Nov 25 - Extracting Day!

 On November 25th we extracted honey in Dad's garage! This is always an exciting day, however, it's even more exciting when it's been TWO YEARS since you've had honey to extract! (We didn't get any in 2019!) 2020 may have been a bummer of a year for a lot of reasons, but not with honey!

Beautiful capped honey!

This is a pile of "cappings"...what we cut off to get to the honey. None of it is wasted! This gets melted down and we can separate the wax from the remaining honey.

Dad un capping some honey with his heated knife.

Dad's extracting setup! He got that extractor decades ago at a flea market I believe!

Pic of dad's branded frames

Me un-capping some honey

My boys taking a turn with the extractor. It's a full day affair so often times my family comes with and hangs out at Gramma & Grampa's while we extract!

Check out this quick 30 second version of what we did today!

November 2020 - Tucked in for winter

So back on Sept 21, I had put in the Apivar strips and left the bees some syrup. 

On Sept 24th I went back, and all three pails were empty! I accidentally brought only 2 pails with me instead of 3, but I put them out. 

On Sept 27, I removed the empty pails.

 October 7 I put on 3 more feeder pails.

October 10 I checked the pails...they were still half full so I left them.

November 2nd I removed the Apivar strips and we tucked the bees in for winter! Normally bees fill the hive from the bottom up, so for most of the summer we assumed the bottom box was loaded with honey for them to eat over winter. We didn’t dig into it as it’s better to only go in as far as you need to and not disturb them too much. However, the bottom box was pretty empty. So, we are experimenting... instead of three deep boxes over winter, we put a honey super in the center (shallower box), full of frames we were going to extract, that were full but not fully capped. So essentially we gave some honey back to the bees, for them to live off of this winter. So far I have never had a hive make it through winter, so I have my fingers crossed for this year! It was actually too warm out to do the oxalic acid mite treatment, so I will go back when the temps are in the 40s to do that!

Nov 14 - Here's a video of what we did over a couple different days to get the bees all treated for mites and tucked in for winter!

Sept 21, 2020 - Treating for Mites

 Today I put in the Apivar strips, two strips in each box. I also fed them 3 pails of syrup. The strips will come off in 42 days...around November 2nd, but not sooner. Heres a video of the process!

Sept 17, 2020 - Counting Mites!

 On Sept 1st, we removed the remaining supers and fed the bees three pails of syrup. On Sept 4th I removed the syrup pails. Today, the 17th, I counted mites...27 of them! That's by far the most I've ever seen in my years of doing this. 

The top box should have 8 frames full of honey, and one partial in the center. Ours currently has 5-6 full frames. The center box should have 4 frames of honey...ours has none. Most of them are empty, have a little bit of honey, or are full of brood.

I ordered some Apivar strips from Amazin, $39.95 for a 10 pack, arriving tomorrow!

July 29, 2020 - Removed 7 capped frames

 We visited the bees on July 22nd, and left them as-is. The 5th super still felt light! Today though, we removed 7 capped frames of honey. The top box was still light. Check out the video on my Facebook page, here!

July 14, 2020 - Added 5th super

 Today I added a 5th super! Some frames were fully capped, but not enough to remove a box. Here's a little clip of the bees capping honey!

July 9, 2020 - Added a 4th super

 The bees were busy capping honey today...I added a 4th super!

June 24, 2020 - Guest starring on EPAG Kids' "Lunch Break!"

 Dad Phil Brandt and I had so much fun being guests on today's "Lunch Break," taking the kids from EPAGKIDS Elementary Church on a virtual field trip to visit the bees! Check out the replay here, where you can even watch a new bee "hatching" out of her cell!

June 11, 2020: Adding honey supers

Well, its been a little while since I've blogged, mainly because my GoPro died! However, I just bought a new one, and today I got to use it for the first time to check the bees. Today Dad and I added two honey supers. We check out all of the deeps, and found the queen was laying down in the bottom box. So, we kept that box on the bottom, hoping she'd work her way up. We re-assembled the hive as it was, took off the feeder pails, and replaced that with the queen excluder and two honey supers. The bees are looking great overall!

Our "hosts" had lots of daisies blooming today! I tried to catch a photo of one of the honeybees on a daisy but was unsuccessful. I did, however, snap a few pics of other types of bees! I am no expert on other bees, but after some Google searching I believe this is an Agapostemon virescens - aka "Green Striped sweat bee"

April 22, 2020; Checking for Eggs

This post is belated, but last week my dad and I went to check on the bees to see if the queen was laying eggs yet! Dad had a stroke last month, so it was a miracle to have him there this time! I'm so glad this visit was worth the drive and walk for him....the bees look great! Fresh, clean wax, and plenty of eggs, larvae and capped brood. We saw what we needed to see, closed up the hive, and increased the entrance size. The bees were coming back loaded with pollen, too! The insides of the feeder pail lids were crusted with sugar, so I scraped that off so the syrup would flow freely. That's all for today! I'll go back again early next week to check on them, and possibly add another deep!

Let the 2020 Bee Season Begin!

Today was "bee day!" Unfortunately my dad and bee mentor suffered a stroke last month, and while he's now thankfully home recovering, between that and the whole COVID-19 thing, he stayed home this year. However, I was able to go pick up the bees in Stillwater and get them installed today!

With the coronavirus epidemic going on, they had new procedures for picking up bees. Bee pickup was spread out between two days, and the time slot I was given based on my last name was 12:30-1:00 today. I was to put a sign in my window with my name, not open the window or get out of the vehicle, and allow them to put the bees in the vehicle.

I then headed home, made some sugar syrup, let it cool and headed over to install them! I think everything went well, but here is a movie from the day, including bee pickup!