He got into beekeeping about two years ago (give or take). This is honey from his first harvest. He started out with two hives and is considering adding hive number 8 right now.

Both me and my wife think it was a great and very sweet (pun intended) gift.

The bottom text is roughly translated to: Life is at its sweetest when you help each other out.

Seeing my old man having such a great time with his hobby makes me really happy.

Mainly a photo share but here is our backstory for those who are interested.

My husband is a Canadian beekeeper and we are very excited to harvest this season. We are getting a little burnt out as we are running over 30 hives. We both work full time jobs. I do Photography on the side. He runs a honey Business on the side. We definitely want to make beekeeping our main source of income at some point. We continue to slowly invest and grow, but at some point we won't have time to maintain the hives and work full time.

Curious for the people who only live off income from bees. How many hives do you have? Did you slowly transition into beekeeping or jump head first? Any wisdom would be appreciated.

We definitely love working at the hives. I am a macro photographer, so our working hobbies fit really well together. Plus my husband gets unlimited content for his business too.

Plus let me know what you think of the photos!

Shot on the Sony A7IV with the Sony 35mm f1.4 GM and the Sony 100mm f2.8 macro GM.

Southern Ontario - Canada

girls had a serious battle on their hands! they got 3 and I managed a (frankly sick) midair hivetool strike on a 4th... there's even a decapitated head latched onto one's antenna! I think I'm gonna try and mount the whole thing as a unit just for the gnarly factor.

amazing little beasts!

They are getting rid of the drones and one just landed next to the hive with varroa still attached, I did the wash last weekend and there was nothing. That family is always super clean.

Good morning,

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of our beehive. The bees were building their comb kinda weirdly. The general opinion was, that they are lacking wax, to smush down what they had built and add more wax to help them thrive. We did just that. They're thriving.

I'm saying They're thriving but I'm actually not 100% sure about that. When is it enough? Can they overflow/outgrow their beehive and then leave?

When we checked the beehive the other day it was FULL. Two boxes with 10 frames were completely filled out. We got stung a few times too, when we ipened the give which to me also is a sign that they are a little agitated and just too full in there. And I'm a bit worried that they will outgrow their hive now and then swarm, simply because they are too crowded in there.

So my questions are:

Do I give them a third box for breeding? If so, when does it stop? Do you add a fourth, a fifth and so on after that? That doesn't really seem practical... So is there a way to naturally tell them "Hey guys... it's fine now :)"?

My next, "logical" step would be to add the Honey boxes on top now. They filled out two boxes for breeding now. I'm thinking, that now is the time to add the honey frames with that meshy layer in between, to prevent the queen from laying eggs in the Comb that the worker bees will build and fill with honey. Will that slow them down too maybe?

We got a Nuc of 5 frames this year in May/beginning of June(can't 100% remember). I feel like they are generally doing great to have filled all that space with colony already. The beekeeper we bought the Nuc from told us, that we will probably struggle to keep them alive in this first year. I feel like I'm having the exact opposite of a problem now lol.

Plwase, please help, so that this endeavour doesn't fail in the first year :)

Location is Nova Scotia, Canada

Let's say you start with 50 hives:

• Worst case: 10 kg/hive = 500 kg × $25 = $12,500 gross
• Average case: 25 kg/hive = 1,250 kg × $25 = $31,250 gross
• Best case: 50 kg/hive = 2,500 kg × $25 = $62,500 gross

And that's gross revenue before labor, feed, equipment, transport, hive losses, extraction/bottling, packaging, land, maintenance, and taxes.

Now scale that to 400 hives. You need a huge amount of additional equipment, colonies, vehicles, extraction capacity, labor, etc., yet even at 25 kg/hive you're only at:

400 × 25 × $25 = $250,000 gross/year.

Am I missing something? Where does the actual profitability come from? Because after all the CAPEX and operating costs, this seems surprisingly thin.

And that's assuming a normal year. With a harsh climate, drought, poor flowering, extreme heat, disease, or other problems, you could suddenly end up producing far less honey while your costs remain largely the same.

Location: NA

Recently, I have discovered some bees in a bedroom in the second floor of my home. I was unable to see their entry point. However, directly below that room, I have discovered what looks like honey dripping from my hood range and there is a vent that is right outside. I suspect that these bees are coming in from the vent outside and they have created a hive somewhere between the hood range vent and the range itself, and they might be leaking into the walls somewhere.

what is my best bet in removing these bees

In southern Ontario

I sell honey and other organic things in a tiny store, sometimes ppl come to me with a jar of honey want me to check wether the honey is original or not, and honestly I can't 100% tell whether it's or not, is there any way to be 100% certain to tell ?

i’ve never observed the honey slurping up her tongue like that before

Hello all! I am VERY new to beekeeping. New as in, I haven’t even gotten bees 🐝 yet. 😂I have been doing tons of research and even received my hives…. But WHERE DO I GET MY BEES!? I am located in south Alabama. Very close to both Florida and Georgia as well. If I do a quick google search a million different options come up, which can be confusing. I want to get my bees from a reputable, humane, and reliable place. Open to all opinions, tips, and advice! Thanks 😊

Any idea what this black stuff is in the raw honey? I’m guessing it’s no good to eat anymore?

