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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Jul 8, 2022 11:28:54 GMT -5
I went to the oak tree log laying on the ground yesterday and it was split, but not enough for a breaker bar to break the log apart. The hive is a good 8 feet long and a very big hive. I decided not to attempt for two very good reasons. 1st the log needed a lot of chain sawing, and my shoulder is not ready for that. 2nd there is no cell signal, and you have to drive 20 to 30 minints to get a signal. No way safe to work by myself. The owner had to leave. A friend and I will be heading back on Saturday the 16th. This removal will take 4 or 5 hours. It's a huge hive with a lot of bees and comb to remove. I had 3 5-gallon buckets, but I think I need 5 or 6 buckets. My guess a lot of honey.
Anyone close to the border of Dearborn and Ohio county near Milton Bear Branch Road, below Dillsboro is more than welcome to stop by. Shoot me a message for address. It's on West Laughery Creek road in Dearborn County along Laughery creek. On the other side of the creek is Ohio county,
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Post by esshup on Jul 8, 2022 23:29:58 GMT -5
I went to the oak tree log laying on the ground yesterday and it was split, but not enough for a breaker bar to break the log apart. The hive is a good 8 feet long and a very big hive. I decided not to attempt for two very good reasons. 1st the log needed a lot of chain sawing, and my shoulder is not ready for that. 2nd there is no cell signal, and you have to drive 20 to 30 minints to get a signal. No way safe to work by myself. The owner had to leave. A friend and I will be heading back on Saturday the 16th. This removal will take 4 or 5 hours. It's a huge hive with a lot of bees and comb to remove. I had 3 5-gallon buckets, but I think I need 5 or 6 buckets. My guess a lot of honey. Anyone close to the border of Dearborn and Ohio county near Milton Bear Branch Road, below Dillsboro is more than welcome to stop by. Shoot me a message for address. It's on West Laughery Creek road in Dearborn County along Laughery creek. On the other side of the creek is Ohio county, Can you get a car hauling trailer there and winch the whole log up on the trailer?
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Jul 9, 2022 16:20:54 GMT -5
Good idea, but the oak log is good size. That would be neat to take back and stand back up. Now you got me thinking. I have a trailer and truck, but not sure how to get it on the trailer. It's is about 1.5 feet off the ground. I should have taken some pictures.
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Post by esshup on Jul 9, 2022 21:06:52 GMT -5
Good idea, but the oak log is good size. That would be neat to take back and stand back up. Now you got me thinking. I have a trailer and truck, but not sure how to get it on the trailer. It's is about 1.5 feet off the ground. I should have taken some pictures. I have a harbor freight winch that I can chain to the front of the trailer and use a 12v battery to power it. I used to bring logs back home to cut up for firewood that way, it would pull a 12' long, 3' diameter log up onto the trailer. It looks like this but I think mine is rated at 4,000#. www.harborfreight.com/automotive/winches/2000-lb-marine-electric-winch-61237.html
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Post by mossberg500 on Jul 10, 2022 13:07:35 GMT -5
I skipped all the posts so here’s my question, do you sell honey or just supplies?
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Jul 14, 2022 9:54:17 GMT -5
I skipped all the posts so here’s my question, do you sell honey or just supplies? I sell honey, but not supplies yet. I may sell supplies when I retire in a year or two.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Jul 17, 2022 18:50:16 GMT -5
I finished the tree removal yesterday and the hive was not as big as 1st thought and was queenless. Tomorrow I'm picking up 6 virgin queens and making splits. That tree hive will get one of the six queen cells. I was hoping to do the splits today, but not in the rain. Rained all day.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Jul 27, 2022 10:45:44 GMT -5
This past Monday I grafted 30 egg/larvae to make around 25-29 new queen cells. Getting the nucs set up for next year. I hope to get around 20 successful mated queens back. I plan to grow the hive into two nucs high deeps. In the spring I will graft again and split the nucs into two to have 20 with mated queens and 20 with virgin queens. I should have around 35-37 nucs to sell next spring.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Aug 19, 2022 9:29:29 GMT -5
I did 19 splits last week of July and 1st two weeks of August. I checked 5 or 6 so far, only one might not have a mated queen. I will double check that one tomorrow while I'm checking the others. After tomorrow all hives will be set up for winter. My goal will be equalizing some and packing honey in the hive. We have about 7 or 8 more weeks before 1st killing frost. I will have around 25 hives going into winter. After 1st killing frost-freeze I'll be 2-1 sugar water bucket feeding on top of each hive. I read the old farmer's almanac we might have a real winter. They are saying very cold and snowy. August is well below average so far. No dog days of summer this year.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Aug 20, 2022 14:16:00 GMT -5
I finally finished with all the splits and combining. I ended up with 24 2022 summer queen right hives. Getting a nice thunderstorm. Now until cold I'll be feeding.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Aug 22, 2022 12:29:41 GMT -5
Here is one example where there is some price variance.
Some places sell sugar .53-.60 cents per pound and some close to $3 per pound.
It pays to shop around on the internet to find the honest seller.
Walmart is around .60/lb, but Sam's is .53 cents for same 10lb bag with yearly $45 fee. I buy around 300 pounds = 15 cents/lb. So it's .68/lb. Aldi Grocery is .58/lb.
