Bee a polite guest when visiting your hives

Feb 2018
Winter set in this month. We had snow in amounts that i hadn't seen now for a number of years. I had to wade out a few times to the bee yard to dig out the hives.  But having our hives tucked under the pine trees and tarps placed on the north east sides of the fence, it did protect them from the drifting snow. Twice their entrances were snowed in and i had to open them, so that wasn't too bad.

James finding the parking lot

For the past 4 Saturdays i attended a Webinar on beekeeping. It was offered by the Min of Agriculture and hosted by Paul vanWestendorp. Each 2 1/2 hour session was filled with great information, like spring and summer maintenance, equipment and the last 2 sessions were strickly on disease and pest management. I learnt so much but mostly....i learnt i don't very much and it will take two lifetimes to learn everything.
The most valuable info i heard was how to be aware of whats going on inside the hive and how to constantly check on the bees so pests or diseases can not take a foot hold. I look forward to practice these techniques this summer. Another valuable thing was to keep a record, which i already do, cause i have a good memory but its short. My note book has seen better days, its all ratty and the pages are worn and dirty, but it works. But last fall i ordered a beekeeping journal to write notes in that I want to keep.  My new journal, is a lovely hard cover book and i thought i would go over my notes  and anything i feel is really important i will write in the journal. A fellow beekeeper suggested to use a Write in the Rain book for when you are out in the field, as they are weather proof, they are great, we used them before when we ran the salmon hatchery. So i will probably order one of them once my poor old note book is full.

Pretty new journal

 

One of my favorite things that Paul said during the Webinar while he was talking about getting use to not wearing gloves when working inside the hives was "Bee a polite guest when visiting your hives". Basically he was saying....be gentle and quiet, move slow but deliberate while working with the bees.
Until next time. Bee happy.

Winter Ponderings

Here it is the 22nd of January 2018 and it dawned on me i haven't written anything this year. Normally i have something to ramble on about but it appears that i hadn't up to this point.
Winter is still here and the bees are still hanging out inside their hives. I do wander out there periodically just to stand and stare at them.


What is new though is I am taking a Webinar course put on by the Ministry of Agriculture on the Introduction to Beekeeping. I figured after having bees for 3 years now...it was time i learnt something about them.  My first webinar started last Saturday. They are 2 1/2 hours long and i get to lounge on my bed  with laptop on my lap and coffee in hand. How great is that. There is still 3 more webinars to do. Which is awesome cause I get out of cleaning rooms for 3 more Saturdays!!!

Another thing i have been doing is pondering over predictor fencing for when we move back to our house. There has been so many options and i have changed my mind like 5 times. What to do, what to do.
We have the electric fence box now...and the solar panels, so at least that's a start. But we need to decide if we are double fencing or building a house for them with a fence around the house, or ????

An option we have pondered the longest is a 3 sided machine type shed. Tall at the front and lower at the back. In parts of Europe, they have been housing their bees in Bee Houses for years.
Ours will be a little different (if we decide to do it). It will be similar to the one pictured below. We will place it so that front faces South. It will protect the bees from the North East winter winds and keep the rain and snow off.  It will also offer some shade when we are working with them. We like this option the best and it will give some protection from the wildlife once the electric fence is in place.

European type bee house

The bee house we want to make

Anyways it will give me something to think about until spring comes and i can get out there and play with the bees. Bye for now.
                                                                                                

Happy New Year

As I sit here, with a hot coffee in my cold hands, I am glad I don't really have to go outside anymore today. The last couple days has been cold and I hope our bees are keeping warm all clustered together in their house.
As the year is winding down, i reflect on what a year it was.  It was a year of ups and downs. Last winter was a long one that didn't ever seem to want to end. But it did and everything after that was a blurr.  Once it warmed up, it stayed hot and dry. BC seen one of the worst forest fire seasons in years. Highways were closed, 1000 of people was evacuated and we had smoke like you wouldn't believe.

Crazy smokey morning

But the Bees handled the smoke like little troopers. They continued to pull in pollen and nectar even though some days you could hardly see across the field. The days were also very hot and dry and it occurred to me (with my vast knowledge of beekeeping hahaha) that the amount of honey could be low because of the nectar drying up. . But we managed to get a decent amount of honey. We also have lots of honey to give back to the bees in the spring.

