A new year and a new start

 It’s been so long since I gave an update on the bees I thought it was time. So much has been going on both with the bees and our life. 

But, back to the bees….

I went into the winter with two nice size hives and one small one. Before putting them to bed for the winter I ended up combining two  hives, but then there was a small hive that I thought I would try to winter over in a single box. Sadly they didn’t make it. If I try it again I may try putting them in a Nuc box.But the other two appeared to come out fairly strong. One of the hives was a split I did last year and the other one was the two colonies I had combined.

They both have been very busy bringing in lots of pollen since the fifteenth of April. Last week I got two packages of bees which thankfully both queens were alive. Within a couple hours after giving them, they two had found pollen.

Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be to be over twenty Celsius so I can finally get inside and check for brood and do a mite test.

Thirsty girls

At the new property, things have been going slow, mostly due to not getting over there during the winter. But we are able to proceed now. We are heading over in the next day or two so the hive stand and adding another line to the electric fence is top priority this time.

We would like to move the girls over before swarm season, which normally for us, starts around the end of May.

Is it Spring yet

Taking a coffee break with the girls

So hopefully we can pull that off. Well that’s about all the updates for now, 

Chat again soon

Sheesh…..what a year

 Holy cow man, it’s been one of them years. You know….the ones that things never seem to go right.

I decided since I lost some weak hives this spring I would order a couple of New Zealand packages. In the past I have had such good luck with them. But I know nothing is written in gold. They  arrived and they were big beautiful active packages. Then things went downhill from there. One seemed to be doing better than the other. I went in to check inside only to discover…..too much drone brood. Matter a fact, mostly only drone brood. While talking to others who received packages, they were finding the same thing. Not just one or two packages…..lots.

So we went in search of new queens. BeeMaid told us they would reimburse us for the queens so that was great. While waiting for them to arrive, I went in and checked them again and was horrified to find the hatching drones all had deformed wing virus…..a result of varroa mites.

Both hives were dwindling away slowly and after talking to our bee inspector he suggested, removing the hive that was infected the worse, sliding the other hive in its place and dump out all the bees from the first hive, on the ground. The drones and any other bees with deformed wings can’t fly so they would just wander around and eventually die. Any flyers would fly back to “their” (new) hive. Then I took any drone brood that hadn’t  hatched yet and through them in the freezer to kill them. Then treated them combined hive.

A short time later, the queens arrived, so I killed off the old queen and dropped a new one in the combined hive and did a split on my wintered over hive and gave the new hive a queen.

The split is doing fantastic….the combined hive, not so good. I’m not sure it’s going to make it. But on the upside, there is brood in it, but now I see chalk brood. Sheesh

As some of you know, we have listed our place for sale and have been working on our new property, getting it ready for when this place sells.

I told the bees, they just need to survive this year. They have been slightly neglected and I am sure my one older hive swarmed at some point and  I missed that. 

But on the upside:

We have our new yard almost done, so it’s ready in case we do sell our place this year. The nice thing is, the bee yard is right by the house. I will be able to give them more attention. It will also house the garden area. The old building in the photo was once a generator shed then hen house….now the bee shed. We dragged it over last week and will set it up with the solar panels for the electric fence charger and water catchment system. More on that later

This year has been a bit of a write off…Between running back and forth to each property, keeping up the yards and doing lots of Reno’s and clean up, my poor bees have suffered. Right now, I make sure they have water and enough  room for the queen to lay and empty honey supers. And that seems like it’s the most I can handle right now.

Until next time…..

Fermenting with Honey

Other than Sauerkraut, I have never really messed around much with ferments. But a month or two ago I decided to try some honey ferments.

Touch wood, we haven’t had a cold for a couple years, but when we do I hate taking over the counter meds, but on the other hand, who wants to feel horrible,

Last year I was gifted two elderberry trees. They didn’t do very good in their new soil but I am hoping the soil improved and they will come back this year, I have read lots on elderberry syrup and the benefits it had to your immune system. So I will be making that once our trees start to produce.

In the past I have made mead…one gallon at a time. Some have turned out pretty good. I think the fermented product I am most proud of is the vinegar I made out of our honey four years ago.

Honey Vinegar 2020

Bochet Mead 2019

It sits in my cold room and every so often I try some and it’s so good. Like mead it takes quite a while before it’s good. So one has to bee patient.

