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Early Spring

Spring Hives It’s early March and that means erratic weather and high winds. We had snow last week, it was in the 50′s this week and now, with winds gusting to 30 mph, another snow is predicted for...

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Snow Day !

My bees had the day off today…..they couldn’t get to work!  Hah! 4″ of heavy wet snow fell overnight turning the entire neighborhood into a snowy wonderland. For the past three weeks, the bees have...

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Back in Bees – ness !

The recent cold snap and 4″ snowfall the other day didn’t seem to affect the cherry trees that were just coming in to bloom ( apricot trees had already dropped their petals and apples and pears haven’t...

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New bee colony arrived today.

Back in February I ordered a 4 lb package of honeybees with queen for my second hive.  I had built it two years ago but only got one going last year, so it has been sitting empty in the yard.  Well,...

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The Queen is released! Long live the Queen!

Empty queen cage. New comb built in just 3 days. Reattached the comb to the bar. You can see where the cage had been. Three days after I put the new colony ( 4 pounds of bees plus 1 queen) into the...

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Hive Requeened

Two weeks ago a strong wind knocked over one of the (empty)  rainbarrels and it rolled into Hive #1. The colony had successfully made it through the winter, and the queen was laying, comb was being...

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No queen……yet.

Two weeks after I noticed capped queen cups in hive #1, I went back in to see if their  attempt at requeening was successful. Alas…. no sign of a queen and there was absolutely no sign of any eggs in...

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Ooops! Broken comb.

Broken comb It was so hot last month that one of the combs fell off the bar.  The bees have been cranking out a lot of honey and this comb was so full and the comb was so fresh that the heat caused it...

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First Honey Harvest

Went out yesterday to see how much honey the bees had produced and how much I could take from the hive.  Both hives had built up 13 combs… a little less than half of a full hive.  I inspected the bars...

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Bees in winter

Yes, I haven’t posted anything all winter. That’s mainly because there really hasn’t been anything to write about.  The bees have been hunkering down keeping warm and protecting the Queen.  There were...

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How many bees????

Apricot blossoms and bees The apricot trees have just finished blooming and now the cherries are starting to bloom. ( Apple trees will bloom later) There are so many bees that the the trees are...

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Queen Rearing

I spent the afternoon with my bee mentor, Steve Wall who showed me how to begin to raise my own queen bees.   Queen bees can live 3  to 5 years, but they are the most productive in their first two...

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Queen rearing; Part 2

After collecting the larvae, putting them in the plastic queen cups ( the process is called grafting) and then putting the frame into a  queenless hive, we waited 10 days for the larvae to develop. The...

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Hive Intervention Drama

Placing the comb into the carrying box. It’s not a full comb of brood but enough to keep her bees busy. Placing a damp towel over the comb to keep the humidity up around the brood Jannine placing the...

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Queen rearing ( Part 3) …..the concluding episode.

Got a call the other day from my bee mentor, Steve.  He said he was ready to inspect all his mating nucs and collect the successful queens, Remember that we had first “grafted” very young larvae, put...

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Queen questions.

Picking up the queen bee I’ve received a number of questions about the queen rearing procedure.  One of them was “Why don’t the worker bees try to defend the queen  and attack when you pick her up?”...

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Hot hive

Bearding It’s been unusually hot and very dry here this year. We’ve had virtually no rain and temperatures have been in the high 90′s for over a week now. This puts a strain on the bee colony.  Bees...

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Fall Honey Harvest

   Geoffrey with two full combs Cutting comb Geoffrey breaking up the comb Straining the honey                 A couple weeks ago my friend Geoffrey came over to help me collect honey from the three...

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Bears !

Broken combs from the bear attack Last Thursday I woke up to find that one of the bee hives was upended and the honey comb scattered on the ground.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  The other two hives...

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Bee colony update ( bear attack )

Relocated bee hives Went out to Jannine’s farm yesterday to check on the three hives that I had to quicky move after a bear got into the yard and tore one of them up. As I feared, the queen did not...

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