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Afternoon project

susie

Have two Nucs ordered so had to prep the houses. Local keeper builds them in cedar.


3

Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • SCOUT5
    Cedar is used to line closet to help keep bugs out.  I wouldn't have thought it would be good for bees.  Shows how much I don't know about it.
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  • susie

    FCD, I went back to see if were any others to which i might have not responded. I live my door. Temps in the area in the winter can get down on the single digits.


    The door faces north. With the roofed porch it stays warm inside the house. No noticeable difference. It is a double pane just like the windows.

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  • Smitty500mag
    I like that sliding glass door!
    Kind of like a French door, but it slides instead of swings.  How is it in the wintertime?
    Me too. You don't see many bee houses with sliding glass doors especially that big. Probably for some of them really big hybrid bees. 
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  • asop
    What are "Nucs" and why would you need 2 :o
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  • susie

    Asap, typical hives are setup thus:


    Bottom layer is called a "deep" and is as the name implies, the deepest layer, and has ten frames that are a little over 9 inches in depth. This is where the queen and drones live. The second layer in the basic hive is called the "super" and is shorter. Here there are 10 frames that are a little over six inches deep and where the worker bees store honey.


    Between the two is a queen excluder to keep her out of the honey you want to harvest. No queen, no eggs.


    A nuc is a smaller version of the deep with five frames and is used to transport bees. I have two hives to start and will need two nucs with a queen and her entourage of drones and workers in each nuc.


    I have never had bees but have joined a club and have gone through a lot of training. Just beginning the first year I have been told not to expect much honey. I'm hoping for enough for myself and some for son-in-law who wants to make mead.

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  • Butchdog2
    Nucs are a package of about 1 pound of bees and 1 queen shipped in a small temporary hive. You can go to a be yard and pick them up or have them mailed to you. Cost around 125.00.
    The cedar hives are interesting, there is some thought that the smell of the cedar might prevent some of the invasive insects that prey on honey bees. Mites small enough that are almost invisible to the naked eye. Another pest is a weavil, they will wipe out a weak hive in a short time. Good advice is not to buy used hives and be real careful who you buy complete hives with bees from, they can sometimes have a condition called foul brood. Hive will smell like a dead horse.
    Dead in a short time.
    Bee, ha, sure to not let more than one queen live in a hive, 2 queens  and you get a swarm=you might loose a lot of bees.
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  • Butchdog2
    Do you know where and how queen bees come about?
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  • hillbille
    Butchdog2 said:
    Do you know where and how queen bees come about?
       does it have anything to do with san fransico???????
    3
  • susie

    Multiple queens are hatched, fights ensue and the current queen remains supreme or falls to the newcomer?

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  • Butchdog2
    Too many queens in the hive, one decides to leave and takes a big hunk of the hive with her. A swarm is the result.
    Different type of queen than the ones in san fran. Worker bees decide it is time for more queens, they feed royal jelly, made by worker bees, to a few regular larva cells, walaha, you have queens. Want to mess with the near buy neighbor beekeepers. Put some bee lure in a empty hive, sometimes you will catch their swarm and then again you might even catch one of your own.
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