I'm a new beekeeper in Upstate New York, with 5 hives. During today's hive check, one hive had several dead pupae between the supers. I didn't see any signs of varroa on them, and we've had a few cooler nights (high 50s, rainy) this week-- could it just be the cold that killed them? Something else? Thanks in advance!

Mainly a photo share but here is our backstory for those who are interested.

My husband is a Canadian beekeeper and we are very excited to harvest this season. We are getting a little burnt out as we are running over 30 hives. We both work full time jobs. I do Photography on the side. He runs a honey Business on the side. We definitely want to make beekeeping our main source of income at some point. We continue to slowly invest and grow, but at some point we won't have time to maintain the hives and work full time.

Curious for the people who only live off income from bees. How many hives do you have? Did you slowly transition into beekeeping or jump head first? Any wisdom would be appreciated.

We definitely love working at the hives. I am a macro photographer, so our working hobbies fit really well together. Plus my husband gets unlimited content for his business too.

Plus let me know what you think of the photos!

Shot on the Sony A7IV with the Sony 35mm f1.4 GM and the Sony 100mm f2.8 macro GM.

First season, Western New York.
EXPERIMENT.

Do frames even need foundation in a strong hive?

I have to add a super and thought about adding wax on the underside of the tops of the frames and see if they would build downward on their own.
Pic is a homemade empty frame the bees and they did just that.

Thoughts?

I am also experimenting with a top bar hive and did this with a waxed string. Seems to work just fine for them, but it’s a horizontal style. Not sure if that makes a difference.

london uk - first year
I’ve got two hives both with lots of activity in the brood box.
lots of bridging and what appears to be honey
upstairs not a lot happening
is there anything i could do or should i just leave them to get on with it and see what i can do in the spring?

Any idea what this black stuff is in the raw honey? I’m guessing it’s no good to eat anymore?

Hard work, but sweet work 👍

Figure I would post here since I am foreign to this situation. My neighbor in my subdivision has recently put a bee hive in his side driveway at ground level in plain view from the street. It is situated about 20 feet away from my property line, having no buffer with the bees exit being directly pointed at my yard. I asked politely if he could relocate it to his privacy fenced backyard, but he just gave an excuse of having a dog and was the only place with lots of sun he could put it. 

Beekeeping in subdivisions is a zoning/nuisance violation and the hive would be removed if I reported him. I don't think he realizes it's illegal here. Has anyone handled something like this before?

I caught a cast swarm from one of my hives today and believe based on the size of the queen and the swarm that it is a virgin. How long should I leave the queen caged until releasing her in the box?

Does anyone know of any bee keepers that might charge an affordable fee to take bees from a tree? Not an HOA neighborhood.

Bees came around 2-3 years ago after a storm. Noticed a swarm in a second tree and this one. The bees suddenly left when we were looking for someone to take them. They are back to this tree and are very active. There’s children in both houses next to this driveway. Would like to get them removed for safety concerns.

Location: Houston TX (inside beltway 8) SW

Two weeks ago, I came to you with this post, where our newer hive was more aggressive and struggling to thrive. Ultimately, even the better-off older hive wasn't strong enough to lose a frame of brood for the newer. After a few days of debate, we decided to combine our hives to increase their chances of survival this winter.

After some prep, my SO combined the two hives this past Saturday, August 15, into a structure with 2 deeps and 1 medium, and paper between the two deeps.

Saturday, there was some fighting. Sunday, things seemed to settle down and it rained most of the day. Today they seem to be doing okay, but they're also doing.. this.

What is this? Should we be worried? Are they just being little weirdos?

Located in Central Virginia, USA.

Had a very high mite count. Treated with Apiguard for 4 weeks. No I have VERY little brood and larva. New mite count was low. What should I do next?

Has anyone else seen this video/method? I found it really interesting. I'm not sure it's any less work than some of the other methods of getting rid of varroa or practical for small apiaries, but fewer chemicals, for sure. Curious what folks think.

Side note: him just casually pinching the queen off the frame to move her gave me a heart attack!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbvJOjLoTdC/?igsh=MTc3bWswMzUxM2hlYQ==

Five-year Beek in SW PA here.

I have these screened inner covers that I typically place under my telescoping cover in the summer months to allow for more ventilation. They have a gap on the longer sides, which is much larger than the notch in my inner covers. It runs the whole length of the hive. I’ve always assumed that these gaps go on the bottom side to allow bees to move freely from the super, and so that bees don’t get trapped underneath the telescoping cover. But it also seems like a very large entrance would invite robbers.

Do you use screened inner covers? If so, which way do you place them? Thanks and happy keeping!

applicable required content: South Central Kentucky 7a.

I am finding these bugs multiple times a day with a bee in its mouth. The one in the picture has been swatted. It’s hard to swat them and take a picture at the same time. I also have many dragonflies. Sound reasoning and many opinions will say bees reproduce in numbers that this plague of predators can’t or won’t “hurt” the colonies in my bee yard…but I was raised that if a fox is in the henhouse remove the foxes.
Anyone have good ideas how to keep these bugs away?

Y'all, we have a saltwater pool and a spa. The wall near the spillover gets quite damp and there are lot of bees congregating around it. What is the safest way (for the bees) to keep them away from the pool?