But in the meantime I started with three simple ferments, all of which help improve the immune system along with gut health and many other things. I am no expert by any means, so starting with something easy is the way to go.

Left to right, garlic, ginger and lemon

Fermented Garlic

This stuff is incredible, not only does it helps boosts your immune system but it tastes good, the garlic gets very mild in the honey after time. If you get a cold, it’s recommended you take a clove a garlic and honey everyday. And we all know honey is good for us too.

Fermented Ginger

Oh my goodness, this stuff is so good. I love grabbing a piece of ginger right out of the jar and eating it. Ginger is known to ease a upset stomach but it is also chalked full of probiotics which helps boosts the  immune.

Fermented Lemons

Yum. This helps soothes coughs and sore throats. Also delicious in hot tea or added to hot water when sick. Equally delicious as a tangy dressing for a salad.

Until next time….cheers

It’s a new year

Welcome to 2024

It’s a new year and with every new year comes changes. Some are small changes and some are life changing.

When we retired I said I never wanted to move again. Famous last words. It wasn’t planned but I think deep down inside maybe it was. 

James and I like the quiet life. For me there is nothing better than packing a picnic lunch, jumping on the quad and heading deep into the bush. We found lately that living where we do, we craved more quiet and more privacy. But, I never wanted to move again….right?

Last year while visiting friends, we found out a incredible piece of property was for sale. It was in a area where we had tried to buy many years ago. We took a drive down to it and fell in love. Mountain views, river frontage and lots of treed area to hunt and explore in. Long story short….we bought it.

Although the house is only 17 years old, an old bachelor lived in it and it needs some loving. So it will take awhile.

First thing I did after spending our first night there was pick out a spot for the bee yard.  It will be around the same size as this one but I will lay it out better so there is more room to plant around the hives.

The red is where the bee compound will bee.  So, close to the house so I can go out and sit with them several times a day.

My girls didn’t winter over so well this year. I had a couple of hives from 2019 that started to decline in late fall. There wasn’t a ton I could do other than give them food and hope for the best. Sadly neither made it. But I am thankful for the ones who did, I can do splits and get ready for a new season. I had decided to order a couple packages in January incase my gut feelings was right. So, at least I have them coming too.

There is still close to 8” of snow in the bee yard

The days are warming up now, nights are still chilly but things are showing life again. The pussy willows are starting and the catkins on the Alders are out in full swing and I suspect that is where the girls are getting their yellow pollen from. I also noticed the catkins on the wild hazelnuts are getting bigger too, so it won’t be long.

Well, I guess that is it for now, I started this so long ago, I need it to be done.

Take care, chat soon

 September 11 2023

It’s starting to feel like fall, cool nights, but it  warms up during the day, the leaves are falling now and some of our trees are getting bare already. It’s early. But considering the Summer we had its understandable why the leaves  are coming off now. It’s is still dry  and the creeks and rivers are the lowest I have ever seen for this time of year. Our well on the other side of the road is still dry.

But considering the drought and hot temperature, the bees are doing good, we took the honey off a few weeks ago. It is now piled high in the dining room until I get around to extracting it. 

I bought two nucs this year  and although one was slow to take off it is doing well now, the other one was crazy productive, it exploded in population and even produced extra honey to take off. I have learned with these .Carpathian queens you have to keep up on what’s going on inside the hives or they will swarm. I also found they are not quite as polite as my bees but I am sure that will change with  time. For the most part I am happy with them.

We had a field day here a few weeks ago with our bee club. Barry, our bee inspector, came out and did an educational talk and inspected one of our hives, we had a great turn out and nice weather. It was a fun day.

October 2023

My friend and I took a girls road trip down to Abbotsford to the BC Honey Producers conference. It was such a great weekend, full of educational workshops and speakers. It was fantastic and I learnt lots.

In late October we got the hives all wrapped for winter and when leaving the beeyard and walking home we noticed summer wasn’t letting go yet.

Saw one bee bringing in yellow pollen, new leaves on the apple tree and flowers still blooming.

Yarrow, Tansy and Calendula

November 20

We have a little snow but it’s been so mild. It’s an  El Niño this year so “they” say, mild temperatures and less snow. I am hoping for lots of snow to help with the low water situations in our area.

