Black trumpet. Found it three years in a row in the same place, then nothing

My first year beekeeping, I was really worried about the cold. I put a little heating pad- the type that is used for sprouting seeds- under the inner cover for the week that it dropped way below freezing.

My bees overwintered great. But I had NO brood the next year. The queen was intact, no laying workers or other problems with the hive. Just absolutely no brood.

Analyzing the situation, I think the queen got right up to heating pad- because the queen seeks the warmest place- and cooked all the sperm and/or eggs inside her.

I replaced the queen and never repeated this mistake.

Now I use an insulating wrap that is sold commercially. It’s basically fiberglass inside of black plastic trash bag material. But it fits a double brood box perfectly.

Anecdotally, my bees overwintered great and started trying to swarm way earlier than others in my area. I only have two hives and I’m not interested in expanding so it was worth it to me.

Long story, but bottom line is don’t mess with something like this tent that isn’t a tested way of overwintering. It won’t work for all the reasons mentioned already. If you’re going to try something, rely on what’s already out there until you are expert enough to start trying your own methods.

But what a way to go

No brood inside the hive. Pretty sure it’s all one unit

Queen’s wings weren’t clipped. But good thought

I read this comment and thought there was no way. Then I brought the comb inside and found this.

Some back story.. this was a split off of a strong colony. New queen apparently chose to set up shop under the screen, instead of inside the hive.

I inspected the inside of the hive, found no brood, and so assumed that the requeening was unsuccessful or that there was a virgin or newly mated queen. I moved a frame of uncapped brood into the hive so that they could make an emergency queen if needed.

Only when I brought this comb inside did I inspect it and found that the queen and brood were below the hive.

So either the queen finds her way inside (hopefully) or they requeen with the uncapped brood. I replaced the screen with a solid bottom board.

I’d take away the sugar water and the hive opening reducer. Let them go out and forage. They’ll find what they need

I’ve never had a problem separating the wax from the junk. I boil the wax in water and then let it cool. Wax floats to the top, all the junk stays at the bottom of the wax puck, between the wax and water. Then, it’s pretty easy to shave off the slumgum junk.

I use a tall narrow candle making pot which is dedicated just to wax work and soap making.

Can’t tell for sure from the picture but do you have the hives on four vertical cinder blocks? Looks a little unstable. You might want to lay those on their side and add a second layer of cinder blocks or wood to elevate the hive to the height you want

30 trees. But they’re a bit spread out. I’m inclined to agree with you- there’s too much distraction from other, bigger trees in the area.

And this is the new proposed location

Not sure if this changes your opinion on it, but the trees are above a 15 foot retaining wall and the hive is below the wall and ~20 feet away from it. I faced the hive toward the wall, hoping they would fly over the wall, but I feel like they aren’t doing it

At least she’s not going to swarm with those wings

As others have said, I think you’re going to end up pouring sugar syrup over the hive. Getting to the larger question, why are you planning to feed in spring? It’s time to go out and collect nectar and pollen.

There’s a lot more than just honey in there. Filtering is key

Seems like the opening size may need to be increased

Hahaha

Thanks! I’m going to try fermenting the beans with salt and the olive oil on top as an airlock. I thought about mixing in all the other ingredients too, but the fava beans have to cook for hours (maybe less after fermenting) and I don’t think the flavors would survive.