Citizen... sorry to hear about that. Guess the key is to not place the hive too close to your home.

Dawnette... I haven't ever seen a swarm of honey bees here. However I'm hearing bumble bees in a tree next to the house... they must have a nest inside of the tree.

ohhh ...maybe I should educate myself a little on bees ..I guess these would be bumble bees ( I think they call them yello jackets?) I know their stings hurt like a b*tch!My 10 yr old knows all to well!

Dawnette;

Yes...BIG difference between yellow-jackets and honeybees.

Mys - you need to paint soon - make sure that has time to air out.

Bee keeping? You've got to be kidding! The only keeping I do that's related to bees or any other flying insect is keeping them as far away from me as possible.

i dont know about bees but i sure am collecting a lot of "a"s on here.

They actually weren't close to home. I just didn't have decent protection and bees smelled fear, so to speak. When a swarm smells fear, it's downhill from there. The worst part of beekeeping is if one of them gets in your hair. Getting it out, something gets stung. On one occasion, I almost ate a yellowjacket. I looked like a chubby chinaman from the neck up for about a week. Damn thing lived. There's a satisfaction in knowing that a bee will die when it stings you, but the yellowjackets don't have a hook on their stinger, which means they get to live and sting another day.

Beekeeping is just one way to find your honey! LOL




Disaronno
Yes, I am putting together an apiary and more are coming on Monday so nailing and painting will be certainly on my mind this week!

Okay... I'm still working at this. I ordered the wrong expanding apiary kit.... in N.E. Pa I believe you need two brood boxes before adding supers. The supers store the honey, but you begin with one brood box to start and add on another one, then the supers one by one as they fill them.

Boy I sure am getting an ed-ja-ma-K-tion! LOL So much to learn in so little time.

Did you know mice can get into the boxes? Skunks will also eat your bees. Fun, fun, fun!

Life 101... I'm STILL learning!

You are getting there!!
And the queen excluders keep the queen out of the supers. Only the workers can get up there and store honey. You will have to rotate the supers.

Disaronno
I was reading when you have two supers you don't need the queen excluder?