Recent content by Field Bee

I always loved quarter horses for trial riding, they are hard to beat. But one of the most overlooked horses that are excellent to ride is the Standardbred. They are as rugged as quarter horses; most have sweet temperaments and fearless. There are some great programs like New Vocations that...

It's not as simple as having a hive and putting bees in it. There's a learning curve. Join a local beekeeping club and take classes or get a mentor. Good luck

For my bee yard, a 2 joule fence charger has been the best protection.

See if there's a local beekeeping club you can join. They usually have classes, mentors, and loaner extraction equipment. Don't fall for the all natural beekeeping methods that doom beginners to failure. Learn from experienced beekeepers that use traditional equipment and methods, later on...

I have a friend that used pigs and an electric fence to clear a large area. They did a pretty good job, I was surprised.

Bees aren't aggressive they become more defensive. I think in the case of large colonies they seem more defensive. But the reality is the larger the colony the more guard bees they have to defend the healthy colony.

Honeybees for sure. The learning curve is steep, but the rewards are great. Honey, wax, propolis, royal jelly, pollen, apitherapy, mead, pollination, selling nucs/queens, and much more.

If she's sound a horse like that would sell for about $7500 to $10,000 in my area.

I just put about a 1/4" pitch foward on the hive. The only time you get a lot of condensation is in the winter. Yes. You can buy queens until fall. Packages and nucs are generally early season.

There's burr, bridge, and brace comb. The wax between the frames is bridge comb so they can walk to the next hive body. They will sometimes fill it will honey, other times drone brood. Burr comb is wax that they fill areas that are larger than 3/8" or just random comb like on the inner cover...

Example of a high production colony:

Ants are unsightly and bother the beekeeper more than the bees. You could put some ant bait traps under cans and cups, the ants will get under them and get to the bait. When a hive dies out and ants move in new beekeepers assume the ants caused the hive to fail. Looking at the video the ants...

They may have swarmed then and lost a lot of foragers. Was the queen marked?

Because your area most likely is in a dearth and the bees need that resource to feed brood.

Did you have a smoker lit? I would seriously look into a local beekeeping club or beekeeper that will inspect your hive with you. Or maybe allow you to watch them inspect and work a hive in their apiary. You can pour a bucket of soapy water on the ants. You'll see different color workers...