It can vary based on the size of the colony and how long they have been there, and where they are located. Typical extractions can be take between two hours to eight hours or longer. 80% of instead of Removal’s take about four hours.
The queen has a slightly longer body and usually has no stripes. She moves around the frame differently and the other Bees get out of her way.
Sometimes it can be hard to spot the queen. So Beekeeper’s use a water-based colored marker to put a dot on her thorax. Even then it’s not necessary to find the queen. As long as we can see fresh eggs and newly hatched lava we can be confident that the colony has a queen.
Bees usually need a year or two to produce surplus honey. The first year or two they will consume all honey and use it to build up the colony size. We usually get them a head start by providing them with a substitute pollen and nectar source.
Most of the bees in this area are not Africanized, however we have ran into some pretty “hot“ bees. These are a nuisance and can be dangerous to work with. However only a small portion of our local honey bees have Africanized genes. This can be confirmed with wing sampling or DNA
decoding in a lab.
We strive to preserve all honeybees that we remove and relocate. Most of these colonies will need a new queen within the first few months in order to allow them to be the most healthy and productive. Bees usually live only 6 weeks.
The old queen will have to be removed and a new young mated queen will be added to the box in a protective cage. The worker bees will then release her by chewing a candy plug over the next few days. This delay gives the colony time to get used to her pheromone and except her as their new queen.
Yes we sell honey. See our honey page for available varieties.
We do have a few colonies at home in order to keep a close eye on them and nurse them up to health. Most of our colonies are kept at local ranchers whose land owners have a greed to let us keep them there. One of our favorite landowners has a large organic orange farm. The bees here produce the best tasting orange blossom honey, and occasionally will forage avocado, and wildflower honey from neighboring property.
Population of a healthy hive can range from just a few thousand to about 42,000 plus bees in cocoons.
There are 3 kinds of bees in a normal colony.
The queen, usually just 1 per colony.
The drones, Male bees
And worker bees, all female.
The queen lays eggs and gives off a pheromone that tempers the colony.
She is fed, cleaned, and cared for by worker bees.
Drone bees whole purpose is to mate with a queen from another colony to pass on genes. A queen will mate with about 15 drones mid air, on her mating flight(s). the drones die when mating. The queen will store the sperm viable and fertilize eggs as need. She never mates again.
They are nurse bees that take care of eggs and brood, house bees that clean the hive, honey makers that transfer and ripen honey, some take care of the queen and there are even undertaker bees who pull out dead bees to keep the hive sterile. And of course there are foragers and guard bees.
Bees prefer an empty, dry cavity
About 10 gallons in volume with a small opening that the bees can protect.
This can be a tree, your attic, wall, or even a langstroth beehive.
A honeybee is orange to black in color, plump and hairy. They are usually interested in sweet smelling things. They are not interested in meat.
A yellow jacket “meat bee” is a wasp, not a honeybee. They live in nests in the ground and will attack in force if disturbed. We recommend you contact pest control to remove these.