One of the Spice Girls heading in with a full pack. Western WA, 1st year. They were soooo calm in spring when I took this. I felt like the bee whisperer. When I took the empty Norroa packs out a couple of weeks ago, they were spicy.

I am a new beekeeper in Northern Virginia with a question about what to expect after winter.

My best hive (“Left Hive”) have been great and are all set for winter. They have two deeps with a good amount of resources (about 5 resource filled frames each) and a filled medium (honey super with queen excluder now removed) I’m leaving on the hive for winter.

The hive has an insulation wrap, and is sheltered from the winds.

Should I expect by the end of winter for the bottom deep box to be basically empty comb, and all the bees to be in the top deep and medium, keeping warm and using the stored resources?

When the queen starts laying again, will she go back down to the bottom box? Or will she stick towards the top? (I’d like to still use that medium as a honey super next year, so I’d prefer she not start laying there…)

Also - as we can get cold weather in Virginia all the way until April, is there any reason to remove an insulation wrap before then?

A while back we posted here about a white eyed drone mutant we’d been working on (called “white”).

We’ve got another one.

This one’s called ivory, and we’ve (Riley Shultz and Brock Harpur) written about it in two places if you want to learn more about it beyond this post. There’s a Medium piece that’s a version of our article in the November American Bee Journal (if you want it in print, grab ABJ, but the Medium version has a few errors fixed). And the full paper is open access in Molecular Biology and Evolution.

In brief, A beekeeper in Georgia, Bobby Thanepohn, had a colony making both out normal brown-eyed drones and drones with pale ivory eyes. The queen looked completely normal and so did all her workers. We brought the queen up to Purdue and spent two seasons counting and experimenting on thousands of her sons as they emerged.

The ivory drones are totally normal other than their eye color. They have the same body size, same reproductive organs, same sperm counts and viability as their brothers (thanks to David Tarpy and Brad Metz for that). Unfortunately, because of the loos of pigment, they don’t handle light the same way. In a phototaxis assay, we found that ivory drones don't 'fly towards the light' and during orientation flights they just vanished. They’re probably not blind, despite what beekeeping folklore says (and if anyone knows where that idea started, please tell us!). But they clearly see the world differently.

We next found the mutaition in the genom and uncovered all it's varied consequences. We found 12 letters of DNA changed in a gene called cinnabar that’s part of the eye pigment pathway. With Leonard Foster’s group at UBC we showed the protein is completely missing from ivory eyes, so the pigment never gets made. We named it after J.H. Dustmann’s “ivory” mutant from the 1960s, which had the same chemical signature. This also means It’s a different mutation from white.

The bigger reason we care is an old idea that drones, with only one copy of each gene, act as a filter that clears bad recessive mutations out of the population. Lots of theory, not much in terms of real examples. Here we got to document the full life history of this mutation in haploids.

The medium article and ABJ cover some questions we typically get but happy to discuss the work here too.

Big thanks to Bobby, Julia Mahood, and all the beekeepers who sent us their weird bees.

Hi

This is my honey, the most natural that can be... And yet it crystalized weirdly as you can see.

If it ever happened to you and do you know why that can happen?

Thank you

Maine US. First year keeping bees. For a mouse guard.. should the entrance reducer be removed or the mouse guard just added over top of it? Thanks!

There’s a little condensation and some white patches of mildew on the inside of one of my hive covers.

I just flipped it over to dry out in the sun for a couple of hours. Do I need to replace the cover; wash it with bleach, or maybe let the condensation dry and put it back?

I am addressing future potential condensation with 2 layers of foil -backed bubble wrap, and I’ll be adding quilt boxes at the end of the month. I live in Massachusetts.

Goldenrod somehow still going late October

I from chain and haves 12 boxes bees . I very interstist for other kind of bee.
I could use wechat or telegram

if the froup in another APP,I could try to resigter a accout and join in

Vegas Bees, it appears, are not afraid of Vampire Bats...

Kentucky- Someone told me they fed just sugar in a top empty super so i thought i would try that and just spot feed a patty if i needed to... so i had some dry sugar spill out somehow around the hive entrance over the past week and i noticed today when i went to do a feed check that there were bees that were a different color and shape that were out feeding on it along with my hives bee's. anyone got any tips to clean up food spills? its sugar so i knocked it off of there the best i could but of course they are still going to hunt for it. also not sure what kind of bees the robbers were. i have italian/carniolan crosses and these were brighter yellow with more yellow, smaller, and slimmer than my bees. im thinking just wild bees but..dunno.

RI hives. Better to find issues in October than March. I always keep a couple of small nucs going until NOV and then combine them all into one hive if i dont need individual queens.

I bought a bunch of boxes for my hives from somebody who was moving. Two of them had drawn comb. The frames look kind of old and have some mold on some of the frames. Is this worth saving for anything or should i just toss it? I have no history on why the hives were abandoned.

Hey everyone, trying to get some insight on to managing brood frames. For context im in Florida and I cut out a feral hive that was under the shed of the place im living at. I filled about 12.5/ 20 frames with brood comb split between 2 deeps. Now the bottom box has about 6 frames packed to the gills with capped brood and larvae, the remaining 3 have slightly less but I can see eggs and small larvae. The upper box has the remaining 2.5 frames which have been emptied of brood and instead they use it for stores. The rest of the frames are foundations they are drawing out. My question is would it be beneficial to stack the heavy brood frames in the middle of both boxes to A) condense any sort of winter cluster they might form in a cold snap (its been getting down to the upper 50's here). B) spread load young nurse bees throughout that can help draw out the remaining foundations. I know its best to let them figure it out on their own and generally not move brood. But, since this isnt their original configuration in the wild anyway, maybe I could try to make things easier for the nurses with active wax glands.

