Oh happy day…we once again have hives in the apiary. It was a long cold winter and slow spring as both our hives collapsed last fall. We did sleep easier not worrying all winter about bees BUT spring was incomplete without hives. We were very blessed that our mentor was looking to reduce his hives and we were able to get two full hives (two deep brood boxes each) from him. Well established, strong hives, with lots of bees. We moved those from his bee yard to ours on Earth Day, April 22nd. He had an incredible set up for moving hives that made it very easy…all things considered.
If you look close in the picture above, you can see there is a solid travel cover on each hive and the entrance is screened and duck taped to keep the bees in. Once they were placed in our yard, screens were removed – a few days later I also removed the travel covers and replaced with normal inner and outer hive covers.
Since these were established hives we were able to immediately add honey supers to both. Hopefully the bees will have ample resources and will begin filling honey supers for our harvest in late summer.
As for that swarm trap…we took it down as the new hives were moved in. I didn’t want to chance the new hives being tempted in any way by the swarm trap. It’s been in the garage for about a week now. I need to rebait it with the lemon grass scent and find a new place for it. I’ve been told I still have a chance of catching a swarm for about the next two months. Stay tuned on that front!
We are also scheduled to pick up two nucs on May 15th. These are hives with only five frames of bees. Our brood boxes for these hives hold eight frames. We will have to be patient and let these nucs get established. It will take time for brood and bees to fill one brood box of eight frames, then a second, and then finally we might be able to add a honey super come mid summer. It will help that I have frames with drawn comb, this will save the bees time and will hopefully get to honey production quicker!
Our current honey supply is running a little low. We burned through several bottles prepping teacher appreciation gifts this week. We do enjoy sharing our honey and hope the teachers know how un-BEE-lievable we think they are!
And finally, since the bees are back, I took the time to put together a little “bee bath”. I had noticed honeybees on my seedlings after watering…I thought this might accommodate them a little better. I was pleased with how it turned out and saw a bee utilizing it shortly after I set it out!!!
It will be exciting to see the progress these two hives have made in the supers. We’ll keep you posted. Bee life will get a little busier once the two nucs arrive…they will need feed and a little more attention than the established hives…exciting times!
Now that spring is here, get those gardens going, plant the flowers and maybe even make and set out your own little bee bath. I hope you see the honeybees working around your home, too.
Worker Bee 2021
Howards' Hives and Honey 