Beekeeping

[slipdrive]

Excited my experienced friend brought the split and re-queened swarm over yesterday, waiting to place into permanent hives when it warms up a bit. (Got half a foot of wet snow last night). I was going to let him do all the beekeeping, but the more I learn, I think I will be getting a suit and jumping in !! Hope by next year we can get eight or so hives in place, as I get the property shaped up. It's vacant land in the midst of a fifty year old suburban foothills neighborhood, so the bees will have lots to explore!
Thinking carefully about security and educating neighbors, etc. Already moved the hives across the property at the request of an anxious neighbor... :scared:

How are your fruit trees this spring FlasherZ ? Last winter was brutal in the huge temp plunge in November, and I lost over half my two year dwarf apples. Already replanted, but that was harsh reality and depressing.
I'm really looking forward to the bees....!

 

[FlasherZ]

Excited my experienced friend brought the split and re-queened swarm over yesterday, waiting to place into permanent hives when it warms up a bit. (Got half a foot of wet snow last night). I was going to let him do all the beekeeping, but the more I learn, I think I will be getting a suit and jumping in !! Hope by next year we can get eight or so hives in place, as I get the property shaped up. It's vacant land in the midst of a fifty year old suburban foothills neighborhood, so the bees will have lots to explore!
Thinking carefully about security and educating neighbors, etc. Already moved the hives across the property at the request of an anxious neighbor... :scared:

How are your fruit trees this spring FlasherZ ? Last winter was brutal in the huge temp plunge in November, and I lost over half my two year dwarf apples. Already replanted, but that was harsh reality and depressing.
I'm really looking forward to the bees....!

The weather has been PERFECT this year. No late freezes, good rain with good stretches of sun... Everything set a very heavy fruit load this year, and I managed to keep fire blight at bay this year (which tore through the orchard the past 2 years).

Between Saturday and Monday, I had 5 swarm calls (although one of the calls was a return call to collect the remainder of the scouts that that re-gathered). I started the year with 3 active hives that survived the winter; I have 12 at the moment.

 

[mwg]

My wife experienced a bee swarm on her Roadster today. A good portion of the door was covered. It appears the queen was removed from the site when another driver sped away trying to remove them from his vehicle. A bee keeper was called to relocate the remaining bees from the Tesla.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pbsb6ss598rjyf1/2015-05-20%2016.19.24.jpg?dl=0

 

[Denarius]

My wife experienced a bee swarm on her Roadster today. A good portion of the door was covered. It appears the queen was removed from the site when another driver sped away trying to remove them from his vehicle. A bee keeper was called to relocate the remaining bees from the Tesla.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pbsb6ss598rjyf1/2015-05-20 16.19.24.jpg?dl=0

That is crazy! The bees obviously have good taste!

 

[ggies07]

This is a pretty interesting video, not sure even you bee keepers out there have seen this:

Watch a Bee Reach Adulthood in an Impressive Timelapse Video | Mental Floss

Photographer Anand Varma partnered with the bee lab at UC Davis to capture the first 21 days of a bee's life, from egg to insect. In just 60 seconds, you can watch the featured bees mature in their brood cells. Unfortunately, the mites that run around baby bees and suck their blood—which leads to the weakening and eventual destruction of a hive—also make an appearance. Some beekeepers will treat their hives with chemicals to combat the mites, but it's bad news for the bees in the long run. By committing this process to video, Varma hoped to show how mites and bees interact in the hive, in order to help scientists who are working to find and breed bees that are resistant to the mites. Learn more about the process in Varma's Ted Talk.

 

[Denarius]

This is a pretty interesting video, not sure even you bee keepers out there have seen this:

Watch a Bee Reach Adulthood in an Impressive Timelapse Video | Mental Floss

Incredible!

 

[FlasherZ]

So, how are everyone's bees doing? I ended last year with 8 hives, lost 5 during the winter (2 didn't make it into the winter, 2 starved in mid-Feb, and 1 tried to start up brood too early and froze)... however, swarm season has been just CRAZY and I currently have 13 hives. The new packages I installed in late March and mid April had the feeders pulled off them and are now working their first supers, and I just gave all the swarms from early-to-mid May their second brood box (deep) and refilled the feeders.

This is the best honey flow I've seen for nearly 7-8 years, hope it keeps going for a while. We're in the purple salvia and white dutch clover season and they're all over the lawn.