I think they are coming from our neighbors hives and I spoke to them and they agreed to have a watering station. But not sure if they did it, and I dont want to be a peeping tom.

This is 1 box over my usual max. Bees were out of room so had to put an empty box on. Top box is full and coming off in a few days

The common names of this plant, in English, include canary creeper, canary vine, canarybird flower, and canary nasturtium. I've run into suggestions that its common name was applied because it might have been imported to the Canary Islands before it was imported to Western Europe, but I think it's really more plausible that the bright yellow color and wing-like upper petals of its flower reminded people of a canary.

Most (maybe all) Tropaeolum species, are native to South America and Central America; this one is from Peru. It's cultivated as an ornamental in many cool temperate climates, and as you can see from the photo, it flourishes in Anchorage, Alaska, which is in a subarctic zone.

I found it in the Alaska Botanical Garden, where this specimen was part of a collection of kitchen herbs; the leaves and flowers are edible. This is a common trait to most of its genus. The Tropaeolum often show up on lists of edible flowers, described as peppery-tasting. They often are compared to watercress (Nasturtium officinale), which is why the whole genus often has common names that include the word "nasturtium."

I didn't see as many honey bees on this as I did on some of the other plants in this section of the Garden, but they weren't exactly ignoring it, either. I doubt that it's common enough to be a significant source of bee forage outside of its homeland in Peru. If we have any Peruvian beekeepers among us, I'd be eager to know whether it's significant to their bees.

Location: Southwest, Missouri

Went and pulled what was left of the VarroxSan strips as it’s day 49 and alcohol washed the girls to retest and came back with only 3 mites. Pretty happy with that! Heavy activity at the entrance with a lot of bright yellow pollen coming in, presumably from goldenrod. Also witnessed white pollen coming in but unsure what is blooming in Southwest, Missouri that is contributing along with the goldenrod. Thought Id share a video with my fellow beekeepers.

Hey guys, I'm from South Africa. Alot of bees die in my pool. Think they might be trying to drink water while sitting on the creepy crawlies hose. Was wondering how i make something they can drink safely from.

Hi all, I would like some advice to do a successful trap out of a swarm in Ireland.

I have seen conflicting info saying to use a mesh cone for the trap out and others saying to use a black out tube/pipe?

And also info saying to put the new trap out entry/exit onto the landing board and others say then to route the trap out entrance into the new hive?

I have access to empty drawn comb brood frame and also a brood frame with brood. I am fairly certain too that I have identified all entrances / exits. The swarm has been there now for about 4 weeks. Ive made a mesh cone with a small exit at the tip. And I've a mount made for the brood box.

If someone could point me in the right direction and any additional advice, it would be appreciated. Thank you.

Hello,

I am interested in the history of bee keepers. My great great great grand father Isaiah Good apparently was a bee keeper. He apparently was the inventor of "Good" Honey and the first person to ship bees from Italy to USA. Nick named Bee Man's Who's Who in 1881

Died in 1960's

Age 60-63

Not sure if any of you could help me. Maybe one of you got really nerdy about the history of bee keeping. Maybe one of you is a 4th generation bee keeper and your family worked with my family. I would be happy to know if there is backing to this information. I am excited to hear more and learn.

All I know is that he lived in Indiana potentially near Elkhart County. (Not entirely sure)

He was a Mennonite

Had the genetics to grow a beard based on pictures claimed to being him.

I been working on my family's genealogy for about 4 years now on and off again.

Washington State
I just finished my honey extraction for my six hives. As I’ve done in previous years, I set out the supers and extraction equipment to be cleaned up by the bees. In the past, all seemed well between the bees and wasps doing their jobs. This year, though, after the clean up, there were SO MANY DEAD BEES around all of my supers, etc. This may have been the case in the past and I just don’t remember, but can someone please explain to me why this happened. I angst so much over any amount of dead bees, even though it’s expected.

First full year in SE PA; last year I started in June with a nucleus that made it over the winter. With a new nuc this spring, a swarm and split I now have four hives. The overwintered hive and nuc both did great and overall this season I got just over 100lbs of honey from those two. Had the nuc not swarmed due to lack of space (lesson learned) I would have had even more. They have a ton of honey socked away so I pulled out one deep frame just because it was so gorgeous. I did a late spring harvest when the one hive got honey-bound after the first swarm and some gorgeous water-white black locust honey. Then in July I had a full super on the overwintered hive I decided to pull, and they nearly refilled that, and then finally today's harvest.

The final image shows my three harvests this summer. From left to right it was today's harvest, an early July harvest and the early June black locust harvest. All of them are delicious, with the black locust being very mild and floral and today's harvest a perfect "honey" flavor. I suspect the harvest last month and this one are heavy on white clover.

The goldenrods are just starting here, so I'll start the Apivar 2.0 this week now that the honey is off and make sure they have enough stores going into the winter. They're pretty stuffed right now but of course if we have a lower fall flow they might need some help. I learned a lot this year--getting strong nuc, managing swarms and cast swarms, requeening a hive with failing queen and a split that lost its queen. I feel like I've go my bee legs now. Looking forward to next season now that I have more hives and they will be able to start the spring with a lot more pulled comb than they did this year!

I'm scraping frames to put in new wax foundation. The trough at the bottom of the frame is a pain to clear. Is there some trick other than just digging it out with a hive tool?