Backyard Beekeeping Questions and Answers Episode 189, should you heat your bee hive? How to tell what box my queen is in?

Welcome to another episode of Backyard Beekeeping topics, this is the audio track from today's YouTube:

https://youtu.be/yYil7Dl5sCg

 

The associated topics and time-stamps are generously provided by: Adam Holmes

Pinned by Frederick Dunn

@W4R34G7E 

 

 

1) My bees are being robbed by a nearby feral colony in a tree. Can I just leave the robbing screen on all the time? 3:50

2) I lost both of my hives suddenly this year. The hives were weak in September and we had an extremely cold November this year. Should I use a hive heater? Could you recommend one? 11:08

3) Can I wrap an electric blanket around a hive so I can do an Oxalic Acid Treatment? Can you think of reasons why this is a bad idea? 18:07

4) I was just trying to determine the suggested bee vacuum. 21:53

5) I want to replace a queen, but if I split the hive how do I know where she is? Both brood boxes are full of bees and inspections are hard to do. 27:05

6) Do you know of a set of instructions that can be placed on a label for how to de-crystalize honey? 35:16

7) As far as being sure that I have enough beeswax on my frames, do I paint the wax on, or can I rub a brick of wax across the frame? 43:23

8) It appears that you frequently wear a new bee suit. Do you wash those and do they stay that clean? 50:20

9) I'm getting my hives this spring. I have lots of dragon flies. Can you think of ways to control them? 53:59

10) Do bees still do cleansing flights in the dead of winter? It can get to -7 here, I find dead bees 6 feet in front of the hive in the snow. 58:40

11) It was stated to me to use food-grade salt around my hive to kill off the small hive beetles as they try to pupate. thoughts? 1:01:41