I have not found 50lb bags yet that I can pickup and shipping costs adds way to much.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Aug 31, 2022 7:58:18 GMT -5
I lost one hive last week. Not sure what happened, but that's part of mother nature. I had noticed that queen was not doing her job laying. I think they killed her and the virgin queen never make it back from mating flights. So I'm down to 23 hives for winter. The good news I have 20 combed frames for next spring nucs. Here is a little video of wash boarding. Bees are better than us at line dancing. i.imgur.com/xKuj13P.mp4
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Sept 14, 2022 10:33:34 GMT -5
Here is a current picture of my apiary. There are four stands. I could not find a good spot to capture all of the stands and hives. I have a new project that I'll be starting soon. I'm going to build a lean off the side of the barn where the trailer is. It will be 12'W x 30'L. I will then put a railing around the perimeter of the lean and move the hives there. The two stand in front will stay there. Those will be my nuc hives to sell each year. Main hives will be under the lean. Those little trees are all white oak trees except for one chestnut. This should keep me busy. By next weekend I will have my generator hooked up to the propane tank. The generator will be outside the back corner of the barn that you can't see in the picture. Pouring the concrete pad on Saturday or Sunday and running the line this weekend. I dug a trench 12" deep to bury the line. Didn't need to, but that way it's protected some. Then I just need to move and bolt down the generator and have them (certified) to hook it up at the propane tank. Following Regulation!!!
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Post by pigeonflier on Sept 15, 2022 19:32:57 GMT -5
Hope you have a concrete truck on order. You might be in for a surprise. Even if your bagging it there might be a surprise.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Sept 19, 2022 13:28:49 GMT -5
I've notice the hives are killing the drones. It is a little early since we still have goldenrod and aster flow. Two old timer beekeepers informed me that this means cold and early winter. 1st time hearing using bees for winter prediction. I'm sure the bees know better than us. I'm going into two of my largest hives today after work to take a couple brood frame with nurse bees. The frames will be given to a two very small hives. My last two hives need a little boost for winter.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Sept 20, 2022 8:43:43 GMT -5
Last evening I went into a strong hive to take brood (eggs/larvae) with bees to give to two very small hives that I grafted last month. I checked the super small 500 bee/queen hive (1/4 of one side of the frame) and there where no eggs or larvae. I checked my notes and I had stated that the queen cell was very small and questionable. So I decided to pinch that queen and give the bees to the other 2 frame small hive. No point wasting resources. I went into a strong hive and took a brood frame with bees and gave it to the other two frame small hive. I then shook a frame of nurse bees into the small hive. In the next week or two those capped larvae will emerge and that hive will become medium size hive. So right now, it's four frames of bee and by October 1st around 5 to 6 frames of bees. With the new emerging nurse bees that queen should start laying up a couple frames the next few days. By mid October it should have a good enough population to over winter. It will stay in a double stacked nuc hive. 5 frames on top of 5ive frames. The hive in the left side of the picture that is 3 stack hive. I used one of the two.
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Post by whitetaildave24 on Sept 20, 2022 12:30:30 GMT -5
Here is a current picture of my apiary. There are four stands. I could not find a good spot to capture all of the stands and hives. I have a new project that I'll be starting soon. I'm going to build a lean off the side of the barn where the trailer is. It will be 12'W x 30'L. I will then put a railing around the perimeter of the lean and move the hives there. The two stand in front will stay there. Those will be my nuc hives to sell each year. Main hives will be under the lean. Those little trees are all white oak trees except for one chestnut. This should keep me busy. By next weekend I will have my generator hooked up to the propane tank. The generator will be outside the back corner of the barn that you can't see in the picture. Pouring the concrete pad on Saturday or Sunday and running the line this weekend. I dug a trench 12" deep to bury the line. Didn't need to, but that way it's protected some. Then I just need to move and bolt down the generator and have them (certified) to hook it up at the propane tank. Following Regulation!!! You get your concrete poured?
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Sept 20, 2022 13:35:33 GMT -5
Here is a current picture of my apiary. There are four stands. I could not find a good spot to capture all of the stands and hives. I have a new project that I'll be starting soon. I'm going to build a lean off the side of the barn where the trailer is. It will be 12'W x 30'L. I will then put a railing around the perimeter of the lean and move the hives there. The two stand in front will stay there. Those will be my nuc hives to sell each year. Main hives will be under the lean. Those little trees are all white oak trees except for one chestnut. This should keep me busy. By next weekend I will have my generator hooked up to the propane tank. The generator will be outside the back corner of the barn that you can't see in the picture. Pouring the concrete pad on Saturday or Sunday and running the line this weekend. I dug a trench 12" deep to bury the line. Didn't need to, but that way it's protected some. Then I just need to move and bolt down the generator and have them (certified) to hook it up at the propane tank. Following Regulation!!! You get your concrete poured? Yep and curing. It's 5 inches of concrete on 4 inches of river rock. They are schedule to come out next week and hook up. All I have left is the power plug cable from the generator to the box. I need to cut a hole in the barn and re-wire. I picked up the grommet yesterday.
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Sept 21, 2022 18:17:48 GMT -5
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Post by Mack Apiary Bees on Sept 26, 2022 11:04:22 GMT -5
I just got a text to rescue some bees in a tree. They cut down the tree and it's in a seven foot section. Good new they can load it in the truck for me. Heading there after work. The adventures never end. I will leave them in the tree over winter and hope the queen is still alive.
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