The Treatment-Free Beekeepers' Forum

GregV

More.

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GregV

Here are some pictures for you (harvesting honey from winter dead outs).
If any plastic Lang frames are available, they can be cut out and reused as foundation-less - really nice starter strips all way around.

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GregV

Getting excited for the 2018 season. Swarm chasing, hive building, and splitting... Meanwhile, I find one benefit in the massive and early die offs - the honey crop. It is kinda of how people used to keep bees in the skeps/logs - they just selectively killed some of the hives so to harvest them. Wel...

GregV

GregV wrote: Have 2 out of 11 surviving. Both are queens from Nordak. So none of your caught swarms survived? Not a single swarm survived (all being commercial swarms as it becomes apparent). Going forward I will view these commercial swarms as one-time resources, if catch any. Looks to me, in my a...

GregV

Have 2 out of 11 surviving.
Both are queens from Nordak.

PS: good news - BIG honey harvest from dead outs;

have been crush/straining non-stop as I don't have the means to store all those frames free of moths;
honey from dark brood combs is delicious.

GregV

NGAGHET and Flon18:

These private messages are not working for me (just are not sending from my end).
Please find me in the Beesource forum and we can talk there.
There is "Horizontal deep hives" thread under the Bee Forum

GregV

So the buzz is: * 3 out of 11 left alive (27%) but the remaining survivors look good * every single commercial swarm I got - dead --->>> pretty good because they died rather quickly and left me tons of honey and combs (these commercials swarms are just that - one-time use resources; all it is to it;...

GregV

This was my 6th year. I checked out the Purdue queens and bees and they are running 20% more in cost than other bees. I just can't justify the expense anymore. Things were affordable-ish when we started. Now bees are running almost 3 x what they cost when we started. I think it's time to stop the m...

GregV

If interested in this subject, send me a private message. Thanks.

GregV

(a short self-unban) As of Black Friday audit - lost 4 out of 11 to mites (classic mite bombs). The remaining 7 are holding on. Surprisingly, even those that seem to be crashing as of Black Friday - stabilized somehow and holding. One very strong hive dropped down to just 2-3 frames of bees (scoop f...

GregV

Not much Buzz here. The weather is cold and rainy and all the hives are buttoned up for winter. A local Beekeeper that I purchased two packages from this year was on a local radio program last weekend. He made the comment that annual losses in the northern Illinois area now run 80%! I texted him ye...

GregV

Just to show good wintering on narrow/deep frame is a common thing (not just a single beekeeper phenomenon). Below is video posted on February 13, 2017 by some other fellow (filmed on February 10, 2017). Ukraine. Deep horizontal hive on Ukranian frame. Starting minute 1:20 observe the frames - the b...

GregV

Here is a quick 4 minute video (in Russian); the locality is in Ukraine. January 26, 2016. Just observe as the keeper quickly checks his hives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksFCfPEiwn4 Typical (as Michael said) - bees are on top and started to wander around as they can not go up and are forced to...

GregV

This picture is not always true.... I would agree. I feel that the book author does favor his own frame subjectively. I, for example, disagree with his argument that "ukranian hives are too small and swarmy" and that's why he chose a different, larger frame route. It is still a good book ...

GregV

I will plug a book here just because I am a fan (not mine; I have nothing to do with the book). Here is a picture from the book. ClusterFormingDiffFrames.jpg I will let the author of this blog to talk about the book as they are doing a fine job already: http://happyhourtopbar.blogspot.com/2015/04/do...

GregV

.... you can see the arrangement they did central frame, the domes later were as high as half of the frames in the other hives. .. These kinds of frames (mostly empty; like the pictured) should be removed from the wintering nest completely. I hope, SiWolKe, you reduce the nest for winter. If your b...

GregV

>Is it that cluster started on the top and stayed on the top all winter OR is it the cluster started down below and ended up on the top after few weeks/months. I suspect, lots of those who claim the "top wintering" actually report the latter cases. IF, indeed, they spend the entire winter...

GregV

>It is not given that the bees spend the winter in the top box. Nothing in beekeeping is 100% but I've seldom seen an exception here. >With your top entrances - they will tend to do the entire winter in the top because the bottom is too cold to sit there efficiently. I had them with bottom entrance...

GregV

Bees here spend the winter in the top box. How will they move up? The gaps have never stopped my bees from moving from box to box. It in no way slows them down. In fact the cluster usually spans the gap and the bees move from side to side more easily with a gap in the middle of the cluster. It is n...

GregV

>In fact, even conventional Dadants/Langs routinely freeze in place - food-less. Exactly. Which indicates it's not the direction that is the issue. It's the cold. >Mid West, Nebraska included, has very crazy winter swings where cold spells alternate with warm temperatures and this allows bees to re...

