r/Beekeeping

Title says the gist of it- I woke up this morning to a swarm of bees on the bimini of our sailboat at anchor in the Caribbean. I posted a video of them, but a couple of hours since I took the video they’ve condensed and have formed one large mass that isn’t moving.

I don’t really want to kill them if at all possible, but we planned on getting groceries this morning so we’re completely out of food and can’t leave because they’ve swarmed right over our only way to get to land 😂.

What should we do? How long until I have to worry about them trying to permanently settle there?

Hi all, i have one hive in wales uk. I managed to catch most of it. However most of the bees are towards the back of the hive trying to get underneath. Does this mean the queen in under it or inside and they’ve mistaken it ? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I am not a bee keeper, but I thoroughly appreciate what bees do for us! They’re in the back yard and we noticed them this time last year (shortly after moving in) and I thought I saw somewhere that whatever they are they don’t return to the same nest. They have returned and I want to know how to relocate them or if they should be relocated. Location is north East Tennessee. We have dogs and two young children that enjoy our back yard and don’t want them to get stung.

Located in tuscaloosa AL, Was doing a quick inspection yesterday and noticed this drone outside the box on the ground walking around not looking good. First thought was deformed wing virus. Just installed this nuc in April so have not done any mite treatments or counts yet. Haven't seen this in previous hives and couldn't find any others that looked like this so looking for opinions about it.

Newish beekeeper, zone 8 east coast.

Bees seem to be shaking/jittery? Haven't seen them like this before, had the hives several months now, any ideas or am I reading too much into this?

I'm not a bee keeper, I'm not trained NOTHING. I'm this sub's worst nightmare, yes. I apologize profusely.

I have 3 Indian stingless bee hives (Tetragonula iridipennis) in my house, and my family wants them away from the house. Why are they in my house? Because my dad lived here and the man didn't care about maintenance.

I cannot find a single relocator in my city (Mangalore, india), only fumigators who will kill the hives. The ones advertised as relocators don't have any idea how to, they are refusing to relocate, they claim they sting...

The hives are in 3 places:

(Pictures in comment)

1. Laterite stone wall that has a cable coming in. Can't do anything with this right now.

2. Electricity meter box: not sure about the relocation of this as I don't know if it's just in the wooden box or in the wall

3. An old piece of furniture, I'm wondering if I can saw it to pieces and relocate the hive - this one is the biggest.

My family is okay with relocating them to the garden, they just don't want them in the house.

I'm here for advice, please be kind, I want to save them so I would like to explore all options.

Can somebody please tell me this is exactly what i think it is?😅
I’m based in Belgium the weather has been wet and slightly colder today is the second day of dryer and warmer weather.
I see a hell of a lot of drones outside are they preparing to swarm right now yes or no?
To give extra info mt weekly checkups routine got broken because of my other work so yes it has been more then 1 week so alot can happen i know.
I’m going to check right now for cells.

So... I promised a followup on my beehive build. I moved the girls in about 6 weeks ago and they seem to love it. Weather's been schizo (CO/5b) so just did my first "real" inspection last weekend. It took me about 1/3 of the time, found no wonky comb, no squished bees, wasn't stressed about dropping a box - it was great. There's a couple minor things I'd change in RevB- but surprisingly, only a couple. Overall, I'm SUPER happy with it. And definitely in love with the view tops I built - i can open the top and do a super quick peak without being concerned about getting a face full of irritated bee. Anyhow, that's the update!

Noticed a lot of bees on my balcony a couple days ago, today I found out why.

Blacksburg, VA, USA. I thought it was one of mine swarming since one hive had -by all appearances- a swarm exit then land a few feet away. Thankfully close to the ground so I just gathered them up. But post capture on inspection my girls did *not* swarm, so maybe they just got really excited? Never could spot the queen, but she must had made it in anyway since the whole gang went into the box my nightfall. Anyways, I still love to show the beekeeper party trick of just barehanding a cluster handful by handful and chucking them in a box. Only got stung once. Admittedly not easy to fish them out of a bush. Would’ve been way easier if they picked a branch.

48 hours later my girls did -different hive- swarm, and clustered right of Buddha. Made for a cool photo, and I was able to sit with a box in my lap and get them seated, found the queen midway and clipped her. Very pleasant.

I have an active colony right next to this box, so I thought I was losing a swarm. But this was a swarm landing, and it was awesome to watch them land, gather, and march inside. So cool! Here’s a few pics.

I recently made three splits off of my best colony using worker brood donated from three other colonies and field bees from a fourth.

The strongest of these splits decided to throw their first queen out along with three pounds of bees, rather than let her settle in. I hived them at the cost of twenty minutes of antics and a small tree branch. So now my best hive has a surprise fourth daughter.

I am currently out of short boxes, covers, and shade boards. I was also out of top bars but happened to have cut some more the day prior.

So what do I do? Whatever I can. Use what you’ve got, amirite? We had the first test of this (hopefully very) temporary hodgepodge setup from a strong thunderstorm last night. So far so good— they seemed unfazed this morning.

…Oh, and I have three queens shipping to me next week. Time to get building or make some decisions!

Son knocked over the spinner. How do I bend it back into shape?
Marin county, CA

Very interesting what these guys are doing.

As the title says today is our holiday...so happy World Bee Day! Since I come from a country with a strong beekeeping tradition and the country that helped make World Bee Day possible, I wish you all the best on your beekeeping journey.

Good luck, and enjoy your honey 🍯 In the picture is my father's latest DIY hive for this season.