About a million queen bees are sent in the mail annually. Most of these bees are mailed to places in the United States and Canada, but some are sent to other countries. Recent developments include the crossing of selected inbred lines to produce hybrid bees, and as of 1977, the direct sale of artificially inseminated queens.
Dig out some old beekeeping books and you'll find ample information on "cellaring" bees. Basically, it has to be totally dark, a constant temperature around 40 degrees, and you have to be able to change the air and keep the humidity constant. Here in Missouri, the winters are not so severe as to warrant the extra labor of cellaring, and then we have some really warm days in December and in the ...
Bees are most sensitive to whatever is entering their hive, but if they get mad, they'll go looking for trouble sometimes. Sounds like you have pretty savvy cats
Can your bees go through a 1/4" hardware cloth hole? Mine can't. Maybe the bees are getting stuck outside the bottom entrance and being eaten at night by the shrews. I also don't think you should close off the bottom entrance. I've never figured out exactly why some think an upper entrance alone is proper hive management.
i put antifreeze in my car the other day and accidentally spilled a bit on the driveway i notice a couple of my honeybees lapping it up. i promptly stepped on them and took the water hose and washed it away. has anyone ever seen honeybees go after antifreeze??? i'm sure if they took it back to...
Russian bees pro and cons My 2cents worth 3 years ago i bought 10 nuc of russians and lost 4 the first year anthe next year lost 4 more came out this spring with 2 hives built up slow but after got to goning just exploted. got 3 full med supers of each in jun.
Bees are generally attracted to water sources and swimming pools can provide a great source of water for them. However, it is important to make sure that the pool is properly treated with chemicals that are safe for bees.
Can I Keep Bees With a Swimming Pool? - Beesource Beekeeping Forums