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We received 3 packages of Italian bees with queens from MountainSweetHoney.com in Georgia on Thurs, Mar 21.

We hived them the same day and put syrup on top. Hives numbered:
Hive 1. My dear hubby who is normally a slam-bang-go kind of guy shook the package altogether too gently and had trouble getting the bees in. I had trouble putting the queen cage fastened in properly with a paper clip. Long story short, the poor bees went through a lot of trauma and some of them were left outside the hive and had to find their own way in.

Hive 2. For #2, the middle hive, about 2 hours after the first package was hived and when those bees were somewhat settled, I fastened the queen cage to the middle frame of Hive 2. Then we let the bees walk into a round front entrance from the package to avoid trauma of #1. It took them a long time to make the transition.

3. A couple hours later, we repeated procedure of letting bees walk in for #3. It was also a slow process.

We put syrup on all hives in mason jars over a screened opening on the inner couple. Unfortunately the screen area is larger than the jar, and the nights were near 40F.

Overnight I remembered that the hole on the cage was not to be slanted down, so it would not be plugged by dead attendant bees. Thus on Friday (the next day) I opened the hives 1 & 2 again to pull out the queen cage, take off extra ribbon, put on rubber bands to help orient queen cage horizontally under foundationless frame. Thus more trauma for hives 1 & 2.

We already noticed on Friday that Hive #3 had much more bee activity in front than Hives 1 & 2 which seemed about equal, with maybe more bees in front of 1.

On Sunday, I cut cardboard to fit around lid of mason jars to eliminate draft through extra screen, but did not otherwise disturb hives.

On Monday, I opened all hives to check on queen cages. They were all empty.

Tuesday morning, I noticed lots of bees in front of hives 1 & 3, with very little activity in front of Hive 2. By afternoon, there seemed to be no activity in front of Hive 2, so I thought I'd better check what was going on inside: There were only 3 or 4 bees, and I thought maybe the queen was lost, and the bees had joined the other two hives. Not happy ...

That evening my daughter-in-law Rebeca happened to mention that she had almost stepped on a clump of bees on the ground by the shop. She seemed concerned about her safety, but I instantly realized those were our bees! She led her husband to the place the bees were balled up on the ground, and I got a cardboard box to scoop up as many bees as I could - which seemed to be almost all of them. I used my hands to get most of them, then used a bee brush which may not have been a good idea, then figured that plucking up the grass by hand would give me better access to the bees .. Towards the end, the bees seemed to be walking into the box which I had laid on its side for them to enter. So I thought I had the queen.

We shook the bees back into the original hive but failed to put all the foundationless frames back in. I shut the main front entrance (I thought) and left a disk entrance open to the queen excluder setting. Although I think we got most of the bees, the number of bees was considerably less than we started with originally.

The next morning (Wednesday), I took a peek underneath the inner cover, and all the bees were clustered on one wall of the box. I put the missing 4 frames back in. Come to find out, that the bottom front entrance was not completely closed and the bees could slip through a crack between the wood and the hive. (It isn't a proper entrance reducer.) I fixed it to be closed.

The bees all have a good supply of syrup.

Today, Thursday, I noticed some activity in front of Hive 2, including bees coming out and going in to the queen excluder disk. But other bees seemed to be trying to get into the bottom entrance. And it seemed like several times I saw bees fighting.

We have screened bottoms with an aluminum half-sheet pan tightly under the screen, ready for hive beetle control. It tells me where the bees are, and I pulled out the pan under hive 2 and discovered that the bees must still be clustered on that one outside wall.

Hive 1 seems to be doing great. Hive 3 seems *really* active, and it seems to have more bees than Hive 1. Hive 2 is definitely the weakest hive right now - with maybe half the bees of Hive 3.

Questions:
a. Is there any significance to bees being clustered only on the wall of the hive box??

b. Would Italian bees try to "rob" a hive that doesn't really have a store of honey? (They all have the same jars of syrup.)

Any other comments/suggestions?

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Thanks for posing this Jim 134. I might be mistaken but even in 'The former Soviet Union', 'as bad as it was', folks were allowed to raise their own food as well as others if they chose? Apparently 'Life", 'Liberty', and the 'Pursuit of Happiness' is not recognized in this woke society? Nor any part of the Declaration of Independence that they chose to ignore? Nor the laws of our land expressed in our Constitution? Aren't those which are implementing these Unconstitutional 'DECREES'', which are trampling on the rights of our Citizens, the very 'enemies' of OUR Constitution???  The very Constitution 'they' have sworn to uphold and protect? 'If so', what does that make these rogues?
 
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Quote
If you have listened to the youtube video

I'll go back and read the law.  I think it was supposed to be applied to people using water to grow/raise for sale.  It's a pretty old law.  I would not be at all surprised to find it is being applied broadly because that's what happens with these laws.  I also don't know if it has been updated from the original.

I am not in favor of the law, I just know it exists and am broadly familiar with it because I have water rights on one of my properties, but not from a well.  I have kept an eye on the well proposals because that would impact my home.
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That was a nice, interesting clip, Les. Thanks for sharing.
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  If you have listened to the youtube video.. You would have heard a couple of things.. That maybe you did not know.. Their state is flying drones all but people's houses and property.. Also have your neighbors turn people in... I'm lonely riding around country roads.. If you have more than one half acre for garden.. You are an attempt of this ordinance. If you have a crushed floor made of stone. Or any kind of solid for.. You are contempt of this ordinance.. You might get away with one goat or one cow.. And a handful of chickens... Or ducks.. I think you would be lucky to you could have one horse.. Also it covers pigs and goats.. That's my take on this video.
Yes you can get around these laws if you are willing to spend a hundred thousand dollars.. Supposedly to catch the rainwater that runs off.That is polluted.

   BEE HAPPY  Jim134  :)
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OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES FORUM / Re: Gold prospecting using a metal detector
« Last post by Lesgold on Today at 05:12:24 am »
My mate Joe and I decided to go for a long walk up the stream we had been detecting to see if there was any gold in the higher reaches. After walking for 1 1/2 hours we stopped and started detecting. The area was extremely pretty with pools and rock bars located close together. It was a really remote area and there was no evidence of human activity at all. Unfortunately, there was no gold in the area which was a real shame. We eventually made it back by early afternoon to spend some time in the region that we knew was gold bearing.
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So far no new comb here either Reagan...
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The early flow mustn't be too good because my bees aren't drawing yet.  I weirdly don't seem to have written this down in my records for previous years, but I feel like this is kind of late to not have seen any new comb. 
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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Asian honey bees in Australia
« Last post by Ben Framed on March 27, 2024, 10:46:06 pm »
Didn't read the Article.
Briefly, what are the differences in Asian Bees Compared to European Bees? (size, honey production, etc...)
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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Lid failure
« Last post by Ben Framed on March 27, 2024, 10:43:23 pm »
I simply use Advan Tech flooring for my lids cut to fit, and lay them on flat...

Phillip
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