GregV

You assume that bees only live in vertical hollow spaces in trees. They live in horizontal ones in trees as well. They also live in any other hollow spaces they can find other than trees, horizontal or vertical. Bees have no trouble moving horizontally. If they did then horizontal hives would not h...

GregV

You mean Kazimierz Lewicki who constructed this great frame 240×435 mm in his orginal Lewicki hive in 1880 year. It was complicated and hard to build hive with two parts. .. Yes; that's him. Thanks for the correct name spelling (I was not sure). His original hive was not the greatest and over-engin...

GregV

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GregV

OK, for the fun of it, here are the pics how I packed a colony into my latest deep hive for the winter. This is a traditional way to winter in a traditional 16-frame deep horizontal hive. The bees are sitting on 8 deep frames - any frame not covered with bees has been taken out (actually, some are j...

GregV

My last 16-frame hive built for the 2017 season.
This one is an experiment - the walls are from sandwiched plywood and rigid foam.
A bit lighter, but feels less sturdy than solid board hives.
Did not take me less work either (give and take).

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GregV

Cool, thanks.

So, basically, this may be a re-confirmation of a simple man theory - "give the bees a good hive; they will take care of the rest".

GregV

For sure top entrances are fine for moisture to dissipate. But be aware top entrances will cost you extra in terms energy losses (same as required honey weight to over-winter). If you don't care, it is fine. If you do care - consider alternatives. I observe how people in much more brutal conditions ...

GregV

I observed a video where tiny mating nucs in polystyrene hives wintered just fine outside (Ukraine; similar USDA zone). Out of 4-5 all made it fine. That is encouraging. To clarify: the tiny nucs were configured the warm way on those teeny-tiny square frames; there was a ventilation hole in a floor...

GregV

....I am struggling to understand what you mean by reorienting the hive body 90 degrees, do you have a pic of that? Not the hive body itself - turn the frames within the hive. Turn them 90 degrees so that they become narrow and tall (not wide and shallow). Obviously, you'd need to construct somethi...

GregV

moebees wrote:........ it will be interesting test for my polystyrene hives to see if such a small cluster can make it. ....

I observed a video where tiny mating nucs in polystyrene hives wintered just fine outside (Ukraine; similar USDA zone).
Out of 4-5 all made it fine.

GregV

Greg I think swarm trapping is becoming an obsession for me, I really enjoy doing it............. Also I am going to reread Tom Seeleys book honey bee democracy again, wonderful read. Any other good books or articles on trapping you can recommend? Cheers Based on the feeling when you find a trap wi...

GregV

moebees wrote:
I tried duct tape; it does not for me as the permanent marker notes on it go away too quickly

Most permanent markers are not UV resistant. Garden markers or a grease pencil will last a long time.

Thanks.

GregV

Strange. I see full article. :( after tommorow i could try copy this text here Please! If you have access to the entire PDF, just post it up. It will be greatly appreciated. I suspect this has to do with the regions we are coming from. The web site senses our origin in Poland and gives you full fre...

GregV

I tried duct tape; it does not for me as the permanent marker notes on it go away too quickly. Instead, I want start keeping kind of a "passport" for each hive just under the lid - just toss in a piece of cardboard with notes on it. I have seen people doing it. Otherwise, I keep a small ta...

GregV

Interesting topic.. Assuming 50% survival, I should get 5 hives next spring (more is a bonus). Though, I am pretty bullish about the 7 hives out of 10 I got; the remaining three - not very bullish; the Italians will surprise me if they survive. So I will make a 2-3 combined honey hives configured to...

GregV

HI! Good to have you here.

GregV

Yesterday took a day off from work so I could use the last warm day to re hive bees. Just crappy, cold weather now as far as forecast can see. So I had to move fast to move my two remaining nucs from traps into a solid winter hive (put them into a solid horizontal 20-framer, side-by-side). So a side...

GregV

I thought about heading off in Greg V territory and coming up with a design of my own but after more thought decided to use an established form factor. Here is a "free advice".... :D Feel free to ignore. Take an established form factor and optimize it. This is what I do. I am not doing pu...

GregV

There is another link in google with full article for free. Interesting. What are the google search words? I looked for long time and could not find the entire article for free. Here You are https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00484-015-1057-z?no-access=true Unless I am missing something obv...

GregV

MMh, Lets see what are the surviving traits but nobody will reduce space there and warmth must be kept by the cluster alone. As long as they have very solid "ceiling" above the nest that prevents the heat loss upwards (the most critical), they may do OK in your locality. I know of two fac...

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