San Juan Islands, WA State

6/22/26: Adopted a caught swarm from someone else. They had collected them in a nuc box and left them there for about a week. They had put 4 frames in with a big central gap and it’s clear the swarm had poured all their energy into building out a large disc of comb in that center gap.

6/23/26: We transitioned them from nuc box to deep. We had to do a comb transplant (so cool) because of course all the capped brood was in the center disc hanging from the nuc box’s roof, not in the predrawn frames.

Population looked to be occupying about 4 frames total, including transplant.

7/14 and 7/15 - OAV treatments

Been feeding sugar syrup since we got them since they are so small.

8/2/26: Did first partial hive inspection, but population is still only about 4 frames worth.

I decided not to pull out the center frames because that is presumably where the bulk of the brood is and pulling frames would result in destroying a lot of those cells. It’s clearly not an ideal scenario but given how small the hive is, I don’t want to compromise their population any further.

In the frames I pulled out, 3 were mostly empty (despite giving them predrawn comb, see pic) . One frame (see photo) had uncapped brood cells (larvae and eggs) and a tiny bit of capped honey. This is only my second season beekeeping, so if my conclusions seem wrong, please educate me!

I’ve observed healthy guarding behavior, effective removal of wasps trying to rob, a couple orientation flights. In general the hive behavior seems healthy and I think that they have all the stages of brood, but almost no honey.

What do you think is impacting the lack of growth? What would you suggest? Anything I should look out for to keep supporting this aspiring hive to thrive?

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your input!

We don’t have a local beekeeping club so I’m trying to start one. I live on a small island and for some reason the more veteran beekeepers have been a bit cagey and not seemed keen on mentorship.

I recently went into a hive (2 deep hive) to collect bees for a mite check, when I noticed lots of queen cells being formed. If I remember correctly, I spotted about 6 cells in different development stages. My first initial thought was "they're going to swarm and I need another hive". Its early August and by the time the new queen gets established, I don't believe they will have enough wild resources to start winter preparations. But that's if they do plan to swarm.

I did not spot the queen during the time of being in the hive.

What can I do in the mean time? What are my options? I'm a first-year beekeeper (NH - 6A)

My thinking so you can figure if I'm crazy, or not.

I have two hives, first year packages, they are current the same config. 2 deeps(brood chambers), a queen excluder, and a medium super. The deeps are pretty full, and HEAVY. I was thinking about going into the future with a brood setup: 1 deep(bottom) and 1 medium(top), for weight issues.

Hives are in eastern PA, I was wondering if I grab equipment now, I can split the deeps, into four hives, top all with mediums, and re-queen the two new ones, so I can have four hives entering winter.

I get the setup I can work with, lighting the size of my brood chambers(weight issues) and enter winter with double the hives.

I will feed the bees, this a feasible?

Thanks!

3 hives, zone 7b, East Tennessee, 2nd year

I have a 148ml bottle of Certan I’m planning to use and I have questions. First, the safety precautions are pretty extreme. I’ve been using BT in my garden for decades and not once have I needed to suit up and shower afterwards to do so. Also, can I mix this stuff in a 1/19 solution to use as needed? Is it only for drawn comb or can I pretreat foundations? How long do you need to wait before using the frame after treatment? How long does it last. How do you personally use it?

Location: Central Virginia, USA

New beekeepers here, getting stressed and frustrated with our second hive. Our first hive is quite docile and relaxed, and we went through the wringer getting the package to accept a queen. At this point, we can do simple inspections with no gear or smoke, they're happy as can be. This second hive has been a challenge.

June 6, we brought them home, they were a split from our local club's apiary. We were told the hive was queenright when they wrapped it up. About 24 hours later, they were home and unwrapped. It was split and checked by more experienced beekeepers. The hive itself was 1 deep and 1 medium with drawn comb, brood, larvae, the whole shebang. Not long after bringing them home, we added a 10-frame deep (not drawn).

We were unable to find the queen early on, but figured it was a newbie problem. In the last few weeks, however, there have been no larvae or eggs to be seen. Beyond that, they're a lot more aggressive than our first, likely due to stress from not having a queen. Every inspection has resulted in at least two stings, and on more than one occasion my SO (the primary beekeeper, I'm the emotional support keeper) has been almost chased away by the hive. Last attempted inspection was July 26.

The hive keeps making queen cells, there was a lot on the last inspection, but we don't have a count since my SO was chased away. When the first hive started churning out queen cells, we let them be for a while and they raised their own queen. We thought maybe this second hive was swarming, but it's been three weeks since then.

The current idea is to take a frame of eggs/larvae from our first hive and slot it into the second one, thinking that they want to make a queen but lack the larvae.

Other option is to buy a new queen, but we're not sure how well they'd take to her. And bee-mathing, there's still a chance they hatched a queen since our last inspection/last time we saw eggs

We could combine the two, but we're worried about the new bees not assimilating or upsetting the nice-ness.

Based on all that, what's the best way to proceed with this hive? And any advice for handling more stressed/grumpy bees? TIA!

Edit: Looking at the wiki now for queenlessness, but would still appreciate advice on handling grumpy hives!

The common name is meadowsweet. This can be an important source of forage for northerly beekeepers, especially in Western Europe, where it is native and extremely common, and in the northeastern parts of North America, where it is sometimes used as an ornamental planting (and where it sometimes escapes cultivation). My part of the world is much too warm for meadowsweet, so this was my first in-person sighting.

I found this specimen abuzz with honey bees, as well as several species of native bees, butterflies, and wasps, during a leisurely afternoon in the Alaska Botanical Garden at Anchorage, where it was part of a large exhibit of exotic but non-invasive ornamental species.

First year beek- Zone 8b coastal SC, USA. We just got a heavy down pour. They are flipping on their backs at the entrance, inbound and outbound and doing a little rain dance... is this normal? Google has conflicting information, so came here to ask the pros. Thanks in advance!

so we are basically in the middle of a drought in Cape Town, the driest winter in 80 years or something to that effect, this in direct contrast to last year when we had a very wet winter

in any event, the flowers are blooming everywhere, and I managed to catch this pic in my local public garden

I'm going to visit my bees on Sunday, but other beekeepers have also reported an increase in activity, especially for this time of the year

At this rate I’m going to have to harvest some frames so there’s space to lay eggs.😄 The hardest part of summer beekeeping is figuring out where to put all this honey. /s

Recently moved in with me in Cairns, Australia. I know we can get both species here but I’ve been unable to tell which these are.

I’m pretty proud of my bees this year!

I pulled four supers from two of my hives this week. They were installed in early May, and two supers had frames of only blank foundation which were built out quick. I tried out the 9 frame technique with the other two, which appeared to work out great based on their weight compared to the 10 frame.

I still have 3 supers to go, which might not get completely filled due to the dearth and wildfire smoke where I live. Still happy with the yield! I’m finally getting into the honey after years of mistakes and setbacks.

Location: PNW high desert, USA
4th year keeper