New Extracting/Bottling Items Available

Right on time for extracting we brought some extracting tools and more bottling jars to our online store. We have inventory on hand and you can place an order online for pickup at the store.

The pictures below are for a couple of items added to the Extracting category:

Uncapping and Straining Tank
5 Gallon Pail with Honey Gate
5 Gallon Pail with Honey Gate

And if you need jars and bottles for your honey, we have added the Containers and Labels category to the store. It’s already stocked and we will continue adding different containers over time:

Click on the image to visit the Containers and Labels category of our online store.

Last Formic Pro Sale of 2021

Time to stock up on Formic Pro!

We have a batch of Formic Pro with sell by date of July 2021. We have set a deeply discounted sale price so all units will find a home (or hive) before that date!

Once Formic Pro is sold out this year, we may not have any more Formic Pro until spring 2022.

The sale price will be active as long as supplies last. We do not ship Formic Pro, so it can only be bought for “pick up at store” and you will need to pick it up before the end of July.

If you buy more than what you need for this year, you can store the leftover in the freezer for a long time. We just cannot sell the product past the sell-by date, but you can buy it and store it at low temperatures beyond that date.

Formic Pro is the only mite treatment that kills the mites even inside the capped brood cells. It can be used with honey supers on the hive.

This treatment has Organic Certification: https://nodglobal.com/organic-certification/

Formic Pro can be bought here: https://www.beemaniacs.com/product/formic-pro-strips/

Sold out of live bees for the 2021 season

Thank you to all the beekeepers, experienced and new, that purchased bees through BeeManiacs.

This year we tried a couple of new suppliers.

The packages were high-quality and this new supplier had the highest queen successful introduction rate we ever experienced. The small number of queen issues where quickly resolved.

Nucs were pretty succesful too, with some issues on queen rearing down in California and new queen introduction. We will make adjustments for the 2022 season, as our goal is to have zero issues with nuc installations.

We should start taking live bee orders for the 2022 season in January or February, 2022

Packages

New Products at BeeManiacs

We just added a couple of products to our store.

HopGuard 3

HopGuard® 3 is the new and improved generation! It comes in packs of 5 or 12 doses.

HopGuard® 3 Properties:

  • Naturally derived from hops,
  • No chemical residues,
  • Safe during honey flow,
  • Easy & effective,
  • Safe on bees – deadly on Varroa mites,
  • Easy – AND SAFE – to use

For more information follow this link: https://www.beemaniacs.com/product/hopguard-3/

Deep Frame Pro Feeder – 1.5 Gallons

We already had in stock the regular size 1 Gallon feeder, but some beekeepers wanted to add more feed on a single trip.

This Deep frame size (9 5/8″) inline feeder fits on a regular Deep size Langstroth box.

It’s 2 1/2″ wide and holds 1.5 gallons (it may take the space of 2 regular frames)

For more information follow this link: https://www.beemaniacs.com/product/deep-frame-pro-feeder-1-5-gallons/

Time to Treat for Mites!

It’s very important to treat your bee colonies for varroa mites before they make their “winter bees” at the end of the season.

Varroa mites feed on larvae and cause honey bees to have shorter lifespans. If your colony raises winter bees while they have mites in the hive, those winter bees will not survive through the whole winter. As bees die earlier, the winter cluster gets smaller and at some point, the colony doesn’t have enough bees to keep warm through winter (even though they may have plenty of honey nearby, they cannot reach it because the cluster is too cold).

If you still have honey supers on top of the hive, we recommend Formic Pro Strips or Hopguard, as they can be used while you have honey supers on.

If you already removed supers you can still treat for mites with the same two products or even use Oxalic Acid.

Formic Pro is more convenient for the beekeepers that have one to 10 hives, with Oxalic acid becoming more convenient for beekeepers with more hives.

This link will take you to the section of of the online store that shows the products and tools we have available: https://beemaniacs.com/product-category/bee-health/

Sold Out of Honey for the 2020 Season

We are reciving some inquiries about purchasing honey from BeeManiacs.

We want to let our customers know that we’re sold out of honey this season. We won’t have more honey for sale until 2021.

Last batch of live bees arriving May 16

The last batch of live bees we have for the 2020 season will be arriving on Saturday, May 16.

We were able to get some more nucs so if you were in the waiting list, you probably received an email notification.

If you want to check if we have more nucs available, you can check on this link: https://beemaniacs.com/product/nuc/

People with orders will receive confirmation email about pick up schedule as we get close to nuc pick up day. We will spread pick up schedule to avoid many people coming at once. If you have an order, you will receive your personalized email about pickup schedule.

Please make sure that you receive BeeManiacs emails and that you check regularly the email account you entered when placing the order.

Getting ready for the bees

Bees in a package are very vulnerable and have a limited capability to regulate temperature and airflow. They depend on the beekeeper to provide the right environment during transport.

Transport tips

  • Once you have your package/s, we recommend you to go to your bee yard and install the bees as soon as possible.
  • We do not recommend transporting packages on the back of pick up trucks (unless you have some type of enclosure to protect the bees while allowing some ariflow). There could be too much airflow (cold air) or too much sun or even rain. Car trunks are not a good idea either, because they could get too hot and the lack of ventilation.
  • It would be better for the bees to ride in the vehicle with the beekeeper, with average or “room” temperatures. The longer the trip home, the more important it is to provide the right travel environment. 
  • Just transport the package/s as you would a pet. Don’t leave the package inside a parked car (it could get too hot or too cold).
  • If you bring someone along for the ride, make sure they are comfortable with sharing the car with thousands of bees.
  • It may be a good idea to bring a veil or any protective gear, just in case.

Installing the package

  • Try to install the package mid-afternoon, to prevent robbing from existing colonies and reducing the chances of absconding.
  • Get the hive set up and ready to receive the bees ahead of time.
  • Take into account that the package is installed in one single box. If you bought a hive kit with multiple boxes, just use the first one. If you have a non-conventional hive, like top-bar, horizontal or AZ Slovenian hive, please note that you have to use follower boards or some kind of divider to make the chamber where the package is installed smaller.
  • You will need to feed the bees with sugar syrup (mix of granulated sugar and water 1:1) so make sure to have enough sugar and a feeder to deliver the syrup close to the bees.

A package that is installed correctly will start drawing out comb, have brood, and expand for the rest of the season. If there’s something wrong with the queen or the colony, we have about 7 days to solve the problem.

But when the conditions for the package are bad, all the bees could die within three days, without having a chance of establishing the colony (for example due to lack of syrup feed or if installed in a hive that is too big or has too many boxes).

When you pick up your package at BeeManiacs, we will give you detailed printed instructions to follow when you install them at home. You can preview the pdf file in this link.

In case you run into any problems, email us at livebees@beemaniacs.com as soon as possible. We can help you resolve most problems, as long as we’re contacted right away within the first week.