Playing lifeguard to a bee drowning in a pool of honey:
It's looking good for the earliest honey harvests I've ever had! I'm not ready to take orders quite yet (my schedule's seriously heavy for the next week), but it won't be long!
I really need to move a hive over to another spot in the yard. Is it as straightforward as it sounds? Not really. Watch--
We're all enjoying a break from the winter temperatures here in the Midwest in early February. The bees seem to be appreciating it as well! Not a lot of food out here, but I do have some early treats for them in my yard!
Even in November in Illinois, if it's a nice day, the bees will do some chores!
Fall is here, but there's still a lot of work to do in the bee yard!
Happy #NationalHoneyMonth everyone, from me and my Martha Carpenter mite mauler bees here in my backyard! I made an additional harvest of honey at the end of August, so now I have both spring and summer harvest honey, each having a slightly different flavor due to the types of flowers that were foraged!
Ever heard of the beavior of bearding among bees?
It was a rainy Monday morning over here. But it was fun to see my newly introduced Buckfast bees not caring about the rain, foraging away. Buckfast bees are a hybrid race of bees developed (over many decades) by Brother Adam at the Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England in the early 1900s. They were developed to handle tracheal mites, which were wiping out the colonies en masse in England at the time. Buckfast bees were first imported into Canada in 1989, and have slowly made their way into the U.S. by a few select breeders. They are cold tolerant, wet climate tolerant (hence the foraging in the rain), have a lower tendency to swarm, and (reportedly) conservative on consumption of winter reserves of honey. We'll see how they pan out! But it's fun to mix up the genetics in the pursuit of the healthiest possible bees in my little backyard space.
Are you ready??? It's honey time!! See my video for details! Itemized pictures of the honey jars to follow.
Happy Independence Day! Guess what I've been doing today!
It's the month of May, and my bees are in stronger numbers than I have ever seen before at this time of year! This is the beginning of what is called nectar flow, which is a time of year when there are huge numbers of blossoms providing large quantities of nectar. Opportunity for harvest is still way down the road, but it's looking good so far! Here's a little more about my hives.
What does this time of year mean for my honey bees? Usually this is a landmark day for beekeepers in colder climates, but this year, I'm not so sure...
When it's mid-February, but the temperatures jump to April levels:
New Year's Eve beekeeping!
Four million flowers visited for two pounds of honey. This can set you up for a very sweet winter!
The honey may be harvested, but beekeeping work keeps on going!
Yes, it finally happened: Honey has been harvested over the past two weekends! It'll be a lot of work bottling everything, which I have no time for right now, but stay tuned for the announcement of honey sales starting--it'll be within a week. Here is a glimpse of my preliminary efforts...
New worker bees setting their internal GPS!
Things are progressing! This is from over a week ago. I'm really hoping that I can get a July honey harvest if the colonies keep growing!
