Winter Time

It is that time of year again when I put on the winter wrap. It is a thick rubber pond lining I picked up from a local garden center. It was scarp and they were happy I took it away. It does not have any real insulating properties but being black it will absorb the sun light and help out a bit. I also put a two layer insulating bubble wrap on the inner cover to help out. This should give them some help holding the heat in. Now to keep an eye on then throughout the winter, keeping snow and more importantly ice from accumulating at the front entrance, and suffocating them. These are dreary pictures of my bee yard, two sites but it is that time of year.

My first bee year.

An extension to my bee year, about 30 ft beside the first one.

Spring Start

I did a complete check of the "girls" and all looked good, except #3 which I notices earlier this spring that it didn't make it through the winter. It did have lots of honey filled frames, and the other colonies are helping themselves to it. I was also lucky this year to see 4 of the 5 Queens this year. I couldn't find the Queen in #5 because of the amount of bees in this colony, there are lots. When I was moving old frames out of #4, I sent on aside because of the bees on it and was about to shake the bees off into the super and took a quick look. The Queen was on this frame and I didn't see her when I took it out. She moves quickly and I'm lucky she didn't walk off when I sent it down. She was gently returned to the colony.  All are strong and in a few day's I'll try to split #5 and restart #3, move some of the honey frames around and put on my honey supers for the season. The dandelions are starting and I'll keep an eye on when they die out to see if I can change out the honey supers to try and separate dandelion honey from regular field and wild flower honey. I also changed out 2 1/2 boxes of old frame and comb with new ones as they were not using them, I have several more in #5 to do and will change them out when I split it. Here is how things looked and I got pictures of three of the Queens. My battery expired, sorry.

A good looking frame, capped brood, pollen,
honey and larva.

Another good looking frame.

Lots going on in #2, lots of capped brood.

A look inside the top super.

You can see the Queen from #1.

Here is the Queen from #2.

The Queen from #4.

Coming Along

Since taking off the winter wraps, I've given them protein patties, 1 1/2 lts syrup, then 2 lts of syrup with medicine, and they look like they are coming along. I did lose one colony though, it looked a little weak when I took off the wrap and I was hoping it would come along, but it didn't. I checked inside and I didn't see any capped brood, larva or eggs anywhere, so I think not too long ago I lost the Queen. There was plenty of honey inside and some pollen cake but thing else, just a few workers left. I'll save what I can and use the the boxes for a split if I need too. Here is a little of what is happening right now.

Colony 1 & 2

Numbers 3 & 4. #3 didn't make it.

Numbers 5 & 6

Everyone coming and going with pollen.

Lots of activity, looking good. 

An Early Unwrap.

With a very strange winter that had temperatures very cold and then not so with sunshine, I was concerned on how the bees would make it through to spring. We've been checking on them throughout the winter, keeping snow from the front entrance, because it would rain and ice up quickly, they didn't seem too bad. Now that spring is here, and they are becoming very active I thought I'd give them protein patties, I only had two left and split them between all six colonies, I have more on the way, I'll give the some meds in sugar syrup to help them out. After I took off the winter wraps and gave them the patties, they were a little more active, even the ones that didn't look like they were very strong. We'll see how the next couple of weeks turn out and hopefully they'll all come through strong. Here are few pictures of our winter and after the wraps were taken off. This is the earliest I've taken the wraps off.

6th of March snow fall.

They need to be cleaned out.

One of the colonies, looked really good.

Another one, looking strong.

All unwrapped, ready for summer.

Busy looking for food, the first two on the left.

The middle two, not as busy but there is activity.

A slow start on the two on the right, but busy inside.

End Of Season

This morning I put on the winter wraps and took away the left over syrup, which there was quite a bit still in the pails. This, I hope, means they have enough food stored for the winter. I guess we'll see come next spring.

Ready for winter, I hope.

Honey Harvest 2018

It has been a good year for the bees but a slow one for this blog, sorry about that. The 'Girls" came thru the winter very well, I split them into 6 colonies this year, trying not to be greedy. As well I moved them back a bit for more room and a bit more winter protection. The season was a good one, hot but they like it that way, and they have a water source several yards behind them, which is a flowing brook. This years harvest was better than last years, and just as tasty.  I did run the honey thru the strainer a second time as there were some partials in it, small bits of wax, it cleaned up well. Now to enjoy what our "Girls" did for us.

Our improved bee yard and new colonies.

Setting up for the harvest.

A couple of medium frames spun a bit too fast, they gave way.

The pail on the left has hot water in it to loosen up the honey
a bit for better flow, the one on the right has pail inside to
store the newly strained honey.

This years honey harvest. several pails of honey, two of cappings
one has the broken comb with honey in it. Can't get it any
fresher than this.

Honey Harvest

The other day I took off the honey supers, a couple of weeks early because when I added the new brood super it had new foundation, so I split it up among the three supers to give them time to draw out the comb and get ready for winter. Bringing the supers and equipment down and back this year was easier, thanks to a friend who gave us a garden cart. I did some work on it and it now doubles as a bee cart. I extracted the honey today, we had two supers of shallow frames and four medium frames we took off earlier in the year to see if we can get a different tasting honey than what we would get at then end of the season. I had four honey supers but only two were full and the other two were light. They still had to draw out the comb this year, next year it will be better, like this is mush better than last year. Last year I estimated we got 14 lbs from two colonies, this year 68 lbs from four colonies. As for the taste test, I sampled a lot today and couldn't tell, I'll have to wait for ReBecca to do the official test.

Bee/garden cart.

Bee escape they are still escaping.

Lots of bees to go into the winter with.

Getting ready to spin out the honey.

Wax and honey everywhere.

Four shallow frames fit perfectly.

Six gallons of honey.

Out golden nector.