The Wally-Gee Bee Journey 🐝

[drstratton]

I found your thread! I'll be following!

 

[WallyG74]

I did a quick inspection of both colonies this afternoon. So many bees!!! No need to check on the queens. They are thriving. The supers are chocked full of goldenrod honey. They are just as heavy as when I harvested honey this summer. Everyone got a healthy dose of smoke (coz, yes they still hate me) along with new AO strips and fresh beetle barns. Unless a tree falls on them, I am done until spring. I’ll be building new swarm traps over the winter and trying to decide if I will take the chance and split one of the colonies this spring. Good luck to all of you overwinterers up north! I know keeping a bee is lots more challenging for y’all. Thanks for all the advice and encouragement over the last couple years! Here’s to another great honey harvest in 2026!

 

[drstratton]

I did a quick inspection of both colonies this afternoon. So many bees!!! No need to check on the queens. They are thriving. The supers are chocked full of goldenrod honey. They are just as heavy as when I harvested honey this summer. Everyone got a healthy dose of smoke (coz, yes they still hate me) along with new AO strips and fresh beetle barns. Unless a tree falls on them, I am done until spring. I’ll be building new swarm traps over the winter and trying to decide if I will take the chance and split one of the colonies this spring. Good luck to all of you overwinterers up north! I know keeping a bee is lots more challenging for y’all. Thanks for all the advice and encouragement over the last couple years! Here’s to another great honey harvest in 2026!

So glad everything looks good for you. Ours are also looking good. The girls are still bringing in pollen. We're getting close to very cold temps and they will be clustering very soon. We're almost done for the year too.

Hope all of yours overwinter well and come out strong in the spring.

 

[WallyG74]

After the bee inspection I decided to render some wax. Ya know, get ALL the bee stuff done? Apparently Nov 1 is not a good day for that. The bees took it over after about 30 minutes. So, here I am at 7pm still rendering wax. Almost done, though. This isn’t candle quality. I’m just getting it good enough to put in a crockpot so I can roll it onto foundation in the spring.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

I did a quick inspection of both colonies this afternoon. So many bees!!! No need to check on the queens. They are thriving. The supers are chocked full of goldenrod honey. They are just as heavy as when I harvested honey this summer. Everyone got a healthy dose of smoke (coz, yes they still hate me) along with new AO strips and fresh beetle barns. Unless a tree falls on them, I am done until spring. I’ll be building new swarm traps over the winter and trying to decide if I will take the chance and split one of the colonies this spring. Good luck to all of you overwinterers up north! I know keeping a bee is lots more challenging for y’all. Thanks for all the advice and encouragement over the last couple years! Here’s to another great honey harvest in 2026!

Still taking syrup and bringing in pollen, good daytime temps, good number of bees in all the boxes, no real push to put them to bed. Have the wraps ready to go. Sugar block shims scraped and on the table. Don't see them going on until late Dec early Jan, bees will let me know. Right now just reducers and mouse guards with 2" foam on the top. Still getting orientation flights. Going to give a quick look later today.

 

[WallyG74]

I’m going to take a chance and go without moose guards this winter

 

[5Australorpasaures]

I’m going to take a chance and go without moose guards this winter

Yeah, them there mooses can reek havoc inside the hive.

 

[WallyG74]

Yeah, them there mooses can wreak havoc inside the hive.

I reread the post and realized my mistake but, hey, we all needed a good laugh! I bet a meese could mess one up!

 

[5Australorpasaures]

I reread the post and realized my mistake but, hey, we all needed a good laugh! I bet a meese could mess one up!

Made me go back and chk mine also, I am not above typos.