Hoover Hives

01/07/2022

Can anyone name this flower? 🌺Hints->👀
Meaningful Flowers🌎🔎📜 - 8 of 9

🔎1️⃣ In general receiving this flower means the message being sent is pure of heart.
🔎2️⃣ If yellow, it means gratitude & gaiety.
🔎3️⃣ If white, it means innocence & purity. Sweetness. Majesty.
🔎️4️⃣ If tiger, it means wealth.
🔎️5️⃣ If calla, it means beauty.

Can anyone name this flower❓

01/07/2022

Excerpt from: How to Store Your Frames & Foundations 🐝🐝
Criss Cross Stacking - Week 3 of 4

Much like the Open Air Method, we learned about in week 1, you'll use sunlight to prevent moths & mice.🐁

This involves sitting a bee box on a stand so that it is not directly on the ground.

Next, you'll start to stack🗄 your other bee boxes on top of the first. While you stack, turn each box 90 degrees.

This allows some amount of air💨 and sunlight☀ to be able to pass through the hive.

To learn more about the kind of beekeeper that this is best for, check out the "Who Should Use This Method?"" in the full article at https://galenafarms.com/blogs/articles/storing-frames-foundations

Preventing wax moth damage is simple and free. You do not need any equipment or chemicals. Harness the power of the sun; or some other form of light. https:/...

12/31/2021

Can anyone name this flower? 🌺Hints->👀
Meaningful Flowers🌎🔎📜 - 7 of 9

🔎1️⃣ There are various types of this flower found around the world, the meaning that is generally associated with all of them is a new beginning. What better way to start off the new year than to present this flower.
🔎2️⃣ This flower has been used over the centuries as a gift for newborn babies.
🔎3️⃣ Oddly enough it is also used in the opposite manner. Due to their bright and cheerful nature, they are most often used to symbolize purity and innocence, which came from a Celtic legend. According to this legend, God would sprinkle these flowers over the earth to cheer up parents who had lost a child.

Can anyone name this flower❓

12/29/2021

Excerpt from: How to Store Your Frames & Foundations 🐝🐝
Open Air ☀️💨️- Week 2 of 4

It may be counter-intuitive, but your frames would be safe by keeping them outside in the sunlight.☀️

Wax moths, small hive beetles, and mice are all attracted to the darkness🌚 that the inside of your beehive provides.

Without the darkness, your frames lose their luster.

No, that doesn't mean just throwing them in the backyard and calling it a day.

Instead, you should hang the frames on a rack like the one in the video below.

Space the frames about an inch or two apart📏 so that air and sunlight can protect your frames.

If you've already frozen❄️ and dried⛱ them, they should be good to go when springtime rolls around.

To learn more about the kind of beekeeper that this is best for, check out the Who Should Use This Method? in the full article at https://galenafarms.com/blogs/articles/storing-frames-foundations

How to build a beekeeping frame storage rack. I use these racks to store honey bee frames from my Langstroth hives. I used to have problems with my hardware ...

12/15/2021

One of the greatest pieces of advice🤔 that I could give you is to get involved with a local bee club.🐝

There is nothing that will help you more in your Bee Journey than to find a local mentor👨‍🏫 who has dealt with the conditions in your area!

There is only so much an article 📚 or video 🎞 can do for you. Compared to hands-on 🤲experience under a great mentor we can only scratch the surface.

If you haven't yet joined a 🐝club you can use the link below to help you find one in your area.

Even if you don't join the club, you can still contact them and ask them where to 💰buy local bees!

https://www.abfnet.org/page/states

As the national association representing the beekeeping industry at the federal level, the ABF maintains strong relationships with state associations in an effort to ensure beekeeping challenges are addressed across the United States. Each state having ABF members may appoint a State Delegate to ser...

12/10/2021

Can anyone name this flower? 🌺Hints->👀
Meaningful Flowers🌎🔎📜 - 6 of 9

🔎1️⃣ Many ancient cultures have used this flower as both a physical and symbolic purgative and purification tool. It remains a strong symbol of restoration and even devotion to this day thanks to its Biblical associations.
🔎2️⃣ It’s the plant used to apply the blood of the Passover lamb to the doors of the faithful in Egypt during the time of the plagues. Its symbolism as a hope for a fresh beginning continues to remain its primary meaning today.
🔎3️⃣ The high content of antiseptic essential oils in its flowers and leaves may be the reason why it gained such a stable reputation across so many different kingdoms and empires.
Can anyone name this flower❓

12/09/2021

Excerpt from: How to Store Your Frames & Foundations 🐝🐝
The Air Tight Method 🔒 - Week 1 of 4

Nothing gets in, nothing gets out.

Using an air tight method completely seals off your frames and foundations from the rest of the world🌎.

You can either bag🛍 your frames or put them in a large plastic tote to store them.

It is not a requirement to vacuum seal the bags, but it does ensure that they will stay completely air tight.

Do not use a trash bag🗑. Wax moths have a tendency of finding holes (or even making them) to crawl through. Remember wax moths can chew/digest plastic.

If you choose to use a large plastic tote📦, make sure to buy some duct tape as well. You'll want to tape off any holes in the tote. You'll also use the tape to seal the gap between the lid and bin. This will make sure nothing can slip through between the cracks.