I’m excited for another year of keeping bees. There are things we want to change next year, new things to build and hopefully expanding our colonies.

But the most exciting thing coming is…..well, I can’t tell you that yet. You will just have to follow along for a while longer.

Chat again in December 🐝

One of the hives wrapped and ready for winter

The Weather 2023

Us northerners love talking about the weather. Matter a fact our lives revolve, for the most part, around the weather.

But this year…..wow it’s been crazy. It started last fall. The fall that never happened. It was warm and very dry right into October. Then…..winter came. No September rains. No October rains….nothing. We went into winter basically in a drought.

Fast forward to May of this year. Hot and very dry. Then June came and went without giving us much moisture.

Living inside a inland rainforest our grass and trees are normally green and lush all summer. But not this year. If you drive to Prince George there is miles of cedars red from the stress of no water. Leaf trees are dropping some of their leaves and the wild flowers have all been early.

We have been tolerating weeks of smoked filled air and only once in a while we get to see our mountains. The other day I checked the map of fires in BC and was shocked at the amount of fires through out the province.

But through out the long hot dry spell, the bees are hanging in there. Their honey supers are filling up quickly. 

To help keep them cool during the last few months, I added extra boxes on top to help scrub out some of the heat. I also fill their water bowls everyday, sometimes twice a day. They are doing good so far. 

I haven’t pulled any honey yet but really need to get in them and do it. My big hive is five deeps high, which isn’t ideal, so I need to do that one first.

Smokey sunrise

My concern is, the nectar flow started probably two weeks early this year….which means it may end two weeks early. Which means, we may be feeding them for quite a while before they settle in for winter. I best stock up on fondant and sugar soon.

Fireweed 

Anyways, I don’t have a ton of news, I will write more once I start pulling honey off the hives. I hope everyone stays safe during this hot dry spell and no fires come near you.

Cheers

Is it summer already?

 May has come and gone now. It was extremely hot and dry. Lots of forest fires sprung up in BC and in Alberta. We had one close to us in McBride, about 90km away. So needless to say on top of the dry and heat we then had smoke. Thankfully the fire was brought under control quickly and people returned to their homes.

We had our first nectar flow when the dandelions started blooming around May 16th, the bees were happy not only to get more pollen but to also get their first food of the season. The sad thing was, that the heat was so great that the dandelions  were closing their flowers around noon most days. The edges of some of the flowers looked as though they were burnt. It seemed dandelion season was short lived probably due to the heat and no rain.

The poor dandelions struggling from the heat and dry conditions 

We will be heading into Prince George on Sunday June 4th to pic up our nucs. I ordered two this year from our friends Christine and Tavis from Rushing Apiary in Terrace. I  am very excited to introduce new blood into our Apiary. They ordered Carpathian Queens from the Ukraine. So it will be great to see how they are. From what I understand, the bees are original from  the Carpathian Mountains which covers 7 counties including the Ukraine. They are quite hardy and are known to be calm . 

Here we are picking up 16 boxes of bees for us and our club members

I had just finished installing our new bees.
I think I might of been saying good night to them here

June 5

I was so surprised when we opened the lids of the nuc boxes, there wasn’t a huge outburst of bees as you would expect. Nope…..they were all busy inside the box and weren’t concerned at all. So needless to say, it took only minutes to transfer them out of their nuc boxes and into their hives. Within minutes they were fanning on the front of the bottom boards, telling their mates this is home. When I went over the next day they were already bringing in pollen and cleaning up their frames I had given them. So, they had settle in.

.

The beautiful Carpathian Queen
Photo taken by Monica Z 

June 10

After weeks of no rain, we were so relieved to get some late this afternoon. Hopefully more flowers will open and supply some nectar for the honey bees and native bees. We might actually get a day off watering the garden too.

Tomorrow, as long as it’s not raining, I will be doing my first inspection of the two new hives. I’m excited to see how they are doing. Stay tuned for pictures and an update next time .

Well that’s all for now. Take care.

 

 

Spring time in an inland rainforest

 May 2 2023 

9:15 PM.

 It was another hot day, I am enjoying the night air on the front porch. It’s almost dark but it’s one of my favourite times to sit out here. In the dark, you are forced to use one of your other senses to enjoy what’s going on. I can hear Robins and a few other birds still singing but the best are the sounds of the toads. Near the end of our driveway we have what I like to call our wetland. This time of year when the toads emerge they make a sound that almost sound like ducks quacking. I love it.