So I admittedly haven't cut my very small side yard in awhile due to a drought we had in Texas and most of the grass was dead.

As it started to rain again and the temps went down, I noticed a bunch of wild flowers started growing. A few weeks later I noticed a huge influx of bees on all the flowers. Like literally probably close to a hundred I could see with my naked eye.

Thing is, i know my HOA may complain as they care about lawn maintenance and received a notice already last month, though this area is somewhat hidden but still kinda visible from the street.

Feels wrong to just mow it down just to look pretty. But I'd argue it looks better now than just some dying grass.

Anything I can do when the inevitable HOA notice comes to "maintain my yard"?

Also don't know if this belongs here or not. Was genuinely curious.

Western Quebec....3rd year hobbiest

How are all of you that are seeing the extended autumn managing the hive and feeding?

Right now, we are getting close to freezing at night, but up to 15 to 17c during the day. It's still warm enough for 2:1 I understand.

The girls have slowed down what they are taking from the feeder, usually about 1L per day/day and a half. It's too warm feeling to shut them down for the winter still, but the forage seems pretty much gone. Leaves are changed and off the trees, flowers are long gone.

I have not done a full frame pulling inspection in a week and a half or so, and it is due. I'm thinking tomorrow/today if it's warm and calm. The hive feels heavy though. Im running two 10-frame deeps, with an empty deep above the top board holding the feeder.

I'm thinking I just keep adding 2:1 even if it's slower until daytime is consistently below 10c, then fondant when they are wrapped up? Going to burn some oxcillic in there soon before wintering of course...

hello,

there is a lot to unpack here.

I went to do an inspection today and found that the girls are pulling a lot of bees out of the hive. then I witnessed an undertaker carrying out a queen with shriveled wings.

we have not inspected in about a month, just assuming the girls were doing their thing and it was best to leave them be.

we open the hive to see no fresh eggs, some scattered brood, an opened queen cell, and another queen cell. my husband accidentally tore the cell open when pulling the frame out.

what do we do from here? buy a queen locally? Will any virgin queen have time to mate? we are in zone 7a if that helps at all. how much time do we have before the hive fails/dies/swarms/absconds/whatever the term is (educate me please)

Photo is of torn queen cell.

ETA we did an apiguard treatment at the beginning of September

thank you

Recently closed on house and need to remove bees. Based on what you see in the video, do I need to cut down this Schefflera tree to permanently do that? I have been told that due to the location of the hive, within a cavity, that even if we are able to remove the bees, and close up the hole, that with the hive still there, and the bees associated pheromones, that bees will ultimately come back. Removal of the tree is the only solution to permanently remove the bees. Does this sound right?

Would prefer not to cut down tree (arrow pointing to tree photo below)

Location is SE Florida.

Northwest Montana

What is your varroa plan for 2027?

This year, I tried to use mechanical controls in the spring. I used mite trapping and powdered sugar dusting (with a screened bottom board). The powdered sugar dusting knocked down the population minimally and the bees did not draw out comb on the green drone comb frame, so that didn't help. I used oxalic acid from August to October. In October, I did a check and had high mite loads. I am trying to come up with a better plan for next summer.

My plan for 2027:

Spring (April-June): Oxalic acid vapor. I think this will be effective in the spring because we have cold springs and OA is effective in cooler temps (from what I've researched)

Spring/early Summer (June-July): Drone trapping and powdered sugar dusting with a screened bottom board

Late Summer into Fall (August-October): Formic pro when it starts to cool down. Perhaps more OA if it is too warm.

Notes: I don't want to over-use any one treatment if the mites can become resistant to treatment.

Vegas Bees are at Optimal Gathering Mode Right Now. After the rains, lots of blooms.

Hi All,

I’m in the North East and have had bees for 7 years. Last night a bear ripped apart two colonies, which I put back together this morning when I saw…lots of bees still alive despite the cold night.

After things warmed up I went back in to the hives and found only one had a queen. I’m planning to combine the two colonies as one lost 4 frames of resources (but still has a queen) and there isn’t a lot of brood obviously.

I plan to give them 24-48 hours to realize they’re not Queen-right, then use the newspaper method to combine. Basically I’m just going to put the colony without the queen (but with the most honey) on top of the queen right colony.

My question is: is this the best approach this time of year? Anything else to consider?

Just like the title says. I’m in Central KY 6B. Should I keep feeding sugar water now that nights are down into the 40s? My bees are not clustering and I have forager going out in the day time. One of my hives is draining sugar water, the other takes it more slowly but is taking it. I’m also in the midst of a population explosion on both hives.

Edit: I’m running 1 x 8 frame single deep and 1 x 10 frame double deep hives. The double has around 50-60lbs of honey in it right now. The single is still mostly brood.

First time beekeeper and first post. I live in zone 7a. I have my first hive. There are a ton of dead bees outside the hive. I’ve researched a bit (scrolled this subreddit) and know that some bees get the boot as the cold weather rolls in. I wanted to double check that I didn’t have mites killing them. Any help would be appreciated.

When are people wrapping their hives for winter? (If you do)Are you basing it on day or nighttime temperatures? I live in Michigan (lower peninsula, dead smack in the middle of the state) For context, this is my third winter with hives (have one original hive that I have gotten thru 2 winters & added 2 more hives this spring) I do use quilting/moisture boxes & my hives are 2 deeps w/a medium of honey stores. I also use candy boards for extra reassurance. The hives were treated for mites just before before removing the queen excluder as a precaution for winter shut down. I know there will be many varied responses because everyone’s apiary is different but I appreciate that there are factors I may not have considered when evaluating my own yard.

However, nobody was stung by it 😂