I did my summer honey extraction recently… so much honey. In Virginia we hit the dearth in mid-summer, so early July is a good time to pull your supers and extract the honey. This year I pulled some supers in the spring so I was interested in comparing the early honey with the summer honey as well.
Continue readingMonth: July 2023
Growing colonies
I moved a couple colonies into more accommodating lodging recently. One a Langstroth hive and the other a top bar hive. This involved moving the existing hive, putting the new hive in its place, and moving the combs into the new box. The bees know where their entrance should be, so they quickly accommodate to the new box as long as their brood and queen is there.
Continue readingAnts do it, Bees do it, … (swarming)
It is pretty late for bee swarms. Below I have a photo of some active ants from our yard, and I thought it was an interesting photo. Most social insect groups reproduce their colony by swarming, include bees, ants, and termites.
Continue readingUnwanted Comb
Middle-aged worker bees like to build comb. After their young life of cleaning their room, cleaning the hive, and otherwise keeping the colony neat and tidy, they produce fresh wax underneath their abdomen when they are around 10 to 20 days old. After this period wax production wanes and the worker moves on to food storage, guard duty, air control (fanning), and eventually on to foraging.
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Bees with eeb 