Cleaning up the bee yard

Now that the snow is pretty well gone, things are coming alive. The other day we had a bear grazing in the yard. The buds in the cottonwoods are bursting open with this hot weather. The brown dead  grass is greening up and the fruit trees are showing life once again.

The weather we have been having for the last week, is very uncommon for this time of year. Records have been broken all over the area for highs temperatures. It’s been +25C. We are not used to it yet.

Today I decided to remove the bees winter wraps and air things out a bit. I also removed their entrance reducers during the day. I haven’t  done inspections of the hives yet but all going well if the weather holds, I will get it done soon.  They are still bringing in pollen from the Pussy Willows, but on the weekend I noticed the catkins are starting to develop on the wild hazelnut trees. So it won’t be long for those.

We also tore apart the old strawberry beds and built new ones. Tomorrow I will fill them with dirt and get them p,anted. We also added two grape plants today. Most of the fruit trees and bushes survived the winteri, so we were pretty happy for that. However one cherry tree doesn’t look very good but we will leave it for now and see if it comes around.

Another cool project we got done last week was to build a water tower, we don’t have electricity or running water on the property where our bees are. So we decided to build a tower and have gravity feed water to make it easier to water the forest garden/orchard. 

New water tower

It’s such a beautiful time of the year…..crazy busy, but still beautiful. Cheers my friends. Until next time

Is this Spring

 March 17 2023

Although it was still -12C over night and we still have a good 30+ inches of snow, there is something in the air that says Spring.

We are seeing different birds visiting our feeder and we notice the odd insect flying. The days are warming up as high as +7C some days. The days are also longer now, which lifts your spirits as well.

This is the time that things start to happen. The grow lights are set up and slowly seeds are being started for the garden. 

 

The one thing I don’t like to see this time of year is….all the dead bees that come out of their hives for a cleansing flight and get cold and crash in the snow. I try to save them all but can’t. As much as flying bees means life bees it also means a certain percentage of them won’t make it back to their hives,

It won’t be long until the bees will be finding pollen. I believe willow is the first pollen they normally bring in. All going well, it should start happening within a couple weeks.

Last week it was a nice day so we went over and checked the hives and even though it was too chilly to check on their food stores, I was able to pop off the top and put in a bottle feeder to give them food if they needed it. Instead of 100% sugar syrup, I treated them to some honey mixed in with it. I figured since they pulled through the winter, up to this point….they deserved it.

March 22, 2023

Such a beautiful day today. We decided to sit out on the front porch and have a cuppa. Within a few minutes of sitting there a bee showed up. I swear they hear us talking and come over to see us.

One of the rescued girls out of the snow

Look who came for a visit

April 7 

The past two nights we haven’t had freezing temps overnight. Which means, the melt has started to happen. We went from30” of snow down to 12” over the past three days. Today it got up to a very balmy 16C. 

      

Two days ago I mixed up more honey syrup and grabbed a few pollen patties to take over for the bees. I opened the lids to find they were still doing good. Within minutes they were coming out and flying and landing on my arms and and fingers to greet me. Each hive got more syrup and a full piece of pollen

A fresh bottle of syrup and a pollen patty

I’m excited to start a new year of keeping bees. I have two nucs to add to the apiary this year. My three hives were the New Zealand packages I bought in 2019. The two new ones are coming from Terrace. It will be nice to have some new bloodlines in the bee yard.

Well that’s it for now. See you when the snow goes,

Happy New Year!

Not much has been going since we put the bees to bed. We experienced a cold snap near Christmas  and the mercury plummeted to -39C. Other than frozen pipes my first thoughts were of my bees. I know they have survived those temperatures over the three winters, but you still worry about them.

It was a sad Christmas for my family as my mum was not doing well and I had wondered if she would pass on Boxing Day like our dad did 8 years previously. But she pushed on, but soon lost the battle on Dec 29th. I packed up and headed  down to the coast so I could help my sister take care of everything. I suspect another trip will have to happen in a month or two to tie up the lose ends. I still can’t believe I won’t ever be able to ask her anymore questions. 65 years was just not enough time to have her in my life.