In September, our local Wannabee beekeepers club, decided to come to the motel and have a pot luck bbq and have our meeting next to the bee yard. It was a splendid evening. Good food and  great conversation. I am so thankful for our club, i have learned so much from them.

Sadly we went into winter with only 2 out of our 4 hives. Sad as it was to lose some, i always learn so much. And this time it  was no different.

So whats new for 2018
I have signed up for a Webinar in late Feb, put on by the Ministry of Agriculture. I am really hoping i am able to attend it and not cleaning endless rooms.
Big plans are in the works in hopes of the motel sale going thru and moving back to our home in Dome. We have purchased a good electric fencer, solar panels and have decided on which building we have, will be the new bee workshop.
I have ordered a nuc and all going well our bees will survive the winter and perhaps be able to split one of them in June.
I have also purchased a "new to us" electric 4 frame extractor. Im really excited about trying it out.
So keep your fingers crossed, the motel sells, and we get to retire and move back home.
Riverside Apiary will be officially up and running and i will be able to spend more time with my bees.

Happy New Year everyone.

2017 A year of highs and lows, part 2

Oct 14
Panic set in...its really started to feel like winter today. Wrapping up the girls for winter was going to be challenging this year. It wasn't just a case of wrapping them up and wishing them well. There is a chance we could be retiring this winter and heading home. So that means the bees will be going on a road trip. So with that in mind....we had to do some prep work before they were wrapped. James cut strips of wood and we screwed all the hive boxes together, so in case we moved, the boxes wouldn't. Then we had to make sure, come moving day, the pallet they sit on wasn't frozen to the ground . So we stacked a second pallet on top. Then wouldn't you know it, the hives couldn't be sitting close to each other, nooooo they had to be at each end of the bee yard.  This was going to be fun! But somehow we managed to get the first one moved over and lifted onto the 2 stacked pallets and place. The next hive moved equally as easy. Then we wrapped them as usual and put them to bed. Our hives each have 3 boxes, a brood chamber, a deep honey super and candy board and a deep attic box.
Oct 20
Holy moly...we go from chilly wintery temperatures to a balmy warm day. The bees took advantage of that and did some house cleaning.
Dec 9
So far, the winter has been kind. The winds have been nuts but thankfully no deep freezes yet.  I stuck my finger in the upper vent holes the other day and could feel warm air. So for now, i know they are still ok.

Bee jackets put away for the winter

2017 A year of highs and lows and smokey days

March 24
It was a cold winter that seemed to go on and on. But by March 27 we knew all 4 hives had survived it. It had warmed up by the 24th enough to slip pollen patties in each hive and to see that the big hive had completely eaten their candy board. (all 5lbs of sugar)

April 8
Wow the bees are pulling in pollen, spring is finally coming. Some was yellow some orange.
April 21
Bees seem to be doing good. They all have honey leftover from the winter. Found new brood in hive 3.
May 2
Finally removed the winter wraps.
May 19
Need to check out the hive with my Russian queen. They don't seem to be very robust. Will tear hive apart tomorrow and check
May 20
Opened up the Russian queen hive and found lots of  pollen and nectar but no brood.  Queen Anna must of died, I couldn't find her. So I Robbed a frame of uncapped and capped brood from one of the other hives. Hopefully they will build a new queen.
June 1
Did a hive inspection to see if there was any queen cells in the russian hive. All the brood i put in there had hatched, so lots of bees, but still no queen. I will try one more time giving them uncapped brood from another hive. Checked all the other hives and everyone else looks good except for the "nuc" hive, it had way too many drones, and drone cells. We will replace the queen in that hive.
June 5
No sign of queen cells in the Russian hive, so out of desperation, we combined that hive with the "swarm hive".
Checked the nuc hive again, it had produced too many drone cells last time so wanted to check them again. Lots of new worker cells, everything looked good inside it.
June14
All hives out working. The combo hive is doing good, the paper has been chewed thru, so they are combined now.
July 31

Smokey days in McBride

Smokey days

Too busy at the motel to do any inspections inside hives. Bees appear to be doing good. During the weeks of the forest fire smoke they are very slow. Not sure how much honey we will get with all the smoke in the valley. It has also been a very hot dry summer.
Aug 1
Pulled 9 frames of honey. Looks like we will get more honey than i had thought.

