When i sit and write this it is now July 25th. Already i am thinking about getting things ready for winter. I started to can today and we harvested one of our cabbage out of the greenhouse. In another week or so, I will be pulling honey. I think the bees did pretty good this year but until I take apart the hive I won't know for sure.
In early June while doing an inspection, we found Hive 3 was bursting at the seam. Not being able to get some queens, I decided to try a "walk away" split. I had never done one before but decided to try since I didn't want to lose any bees to swarming. So somewhere around the 10th of June I went in hive 3 and took some frames of eggs, open brood and capped brood, along with the nurse bees on those frames. I always number our hives so since was taken from hive 3, it became hive 3.5. Once it produced a laying queen, it would become hive 4. I left it alone for about a month, other than checking to see if there were any queen cells. There was a few so i was happy. After a month i decided to check inside for eggs.....and it was loaded. The queen in 3.5 must of inherited her mothers awesome laying genes! I was so surprised at the amount of eggs.
On the 24 of June, James and I went over to the bee yard after supper as I felt we needed to do another split. We checked again for queen cells and found quite a few. So we quickly grabbed those frames and made another split. Within 2 weeks, that queen had hatched, got bred and started laying. So I was over the moon happy.
On the 25th of June, James came running in the house, SWARM SWARM. He had been cutting lawn across the road and he spotted a small swarm in a tree about 15ft up. So we went back over there, set up a ladder, set up another hive box, grabbed the cardboard nuc box and set out to grab the swarm. Thankfully I got it and dropped it into its new home. But later that evening, when I checked on it....it had gone. Guess it didn't like its new home. Oh well easy come....easy go.
collecting the little swarm
Scrambling trying to find enough frames with drawn out comb.
We went thru some really hot weather. Temperatures we are not use too. The poor bees were bearding and going thru tons of water. So I decided to add vented attic boxes to the top of each hive, plus styrofoam insulation on top as well. It seemed to work really well, little or no more bearding or fanning.
I am mentoring a young fella right now, he is 11. Our club has a mentoring program for young people who are interested in keeping bees. I was lucky to have someone here in Dome Creek who wanted to learn. Morgan is fearless when it comes to his bees, he is always got one on the end of his hive tool or sitting on his finger.. His hive is kept in my apiary until next spring at which point he can take them home. Below is a picture of him.
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| Morgan with a creative frame of honey |
We were glad when the heat wave ended as there were so many fires and the smoke somedays was pretty bad. Since then, we have some rain, which has been good and once again the bees are crazy busy bringing in food for winter.
Our mosquitoes this year have been pretty darn nasty, too the point, we don't want to go outside. And why do they love the greenhouse and bee yard so much...WHY
So on the brink of cabin fever one day, I said to James....lets take the quad and go for a ride in the clear cut across the highway. So we packed the quad and headed out. There are quite a few fairly new clear cuts with some fireweed in it but it wasn't until we hit the older one that we hit the fireweed jack pot. I turned and said to James....I want to bring the bees here next July. Pack them up, bring the electric fence and a tent and stay the whole month. I could become a Bee Shephard!. Apparently it was a easy sell, cause he was all over it. We could get firewood, pick wild raspberries and escape for 30 days. But still close enough to run home and water the garden and greenhouse but far enough....just to be away. Sounds like my idea of a great holiday.
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