Bee Installation

Our bees arrived! Sadly, many of them didn't make it through the post office. We were only able to save three of the six hives that arrived, and one of those might not make it since we had to combine a number of them to have enough bees to support the queen.

Jen showed us how to insert the queen's chamber into the hive. We pulled out a cork to expose a sugar cube that the workers will eat through to free her. The time that it'll take them to eat it will be enough (hopefully!) that her pheromones will convince the bees we've put in her hive that she's their queen.

Installing bees is quite a sight: you need to scrape them out, bang the box on the ground and shake it to get all of them out and into the hive.

Glad we didn't get stung! And I hope that hive survives. More on that when we go back in a little bit to check on them!

Busy as a Bee in Spring!

Jen came back for another visit to our hives! It was so nice that the grass was so much greener this time around.

One of the hives that had been fine a few weeks ago had died so we went on an investigation:

We were concerned as we pulled it apart that we didn't see many dead bees. It meant that they didn't starve to death, which is a common problem and would have easily explained what happened:

As we took more supers off we found a small cluster of bees, probably those who were trying to protect the queen:

We finished scraping up dead bees and were cleaning the very bottom when we found the culprit: a mouse nest. Mice pressure is a huge problem for bee keepers (along with mites and disease and starvation). Next winter we'll add something over the entrance to the hive to discourage mice but still allow the bees to come and go.

After that, we took apart a hive that was still going strong. It was pretty neat to see the queen in action and a hive waking up from winter. We need to add nectar and honey to our hives plus get ready for the four new hives to arrive in May.

Bees!

Time to check on our hives! Bee keeping is something I'm really interested in. Not so interested in getting stung, but I'll do a lot for a constant supply of honey.

Jen of Crimson and Clover Farm came by to teach us all about our bees. We started inside learning about their life cycles and common problems we face with them. Then we headed out to one of the back fields to check them out.

When we got here in the fall they were already sealing their hives up for winter so we didn't want to disturb them. Even now we didn't open any of the active hives because it would have mean causing them extra work to weatherproof it again for these late spring days. It was nice to see some of them flying around all ready!

Sadly, some of them didn't make it over the winter. Colony collapse is very common and a reality of keeping bees. Mites are a huge problem and something to be very careful about.

I'm sure there will be more bee info coming soon!