring flow and I can consider splitting.

I also hung my first swarm traps of the year. Hoping to get some more free bees this year.
 
tsywake said:
So, I took my Costco rewards and used it to buy an Instavap. Oxalic acid treatments are in my future later this year.

I dove into the 2 remaining hives with @WFFaithful this afternoon. The hives are strong with good stores and brood, so we condensed them down to single deeps with a queen excluder between the upper brood box. No swarm cells yet, so my swarm prevention methods seem to have worked. I'll probably add a few foundation supers this weeks between the brood boxes for them to draw out since we're expecting warmer weather. In a couple weeks we'll start the NC spring flow and I can consider splitting.

I also hung my first swarm traps of the year. Hoping to get some more free bees this year.
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It's great to learn from someone with experience and work with the bees. Thanks!
 
Inexplicably, I've been called to the same house twice in four days about swarms. I've picked up 5 swarms, all within a 50ft radius of each other. My hives have grown from 2 to 8 in the past two weeks. At this point, I'm running out of equipment and we're barely into swarm season.

I'll check the swarms in a few days to see how many have queens and if they're mated. What a start to bee season.
 
tsywake said:
Inexplicably, I've been called to the same house twice in four days about swarms. I've picked up 5 swarms, all within a 50ft radius of each other. My hives have grown from 2 to 8 in the past two weeks. At this point, I'm running out of equipment and we're barely into swarm season.

I'll check the swarms in a few days to see how many have queens and if they're mated. What a start to bee season.
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It is extremely rare for a swarm to happen without a queen. However you can miss capturing her. If the new hive doesn't have a queen, the workers might just go home.

Many times the first swarm out is led by the new queen, leaving shortly before her daughter and successor queen hatches.
 
@tsywake do you know anyone in Charlotte who could help with a swarm on our house? Thanks.
 
Update: found a guy on meckbees.com who is going to come relocate them.
 
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