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This is the end of my second season, last year I had 2. By now I had one colony die out due to starvation, and the second hive was dying out and would die by Christmas / New Years (When I found the queen on the ground). This year I have 2 REALLY healthy hives and a 3rd where the hive is weak, but if I keep an eye on it "might" make it. We'll see. Smoke does make the "Spicy hive" riled super quick. The Middle hive doesn't like the smoke but they behave as I'd expect. And the 3rd hive just isn't strong enough to want to smoke it. The frame situation is super annoying. I need to figure out a long term solution for frames I build. They worked for one season (last year) and this year I had 3 frames fall apart. ACK! Hopefully I can come up with a solution for that. The commercial built frames are holding ALOT stronger. The ones from the NUCs also are holding up (but when I asked the one he said he used glue). I will need to find a non-toxic glue to ensure I don't poison my bees. On to hopefully a successful overwintering and I can graduate from "Bee-Haver" to an official "Bee-Keeper"

No that can be pretty standard Fall/Winter Behavior, Bees are Bees not Pets.

Hey! Thanks for stopping by. I'm not a professional by any means, but been having fun doing the beekeeping thing. This is the end of my 2nd year. The video here is a little boring in nature but I felt it was important to show how bees behave when they've been couped up in cold weather for 4 days and then you mess with them even when it's 70 degrees out (unseasonally). Fall bees will be super aggressive in late fall. I needed to get the entrance reducuers into the hive for winter. I had to wait for an optimal day to "break down" to fit them in. So content is content and others get to observe how the bees end up behaving. Hive 1 has been super aggressive all season. I called it the "spicy hive" because the girls have a mean (but not entirely africanized) nature. I'm going to let them over winter and see if they get better temperment. If they make it through the winter, requeening is definitely in the cards. Hive 2 (Middle) is way calmer, and more productive. They are going to be the ones I hope the most survive the winter. I hope they all do, but my betting money is on the middle one to make it. Hive 3... original queen absconded, replacement queen had 4 days and a bear came and tipped the colony. And so far the replacement queen is making a really decent go... but the girls aren't eating their food. I'm not hopeful that they survive the winter. But we'll see.

Agree - Bees are no pets and this is one of those things where I needed to make sure the bees got their entrance reducers on. I'll make one final video where I wrap and put the candy board and quilt boxes on it. Then they will be on their own till March.

Yeah the first hive in the video was the one knocked over mid week prior. The othe rhives look great. The weather is starting to change so while I would like to think the hive will survive but it's going to take alot of will power from the girls. So winter feeding is gonna be essential. Candy board making over the next 10 days

Thanks for that. The good news here is we saw the queen towards the end of the video. So she didn't get killed. The downer is it's SOOOO late in the season that trying to get to full strength for the winter is going to be super tall order. I'm not very confident about that hive. The other two hives are VERY strong and healthy though. So Fingers crossed.

I have bottom boards to help close up the hives in the next 15 - 30 days. (Probably after my last inspection)

I was using the smoke to move the girls around and didnt even think that may have had an impact on the hive acceptance. I lucked out and they have accepted her on visual inspection yesterday (she was out laying eggs). I will keep an eye on the resoueces, and its being late in season has me worried. Good suggestion.

Congratulations. You can remove those frames temporarily and return them when the population increases. Just make sure you protect them by freezing and storing properly.

Totally agree, great observation. I have been having a tough time with glove fit. I am either comically oversized (clown size) or they fit fine, but definitely rough on the girls as I find a good pair. When I am slow and steadt they are super calm.

I am a 2nd year hobbyist. I am attending a local bee club monthly, and attended last years state bee convention. I spent 2 years during covid fascinated with local keeping. Jumped right in, and my only regret is not having a mentor within an hour to work with. Lots of commercial keepers, but no real backyard hobbyists... so it's been a self taught experience. I will most likely make a video explaining the past years at the end of the season. Thanks for the idea!

Hey - Good question! They look like peanuts. If they exist mid-frame, they are supercedure cells. If they are at the vert bottom of a frame, they are swarm cells. They are usually 1/2 - 3/4 inch in size. You can tell they are startibg to build them or creating a practice "play cup" when they take a cell and create a cell that extends out and is twice the with of a normal cell. It will look like the top of an acorn shell.

@@JeanLaValley thank you sir

Thanks!

Thank you for the advice! after my experience treating this first administration with a vaporizer. After this first aplication and also because I want a little space between the opening and frames, I bought 1 inch spacer boards to lift the bottom brood box up. I was thinking about drilling a hole and administering from the back. This is a great confirmation that was going in the right direction. Administering at night was something I hadn't thought about, but definitely seems like it would be the optimal discouragement from leaving the hive right away. Do you put a towel to close off the front of the hive when administering at night?

I've done it with and without blocking the entrance with a towel . Some bees will come out of the hive but they don't fly off usually just climb around the hive then go back in.