Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

groundhogcow t1_j3eeqea wrote

Not the bee barns I am talking about. Likely we are in the wrong bubbles. Go here and watch vino farms in there fist year experimenting with the bear barns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z768OIA3bMo

I am interested in that type of bees you have. Are they wild bees from a caught swarm are did you buy them someplace?

Different types of bees need different types of care. I think wild bees might be ok in what your setup is but something like Italian bees would have an issue. I like the Warre hives but the low inspection rate concerns me. There are cases where it would be ok though.

When I inspect my hives I am looking at several things.

  1. Do they have enough space.
  2. Are they bringing in enough food.
  3. Has anything happened to the queen.
  4. Are any pests damaging the bees, wax moths, hive beetles, mites, mice, and bears. (Bears are easy to detect)
  5. Have they caught any diseases. Like Foulbreed disease remember that one. Or several others.

Tame bees should be kept from swarming. They can't make it on there own and become big bundles of disease and mites that infect others with there drones or robbing. Wild bees require much less attention but it would be good to still check them occasionally for deceases.

You can not be sure about honey production with wild bees so I hope you got some good ones.

1