Curt & Sheila's Bug Ranch

07/11/2023

Ty bought me a trail camera... look who visits and/or comes for dinner...

14/10/2023

21/04/2023

24/08/2022

Sheila has pint jars ($8) of fresh raw honey available. Message or call her if interested.

07/05/2022

Good news/bad news for the yard. The Italians were too weak to make it through springs major temperature ups and downs. The Saskatraz bees are doing awesome though. They are large in number and very active bringing in nectar and pollen. Also, I received a new package of bees this morning. They are Carniolan and presumably better suited to our climate than the basic Italian bees.

17/03/2022

So far, so good.... Both hives are doing well. I have been feeding them sugar water on days it is warm enough to open their hives. Today, they were very active cleaning out their hives. They are bringing out the dead and unused dry sugar that I gave them over winter. As a bonus surprise to me, they were coming home with pollen, lots of it, from where, I have no clue.

21/02/2022

21/02/2022

It was warm enough yesterday for the girls to come out on cleansing flights.... So glad to see them buzzing around two of the hives (1 Italian colony and 1 Saskatraz). With it being warm enough, I took the opportunity to give them some extra food that will hopefully get them through the rest of winter.

16/06/2021

https://youtu.be/tG9OKz0jsUY

Thanks to the University of Minnesota for sponsoring this video! http://twin-cities.umn.edu/Honeybees are dying from parasites, pesticides, and poor nutritio...

05/06/2021

Rockford Post Office called me in a panic last week. My package of bees were there and i had to come get them as soon as i could. (They were to have been picked up here in South Beloit.) The Post Master said that there were bees all over the 10 packages that had come in. I told him over the phone that they were probably just tagalongs on the side of the package, normal and that they wouldn't hurt anyone..... When i got there, I found that they did really have a problem. Seams that whoever unloaded the truck was rough with them and broke a hole through a rather sturdy side of one of the packages and the bees were getting out. I did what i could to keep the bees with their package; but, I'm sure that the guy from Orangeville that they were going to wouldn't be happy. A replacement package, if possible to get, would come too late to build up the colony well. If nothing else, the postal employees got a lesson on handling bees and were more comfortable around them once i was there working with them in t-shirt and jeans and explaining their dossal behavior in shipping as long as they were treated gently....

12/05/2021

None of the hives survived winter this year. First of 2 replacement packages due to arrive today. I'm trying a new breed, Saskatraz, a new strain of bees that have been developed in Saskatchewan Canada. A package of the standard Italian bees should be shipped here in a week or so. Starting out late this year due the the deep freeze earlier this year in Texas and Georgia, where the Italians are coming from. The producers had to start over because they lost their bees too.

22/10/2020

22/10/2020

quick tour of the shelter setup...

05/09/2020

Bulk buyers and Mead makers.... We have a few one gallon jugs of fresh, raw honey available for $60.00 each. We also have more Half-Pint ($6) and Pint ($8) jars as well as Bears ($8) available.

04/09/2020

Ty running the honey extractor

27/08/2020

This video shows how quickly these Italian bees work together to remove a foreign object.

27/08/2020

27/08/2020

27/08/2020

We currently have half-pint jars ($6) and bear's ($8) available. Please share.

27/08/2020

We are starting a new page for honey sales and possible pollination service in the future.