Humber Honey

mFresh a New African and Caribbean Grocery Store opening soon in Brampton. Shopping local and supporting businesses like Humber Honey and MFresh Groceries is a great way to make a positive impact on your community and the environment. By choosing to buy from local businesses, you can access high-quality, healthy products while promoting sustainability and creating a sense of community. So why not make the switch and support your local businesses today? Your taste buds will thank you! #ShopLocal #SupportLocalBusinesses #HumberHoney #mfreshgroceries #Sustainability #HealthyLiving #Brampton # Mfresh is located 279 Queen Street east Brampton Unit 7 L6W 2C2

Ever wonder what the inside of a beekeepers car looks like? #humberhoney #beesinthecar

#humberhoney bee collecting pollen

All Hail The Queen! One of our 2021 Queens hard at work looking for an open cell to lay an egg. The Queen has a white dot on her back to denote she was born in 2021. There is an international standard of marking queens based on the year to assist the beekeeper to track the age of their queens but also to identify if a queen has failed and a new one has taken over. The new queen would not be marked. 2021 queens are marked White In all there are 5 colours that are used. An acronym that can be used to remember what order the colours are in is: (W)ill (Y)ou (R)aise (G)ood (B)ees White, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue.

Did we get the queens in the swarms? Now that the two captured swarms have had an opportunity to get settled in their new homes we wanted to confirm if we had indeed captured the queen with the swarm. As we saw the second swarm leave one of our hives we knew that if the queen was in the swarm she would have a blue dot on her back denoting she was a 2020 queen. We were not sure if the first swarm came from one of our hives or another location as we did not see it swarm we only saw it after the swarm settled on a bush. While doing inspections we did locate the hive that the first swarm came from based on the reduction in overall bee population as well as the high number of queen cells. This was the only hive we had that we were not able to mark the queen as we were never able to spot her. Thankfully we did get both queens with the swarms. The queen from swarm 2 was marked with a blue dot. We were also able to locate the unmarked queen in swarm one. We knew she was from 2020 and we were able to capture her and have now marked her with a blue dot. We were able to get a quick video of picking up the queen and marking her.

Second swarm is now in their new home. We took the frames we had in the orange nucleus box into the new hive. The frames were absolutely covered with bees! As we collected this swarm from a pine tree we also ended up catching a lot of pine needles that we don’t want in the hive. Rather than trying to pick the pine needles out we carefully dumped the nucleus box upside down in front of their new home and with one quick smack in the bottom the box all the bees came out. Now we all get to watch the bees play follow the leader and March their way into the hive.

The swarm has moved into their new home and are settling in nicely.

Second swarm is out of the pine tree and ready to be moved to their new home in our bee yard. Once we have confirmed we have a queen and that she is back laying eggs we will then move the hive to a new location with one of hive hosting partners. Do you know anyone that has a large backyard, a farm or acreage that may be interested in hosting some beehives? Ask them to contact Humber Honey for more information.

The Swarm has been captured! 99% I have the queen somewhere in there as the bees line up and begin marching into the nucleus box. We will wait until all the bees are in this box before moving them to their new permanent home. Once they are in their new hive we will check on them and see if we can find the queen. If the queen is marked, we caught our own bees. If the queen is not marked we caught a wild swarm or another beekeepers bees in the area. Let’s hope for free bees. If we determine these bees are not ours then we will treat for verroa mites to ensure we don’t spread any pests or diseases to the hives in our bee yard. We will be sure to post regular updates.

First branch of the swarm of bees shaken into the plastic nucleus box.

Another Day and another swarm. This time we know it was our own bees as we watched them leave one of the hives.

A group of bees fanning their wings to spread the scent of their queen into the air. These are the bees in a swarm that we were able to catch. The fanning help others from the swarm know where their new home is.

First swarm catch of the season. Although most may be intimidated by a swarm of bees, this is when they are at their calmest. Before the colony decides to swarm they eat and eat until they can eat no more to ensure they have all of the energy and resources to establish a new home. Think of how you feel after a large holiday feast when you know you should have stopped eating an hour before.

The birth of some new Drone (Male) bees.

Neighbourhood Sourced Premium Honey 🍯 Taste the Regional and Seasonal Difference. Shop Now at https://HumberHoney.com

They are ALIVE!

With 2020 behind us we are now looking to a better 2021. As the weather is starting to get warmer and the days are getting longer, the 2021 bee season is here. We start this year off with some good news and some bad news. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. We lost 1 hive over the winter. The good news is we only lost one hive and all the other hives are doing well. To make sure we have the strongest hives possible for the spring bloom we will begin feeding all of our hives in the coming days. This will ensure the bees have all the food and nutrients they need and to get the queen back to laying eggs. If we time this right, the eggs that will be laid next week will begin to forage for spring pollen and nectar in late April, with more and more bees joining the forces to forage as we get into the beginning of May. Let’s hope we have a great spring. I can already taste the fruity sweet flavours of the spring honey harvest.