But I did get to see my family all together and we had a nice visit. My Mum’s brother is the only sibling left now. So we told him, he just  got two more kids! I love my Uncle Bill. I spent tons of time with their family growing up and I can always rely on him for lots of silliness and laughs. He also remembers the bees his Grampa and Dad had at the nursery. So I always pick his brain for more stories.

I was there for a week and it made me realize how much I enjoy the quietness of living up north. I was thankful when we were driving home, the weather behaved and the roads were clear. 

After a few days I wandered over to download data from the sensors in my hives and look for any life. I could hear three out of four hives. So I was pleased at that. But a lot can happen between now and Spring. So best not stop worrying yet..

I decided to order two Nucs for this year. I ordered them from fellow Beekeeper's in Terrace of whom I have gotten to know over the past 5 or 6 years. I like the way they do things there, they really seem to care about the health and well being of their bees. 

The Nucs  I ordered, were intended as back up incase mine didn’t make it. But I decided I would keep them whether mine survive or not. Nice to get some new blood in my apiary anyways. 

Right now I am working on garden plans, organizing dates to start seeds and laying out the forest garden in the bee yard. So lots to keep me busy until it’s time to play with the bees again. I’m counting the days until I can sit and have coffee in the beeyard and hopefully they have all made it through another Northern winter.

I think the next three years are going to be fun and a little exciting, both for us and the bees.

Stay tuned and until next time……

And then it was winter

 We went from a warm and balmy October into winter by the end of the month. Shortly after wrapping the bees we got snow. But then our first major snow fall came on the 5th of November and left us with a good foot of snow. The snow didn’t leave. And we got some cold weather early. Nights dropping close  to -20 a few times.

As usual I never got my honey extracted until October. Yup, not the ideal time, but that’s the way it goes sometimes….ok maybe a lot of the time.

The guys were out hunting so I went down stairs and started the process. Everything was going good until about half way through and my electric extractor stopped. The guys looked at it but it seems cause of its age something had worn out and it wouldn’t spin. I even tried  made a new washer out of leather to see if that would work but, nope.

So armed with our headlights we headed across the road to one of my bee sheds and retrieved the very old and very reliable manual extractor. I’m talking vintage. My Grampa used one like this in the 40’s.  So we packed it in the back of the truck and brought it home. I threw some soapy water in it and let it sit overnight.

The next morning after giving it a good scrub, I packed it up the front stairs and in the house. Then dragged the stand James had built me for my electric extractor up the basement stairs and got to work.

To make a long story short….it worked flawlessly and I finished all the frames. When there was something vintage to use, I had no problem finding extra arms to crank the handle when my arm got tired.

Considering the very hot dry summer, I was very happy at the amount of honey we got. I know a lot of people didn’t get any extra this year…so I am feeling blessed.

I also got a fair amount of wax. I haven’t really done much with my wax over the years so I decided to spend a few days cleaning it all and melting it down. 

I really need to find a easier way to clean the wax, the process I did is so time consuming and messy. It was so messy I ended up splashing hot wax in my hair and down the front of my shirt. It was easier getting it off my shirt then out of  my hair 😜. Sheesh, I am such a clutz.

Anyways here it is November 26 and we are having our Christmas craft sale today. It’s snowing lightly, so I am feeling rather festive. My table is set up, with all the things that my girls worked so hard to make this year. Honey and wax, then I made some wax food wraps and some beeswax wood conditioner. 

I have new plans for new products for next season….all going well.

The bees are put to bed for the winter. I have done all I can do for them. It’s all up to them now and Mother Nature. 

Now the hives sit quiet. But if you listen real close….you can hear the gentle hum coming from inside. See you in the spring 🐝❤️

   

                                                                  

  

It’s in the air

 September 17 2022

As I am walking over to the beeyard, I see that all the native plants along the road are turning autumn shades of yellow and orange. You can now hear the leaves crunch under your feet. I love this time of year. I love the smells and the sounds of everything changing around you. I love the thought of curling up under a blanket watching the snow fall, holding a steaming cup of hot chocolate. 

We have been feeding our bees for the past couple weeks now and I will continue til the end of the month. They are still bringing in a little pollen from here and there.

During the summer a friend gave me a big dahlia in a pot which I put at our front porch. For the past week, we have been watching the bumble bees, honey bees and a few different pollinators visit the flowers and collect pollen. Overnight the bumble bees curl up and sleep in the flowers, sometimes two or three different kinds in one flower head and I found myself hurrying out each morning to see who had slept over.

