🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[Sally PB]

Interesting experiment. I'll be interested in the results.

 

[drstratton]

Interesting experiment. I'll be interested in the results.

It's probably the wrong time of year, but I think the flow is pretty heavy right now, so maybe we'll learn something. If they don't draw out much, I will repeat this in the spring. I might do that anyway, maybe with different frame arrangements in each hive.
The bees are going like crazy, we're seeing a lot of pollen coming in. Most of it is very light colored. Have you noticed what color the pollen is your girls are collecting from your buckwheat?

 

[CraziChknLady]

I'm also happy for you! I appreciate you sharing your adventure and am interested in eventually having bees as well. Still getting some things situated first. Where did you buy your hives/ bees from? Do you have to do daily maintenance or is it mostly just seasonal or weekly?
Some great advice already seen on this forum, especially about joining a bee club...and of course research. Can never have too much of that!


Keep your updates coming!

 

[Sally PB]

The bees are going like crazy, we're seeing a lot of pollen coming in. Most of it is very light colored. Have you noticed what color the pollen is your girls are collecting from your buckwheat?

The pollen they're bringing in is yellow, but just a middle yellow...? If that makes sense. Not really bright or pale.

Our goldenrod is just barely starting. I've said that for a week now, at least!

I'm looking at getting some white clover seeds to put in a spot where hubby can't mow, and I want something short there. I'll plant it next month, hoping it gets established over the winter and blooms next summer.

 

[drstratton]

I'm also happy for you! I appreciate you sharing your adventure and am interested in eventually having bees as well. Still getting some things situated first. Where did you buy your hives/ bees from? Do you have to do daily maintenance or is it mostly just seasonal or weekly?
Some great advice already seen on this forum, especially about joining a bee club...and of course research. Can never have too much of that!


Keep your updates coming!

Hi! Thank you and welcome to our journey. We're really enjoying it.

We bought our hives from Beecastle, they are cedar. My husband also built quite a few hive boxes, all of our screened bottom boards and our inside feeder boards.

We bought our two nuc's from a place about 4 hours from where we live. We bought the package bees from a local farm store. Our 4th hive is a swarm we caught at our local golf course.

I recommend that you purchase Nuc's, not a package. It's also best if you buy local.

We usually do weekly inspections, but that hasn't been the case right now. Depends on what's going on in our lives.

I'm working on an article that I will share here, once I finish it.

I hope you get your bees and that some of the information I've shared will be helpful. Feel free to ask any questions, if I don't have the answer right away, there are others more experienced than I on here that probably do.

 

[Sally PB]

@CraziChknLady, there are some big name bee supply houses that will send out their catalog for free.
Mann Lake
Dadant
Betterbee

all have decent sized catalogs. I've paged through them and found lots of stuff I had no idea existed! Plus, they sell the boxes, frames, covers, bottoms, etc. If you find someone who is "getting out of keeping bees," you might be able to get their equipment at a good price.

Good luck! Read, ask questions, learn. Just like getting into chickens.

 

[drstratton]

The pollen they're bringing in is yellow, but just a middle yellow...? If that makes sense. Not really bright or pale.

Our goldenrod is just barely starting. I've said that for a week now, at least!

I'm looking at getting some white clover seeds to put in a spot where hubby can't mow, and I want something short there. I'll plant it next month, hoping it gets established over the winter and blooms next summer.

That makes perfect sense. I've seen all of the shades here. Some of it is very pale. So was curious if that's what you could see on the girls when they're on the buckwheat.

There's no rushing nature is there...lol

From what I've read, fall is the best time to plant your clover. It should be very well established by spring.

 

[drstratton]

Visiting the bees this morning, took a couple of videos. They are busy, bringing in pollen and nectar from the buckwheat. Then I sat down to look at the videos and one of the bees decided I needed to move along. She bumped my head a couple of times and chased me off... It's that time of year!

They are so loud.

 

[CraziChknLady]

@CraziChknLady, there are some big name bee supply houses that will send out their catalog for free.
Mann Lake
Dadant
Betterbee

all have decent sized catalogs. I've paged through them and found lots of stuff I had no idea existed! Plus, they sell the boxes, frames, covers, bottoms, etc. If you find someone who is "getting out of keeping bees," you might be able to get their equipment at a good price.

Good luck! Read, ask questions, learn. Just like getting into chickens.

Thank you so much! That really helps a lot! I didn't know about the free catalogs. Bonus!

 

[drstratton]

Pulled a drone frame from the freezer today. It was from hive #1 on July 22nd. We removed it from the hive as soon as they were capped, so the mites did not have much chance to do anything in the cells. This frame was not intended for drones. It's the frame we were hoping to get honeycomb from. I cut the comb off and froze it. We then placed the empty frame back in. Upon last inspection, they had rebuilt the comb and were finally filling it with nectar. I will share a picture when we pull it.

I found over 20 mites, looked like only one per cell. If allowed to hatch out there is the potential of around 80 or more mites exploding into the hive. just from the ones I found.

Mites crawl into the cells just before they are capped. They first lay a male egg and then several female eggs. The eggs hatch, feed off of the larva, mature and the females mate with the male. When the Drones emerge the mites also emerge and attach to other bees. Their process then continues to repeat. A hive can be quickly overwhelmed, weakened and then die off from disease if not managed. Some bees are very hygienic, meaning they will pull bees out of cells if they sense something is wrong with them.

We also pulled a drone frame from hive #2 today. We placed it in the freezer. In 3 or more days we will pull it and place it back into hive. The workers will clean out the cells and prepare it for more eggs.

A healthy protein treat for the chickens!

They devoured it.