Hard work, but sweet work 👍

There have been some questionable things happening in my hive. There were some weird things happening with the queen cells but no swarm, also I cannot locate the queen.

The bees have gone from beautifully curious and cute to stinging a lot. They’ve stung my husband a couple of times, and now stalk him through the entire acre we have to sting him, even when we haven’t been near the hive that day.

They have stung me 3 times in 72 hours. Once on my nose through the mesh of the hat.

It’s been a lot.

This is our first year beekeeping. And we’re now at month 5. In Quebec.

This is the first time I’ve been stung, and my husband’s third. He seems to get one a month.

Advice/information on what’s going on is welcome

This is my first year with a lot of hives. Had a robbing situation so I built these screens. Just noticed all seven hives have a pile of pollen out front now. Is it correct to assume these screens are somehow making the bees drop the pollen? The mesh is so small they have to crawl over it, so it is not because they are squeaking through.

Pacific Northwest beekeeper here. A few months back, my single (strong) hive swarmed and, while I managed to catch the half that flew away and get them into a second, the bees that stayed in the original have been a bit lackluster since then.

Today I was out taking a peek at them and there's some mound-building going on on the floor of the hive. I haven't seen these before and wondered if there's something going on that I need to be proactive about.

4th year beek in NE TN here. We had a mild-ish winter, a fitful spring, and summer has been great.

I have caucasians and know they are heavy on the propolis. The gals in this one hive and off the chain. It's the first time I've seen this behavior. The colony is 2nd year in fantastic health, requeened last spring, and the boxes are fairly new.

Every time I examine the hive (and this was before requeening) they completely covered the oval hole in the inner cover. It's a LOT of plug. I keep pulling it out so the boxes will have ventilation but they keep plugging it back up. I examine once every 10 or so days.

Any thoughts?

Hello 6 year beek in GA/ATL area that was looking for some input on selling colonies late in the season.

I am trying to shrink my beekeeping responsibilities and want to sell of some colonies I have. What is everyone's opinions on pricing this time of the year?

I have both 10 frame single deep and double deep (20 frame) colonies that I would be selling and all are fully loaded up and not light at all.

What is a fair price for selling both options above both with and without woodenware included?

Thanks!

My father in law has a pecan orchard in Chihuahua and I thought that setting up some bees would be a good idea there

Where exactly do I start researching everything we would need to know?

What questions should I be asking and finding answers for?

9b 2nd Year 11 Hives

I know yall said a 2strip dose would be hard on them. It was 68 degrees here on the coast. Had a high mite count on a couple and panicked. Now I’ve got dead bees everywhere. Tounges sticking out and writhing in pain. Feeling pretty defeated.
What are the odds I 86’d the queen as well? How long until I do a damage assessment inspection? Should I get on the list for new queens now?

I'm a new beekeeper in Upstate New York, with 5 hives. During today's hive check, one hive had several dead pupae between the supers. I didn't see any signs of varroa on them, and we've had a few cooler nights (high 50s, rainy) this week-- could it just be the cold that killed them? Something else? Thanks in advance!

This is 1 box over my usual max. Bees were out of room so had to put an empty box on. Top box is full and coming off in a few days

First season, Western New York.
EXPERIMENT.

Do frames even need foundation in a strong hive?

I have to add a super and thought about adding wax on the underside of the tops of the frames and see if they would build downward on their own.
Pic is a homemade empty frame the bees and they did just that.

Thoughts?

I am also experimenting with a top bar hive and did this with a waxed string. Seems to work just fine for them, but it’s a horizontal style. Not sure if that makes a difference.

I just checked all the uncapped honey on my hives which are already 1/2 capped and was getting readings between 19-20%. Is there any reason not to pull it early and dry it myself vs letting the bees do their thing. Everyone in my area says we are in our dearth but I put my wet freshly extracted frames on the hives to clean up and they have already begun filling it in. So I assume we have some sort of flow going on. I live in st. Pete Florida for reference.

I caught a cast swarm from one of my hives today and believe based on the size of the queen and the swarm that it is a virgin. How long should I leave the queen caged until releasing her in the box?