General Discussions

Hi all, first year bee keeper. Just went into the two hives to put in mite treatment. First hive, all went well, compressed the hive from 1 deep and 3 med to 1 deep and two medium, put the treatment in and put feeders on top.

Second hive was active but not as full of bees. started down sizing it, got the top me all full of honey, opened up the bottom two boxes to put the treatment in and there was no capped brood. Both hives, started as nuc's, were very strong all year producing plenty of hones and bees.

Question is, could I even find a mated queen to purchase yet and even is so, would it be worth it or should I call the hive a loss for the winter and plan on getting another one in the spring?

Thanks,

Dan

Had an interesting thing happen this morning. I was marking a new queen and everything was going like normal. I was able to capture her in the marking plunger, I removed the worker bees and then I marked her by pushing the plunger up and gently pushing down on the top so that she would be immobilized as I marked her. I marked her and kept the pressure on for just a few seconds then I released the plunger so that she could move around while the paint dried without worry about the paint smearing. The thing is, she didn't move. My heart skipped several beats and I said some choice things but I could not think of anything that I did wrong. I kept her in the cage and put her aside while I finished the inspection. All the time thinking what to do. After the inspection, I…

Read an interesting article published by the Baltimore Sun https://www.baltimoresun.com/2026/08/14/lanternfly-poop-hoco-honey-ellicott-city/

Just wanted to say thank you to all who helped organize, run, teach, and all the things that went into the extraction party. Everyone was super nice and welcoming and allowed for us newer beeks to learn and get some experience while having fun in our community.

While I only extracted 3 frames of honey, we had a lot of fun jarring it up as a family for gifts to our neighbors and friends. Thanks again!