After a slow, slow start to the beekeeping season, we have managed to run out of queens. There were an excess of them on order, but we distributed so many that we have run short ourselves. Enough to finish splitting should arrive on Friday. I did not have much luck with the lot of queens […]
The weather has turned in our favor over the last several days. The bees are gathering fresh nectar and loads of pollen. It’s a long road to full-strength colonies, but things are finally headed in the right direction. Some of the parent colonies that declined after I split them have turned the corner toward recovery. […]
BiggestMeow’s comment in the last entry mentioned our yard that sits at the bottom of a river levy….Well, that yard no longer holds any bees. Now to divulge the circumstances of vacating that yard On two occasions, we fished the bees out of a few feet of water, but this year the story had a […]
Hinegardner Orchard in Montour requested that we take bees for apple pollination in short order, so Alex and I loaded the 4×4 and headed north. With the flatbed out of commission, the job is considerably more laborious. Ideally we used the Swinger to load several 4-way pallets, and then Dave Hinegardner unloads them with his […]
Sunshine and warmth were the good news today. I had begun to wonder if the dandelion bloom would amount to anything, but I saw some respectable patches of yellow today. We’ll hope the progress continues and the bees find some nourishment and vigor. The bad news? Alex and I broke down with the flatbed at […]
It appears our colony count will wind up a little lower this year. A few years ago we were around 700, but the long winter has a number of the hives looking quite weak. That is a sad fact considering that forty percent of last year’s hives didn’t even survive the winter. The first round […]
The dandelions started to bloom a couple of days ago. I thought it might take a little longer before the bees got to visit them, but they are starting to come back to the hives with a fair amount of orange pollen. Now we have to hope the weather starts to cooperate so those flowers […]
I awoke and encountered a dampened world. Last night I pulled up to the Ebert Honey House at 11:30 p.m. and needed to make a decision. I could go home and rest from a day of splitting and moving bees, or I could gather some more equipment and move another dozen colonies to their new […]
After the interminable winter and frequent rains, splitting new colonies from the old hives is behind schedule. I finally got some nucs made this afternoon, but first I shook the last thirteen 3lb. packages that came out of California via Larry Draper. I will feel relieved to put queens in the nucs tomorrow. It feels […]
For the record, seventy degrees is too warm to have a two pound package totally blocked up. The bees were more than ready to have some fresh air at those temperatures. I had partially unblocked the entrance before I opened the lids, otherwise a lot more bees would have wound up in the air. I […]