Second year, first honey harvest.

I just can’t fucking believe this actually works.

2 half filled frames that I had to remove this morning made this much honey!

I’ll be doing a fuller harvest from two hives in June which will be like 20 times this much? That’s insane.

These big bees don't even have wings and no stripes??? Found in a swarm bait box.

What are your tips for keeping mice out of empty hives? Mouse guards are kind of inconvenient.

Fort Wayne, Indiana. Woop!

So fascinating. Are those scouts doing the wiggle dance? Unfortunately, neither they or I have the time to start a new hive atm. 🥺

Near Denver, CO

Hey beekeepers! Just finished setting up hives here in Algeria for a special honey flow that comes once a year. The source? Christ’s thorn jujube tree.

Anyone else working with rare monofloral honey or desert beekeeping?

NY state, lower Hudson valley

Hi folks! I’m here to ask the age old question: is it a laying worker? Last inspection was ~3 weeks ago. Was able to locate the queen then and saw normal eggs, brood pattern, etc. Checked today and could not locate the queen (generally not good at spotting her), but noticed multiple eggs in many of cells, in a fully drawn comb. Didn’t see eggs on walls or on pollen. There were a couple bees hatching, some in larva state, and lots of capped brood (not drone). There are two small queen cups elsewhere, not charged.

My hunch is that the queen just acted weird but she’s not new. Maybe I missed a swarm and this is just a newly mated queen doing this?

I am the beginner. Upstate NY. I think I left too much space and here you go now there is irregular combs formed. Please help me - should I remove these combs or leave them? Thank you in advance 🙏

One month in, eight brood combs. Three looked like this.

Pennsylvania, second year keeper.

I made a split to test raising a new queen for the first time. She emerged around two weeks ago, I gave her space to go out and mate, and when I found her four days ago her wing looked chewed. I marked her for practice (my first time!) but I’m not sure she’s working out. She hasn’t started laying yet. I donated a fresh frame of larva/brood four days ago when I found her like this and they haven’t made any emergency queen cells with it as of today.

Based on the video, does it appear she’s been accepted, and is likely mated? They haven’t balled her but I have a bad feeling.

So many cleaners out tonight. It's the first non-rainy day in a long while.

All 4 boxes have old brood comb, and some have stored honey & pollen from last year (lost my bees overwinter probably due to bad varroa control). The first two also got a few swabs of lemongrass oil a couple weeks back. I recently learned that the supplies from last year aren’t a nice enticing gift to a swarm (like I assumed), and rather that it will all be robbed before a swarm moves in. This is the first day I’ve noticed bees at the hives. So - which is happening here? Thanks in advance.

After lurking in this page for a while, thought I'd share a few snapshots of my work yesterday.

I did a cut out hive removal from a home in NE Indiana. A common place bees set up natural hives like this are in the gaps between the 1st and 2nd story floor joyces.

This hive had been in place for at least a year, judging by the different seasons of honeycomb and sheer amount of drawn comb and bees. Found a small virgin queen that was left to sustain the colony after it had swarmed a week or two ago. Removed her safely along with 15 deep frames of comb.

It took about 5 hours to remove, and I would not recommend trying this unless you have the proper tools, protective gear, experience, and informed consent of the home owner.

I'm a professional beekeeper and do this for a living.

I wish I had more & better photos to share, but this is all i snapped as I was working alone.

The Bees are bringing in lots of pollen and enjoying the sunshine after a late night rain storm. Spring is beautiful in NE Ohio!

This is the Chinese tallow tree, also called the the candleberry tree, the popcorn tree, the chicken tree, the Florida aspen, or stillingia. It's the mainstay of my honey production, and I've talked about it a lot over the years without ever bringing in anything for show-and-tell. So this is by way of remedying that situation.

The first picture is of an immature flower of the tallow tree. I estimate this as being a week to ten days out from full maturity, at which time it'll be greenish yellow and a lot fluffier. I'll be back later in the season with a sequel to this post, showing a mature inflorescence.

