I’m not going to lie, it’s been a disappointing first year as a beekeeper. Not that I don’t love those busy little insects, I do, but this year they’ve given the horses a run for their money as the financial black hole of “pets”. In the end, thanks to all the swarming shenanigans, Jessi and [...]
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Late yesterday afternoon Jessi and I headed out with veils, newspaper and smoker to check on our multiple hives. The mission of the day was to get from 5 hives to 3 by combining each deep boxed hive with a shallow swarm hive. To do so, we opened each hive box up and looked for evidence [...] Today my car broke down pulling out of the office parking lot on the way to Beez Neez. You’d think that would be the bad news of my day, but it turned out to be a very good thing. Instead of running out to Snohomish to pick up a bottom board and lid and then [...] About 3.5 weeks out from our swarm (we think) we knew we didn’t have a queen in our hive, and while the girls were raising masses of queen cells there was a lot of uncertainty about what was really going on. So after some debate, a lot of conflicting advice and a queen bee in [...] On Thursday night Jessi and I headed out to the hive to check in and see how they were doing with the honey super we’d added 2.5 weeks before. We were assuming they were ready for another and were all set to admire any and all honey they’d already made us. Unfortunately when we opened the [...] Today wasn’t the first time I’ve been into the hive since we installed the bees, but it was the first true hive check. I successfully made a fire in the smoker and opened the hive to check for eggs and brood. There are a lot of schools of thought on when you should do the [...] I think I’m in love with these tiny fascinating insects. The sound, the smell, the warmth, the feel of their little tiny feet on my hands. Wow. If only I’d known I would have done this years ago. Tonight Jessi and I made about 14,000 new friends. The Italians have arrived and moved into their new [...] |
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