Recent content by antoniahk

Looked in both hives, found new queen cells in one, new since last week. Got two stings from the other. Bees annoyed by a cold spell, perhaps.

Cut a hole in the side of an empty hive and made a window. Our 7-yr old wants to bring his classmates up to see the bees, and they really want to see lots of bees doing bee stuff, not just flying in and out. And we don't want accidents.

I'm really sorry to hear this, and can completely sympathize - same happened to me last month. It was a horrible thing to open the hive and see nothing (pretty much what you describe, actually). We're cleaning up and going to start again in spring. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I was wondering about cleaning, by scorch, do you mean a quick go with a blowtorch after cleaning? We won't be thinking about buying bees until spring, but would like to get these hives cleaned out and ready to use, in case bees move in by chance, or for the next time our...

I wasn't planning to do anything, given that my bees absconded a month ago. Instead we found an abandoned (by people and bees) apiary, on the hillside below my garden. Three hives, each with a wooden shelter to keep it cool and dry. None of the neighbours seem to know who the hives belong to...

According to the map it is.

It was me with the disappearing bees...so I am certainly not someone to go to for information! But here is a link to a forum started by someone who has recently started keeping bees (apis cerana) in Hong Kong, there are not yet many posts but there may be some useful information...

Yes, they are Asian Honeybees, and the hive we have seems to be the kind used all over Hong Kong. That might be because it's best, but it's equally likely that it's just what has always been used and no one has tried anything else. HK is very big on the traditional way of doing things. We're...

I think that is just my bad quality photography. There were all stages of larvae left behind, and some capped cells, so certainly someone was laying eggs in there since the bees were moved here.

The hive seems to be the usual one used in Hong Kong, and yes, it only holds 8 frames. The bee farmer told us two frames would be ok, and also told us to keep the extra space in the hive as small as possible to prevent other bugs from moving in while the colony was still small. But the space the...

I've learned that "Start with at least two hives in case something bad happens to one of them" means START with two, not get one and then plan to get another soon. Because one minus one = no bees.

The first link shows what we found on Saturday - no bees at all, honey in the combs, dead larvae, a few capped cells, something that seems to be wax moth larvae (but very small, so I think they came after the bees left). Nothing else in the hive, no signs of hornet/wasp attack. The second link...

It wasn't good news. All the bees are gone :(.

Ah yes, I meant tomorrow-Saturday, when I (she) won't be working. I would also much prefer to be unconscious at that time but as a school teacher with a long commute, I don't have the option. 6 am - the best time of the day... So tomorrow I will brave opening the hive to see what we have left...