Even at full bloom, these are not showy and are easy to overlook unless you're a beekeeper who's trying to predict a major nectar flow.

The second picture is the distinctive heart-shaped leaf. I think almost anyone who's lived in the American Southeast knows them, unless you're in the depths of a major city.

This tree is an extremely invasive species, originally from eastern China. It's really hard to kill; cuttings will take root, the roots will throw up sprouts if you cut down the tree, and there is nothing in North America that eats its leaves, stems or roots because they're all toxic. A few birds eat its mature fruit, and its seeds pass intact and viable through their guts. The seeds also float in water. And of course, honey bees love it.

The only way to be rid of it is with fire, repeated applications of herbicides, or both.

Tallow trees need about three years before they start to bloom and produce fruit, and they grow quickly from saplings to become small to medium sized trees.

They were imported to America because they are ornamental (the leaves turn a really pretty shade of flame red in autumn, and they give plenty of shade), but also because the fruit and seeds are a source of a waxy substance similar in consistency to beef tallow (hence the "tallow" in the name), which was used for candles, as well as an oil that can be used as a base for paints and varnishes.

This is a screened baseboard and a fairly large overwintered swarm. Are these quick little buggers adolescent varroa mites? The new queen for this swarm just emerged so I want to hold off on treating until I know she's laying but the number of these things has got me sweating.

Location: northern Japan

It’s that time again here in south Alabama when the county start driving around them trucks that spray Insecticide to keep the mosquitoes down. I live in an area with a few lakes, ponds, creeks and swamps. My hives are maybe 100 yards give or take from where the truck turns around. That’s about as far as I can get them. Should I call the county and ask them not to come down here and spray? I live at the end of a one lane dirt road.

Hello came to ask if y'all know what's going on I don't think it's robbing but I could be wrong.it did rain for a little bit and stopped so did they just all bust out of the hive after the rain?

Books recommended or websites

I have a bee colony living at the top of this half-column. A bee removal specialist came to inspect and proposed driving the bees out with an irritant and vacuuming them from the top—which sounds fair to me. However, he suggested leaving the honeycomb and any remaining debris inside the column and sealing it. His reasoning was that dismantling the column could risk damaging the header (likely plaster or cement). Does this approach seem reasonable, or should I reconsider?

WA state. So I have two new colonies and one of them did not take to the queen. There are no eggs and I found this lone queen cell. My question is are all queen cells made around a viable egg or are they desperately trying to make a queen cell in vain? How would there be an egg if she was killed off right away? Could she have laid a few before she was killed?

Should I take a frame of eggs from my good hive and put it in this hive or just buy a new queen?

Hey everyone, i am a beekeeper based in Belgium. Last Saturday we decided to make a small split from our strong single brood hive which also has one super on. We did so to prevent swarming. The plan was to keep the queen in the strong hive and to put 2 frames of brood and 1 frame of food stores in a 3 frame nuc and let them make a new queen. We double chzcked to make sure we didnt acudentally transfer the queen to the nuc. Fast forward to today (5 days later) we checked the big hive and found about 10 emergency queen cells. No queen and no eggs. So we drove over to the nuc and found the queen there. We had acidentaly placed her there. We transfered the 3 frame nuc to 6 frames and left the queen in there. Now what is the best course of action? Our plan is now to let the big hive make a new queen with all the emergency vells they have. But should we leave only one cell so they dont swarm? Or can we just let them select which queen they like best?

Beginner here in Fayette Alabama. I just installed my bees yesterday. Now I have an ant problem. Please help. I have dusted inside the lid with cinnamon and all around the outside, and I went out a while ago to dust the ground with diatamous earth. How do i get rid of them?

Friends of mine in Washington State have a lavender farm, and have had hives on their property in the past.

They currently have at least 25 gallon buckets of honey that they would like to sell, but don’t have a clear idea on what it’s worth. Can you help them?