A couple pictures from our Harvest

Year In Review

This was a fun year for us in beekeeping.  It started off pretty exciting getting the new hives and then getting lucky and catching a swarm.  We were up to 6 hives at that point.  I had a crazy experience and was stung on my neck and went into shock.  I pretty much passed out and so the paramedics came and gave the neighborhood some excitement on a Saturday night.  That freaked us out a little bit and the thought of giving it up about broke my heart.  I decided to take a lot more precautions.  Things were going well until harvest time and I was stung through my gloves.  The great thing is I didn't have any reaction to it, so I don't think I am allergic to them.  I did learned you always need to be careful though. Honey bees are for the most part very gentle but if you don't take precautions they will get you.

We also learned this year that you can have very weak hives.  We had to take from the strong hives and give to the weaker ones in order to help them out.  It was amazing how a couple of frames of bees and brood could help the weak hive start booming.  We didn't get nearly as much honey as we had hoped, but enough to get us excited for next year.

After we had harvested we checked the hives and found that we didn't have a queen in my Dad's hive.  The hive was so large we tried to split it and get two new queens, but Fall is a very difficult time to get hives to accept new queens and they killed both of them.  We combined them back and introduced another one and they killed her as well.  What we didn't realize is that they had raised their own queen but as late in the year as it was I don't think she was mated very well.  Our numbers were decreasing rapidly so we tried to put them into a nuc box (mini hive) and the Queen left and we lost the hive.

Now we are down to 5 hives going into winter.  Some are stronger than others, but we are optimistic they will all make it through.  We will try to make splits and buy a few more hives.  My goal is to get us up to 15 hives next year and do it without braking the bank.  Should be a lot of fun.

For now there isn't much we can do.  I try to read up on stuff and learn new tricks.  I must say this is my least favorite time of year when it comes to beekeeping.  There isn't much you can do for them now, but just hope they are making it through the winter okay.      

Harvest Time

We are getting really excited to harvest the honey this year.  Last year was fun, but with only one hive we really only had enough for our own use and still ran out.  This year we didn't know what to expect since we had purchased 4 new hives and then captured a swarm.  First year hives don't always produce enough extra honey to harvest but we had some that did.  I checked the hive at my place last night and they have a full super capped and ready for harvest.  The two brood boxes are looking really full too, so they should have plenty of food storage for the winter.  The other hives are doing well too.  My guess is by next Saturday we will be harvesting 5 honey suppers, which isn't too bad for new hives.  Each supper will probably produce 2-3 gallons of honey.  We should have some honey to sell if anyone is interested.  We are scheduled to rent the extractor next weekend, so we should have it available after Labor day. We will have 1 pound containers selling for $5 and gallon containers (about 11 pounds) for $45.  It will be about as pure and organic as it comes. We do not use chemicals on our bees. We wont heat the honey so it will be raw and it wont loose the amazing taste of raw honey.  We will put it through a filter just to strain any large wax particles, but it isn't fine enough to strain the beneficial pollen.  I will post some pictures of the process after we get done.  This is one of my favorite times of year, football is starting and its time to harvest the honey.

Nature's Hive     

Video of the Swarm

Here is our video of us catching our first swarm.  I learned a lot and would do a few things differently, but had a lot of fun doing it.  We checked the hive a week after and saw eggs, so we got the queen.  I think we were pretty lucky with how many fell on the ground. 

Capturing a Swarm

We had a pretty cool experience on May 13.  I put my name on the swarm removal list and the next day I received my first call. It came that morning and I had meetings at work until 3:00 p.m.  I was worried I would be too late and sure enough I was.  I was pretty disappointed.  We have a week hive from the nuc we purchased and I figured a good healthy swarm could help strengthen it.  I received another call about 7:00 p.m. and we were off.  Natalie and the girls came with me and we went and put the swarm in a box.  The swarm was a lot bigger than I thought and it packed the nuc box to the brim.  I couldn't get them all in, so I left the box over night and then picked them up in the morning.

The next morning I went early before they started to fly and they were all tucked nicely in the box.  I put them in my SUV (a pickup would have been a little more ideal) and brought them home.  We got them home without incident. I weighed the bees and I figured the swarm was about nine pounds of bees.  This was three times the size of the package we had purchased a few weeks before. I put them in their place and removed the screen from the entrance, the bees came flooding out.  They pretty much covered more than 75% of the exterior of the box.  I realized I needed to get them in a bigger box and it needed to be right away.   It was a lot of fun capturing that swarm.     

I will post the video shortly.  You can see just how graceful I am on my first swarm capture. 

If you ever see a swarm of honey bees, please call me or a local beekeeper.  Honey bees are so valuable to our food supply.  Please do not call an exterminator.  

Installing my first package of bees

Here is a video of us trying to install our first package of bees.  I think it went pretty well.  I guess we will see how the hive turns out. So far it seems to be doing really good (knock on wood).

 

 

The Value of Bees for Pollination

I found this great article on how important bees are to the home gardener.  Many people think pollination is only a concern for the large farms or growers, but it is really a concern for all of us with gardens.  Last year I really paid attention to my garden to see if I could see honey bees.  I saw some bees on my crab apple trees, but didn't see any on my garden plants (zucchini, squash, cucumbers, potatoes, peas, raspberries, black berries, etc.).  We go to all the work of creating a garden, it sure would be nice to get even a better return from our efforts.  Hopefully I see a lot more bees this year with my new hive.  I will hopefully have more hives available next year if anyone is interested in letting me keep one in your backyard.  In return I will give you some raw honey from the hive and you will receive all the pollination benefits. Don't worry I will do all the work.  

Here is the link: http://gardenbees.com/garden/gardpol.htm