Hives
The first year of raising bees is on our page "On the Land." We are in the process of more than doubling the hives in 2018 and so a new page for the bees reflects our optimism. We split the hives and then added a separate new hive in 2018. We lost three of those hives over the winter so we have only replaced those lost hives and holding with five hives for 2019.
Our cover is some of the new look hives .. painted in farm implement enamel. The hive boxes are not a great substrate to paint on but if these are populating WAS it seems it needs to be done. The plans are for building top bar hives summer 2019 and natural log hives so we can start those the following spring.
Our cover is some of the new look hives .. painted in farm implement enamel. The hive boxes are not a great substrate to paint on but if these are populating WAS it seems it needs to be done. The plans are for building top bar hives summer 2019 and natural log hives so we can start those the following spring.
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05/22 The hives post winter are busy again. Bees bearding as things got a little hot and crowded for a while. More boxes on the way...
04/29/21 Saskatraz nucs waiting hive boxes. The hives have been moved this year to be more accessible and change of scenery.
2020 honey harvest is done with some of the results on display. The output was down this year with fewer hives but also less production per hive for some unknown reason/s. The hives were cut back a bit due to tough schedule this year so didn't replace some winter losses.
09/22/20 - Bees on warm fall day (doing a little work with them)
Bee yard 07/19/20 - One hive (year 3) and two 2020 versions. All Saskatraz hives now. Lots of Bergamot available.
04/30/20 - Both of the "naturalized" hives are doing very well. We lost several of our boxed hives but the bees on their own are doing great. One of the trees has developed activity in a second opening about 20 feet from the other opening (see bees in hole). How extensive is the hive??
03/17/20 Collecting hollowed tree for natural log hives
The 2019 jarred honey getting photo treatment (finally in 2020)
11/08/19 - Bee hive roughly 20 feet up along the Middle River (discovered during burn event)
08/27/19 - The bee yard.
Bearding on the hive (08/21/19) - added two new queens to get queenright on two of the first year hives. Shifting from Italians to Saskatraz (08/22/19)
08/10/19 - Super added to west hive and east hive on the front row. The first time we have had 4 supers on a hive.
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7/18/19 - Saskatraz hives in summer action (heat index 108+)
7/13/19 - Bee hive about 30 feet up in large oak on the westside forest near old stone well and mile from our hives.
A new hive this spring (04/20/19) has decided to build on top of their frames. One of the reasons to go to top bar or tree hives to allow bees to be more creative to meet their desires.
WAS 04/20/19 - 3 new packages for spring. All Italians. We had some drift... well almost entire drift but re-homed some of them and then seem to have all stuck so the hives are not too out of balance on the numbers.
WAS 11/25/18 - One day later and the cozies look like a much better fit.
Hives wrapped but very warm day for November (11/24/18) and they are out and about. Due to lower honey reserves this year in some of the hives we are feeding some of them.
Honey Harvest - Very high quality honey but a little lower on the overall quantity than hoped for this year.
WAS 07/20/18 - One of our new signs. We wanted to promote awareness about drift and the negative effects on honeybees from pesticides. Our hives are on the registry now and we encourage anyone to enroll theirs too.
WAS 07/17/18 - Decided to remove the queen excluders after low activity in the supers. Some people call them "honey excluders" but everyone has an opinion on them.
WAS 06/05/18 - East hive (2017) got an additional super today. Perhaps a bit soon but better sooner than later in my book. Same with the Spring Valley Italian nuc got on it with a second brood box.
WAS 06/03/18 - East hive (split 1) the Saskatraz queen milling around. She has been elusive but noticed that her paint marking is nearly completely gone so that is no help. We are pleased to get the queens accepted with our first set of splits.
WAS 06/03/18 - West hive (split 1) the Saskatraz queen still has her marking for identification. Just over a month since we made the splits and introduced the queens.
WAS - 05/25/18 - The nuc (Italian) from Spring Valley was finally ready after spring weather delayed production. We got them in the hive with a temporary make-shift bottom board and top cover. We now have 5 hives in operation.
WAS 05/15/18 - Checked for the new queen integration and we were unable to locate them in the hive and fear they may not have made it. The east hive 2 started a back entrance and eschewed the front. We adjusted the top board and cover and hopefully they adjust to regular use of the hive. The hives are all active. Still waiting on our nuc from Spring Valley.
WAS 05/02/18 The queens were released from their cages after three days. The candy had mostly be consumed but we decided to go ahead and just let the queens out. There is a lot of different perspectives out there on on the various aspects of introducing a new queen into a colony. Since we did splits of the hives there is no existing queen in the new brood boxes where we introduced the queens. The old colonies with queens were very active since the split. See video above (or course bees responding to video) increaing action.
WAS 04/30/18 - The new Saskatraz (hybrid) queen bee is in her travel cage and about to be set in between the foundation frames of the hive. The hive will release her after a couple of days by eating through the plug. This gives the hive time to accept her as their new queen.
The queen in the east hive.
Working on splitting hives. Searching for the queens 04/29/18
WAS - 04/12/18 Bees returning with pollen. We checked the hives after removing their winter jackets (hive cozy) and insulation. The hives are jammed with honey and bees. The bees have been checking out the new supers and last year's super's with pulled comb. We returned the supers to the hives so the bees stay put and go to work. It has been a slow spring weather wise but the bees have thrived nevertheless.