Tag Archives: feral hives

Robbing 3 –> Obtain ferals and LetMBee

If you’re reading this and you haven’t read Robbing can teach us about honeybees or Robbing – 2: What do you do? you might want to start there.  Just to summarize, last time I came home from work to a robbing episode.  Two colonies were being … Continue reading

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Accepting Mediocrity

I’ve written previously about the sayings my grandfather used to repeat. Some recent interactions with people on Facebook have me thinking of yet another one. He would say, “if you accept mediocrity, sooner or later mediocrity is all you will get”. With … Continue reading

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Where Bees are…….

I have been trying to think about ways that new beekeepers can find locations to set swarm traps. I remember being new to this and how alien it all seemed that first year. Beekeeping was hard to “get into”. So … Continue reading

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Where your bees come from matters

This year overwintered colonies seem to reaffirm conclusions that I have suspected for a long period of time. Not all bees are created equal! This is two colonies from feral stock Easter weekend 2013.  1005 (Left) is one from 2010 … Continue reading

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Saturday Morning Cutout

On Saturday 7/28 I helped a couple of friends with a cut out.  It was at an old abandoned house about 25 minutes South of me.  I am not a huge fan of removing established feral bees, but this house … Continue reading

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Prepwork the Nightwork before a Cutout

An entire week has already passed since I did a cutout on 7/8/12. This was a fairly easy one but it was still a lot of work. In today’s post I am going to discuss preparation for this cut-out. The … Continue reading

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After work work

Things have slowed somewhat with my traps.  Last night I hived a strangler, Trap03, after I got off work.  It came from a new site.  There had been a hit on it previously this spring.  “On 5/13 – HIT, but the … Continue reading

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Inspiration from across the pond

There are many facets of beekeeping.  Some are fun, exciting and rewarding while others are tedious and boring.  This year I have assembled and wired hundreds of frames already and need to do about a hundred more.  It makes me … Continue reading

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Another observation on swarming behavior

I am becoming more and more convinced about another observation in swarm trapping.  Last year (2011) I began the spring with only three hives.  They were all relocated to Hive Site 01 (HS01).  I had just began trapping and did … Continue reading

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Potential pitfalls to swarm trapping

Last weekend I found myself in a funk.  There was an event that made me realize that swarm trapping along with all of its positive aspects may also have some negative consequences.  Trap 15 had been hanging in one of … Continue reading

Posted in Pests, Posts, Swarm Trapping | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments