Time to snuggle down for winter
To prepare my hives for winter, I only do three basic things. The first is illustrated here. The box on the left has the inner covers in...
Looking Good
Yes, I actually have honey this year, and it feels really good. On August 19th, I had a field day. One family came. We extracted honey...
Oh How Sweet it is!!!
I had put this frame back in the hive for later. Later came today. I checked all three hive. The one pictured is full 2/3 of the way...
Growing Apiary
Today is the 4th of July. Old beekeepers tell me they would collect honey on the 4th and then on Labor Day, then take the supers off for...
Full Apiary again
On June 2, 2023, I got two nucs from Mary Bouma. I installed one in the blue long hive, and the other in the vertical hive. I had only...
A Swarm in May is worth a load of hay!
It is sad to be a beekeeper in spring with empty hives. When I cleaned my hives out, I arranged them in such a way that they were ready...
Here we go again....
I tend to be overly optimistic, which most of the time is a good trait, but sometimes it makes me overlook obvious issues. Here is...
Winter finalization
The tan hive is double walled and has an insulated cover, so it did not need further winterization. I put two towels in the top of the...
Mouse Guards on!
Step two of winter prep is to place mouse guards on the entrances of the hives. I chose to wait until it was getting cold at night (low...
September Field Day
Today we did the early winter prep on the hives, which just consisted of flipping the inner covers. The inner cover on the left above is...
