I’ve been putting small hives at friends houses around town as bait hives/swarm traps.

Had a hit in one this week, we went to make sure all is well. Those swarms build out SO quick.

Always love involving the friends. Brought 4 veils cause they had a friend over.


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Missouri man arrested, accused of stealing beehives

The Associated Press 23 hrs ago

NEW CAMBRIA, Mo. — Police in northern Missouri have arrested a New Cambria man accused of stealing a dozen beehives over four counties.

Ricky Elam was arrested Wednesday following the execution of a search warrant near his home that turned up the stolen beehives, television station KTVO reported. Authorities in Macon, Linn, Schuyler and Randolph counties said they had fielded numerous reports of stolen hives over the last year.

The search warrant was issued after a beekeeper in Macon County installed a GPS tracker in one of his hives after experiencing a theft, authorities said. On Wednesday, that hive was stolen and traced to Elam’s property, according to deputies.

Elam was charged Thursday with one count of felony stealing, two counts of felony receiving stolen property and four counts of misdemeanor receiving stolen property. He was being held in the Macon County Jail on $15,000 cash-only bond.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/n...a4d916d79.html
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I know this guy and this news was so fucking funny and so very not surprising.
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Apparently the dipshit was an employee of a small bee farm, convinced the owners to start him up, and then started stealing from them and their customers. What an asshole, stealing from hardworking people like that.
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His punishment should include sitting bare ass for a couple of minutes, on an open hive on a rainy day.


I'm fairly annoyed today. Yesterday afternoon I went down to check my hives and my bets have had swarmed and a large ball was on an easy to reach limb. I went up to shop to get a box to put them in, and returned ten minutes later. They were gone. Lost my best producing queen and probably 6-7lbs of bees. Can't believe they left so quick. Looked all around my farm and adjacent and they're gone.

I removed bees from a cemetery tree next to where Memorial Day ceremony is held. Within a week I think another swarm moved into that tree. Part of the deal was I had to have bees gone tomorrow. I sprayed them which I hated but do t have time. Need to go finish them off today between rains and I'm going to block entrance on another tree tonight so people don't get stung tomorrow.
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I've been on a bee rampage the past couple of weeks.

Friday after lunch I got a call from a local golf course that had a swarm in a tree. I went to get that a guy live streamed as I did it. They were around 10' up a branch but I was able to shake them into a box. After I had shook the branch, what must have been the REST of the swarm came flying in which was somewhat chaotic but It was cool.

I took those home and was hiving them and before I was done had another call a lady had a swarm on the trunk of a tree outside her house. That one I placed a box of comb frames on the ground under it, made a bridge with an old comb and then used a brush to "encourage" the bees to go into the box.

I've tripled my hives so far this year. I know I have 2 traps that have bees in them, and I've got a tree I'm going to try a trap out on. I don't really want to screw with it but its outside the front door of an older couple who are adopting a young child from their shithead kid and they are fearful for her. I've never done a trap out, but have gathered materials to do it. The basic process for this is to make a screen/1/8" hardware cloth "cone" about a foot long that gets about as narrow as the end of your pinky finger at the end. It has flaps on the bottom and you'll staple it over the hole in the tree and make it tight so that bees can get out, but not back in. I'll either screw a box to the tree near that location or put it on a hunting ladder stand next to it so the bees have a place to go. I'll put a frame of brood in it to encourage the bees to tend them, with the idea that the hive will eventually empty enough that the queen will come out to see what's going on...and then I'll seal the entrance to the tree.

I've also decided I'm going to build a top bar hive. I've bought materials and will probably start that tonight.

In short, it's going pretty well this year and I should have some pics of new things to share.

On a side note, I learned from a large bee keeper why the bees that beat up my son are so mean....verroa mites. I've tried to requeen them with cells twice, which they chewed out, and bought a queen that died within the 1hr drive home....I'm going to use these to build comb until they die off....F those bees.
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So the mites made them crazy or what?
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Good to hear the bees are doing well this year. But wasn't the concern about the population decline connected to some type of mite?

