2023 Beekeeping Season is in full swing!

 I seemed to have lost access to this blog for a while so you don't see much of anything from 2022, but I do have everything on my Facebook page! 

Last season ended with yellow jackets ravaging both hives and killing all the bees in the fall. So sad! My dad wanted to take a break for a season, but I couldn't let the yellow jackets win! 

This year we decided to go back to one colony and try starting with a "nuc." Nuc is short for nucleus...essentially you are getting the nucleus of a colony, a few frames, a laying queen and some workers. It's kindof like getting a head start on the bees, because we don't have to wait for the bees to accept the queen, check to see if she is laying eggs, etc. We got 4 frames that were already being worked by the bees, and just put them into our own hive body and filled it up with more frames.

So far they are doing great!

Here is a movie of everything we've done in the month of May so far!

A few photos from this month...

Capped brood on May 31

eggs on May 31

Larvae on May 31

Fall Tasks: Removing Supers, Counting Mites & Treating

I put this video together last month while on a road trip up north, and then forgot to post it when I returned! So, this is late, but here's what we did last month!

On October 12th we removed all of the remaining honey supers from both hives. There wasn't much in them, but we already have a stash awaiting extraction in Dad's garage! 

We counted 25 mites in Penelobee's colony (the one on the left), and 37 in Beeatrice's (right).

I had two Apivar strips left in my stuff, so we put those two in the bottom box of Penelobee's hive, while I awaited my Amazon order of more strip to arrive! Two days later on the 14th I went back to insert the remaining strips.

On the 12th I got my worst sting yet, right in the groin through my blue jeans! Ouch! It turned into an epic, swollen mass that covered my entire thigh, down to my knee! Yikes! But, all is well now. 

The Apivar strips need to stay in at least through Thanksgiving to do their thing properly, but must be removed no later than December 9th.

August 18, 2021 - Removing more honey

 Today we removed 5 boxes worth of honey! The honey is now tucked away in Dad's garage until extracting day. But Beeatrice's stack was getting too high for us to work! 

Now it'll be a while before we get back to the bees...I will be going into my super busy state fair season, then we have some family camping trips and my dad will be gone for several weeks on a road trip. So, we'll go back in the fall to remove the rest of the honey and get them ready for winter!

May, June & July 2021

 May 31st, Memorial day, was the nicest weather day all season! We spotted eggs and found queen Penelobee herself! We added a second deep and a full pail of syrup. Our overwintered queen Beeatrice we reversed the top and bottom deeps.

Somewhere between the 31st and June 21st I wrote down that we had added 3 supers to Beeatrice...I guess I must have missed some notes in there!

June 21st we saw queen Penelobee in the second frame I pulled out of the top box! I removed the syrup pail and added frames to the top box, so now she is 3 deeps high. There was a lot of honey in the center deep. Beeatrice had lots of fresh comb and honey in the 3rd super! None of the frames were fully capped yet but most were being worked.

Here's a photo of Beeatrice's colony on June 23rd, after we added 2 more supers!

July 5 we removed a box worth of frames from our over-wintered hive, and added some empty frames & another box! It’s too tall now to stack any higher as I can barely lift them!! So we gave one honey super to the new colony! I tore a hole in my veil…luckily no bees got in, but got a sting through my suit on my wrist. My fault…bent my wrist to pick up a box and a bee got stuck & panicked! I’m sure we sweat off several pounds…I didn’t get any pics as I was busy using one hand to cover the hole I tore! My wrist is sore & swollen but the bees are doing amazing!!

May 23 - Checking for Queen Release

 Today we checked to make sure that our new queen Penelobee was released, and indeed she was! Heres a video!

May 19 - Installing the New Queen!

 Today we installed the new queen! Here's a video!

May 19, 2021 - Installing the new queen!

 Today we installed the new queen in our split! Here's a video!