Hampton Park Honey

06/28/2025

On hot days, this can happen. To many, this looks like a swarm. But swarms always congregate away from the hive. This is called bearding. When the temperatures get too high inside the hive to be safe for the developing larvae, the workers move outside the hive (leaving a minimum caretakers inside) to allow for maximum ventilation inside the hive Seeing that my other hives are NOT doing this, it's a signal that I need to do some things on my part to improve the ventilation during this heat wave.

06/22/2025

Midsummer faceplant: WHERE DID ALL MY QUEEN BEES GO??

06/12/2025

I had such a great time presenting at Fossil Ridge Public Library District yesterday! It's encouraging to see so much interest in honey bees and pollinators out there. I always go over in time.

05/18/2025

Well, my pesky hive that recently swarmed decided to go for an AFTERSWARM. Don't know what that is? Watch. At least I was around for it this time.

05/09/2025

This is how technology helps in beekeeping these days. Please see my previous video for context. I missed a swarm event, but I know the day and the minute it all happened now.

05/09/2025

It's May. I opened the hives. Got two queens marked. Some good stuff, some not good stuff going on. Looking like a poor prognosis for an early honey harvest this year. Check out the video to see how I concluded that I missed a swarm event; I'll have more evidence of that in the next video.

04/05/2025

It's opening day for beekeeping! The weather isn't good, but the bees ha e been ramping up for over a month now, and if I didn't manage them, I'd see a swarm or two by the end of the month. A mouse in my shed left me an unpleasant situation to deal with. But I also got to set up my high-tech hive today--remote monitoring!

03/16/2025

It was a good day to start assembly of one of two new hives. All equipment has a lifespan, and a couple of my oldest boxes need to be replaced. This year I purchased beeswax-dipped box panels for assembly: Not only do they look better with the natural-wood look, but they are also naturally waterproofed so that they don't need to be painted. A few foraging bees couldn't resist the wax scent and had to check out what I was doing on the driveway.

02/13/2025

Not much active beekeeping going on in February, but look what came in the mail today! I'll be stepping it up with technology when the weather warms up.

12/07/2024

This year I brought a larger supply of honey to the Christmas bazaar at St. Peter's Latvian Ev. Lutheran Church in Wood Dale--people are still scrambling for it! It looks like I won't have much left by the end of the day!

11/24/2024

Well, I have to make the disappointing announcement to my honey lovers that after today's orders of honey that I received, I'm out of stock for honey for the season--sort of. I still have jars of honey, but they are all reserved for an upcoming Christmas bazaar in early December. If I do not sell out, I will announce what I have left; any leftovers will be specific size jars rather than bulk honey that can be bottled to order. Thank you to everyone for all of your support this year! It often seems that my days are endless runs of "how many people will be upset at me today;" this little corner hobby, despite the fact that it always took me twice as long as expected to get any work done with the hives, always was rewarding because it brought smiles to people's faces every time they got their hands on one of their jars. I love bringing that joy to people, and your purchases support the health of my bees. I'll update you as to what happens after the Christmas bazaar!

10/31/2024

I'm excited to try something new this year for winterization of my hives! Beekeepers have tried all kinds of things to improve their colonies' winter survival, with variable success stories. But research can merge with innovation to come up with better ways of doing things. In this video, I'm unpacking a new product called the Hive Hugger, which will create "condensation hives" out of my double deep boxes. Video link here:

It's nice to pay attention to what goes on in research. Sure, beekeepers have wrapped their hives for years and years to try to help the bees stay warmer and...