Ok Dave here's your lesson on honey bees

The queen is the largest bee. She is hard to spot because she always has a small. Cluster of worker bees around her. A queen cell is near the bottom of the frames and peanut shaped
Usually you will only see these queen cells when the hive us fixing to swarm. They will be seen in other places on the frame if the queen dies for some reason and they need a new queen in a hurry.

Drones are the next largest bee in the hive. You can spot him by his larger eyes which are larger than the queen or workers. That is so he can see a maiden queen on her mating flights.

The workers are the smallest and the busiest bees in the hive. You can tell the foragers from the younger workers by their tattered looking wings.

Lesson over

Forgot to mention the drone cells are larger than the worker cells.

DO IT, JUST DO IT! You will love it and will be rewarded with buckets of GOD's Nectar!

I've found that keeping bees is a lot like someone hooked on alcohol or drugs, you just can't get enough of it. They are the most habit forming thing that I have ever been envolved with. I watched for about an hour one afternoon while a bunch of tiny little bugs tried to get in the hive. A line of bees stretched all across the opening and when one of the bugs would get half way up the landing board, the bee in front of it would take to it and run it back. Not a one ever got inside. The next day the bugs were gone and only a guard or two was outside on the look out.

Better than watching television

Has anyone tried the new Flow (TM) Hive .....? They look like it eliminates a lot of work getting the honey out of the hives. My hives are vacant at them moment until someone does something about the neonicatinoids on the crops I am surrounded with .

These flow hives are the first real innovation in a very long time in the honey producing business. If you arent aware of them and would like to check them out here is a link : http://www.honeyflow.com/

I am not affliliated with the company in any way . I just think this is a great invention . Hope to get a couple when I can get back into beekeeping .

While I find it an interesting concept, it certainly does hit the wallet hard! Not only do you have to pay a lot for the shipping from another country, but you have to pay for Customs clearance, duty, taxes and Am I not sure I saw anything about delivery. If it's sent as ex works, there will be another delivery fee.

Flow hives? Let them float around for a couple 5 years and prove themselves. Then the price can come down.

homeshow said:Flow hives? Let them float around for a couple 5 years and prove themselves. Then the price can come down.

Let them work out the kinks first.

What I find that is odd, is that supposedly 20,000 kits were sold and yet I don't see a lot of real reviews (non paid or sponsored) on the bee boards forums online from someone who is actually using one.

One person on Permies.com who lives in Chesapeake, VA posted a number of months ago that they purchased one but they didn't have any bees and doesn't seem to be able to actually keep bees in their area, which says to me they just fell into the "next new thing" trap

I saw another on http://ecobeebox.blogspot.com/... but I can't seem to download anything past his 8/24/2015 posting.

I've looked into them and I can't for the life of me understand how they could possibly be as advertised. I mean if it was that easy...I just think if their theory was valid there would be honey pouring out of every hive box in the world. Just saying...