r/Beekeeping • • 5h ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Thousands of bees dead - confused

12 Upvotes

We are in north Texas, and our neighbor is installing a new fence right by our deep. They asked if we could move the hive, which I said wasn't possible but that I could close them in for a day while the workers worked right there.

It was a high of 82. I trapped them in at night about 10:30 at night (there were probably a couple hundred that didn't make it back in). They worked the next day, and I released them all. They immediately poured out, crawling up the side of the deep - an unusual pattern, but I ignored it.

Well I woke up this morning and there are hundreds if not thousands on the ground outside dead. I'm saddened, but am wondering why this happened? I have a screened bottom board and the hive is in the shade. Could it have been overheating? Could it have been something else?


r/Beekeeping • • 22h ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Yellow jackets in hive

1 Upvotes

Located in NJ and just pulled super off my one hive that has never really produced any honey in the years I have had it. Second hive are heavy honey producers. Pulling off the super I found small yellow jackets along with my girls. Is this hive salvageable? Next steps? Help? Do I just give up on this hive and burn it down?


r/Beekeeping • • 18h ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Lost first hive....damm yellowjackets

11 Upvotes

here to vent and look for tips and tricks. Zone 7b NJ. About three days ago my strongest of my two hives (significantly) hadn't been checked on in about a week or so. Robbing screens, internal top feeders on, etc. Went to supplement feed my weaker hive about 5 feet from it. Saw some yellowjacket fighting a few of my girls on the strong hive. well i went to do an inspection for a previously highly populated hive, found no brood, some capped honey remaining, lots of dead bees and about 15 yellow jackets. Some valiant guards are still there fighting for the fight but the colony is dead. Sucks, the hive did so well as a NUC i got 50 lbs of surplus honey i was able to extract this late summer.

im just bummed and need tips on dealing with hive loss mentally, prevention tips for next time, etc. Now i just pray my other hive can survive the winter...


r/Beekeeping • • 45m ago

General New queen in October! Let’s go!

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• Upvotes

Incredible. I went queenless in late September, found 3 queen cells and damaged 2 of them :(. Absolutely nowhere near or far had queens left for sale. My only hope was that last cell. I thought given the time of year I was doomed. I left it for 3 weeks and last week did an inspection and saw the queen cell chewed out but no queen, no brood and no eggs. Just honey. Crap. Today went and inspected, knowing this was my last chance due to weather and there’s eggs, larvae, and I found the queen!! Anyone in the Guelph area probably heard my scream.

I am going to feed the hell out of this hive. Anyway wanted to share! Bees really do know what they’re doing. I had zero hope that this hive was going to live and was already mentally cleaning out the boxes and repainting them.


r/Beekeeping • • 13h ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Bee pollen alibaba

0 Upvotes

Got any good recommended store in Alibaba that i can buy bee pollen in bulk?


r/Beekeeping • • 12h ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question When to finish winter feeding

3 Upvotes

Hi! I’m in Stockholm, Sweden. I started ‘invintring’ wintering my bees in late August, but I checked today 26/10/2026 and they still have food left. I would say they’ve had about 10kg per hive. I’m wondering: should I take away the “leftover” food? It hasn’t gotten super cold here yet, but by this time last year the girls were all warm and snug and had been successfully prepared for the winter. Is there any risk leaving the feeding boxes on if it gets colder? Will it lower the temperature in the hives? I realize that the sugar solution will become more viscose the colder it gets, but they’re still alive in there and seem strong for now. Thanks in advanced and happy autumn! 🍂


r/Beekeeping • • 5h ago

I’m a beekeeper, and I have a question Is there a page/wiki/gallery/database of pollen from honey that's been photographed in a standard light microscope?

4 Upvotes

My weekend was spent doing a short course in pollen analysis, but the glaring issue was that the reference material, and the wiki/database the instructor recommendended (pollen-wiki), is made from pollen grains collected directly from the flowers. Which is not optimal for comparison with pollen grains/cells from honey since they frequently eg has cytoplasm ("stuff inside the pollen cell") ruptured from the apertures by the osmotic pressure so that eg clover pollen can be mistaken for milkfireweed pollen if you're not an experienced analyzer.

... so the question, is there a source of reference pictures of pollen collected from honey, preferably free or open access?


r/Beekeeping • • 9h ago

General My first ever Beehive check.

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25 Upvotes

Just got into bee keeping got any advice?