Dahlia with two different types of bumblebees sleeping in it.

October 15

Here it is mid October and we finally had a good frost last week. But it is still unseasonably warm though. The bees are still flying, so I have continued to feed them syrup and fondant. But this will be coming to an end by later next week.

Tomorrow we will be going over to the beeyard and start to get them ready for winter. I won’t be wrapping yet, but I will be putting the insulation in their attic box. Next week I hope to start making candy boards, then I can get them put in. Each hive this year, will be getting a 8 pound candy board.

October 17

I got the candy boards made and they are downstairs drying. I had two packages of fondant left so I added them to the four boards.

October 19

It’s really cooled down. There is snow on the mountains finally. It seemed strange not seeing any snow up there. I decided to slip in the candy boards and get them one step closer to getting them all done for winter. I keep telling everyone how calm my bees are. But today they were a tad feisty. I got my first sting of the year while reaching in their hive to remove the bottle feeder. Ouch.

I managed to get the first three done but started to have second thoughts about doing Hive 1. Hive 1 is a huge hive and most time when I go in the hive I can hardly find the bottle feeder for bees. Was I actually going to have to put gloves on…? I opted for smoke instead. To my surprise they  were pretty laid back and I was able to get the board in and put back together without any problems.

I still have to screen off the inside cover and insulate their attic boxes and I will be all done inside. It looks like tomorrow will be good enough to do that.

October 26

So lots went on over the last month but I finally got the girls wrapped and tucked away for the winter. It’s all up to them now. I have done everything I could. 

I think I miss them already

Wrapped and ready for winter

Next blog I will talk about my honey harvest….as usual I was late extracting it. But I got it done. More on that next time.

Happy Fall everyone.

Quiet time

I love my bees

 My beekeepering friends probably get tired of me talking about how calm my bees are….but it’s true.

When we retired and moved back home in 2019, I ordered new bees from BeeMaid in Alberta, three packages.  In the past I had mostly gotten nucs but since I had lots of drawn out comb and had some nasty experiences with some nuc suppliers, I decided to order packages from New Zealand. When they arrived, they were beautiful healthy bees, with nice temperaments. I was very happy with them.

Here it is Sept 2022 and I still have those three original hives plus a split I did from one of them last year.  I love these bees. They are calm and relaxed. And even the bee inspector commented how calm they were.

 I decided two years ago to start going into the hives with only wearing nitrile gloves. I wanted to be able to feel the frames better and they are way less bulky. It won’t stop a bee sting but that’s ok. This year I decided to go gloveless all together. What a difference not wearing anything on your hands. It forces you to slow down and to take note where your fingers are. There is something really neat about the feeling of a bee crawling on your hands and arms. Nothing else feels like that.

Today I went into my big hive to start pulling honey. This is my overachiever hive. It’s motto I am pretty sure is….go big or go home. Not only was there lots of honey, there was lots of bees. As I removed each frame, my hands and forearms were speckled with these little vibrating insects. There is something very calming about that. (Or frightening in some peoples eyes). 

Anyways….I don’t really know why they are like this….but I am glad they are.

Til next time….cheers🐝❤️

Swarms, splits and wildflowers

 The end of July is quickly approaching. It’s been a weird spring/summer. I’m not sure but suspect I say that every year. Spring came very late. The cool temperatures went on forever. But it is nice now and everything is lush and green. 

I am feeling we are about two weeks behind normal. I look at my greenhouse and the tomatoes are finally growing but certainly a long way from being red. But oh well, you can’t do anything about it.

Swarm season for our area can start as early as late May but mostly in early June. It was late this year…and I know of people in our general area  who are still having swarms.

I am pretty sure I had some. But didn’t see them or catch anything. I did however, attempt a split but it wasnt successful and didn’t want to try again as we were getting late in the year. I would sooner make sure all the hives have honey for winter then make more splits now. It’s not worth it. 

We added some new plants in our forest garden/orchard/bee yard this year. We made a blueberry bed and added two more bushes for a total of four now. We also planted a rose and two black elderberries. I am excited for next year, as we are adding fruit tree guilds around each fruit tree and bed. The bees will be so happy with all the new things they can gather pollen and nectar from.

