Beekeeping Updates

This year, I've gotten a lot more adventurous in my beekeeping experiment.  Since I made my original goal of keeping the hive alive for a full season-to-season, I decided to try a few new things like doing a split and leaving an empty box out in case of a swarm.

From 2015-05-18

A few people have asked about the multi-colored boxes.  When I started painting boxes, I decided to do multi-color just to break up the monotony.  It's kind of boring making them all white.

It ended up being a good thing though. It turns out part of a bee's homing instinct is the color and look of her hive.  By having them being randomly different colors helps the bees return to the correct hive during the flow.

From 2015-05-18

We were happy to see the bees starting to pack away the honey this spring.  It's always amazing how quick it happens.  One day you have a bunch of empty frames, the next they're full.

From 2015-05-18

The bees are laying down the wax to seal their bounty.

From 2015-05-18

I was concerned to find this supercedure cell in my primary hive.  I've been worried about swarms and seeing this didn't alleviate my fears.

From 2015-05-18

There are a lot of bees and they're packing away honey, so I don't think they've swarmed but seeing the peanut like cell is definitely an alarm

From 2015-05-18

An here's where they've been getting all their food.  Lots and lots of  wildflowers.  One of the advantages of doing this at the property is there are many hundreds of acres of wildflowers hidden in the forest.  I'm not sure if that's where they get all their nectar but I like to think it is.

From 2015-05-18

First Bushhog of the Season - Garbage Dumpers

I found a nice surprise at the gate on my last visit down to the prop.  Despite have a dump 2 miles away, someone decided to back up to our gate and leave us a busted projection TV and a bunch of other random garbage.  I just don't understand why someone would do that.  What is wrong with people?

From 04-29-15

On a happier note, I was able to do the first bush hog of season.  With all the rain, things are looking so green and lush.

The pic below shows the before and after out on the new pasture I'm building.

From 2015-05-03

I was fixing some some maintenance on some of the beehive boxes and somehow managed to get Gorilla glue, wood putty, and paint on my fingers.  That stuff would just not come off.  It ended up taking about three days of scrubbing with Goo Gone before I was able to finally get it off.

From 2015-05-03