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Should My Supers Be Below the Inner Cover for Winter?
Having the inner cover in the way can block the bees’ pathway and funnel the heat to a small area instead of generally throughout the super. In addition, the retriever bees may have to travel further—first to the opening, then away from it to the food, and then back to the hole, and then back to the cluster.
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Can I Use Honey in a Pail Feeder?
You can try putting honey directly in a pail feeder, but I find it tends to crystallize in the holes after a few days.
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What’s Wrong with my Homemade Fondant?
Beekeepers add vinegar to fondant recipes under the mistaken idea that you need to invert the sucrose for the bees. This is not true. Most nectar is mainly sucrose, but the instant the bees ingest it, their saliva breaks it down into glucose and fructose.
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Should I Leave Supers on For the Winter?
Should I leave supers on for the winter?
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How Do I Save a Late-Season Swarm?
Deciding how to handle a late swarm can be difficult, even for an experienced beekeeper. Although late swarms have a very low survival rate, they can be helped along with additional resources.
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How Do I Combine Two Double-Deep Hives?
Before you begin to combine the two double-deep hives, try to consolidate the brood nests in each hive. For example, If one hive has five frames of brood in one box, and two in the other box, try to put all seven of them in one box. Repeat this process in the other hive.
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Can I Eliminate Hive Beetles by Moving to a Sunnier Location?
How well hive beetles do once they move in has a lot to do with the soil type. At a certain point, the larvae leave the hive and drop to the soil beneath the hive. Here, they burrow into the soil and pupate before becoming adults.
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Why Are There Flower Particles on my Bottom Board?
When we see flower parts stuck to bees, it’s usually the pollenia of either milkweeds or orchids. The pollenia are pollen-filled sacks that stick to the pollinator like glue and eventually fall off on another flower. Honey bees are most apt to engage with milkweed pollenia, and sometimes they have so many long and stringy orange sacks hanging from their legs they can barely fly.
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Is My Honey Contaminated?
I bought honey that is likely contaminated with radioactive contaminants. Not sure what to do. It was harvested within 160 miles from Chernobyl and being sold here in U.S.
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Can I Put Out Extracted Supers Without Encouraging Robbing?
Finding a source of ready-made honey excites the bees, almost to the point of frenzy. So providing wet supers gets the bees agitated and more willing, it seems, to attempt robbing.
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