Here we are…August. June and July were pretty good months for our bees. All six hives still seem to be doing ok (I do have some concerns about one in particular but we will see, fingers crossed). The one hive out at the property didn’t put any honey in a super for us but it does seem to have calmed and settled. Not nearly as buzzy and seems acclimated to going in/out like a normal hive now…remember, the bees had been using only an entrance at the top of the hive, took a few attempts to get them to adjust to in/out the bottom. That lone hive seems to be thriving and I’m anxious to see how it does through fall and winter this year. This week was hot and humid, we had to make a trip out to the property to store the extracted honey supers and while there we peeked at that hive…appeared to have a good amount of bees bearding…I think that’s a good sign! 

Speaking of honey supers…we extracted at home this year. What an undertaking! We’ve been spoiled in the past by our mentor. He has a fabulous set up at his house for honey extraction and is always gracious and welcomes us to extract at his place. But this year we increased our hives and we thought it might be time to become a little more self-sufficient so we purchased an extractor. I knew I should have gone down to the local honey shop to pick one up (ashamed I didn’t) but due to time constraints/convenience (or so I thought) I succumed to Amazon. I looked online, read reviews and finally decided on an extractor that cost a little more but was scheduled to arrive quicker. For the added price I thought it was worth it to have it ship quicker – but that didn’t hold true. It didn’t ship on time and while it was still earlier than other options it arrived damaged. Our drone worked to get it assembled and “fixed” but it wasn’t right and for the price we had paid I didn’t want it to not be “right”. So I contacted the seller who was very responsive and easy to work with and they simply shipped us a new one. They told us to keep the first one for extra parts…kinda like they maybe knew the second one might arrive in less than perfect condition as well?!!?!? It arrived in better condition than the first one and we only needed to borrow one bolt from the first shipment to have the second one up and running successfully. 

We pulled four supers this year and yielded enough honey to meet our needs! I don’t feel like we have any surplus for selling this year but we should have enough to use/share until our extraction next year. While I never feel good about “counting my chickens before they hatch” surely, we will have some hives pull through and thrive for the year to come…right?!?!?! Having six hives and only getting four supers is a little disappointing it seems healthy strong hives should yield at least two supers per season BUT these hives all have a story/drama and were rather young this year. Happy we were at least able to get four supers of honey and trying to remain optimistic for what the future might hold. Truth be told…extracting four supers took a lot of time. The set-up, the process, the clean-up. If we ever do end up with 8+ supers we might not be able to handle it! I don’t know how large-scale beekeepers do it. Honey extraction is very rewarding but it is a big job. Any beekeeper with more than ten hives…shout out to you!!!! 

Our family worked together to complete this year’s extraction and it was a group effort. Taking turns, lending a hand where needed, merging in…it took all four of us. Howards’ Hives and Honey is definitely a TEAM EFFORT. We hope to be able to share some of our sweet goodness throughout the upcoming year and always appreciate the support so many offer us. Many root for the bees, plant and water a garden, offer to purchase honey (when we have it available) or simply offer a listening ear or encouraging word regarding bees. Thank you…we love sharing our hobby with you.

As summer closes out, we will be preparing for mite assessment and fall feedings (if necessary). We’ll keep you posted on anything exciting regarding the hives. I think this was our fourth successful extraction. We have had a lot of help and support from our mentor, Easter Missouri Beekeepers and friends at the local bee shop – we never would have made it this far without them! 

Have a wonderful August…if you have the opportunity to pick up some local honey directly from a beekeeper, you should! 

These bees are becoming a lot to keep up with! Remember how I thought I would have a total of four hives this year…that was the max I thought I could maybe manage…well as it turns out I’m currently sitting at six! Splits, swarms, and nucleus colony orders have put me at six. Now I’m not convinced all six are doing well. The hive we split this spring still hasn’t put any honey in the super…not a good sign. I’m going to have to turn to the experts to figure out what my next best move will be for that hive. I’m trying to be patient but I can’t figure out what’s going on in there. Frustrating.

I’m pretty sure it was that hive we split that we also caught the swarm from. But instead of putting the bees back in that box we put them in a new hive. (at the time I wasn’t sure they were my bees). So not only did we split that hive but I believe it swarmed meaning one hive became three. We’ll have to see if they grow into three strong hives. 

In addition to those three, I ordered two new colonies to put me at five. And then there was the total unexpected…I had an empty hive sitting outside…it was a collapsed hive from last year and the frames were in bad shape. I didn’t want to store it with my other equipment because I feared what critters (wax moths, etc) might be in it. I thought I closed it all up and I just left it sit outside under an awning…would you believe bees moved in? They came in through a tiny upper entrance that I hadn’t closed off.  Great but kind of a mess. Not only are they now sitting on a table under an awning but they are really kinda buzzy. (I hesitate to say “mean” as I hope in time, as they get settled, they will be easier to manage. But my last attempt to peek in = buzz to the face, thank goodness the veil didn’t fail!  

There’s all these rules on moving hives…more than several miles (3-6ish if I remember right) but not more than a few feet…so moving them across the yard about 100 yards isn’t ideal. By placing some grass or a branch in front of the entrance we hope to have them “re-orientate” but there’s still a chance they will return over under the awning where the hive was before – essentially lost forever. (again, IF my understanding is correct…I’m still learning!) Nonetheless, the hive must be moved. In the next few weeks, we’ll have to screen it up before dawn and try to walk it across the field to the new stand. Hopefully most of the bees will take note of the move and be able to find their way home successfully. I’m curious to see how it all plays out. Will hive #6 thrive or die???? I’ll keep you posted. 

Six hives is almost more than I can keep straight. Each hive has its own characteristics and needs. I’m currently feeding three hives and that’s not only a lot to keep up with but a little costly with the price of sugar. It feels like they are going through $10 of sugar every five or so days! Hopefully they will have all the frames drawn out soon and I’ll be able to cease the feedings – they go through that syrup so quickly. And it’s a pain to mix and pour…spilling sugar in your kitchen isn’t a fun cleanup. I need an outside sink for feeding bees! 🙂 

I feel like I’m already behind a bit in that I don’t have any hives working to fill supers. But if I’m patient and things go well, I’m optimistic that June will be productive and we still stand a chance for a plentiful honey harvest. 

On another front…our drone finally broke down and purchased his own bee suit! The little worker bee that had been my second set of hands all along outgrew his suit and sadly seems to be losing interest. Working bees isn’t for the faint of heart. He’s into his sports, doesn’t like to be hot, and seems to be getting nervous around buzzing bees. He has been stung twice and I’m trying to respect his wishes but I’m still not giving up on him completely. As a family we now have two bee suits that will fit any two of us at any given time. As a team, I hope we’ll be able to cooperate and provide the best care for the hives. If we are able to keep all six of these hives thriving…I’m going to need help!! 

In support of honeybees, it isn’t too late to plant. I’ve seen bees working the lavender in my yard. I’m a sucker in the garden shop…if I see a honeybee on a plant, I usually buy it! Give it a try, you may find you enjoy bees as visitors to your yard, too.

Happy Summer!

-WorkerBee 2021

It’s been a while but spring is underway and it’s getting to be the busy season with bees. We only had one hive pull through winter successfully. With that, we attempted to split that one hive and I also ordered two nucs which would put us back at four hives total going into summer. I have the equipment to run four hives and rather than try to store the equipment it would be best to have bees in boxes. The split was an exciting first. There were a lot of bees and brood in our one hive so we removed some frames to create a second hive with a purchased queen. My mentor was there to show me how to make a split…the new box with the new queen was removed from our apiary to prevent bees from returning to the original hive. The new box will return in about three weeks. This split will only cost the price of a new queen (about $35). The cost of a nuc is running about $200 so it’s significantly cheaper to be able to take strong hives and split them rather than being forced to purchase new nucs. The two new nucs should be ready for pickup early next month. 

