Lucky you!

Hive moths make a disgusting mess, but the chickens love the larva, we just put the frames on top of hay in their yard and they clean them out for us, then we remove the wires and old comb, scorch the frames, rinse off and let dry, freeze them for a bit just as insurance and add fresh comb.

Mindy03 said:Looks great

The swarm has moved in so looks like we have another hive. It's a huge one too.
We didn't exactly set the empty hive out. My husband left empty hives in the orchard after the beds died in them a couple of years ago. He was just too busy to move them to the garage where he kept empty hives. So last year 2 hives moved in and this year so far one has moved in one. I've lost count of how many are out there but I think there's 5 move empty hives out there.

That is so awesome that your swarms decided to inhabit the empty hives! I am a newbie beekeeper and got my first hive April 2nd. It is a year old established colony and by April 12, we had to split it because the previous beekeeper apparently did not open the hive for a year. At least it seems that way. The hive was so packed and each frame had to be scraped of propolis. The new hive is doing wonderfully, thank God!!

I want to get another empty hive to leave out in the field in case they decide to swarm, but our local resource is back-ordered on frame parts. This has been such an exciting adventure. I can honestly say that I never would have thought that sitting outside a hive watching the bees come and go would be so interesting, but it is!!

Welcome to beekeeping Tori
My brother used to sit near his hie and just watch them. He also ot left alone by family member who were afraid of the bees. His grandchildren used to join him. He lost his hive to wax moths the same year we did and decided to not get another one.

Mindy03 said:Welcome to beekeeping Tori
My brother used to sit near his hie and just watch them. He also ot left alone by family member who were afraid of the bees. His grandchildren used to join him. He lost his hive to wax moths the same year we did and decided to not get another one.

Ha ha! My step-daughter is deathly afraid of bees and her husband wants to put honey all over his face and have a "bee beard." lol.

I can understand why he wouldn't get another one... this can be quite an expensive hobby!!

Wax moths are something new that I've not heard of before. Yikes! Does not sound like fun. I'll have to do some research on them.

I must have misheard I thought thay said that wax moths didn't hurt the bees thay just inhabit the frams and boxs when you put them up for storage

Hi Heath,
Newbie beekeeper here. I was just doing some research on wax moths as I had not heard of them before and came across this article. Hope it helps.

http://www.beeworks.com/inform...

When the moths attacked our hive he found the bees were immobilized by the moths by means of the sticky web like stuff mentioned in the article.
So we guessed the bees tried to defend their hive and were over-powered by the moths.
There were dead bees in that wax like stuff from top to bottom of the hive.

@gardengoober thanks for the article.I did a lot of reading before I got any bees but you can only take in so much without actually doing it. So far the hardest part has been trying to figure out who's advice to take.

plantcollector said:@gardengoober thanks for the article.I did a lot of reading before I got any bees but you can only take in so much without actually doing it. So far the hardest part has been trying to figure out who's advice to take.

I can relate! I'm trying to process and absorb tons of information now as well. Thank goodness we have a mentor who has been a tremendous help. He also happens to be the person that got us into this "hobby" so he's obligated to help! ha ha! Our mentor says that same thing about who to believe. We are striving for totally natural with no medication... letting the bees do what they do best without much interference from us. Should be interesting!!

The first year I had bees I had information overload! Now in my 3rd year, I have learned to go with what works for me and I agree with Tori, the less interference the better!

I don't know about putting the wax moth trap near the hives; like the Japanese beetle lures, I'd be afraid they would attract more than would be able to be captured.
We had our very first hives in morning sun, with afternoon shade; we've since found that as much full sun as possible keeps our wax moth and hive beetle populations down in the hives.
That and we have gradually gotten more hives with bees from swarms that seem to have enough aggressiveness to chase down and herd the beetles into a holding area where we can pull out the frame and squash a lot of them.
Last year we saw only 4 hive moths in 4 hives and 2 beetles inside a hive that was weak, which I then combined with a larger hive, as it was September and too late for them to build up sufficiently.

Terri

@gardengoober I'm just curious to know what you will do with the varroa mites we were told we have to treat in order to keep the mites down in the spring. I don't want to have to use chemicals either I've always hated using chemicals on anything and they said that powdered sugar doesn't work.

I've had my bees for a little over a week now. And almost every night I'll go out there and look at the hive I can kneeldown on the ground and look up though the screen bottom board and I have been watching them slowly progressed frame by frame. I just came in from looking at them and it's been two nights since I have looked at them they have completely engulfed all 10 frames I guess it's time to put another brood box on there the bad thing is they're calling for rain all the way up till Saturday so it might be Saturday before I can do that. Hopefully they won't get too crowded.

I may have to split my big hive . The one I got from inside a house in Dayton. There is a new queen and at least 3 queen cells. My plan is to find her put her in a hive with 1 deep with the catch frames in the bottom and 2 medium boxes with store bought foundation. Once the queen starts laying in the medium I'll pop in an excluder. Keeping her in the mediums. Then I'll harvest the honey and get my catch frames back this summer.

I'll put the frames with the queen cells in the same set up. Once she hatches and starts laying I'll do the same process as the first hive.

I still need to explain my plan to the bees.

The swarm I caught in Chattanooga is growing well.

@homeshow
What is a catch frame

2 frames hinged together and lined with wires. You cut out the comb from a wild hive. Place it carefully (never lay it down) into the catch frame. This holds the comb up with minimal damage. If you are going to successfully move a hive from a house or tree. You will need these.

We have done a number of extractions from homes and sheds, and we just run a few rubber bands across the top and sides, crisscrossing them. It's easy then to tuck bits of brood comb under them and the bees just cut away the rubber bands once they have secured the comb to the frame.

I lost a few queen cages when I first started, dropped them right to the bottom of the hive, so I llearned to rubber band them in as a safety measure. Works really well.

I like it!

forgot to mention there is cutcomb, not drawn in the frame already , it makes it easier to keep the comb where you want it to be

Love reading about everyone's bee's I really want bee's but, it will have to
wait til next year. I want to make sure the gardens are going good with flowers for them
Plus , I have to save up to purchase the bee's hives . I want to have everything I need
first.

I do have one honey bee he is not the sharpest tool in the shed but, it is
very friendly . Come's by every night and will even walk on your hand . Hopefully
it will still be around when we are ready

Thank you all for teaching me about bee's

Shannon, if you've got clover and dandelions, maple trees, tulip poplars you've got plenty for them. Start to look around your area now to see what kinds of plants/trees are in the area. Somewhere online there are lists of the plants and tree that honey bees visit, I just can't find them right now.