The hive we’ve named “Jupiter” built a small tunnel at the top of their box.
My car windshield is covered in pollen each morning, so I think the bees must be happy. They’ve been building up their hives, and I watch the workers fly in and out of their entrance at a steady pace most days. I have been inspecting them each weekend, so here is a brief update. Continue reading
A quick update on the bees. We did our first inspection yesterday. The bees look good, and saw two of the three queens. The Langstroth boxes didn’t seem so full as to warrant a second box, and the top bar hive was amazing. Here are some pictures. Continue reading
I hadn’t planned to be assembling deep frames at midnight. There I was, though, 12:05 in the morning pounding nails into my newly glued frame. When the phone rang earlier that evening, I had no idea that 24 hours later I would have three hives and my first bee sting of the year.
Bee school is finished and the bees are coming. I’ve been trying to read yet another bee book, but my mind wanders to thoughts of actually having bees. My apiary is not quite ready, but with some upcoming days to work on it all should be well.
On Saturday our Bee School class was invited to the club apiary to visit the bees. The club has three hives hosted at a local monastery for teaching and other purposes. The day started cold but was sunny and in the mid-60s (18° C) by the time we arrived. The pictures tell the tale.
A shot of me taken by a fellow student, with the class in the background before we went to the apiary.
The post continues my summary of the presentations at the CCBA Conference this past weekend. The prior post discussed the presentations from Tom Seeley, this post shares the two presentations from Vermont beekeeper Michael Palmer. I should state up front that Palmer gives these presentations around the world, and both are available on YouTube. While I knew of him as a beekeeper, I was not familiar with his theories and found the sessions quite enjoyable. Continue reading
I posted a short summary of the CCBA Conference yesterday, so today I thought I would describe the advanced track presented by Tom Seeley and Michael Palmer. Even though they alternated, I thought a separate post for each of them would make sense. This post is about Tom Seeley’s three sessions on topics related to wild bees, honey production control systems, and water management. I was especially looking forward to seeing Tom Seeley, as I greatly enjoyed his book Honeybee Democracy about swarming. Continue reading
Today I attended a beekeeping conference at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. The Chester County Beekeepers Association (CCBA) sponsors it each year, and local beekeeper Karla Eisen thought I might be interested. I was, and it was awesome. Continue reading
Bee School has been snowed out the past two weeks, so I was happy to attend the March meeting of the Prince William Regional Beekeepers Association yesterday. The topic was Swarm Prevention and Control, and the room was packed with 50 or 60 people. Continue reading
Everything needed to assemble my first 8-frame brood box.
Well, hopefully it is fit for bees. I put a bee box together this weekend. Since you only assemble your first brood box once, I figured I should document the event. I am not the most handy person, as my lovely wife will attest, but my nails go straight most of the time so I ordered unassembled parts. Continue reading
Bees with eeb 