This method should be done immediately after you pull your frames from the freezer❄️. Wax moths can be incredibly quick to infest.

To learn more about the kind of beekeeper that this is best for, check out the Who Should Use This Method? in the full article at https://galenafarms.com/blogs/articles/storing-frames-foundations

12/07/2021

You know that dogs can detect bombs. But, did you know bees can too?🐝💣

Scientists👨‍🔬 have been looking into the use of honey bees to help save lives at our ports.✈️🚢

"Honey bee antennae are finely tuned v***r sensors👃 with sensitivity thresholds in the parts per trillion -- which is comparable to dogs."

This means bees🐝 can smell as well as the typical search dog🐕‍🦺, but "are inexpensive to maintain, inexpensive to train, and self-reproducing."

Dubbed, bomb-ble bees🐝💣, they train these honey bees using a Pavlovian method to stick their tongues👅 out when they smell explosives.

Check out the video below for the full scoop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T7d0bze4kM

Members of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Stealthy Insect Sensor Project team have been able to harness the honeybee's exceptional olfactory sense by usi...

12/03/2021

Can anyone name this flower? 🌺Hints->👀
Meaningful Flowers🌎🔎📜 - 5 of 9

🔎1️⃣ This flower's name comes from the fact that the flowers look like the head of the mythical creature. However, the actual scientific name in Greek means “nose-like.”👃
🔎2️⃣ According to European folklore, stepping on this flower has the power to break black magic spells.🧙‍♀️
🔎3️⃣ In the Victorian language of flowers, a bouquet💐 that contained these flowers would convey that you were telling the truth.

Can anyone name this flower❓

11/30/2021

Could your bees🐝 find you in a crowd?

Do they have the capability to tell your face👨 from any other👴?

Science👨‍🔬 hasn't dug deep⛏🕳 enough to say yet, but here's what we know so far though.👇👇

"Avargues-Weber trained the bees by showing them five pairs of different images, where one image was always a face👱‍♀️ and the other a pattern of dots and dashes😄. Bees were always rewarded with sugar when they visited the face while nothing was offered by the non-face pattern. Having trained the bees that 'face-like' images gave them a reward, she showed the bees a completely fresh pair of images that they had not seen before to see if the bees could pick out the face-like picture. Remarkably they did. The bees were able to learn the face images, not because they know what a face is but because they had learned the relative arrangement and order of the features."

In efforts to see how far the bees🐝 could go, Avargues-Weber tried moving some of the facial features around.

She took the image of the human and put the eyes where the nose was and the mouth at the top of the forehead🙃. Results were profound, the bees did not put these jumbled face images in the same category as the other face-like images. This means that bees can recognize some amount of facial features. Or at least can pick out and categorize more details than previously thought.

I guess I'm wondering how far does this go? Could the bees tell the difference between ear size👂, nose shape, mouth color👄, scent of the soap you use🧼, style of your clothes👕, or anything else for that matter?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100129092010.htm

11/26/2021

Can anyone name this flower? 🌺Hints->👀
Meaningful Flowers🌎🔎📜 - 4 of 9

🔎1️⃣ These vivid little blue wonders have only been known by their current name since around the 19th century.
🔎2️⃣ Before that, the coiled-looking plant that sports blue and white petals with a bright yellow center was called scorpion-grass.🦂
🔎3️⃣ The flower is often thought of as a “symbol of love,” and wearing it means that your love is always thinking of you.👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨

Can anyone name this flower❓

11/24/2021

Excerpt from: How to Kill Wax Moths 🐝🛡
How to Prevent Wax Moths - Week 3 of 3

Wax moths can be very hard to kill🔪 once you have them. That's why it's best to focus on preventing them all together.

Usually, wax moths are just a symptom of an underlying weak hive.

They smell fear.😱

Maybe not literally, but they do smell your bees👃🐝, their honey, and their pollen. That's why some of the following prevention methods are based on producing a strong fragrance.

💪Strong Hive - A hive's strength isn't solely dependent on how many bees are in the hive. It's more like a proportion between the population size and its physical size. The denser your hive, the less room there is for a mother moth to find a spot to lay eggs.
🍌Lay Traps - Sugar syrup, apple cider vinegar, and a banana peel. This is the secret sauce to catch moths. Find the recipe in the picture below.
🌱Plant Mint - Mint may be a moth-myth, but it certainly won't hurt. Since moths like the smell of your beehive, mint might be a strong smell that can mask it.
📅Rotate Frames - Moths love old brown beeswax. Full of nutrients that little larvae need. Trade out your old frames for new foundations every few years to help keep the moths at bay.
💪Strong Hive - A hive's strength isn't solely dependent on how many bees are in the hive. It's more like a proportion between the population size and its physical size. The denser your hive, the less room there is for a mother moth to find a spot to lay eggs.
🚪Reduce Number of Entrances - Fewer entrances lead to an easier hive to guard. If you're worried about moths, rotate your entrance reducer to the short side and pull your top cover backward to block the top entrance.

If you want a deeper explanation of any of these prevention methods, head on over to our full article at https://galenafarms.com/blogs/articles/how-to-kill-wax-moths