Aug 15
I had ordered a bucket with gate valve and 3 filters so when it arrived we extracted the 9 frames of honey. To our surprise we got 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket full!

Aug 26
Pulled 6 more frames of honey, but will extract them later.
Sept 10
Finally got around to testing for mites. I had big plans to do a sugar roll to test for them but jeepers we were still so busy at the motel. So i made sticky boards. I also made up some syrup and will put
it in the hives tomorrow. I used 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water for this time of year.
Sept 12
Decided I needed to treat the mites. I was surprised to see how many mites were in one of the hives, not a ton but enough to treat.

Sept 14
Compressed all the hives down to 1 brood box and 1 honey super (plus the attic box with syrup feeders in it) added pollen patties in each hive also.
Sept 28
The weather has been incredibly warm and the bees are still bringing in  yellow and greyish pollen. I am still feeding syrup. (probably til early 0ct)
Oct 5. Bad day. Lost most of one hive, not exactly sure what went on. Some robbing going on, cant find a queen and not many bees left. The remaining bees were busy working still in the upper honey super. No time to waste, winter is almost here, i can't lose anymore of the bees so combined them into the next hive, so they have a chance to survive..
Oct 7
Made 2 candy boards yesterday and put them in the 2 hives today. (8lbs of sugar this time) Got the attic box all ready. Will insulate soon.
Oct 10
Put tarps up on fence to block the wind. Snowed hard, very damp out.
Oct 12
Insulated the attic boxes
Oct 14
Cold and windy. Panic set in that winter has arrived. Insulated the hives and got them all wrapped and ready for winter.

To be continued............

Very Creamy

So on Sept 7 of this year, i decided i wanted to play around with making creamed honey. Since then i have  made 3 batches.
The difference between regular honey and creamed honey,(also called whipped honey or spun honey) is the size and shape of the crystals in it. When honey naturally crystallizes the crystals are fairly large and sharp. You can definitely feel them when the honey coats your tongue. In creamed honey the crystals are oval and smooth, hence giving it a creamy mouth feel.  Under the right conditions, you can make creamed honey in a week or two depending on the temperature. Mine is taking longer as its been warmer in the room i have it stored.
So since this is the first time i ever made creamed honey, i had to buy seed. (fancy name for bought creamed honey). But next year i will be able to use my own. Make sure you start with clear crystal free honey.
Anyways in a jar of honey i removed a heaping spoonful of honey, then i Incorporated the same amount of seed honey. Stir to mix completely, you will see the white steaks when you first start stirring.
Once blended in, put the lid on and leave in a cooler place. Once set you can try it and feel the difference in the size of the crystals. Either way, both honey's are delish.

Bye bye summer, part 2

After our little snow storm and 3-4 inches of snow on the 10th, i thought i better get the bees wrapped for winter.
Oct 14
Panic set in, not sure if it was because today i turned 60 or whether it is the cold and wintery day. But i felt the urgency to get the bees put to bed. This year it involved more work than usual. The reason for that is, there is a chance the motel could be sold and we will get to go home mid winter. So we had to think about that when wrapping. If we were to move, the bees would have to be picked up and placed in our truck and taken almost 100km away. So we wanted to strap the boxes together so they wouldn't separate while moving them. James cut long strips of plywood that would be screwed from the top box to the bottom box, we put them on all 4 sides of each hive. Then we had to consider, what if there is ice and the pallet is froze to the ground and we cant pick it up. So we placed another pallet on top of the existing one. Then we set out to slowly move one hive at a time, up a ramp on to the top pallet. It worked really good and was way easier than we thought. The odd bee stuck its head out to see what we were doing, but all and all, they were pretty laid back.
Once the 2 hives were side by side on the pallet, we wrapped them up. So each hive this winter, have one deep super full of honey, whatever they had in the brood box for honey and a 8lb candy board. So all going well, that will keep them happy for the winter.
Oct 20
Beautiful mild day. The bees have been busy dragging out all the dead summer bees. Lots were out flying around too.
Oct 21
Winter has returned.
Hang in there bees...spring is only 5 months away.