On a side note I have quit trying to get the clover out of my yard. The bees around here seem to love it. Of course I still mow but the clover flowers come back for a few days before I need to mow again. It's the bee's buffet!
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Treb, white/sweet clover is one of the best honey making flowers in the midwest. When the white flowers show up in your yard, you know the bees are making honey. When they dry up when it gets too hot, you're not.


https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019...t-deadly-mites

verroa mites are a threat to honey bees for sure, but there are ways to control them in colonies if you're watching/testing. A lot of the big boys use an alcohol wash, where they take a half cup(300 bees) and wash them with rubbing alcohol(which does kill them) and then do a mite count. They'll use the findings of that to determine if treatment is necessary. There are several chemical products and "strips" that treat for mites....and vaporizing oxalic acid to fumigate the mites. You can really only do this when there aren't honey supers on the hives. I'll fume mine after I pull off honey at the end of August.

From what I understand some species and hybrids are more hygenic and better at dealing with them naturally. They spread by going down into a cell with a new egg and attaching to larvae, so once I have no larvae in a hive they're basically no longer an issue for those bees. I am concerned that they may have spread to some other hives, but I'll treat them in early September and move on.

I was talking to a guy who has 3500-4000 hives and he's the one that immediately identified my mean bees as having Verroa. I guess they're just agitated from having the mites on them, I suppose like having a leach on your balls or something would make you grouchy. In my case, they were mean as hell when I got them, stayed mean, and they've not accepted new queen cells even when they don't have a queen. I'm just going to let these old bitches build comb and honey until they die out. I've got enough bees caught that it's not a loss other than the 9 hours and 50+ stings I've got invested in the colony.......I'll freeze the honey(and they're making a lot) and then use it to strengthen up some of the swarm hives to get them producing, or for resources for late swarms I might get.

I've been threatening to do it, and I've got most of the materials to try a horizontal hive. I'm planning to build 1-2 of these over the next couple of nights and put one of the colonies I have in traps in it and see how it goes.
https://horizontalhive.com/how-to-bu...th-plans.shtml
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I have just built and installed a horizontal hive.
I used the plans for the hive from https://horizontalhive.com/how-to-bu...th-plans.shtml
only I used flow hive frames for easy harvesting and added an enclosed screened bottom.
The 3rd pic is bur comb that I am going to have to harvest from an A frame top. From now on it's flat tops only.
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Is that comb in the lid?
That's the exact plan I have printed to build, except I'm going to use some reclaimed 2x12 from a barn.

I'm planning to use regular deep brood box frames, but I'm kicking around the starter strips for the "bee's side" of the hive to save some money

Do you like this type of hive so far?
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Yea, other hive has 2 brood boxes and a flow hive super on top that had an A frame top. I took it off today permanently and will have to crush and filter it all. Too much work! I am used to the flow hives which are honey on tap. :-) We are surrounded by alfalfa fields as the flow is so fast I need to harvest once a month.

I love inspecting the horizontal hive, it's addictive. I cant say how much production though since its a new hive. I am getting read to take frames out of my overpopulated hive and add to it.

LOVE IT SO FAR!
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I built my top bar hive this weekend. Not sure why but it took me quite a bit longer than I figured it would, but I know if I did another one it would go faster now that I've done one.

I had a swarm that had been in a trap for a couple of weeks that I relocated to it saturday night. I need to get some thin strips or burlap to put over top of the frames but so far I think it's going to be nice. At the rate these bees were building comb on day 1 I'm not sure how long it will be before I have to remove honey frames.


I did decide to put flashing on the top to keep water out. I like how it turned out, I'm interested to see how it compares for production.
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Looks good! Yea your gonna wanna keep them in the frames or they will fill your lid with burr comb imho. Did you make a divider?
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Do these horizontal hives make harvesting the honey easier or is it better for the bees? Wondering what the advantages are vs. standard hives.
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