Girls hanging out

August 2

Why does it feel later than August. Maybe because the days are getting noticeably shorter. It’s 9:30 and you can hardly see across the yard. It seems like only a week ago I could see across the yard well after 10:00.

So every year I promise myself thst I will pull honey st the beginning of Aug. I think I will wait til mid Aug this year since we are a little behind. I am pretty sure the girls have brought in enough nectar to take them through the winter, but I am also hoping there will be a little honey to tide us over too.

It has been a very hot dry summer. I can’t remember our yard ever having crunchy areas. We have had very few heavy down pours that went on long enough to saturate everything. We did yesterday however, and it was glorious. Everything looked so refreshed. 

We still have quite a few wildflowers in bloom. And for the past week or two, the girls have been bringing in whitish coloured pollen. I suspect it might be from the wild purple asters that are in bloom. Some of the plants still blooming are, fireweed, tansy, goldenrod, asters, hemp nettle, yarrow and a few other things I can’t think of off hand.

I started pulling hemp nettle out the other day but then noticed all the different bumblebees visiting every flower. I got mesmerized watching them go from flower to flower. I couldn’t bring myself to pull out any after that.

Anyways I am going to end this here so I won’t ramble on any longer.

Til next time. 🐝💕

New black elderberry bushes

New blueberry bed with comfrey 

Keeping bees in a Rain Forest part 3

 June 9

Up to a few weeks ago, it had been a very cool spring. It had seemed winter wasn’t going to let go, but it did and warmer temperatures arrived. We haven’t seen frost for weeks now ( touch wood).

Late May and June are always such busy months. There is gardens to prepare and plant, greenhouses to open up and get planted and lawns to cut. But it’s also a very busy time for the bees. 

I had great intentions of getting all the inspections of the hives done early. But of course that didn’t happen. The weather would hold long enough to get one hive done….then it would start to rain or the winds would start and get cool. I am not sure I have left on their winter wraps this long before. One of my hives is still partially wrapped but for the most part they are done.

I did managed to check for swarm cells last week on my big hive. But didn’t find any, so it’s given me a bit of a breather. Tomorrow I have the whole day to do what I want. Which seems to be rare these days. So as long as Mother Nature behaves I can finish doing the last three inspections and removing attic boxes and candy boards. Yes some of them are still on. I know…they should of been off weeks ago.

June 14

So I finally got all the candy boards off and put away for a few months. I added extra boxes to the hives that needed it.

Hive one, which is one of the three hives that have wintered over three years now are bursting at the seams. I was blown away that they had already filled a deep super full of dandelion nectar. The dandelions were in great abundance this year and since we live in the country (some people call it the boonies) we only cut a small portion of our lawn and left the rest. It was a sea of yellow.

June 22

The weather this past week has been unstable, cool and wet. It almost seems everything is behind by a week or so. I snuck in to hive one, between a thunder storm to see if there was swarm cells. I was really hoping the full box of dandelion honey was capped so I could remove it. But they were still working on it. I had trouble lifting it off so had to use the old lady method of removing frame by frame till it was light enough. I really should get shallow boxes. 

Still no swarm cells. But I got a new hive set up so we can take a better look once this weather settles. I also put up three swarm traps….just in case.

I check the weather  daily, it’s just a thing I do after living in the bush in a somewhat remote area, years ago. Our weather is suppose to be improving by the weekend then “they” are calling for hotter than normal temperatures during July and August. So I will start to prepare to get things ready in my bee yard for that over the next week. Last year when we had that long stretch of extreme temperatures (for our  area) I scrambled to figure out how to keep the bees cooler. So now I know, so I can prepare for it.

This is what I did last year during the “extreme” heat.

It wasn’t pretty but it worked. Over their honey supers I added my winter attic boxes (without the insulation pillow) which have a vet hole in it. Then I put on the inside cover and outer lid. I added a piece of styrofoam insulation to the top. I ratchet strap all my hives so I didn’t t have to worry about it blowing off. Before I did this my big hives were bearding on the front of the hives. As soon as I added the empty attic box, this helped a lot. I also handed two more water stations for a total of four. I had to fill them  twice a day….not that they always needed it but I did anyways.

Well……that’s all for now. Bee safe during the upcoming hot temperatures. Happy National Pollinators Week 🐝💖