Featuring pure and natural raw products right from the hive, including Honey, beeswax candles, propolis and more!
We’ve managed to harvest some honey from the hives at home. Most of the hives are running lean as we’ve focused again on expansion this year at the farm. One hive was left alone, and managed to prevent swarming, which can reduce honey intake. The honey we pulled this year has a fantastic Continue reading “First honey harvest of 2017”
The hives at the farm are doing great. I’m starting to add Continue reading “Moving the farm into thirds”
I’ve finally gotten my hive monitoring system built and installed to a hive here at home. It allows me to see trends in hive weight from bees coming and going, gaining weight from nectar, losing weight as they evaporate water out while drying the honey, temperature and humidity inside the hive and out, and more. The monitor is Continue reading “Hive monitoring”
The farm hives are building up nicely. I’ve added a second box to several already. We need Continue reading “Going up!”
The hives at home are building up nicely. The hives with a 4th box are already producing excess honey. We’ve had good weather this spring and are hoping to get a good harvest from a few of these. Others will be used to supplement the building hives at the farm.
Our first swarm is still building comb, and fast! Here are a few frames of beautiful white comb. As bees walk on the comb over time, the pollen on their feet stain the wax it’s usual yellow color. This wax hasn’t Continue reading “Spring swarm still building comb”
I’ve put feeders on at the farm. This will help them with brood population and comb building in their first year buildup.
I’m trying a new idea this year to easily identify the queens in each hive. I made tags for each queen I have. The main block has Continue reading “Queen tracking at the hive”
Today I found another swarm, near the same location as the first. This swarm was large, not quite as big as a basketball. I’m still trying to figure out where these are coming from. All the hives here at home have marked queens, and they were still in place when checked after the first swarm was found. Both swarms have unmarked queens. I have a guess which hive they are from, but it’s still a mystery.
My first swarm has been building comb for just a few days and have built out 3 and a half frames already! It’s amazing how fast these gals can build when they’re in this mindset.