 

[bonnie]

So, how are everyone's bees doing? I ended last year with 8 hives, lost 5 during the winter (2 didn't make it into the winter, 2 starved in mid-Feb, and 1 tried to start up brood too early and froze)... however, swarm season has been just CRAZY and I currently have 13 hives. The new packages I installed in late March and mid April had the feeders pulled off them and are now working their first supers, and I just gave all the swarms from early-to-mid May their second brood box (deep) and refilled the feeders.

This is the best honey flow I've seen for nearly 7-8 years, hope it keeps going for a while. We're in the purple salvia and white dutch clover season and they're all over the lawn.

I'll let you know in a few hours, just about to go inspect my five hives ... but I'm not expecting much this year because of drought conditions. I've been planting bee-friendly plants like mad on the property. Right now the blackberry-lined creek banks are in full bloom & also have lawn clover - but I'm just worried about when that ends. I may be feeding this year. If I get any honey, I'll consider that bonus.

 

[Denarius]

We've had one of the wettest Mays in history. I'm worried that my hives haven't been able to gather at all. I'll be checking the hives tomorrow to see how they are doing.

 

[bonnie]

Good news, all five hives thriving. None look ready for a honey super yet, but I may throw some shallows on just to allow them some extra honey for the year - and then worry about myself if those fill.

Girls were working in the garden, mobbing the lavender:

Saw the biggest black bumblebee in the tomatoes - couldn't get a shot, but found it online. Shockingly big!

 

[FlasherZ]

We've had one of the wettest Mays in history. I'm worried that my hives haven't been able to gather at all. I'll be checking the hives tomorrow to see how they are doing.

We've also had a very wet May (7 inches between Apr 25 & May 25, and 3.5 inches in the past 3 days alone)... that said, it seems to rain at the right time - we've had plenty of breaks where the girls can get out and collect. They've been drawing wax like crazy. Let us know how they look.

- - - Updated - - -

Girls were working in the garden, mobbing the lavender:

I wish we could grow lavender hedges like Californians can... we can only have small lavender shrubs here. At corporate HQ in SJ, I love walking down the hedgerow of lavender and seeing the girls work. We settle for purple salvia here, about the same.

 

[bonnie]

I wish we could grow lavender hedges like Californians can... we can only have small lavender shrubs here. At corporate HQ in SJ, I love walking down the hedgerow of lavender and seeing the girls work. We settle for purple salvia here, about the same.

I have found that deer will leave highly scented plants alone (like lavender and rosemary), so those go outside my fenced garden area - and I keep the stuff that would be decimated behind a 5' fence. And the bees don't care where it is.

 

[FlasherZ]

I have found that deer will leave highly scented plants alone (like lavender and rosemary), so those go outside my fenced garden area - and I keep the stuff that would be decimated behind a 5' fence. And the bees don't care where it is.

It's not critters... it's the growing season. Winters keep lavender short around here.

 

[FlasherZ]

Finally... after a week of clouds and rainy days, our first real sunny day. I noticed some of my girls out in the rain yesterday; I suspect the weaker colonies were close to starving after a week's worth of rain. The good news is that after 6 inches of rain in a week we should see massive growth of plants - we trimmed the catmint so we should be seeing more pop up and bees swarming all over it.

Most of my colonies are doing great - I have one weak colony that I'll probably have to start feeding soon. The rest of them are going gangbusters.

 

[bonnie]

My Flow hives should be arriving shortly - just received this email:

 

[GasDoc]

My Flow hives should be arriving shortly - just received this email:

Me too!

 

[FlasherZ]

Me too!

I received it as well. I may not be able to use them this year, though, depending upon how much longer the clover continues to provide nectar. Usually after the first week of July we have to be concerned about the honey flow stopping.

 

[bonnie]

I received it as well. I may not be able to use them this year, though, depending upon how much longer the clover continues to provide nectar. Usually after the first week of July we have to be concerned about the honey flow stopping.

Northern California hasn't had a good nectar flow this year (boo drought), so I may not be able to use them either. I have half-comb shallow supers on the two largest hives and results are disappointing at this point. But all five hives are thriving, so no complaints. Plenty of brood, pollen, and honey stored in the brood box - I may just put mediums on all of them and whatever honey they produce is theirs for the winter - and will save me some feeding.

 

[GasDoc]

I got an alert from UPS. I suspect my frames will be delivered tomorrow.

 

[bonnie]

I got an alert from UPS. I suspect my frames will be delivered tomorrow.

My boxes will be delivered tomorrow - coming from Beethink in Portland. They must have partnered with them for the US manufacturing. They make high quality stuff, so my expectations are high at the moment.