Now, all that being said…if you are able to catch swarms that would be the most economical. Swarms are free bees! And would you believe one landed in our backyard today. Swarm season is upon us and I had been working to prevent my strong hive from swarming which is also in part a benefit of splitting the hive. Now when we were in the hive a few days ago there were some swarm cells and some supersedure cells (new queens in the making because the hive isn’t sold on the current queen). We saw the queen in the hive and left her and the supersedure cells. Time will tell what will be in that hive. I slapped a super on it today because the black locust is also in bloom. Hopefully all is well in that hive and the swarm that landed in my backyard today is NOT bees from that hive. A quick peek confirmed there are still bees in that hive and the hive is still very heavy when hefted (lifted)…I’m hoping those are all good signs. 

So, this swarm that was literally buzzing in as I was headed out to put a super on my one hive lands in a tree in my backyard. Not too high off the ground. When I first see this swarm I’m a little sick because there’s a chance, they are MY bees! It’s a bad feeling seeing bees in a tree if they are yours and are supposed to be in a box! Nonetheless, we have to try and get them. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Luckily everyone was home so I had four sets of hands to jump in and try to secure these bees. Our drone quickly lifted boxes and gathered tools. The queen was kind enough to leave her room to snap some pictures and take some video. The little beekeeper had run off to play but after my first failed attempted he was called home to suit up and lend me a hand. I botched the first solo attempt and luckily the swarm just moved a few feet to another tree close by. I thought it very unlikely that we would get a third try so the little beekeeper and I worked very carefully to trim the branch the swarm was on. From there I tried to shake as many bees as I could from the branch and into the box. We then put a cover on it and watched. The bees weren’t flying away so we hope we successfully got the queen into the box and the others followed on in. I’m really hoping these bees will stay in the box. What an Earth Day memory that would be! Fun fact…I believe it was Earth Day 2021 when we picked up our very first two nucs to officially begin our beekeeping adventures! 

So that’s our spring update for 2024 and our first swarm story. This will be our third spring keeping bees. We continue to learn and hope to minimize our management mistakes this year in preparation for a plentiful honey harvest. 

Happy Earth Day…stay tuned for status updates on the hive, the split and the swarm. Fingers crossed we have more bees than we know what to do with. 

-WorkerBee 2021

Here we are closing out 2023. We hope you had a wonderful holiday and are looking forward to the buzz to come in 2024. As we reflect on 2023 and beekeeping, it’s a little sad to know we had four hives this spring and are currently down to two. We lost one nuc this spring and I regret that we didn’t feed it more. That’s the one that the queen was in there (we spotted her) but she was not laying. That hive collapsed and I was unable to salvage any of it. The other hive up and left and I’m convinced it’s because it was so strong. There were so many bees in that box. It was an odd time (late in the season) for them to up and go but my inexperienced gut feeling is they were strong and fine. Maybe I missed something but mostly I’m missing those bees! All that being said, we have two hives…one eight frame and one ten frame that we are hoping to bring through winter. They were treated for mites in December and have sugar boards placed on each. I’m hoping they are snuggly tucked away until spring when they will pop and thrive with new brood. Time will tell. 

We’re still enjoying the honey from the last harvest. If the two hives come through winter and produce for a second year, I’ll feel good about our honey supply. We were able to gift some jars for Christmas this year. With time and colder temps the honey will often thicken and crystallize. If you experience this with your honey, know that it is not bad. It simply needs to be warmed. If you do so slowly it’s less likely to zap any of the good qualities honey has to offer. If it’s in a glass jar you could impatiently microwave it but I don’t believe that is recommended. When crystalizing happens here I’ll simply place a pot of water on the stove on the lowest heat…place the bottles of honey in it and patiently give it time to slowly warm. Depending on the time of year, I’ve also been known to take a jar bottle of crystalized honey and place it by the fireplace (winter) or on the dash of the car (summer). Any warm space will heat that honey up and thin it out again for easy usage. 

Here’s a little more info on crystallization if you are interested…https://dowgardens.org/honey-crystallization-why-does-it-happen-and-how-to-use-it-anyway/

As 2023 comes to a close it’s crazy to think that three years ago during a lock-down pandemic when we chose to homeschool for one year to avoid the drama, we also found our way into beekeeping. In three years, we have spent a lot, learned a lot, rode the highs and lows and made some wonderful friendships along the way. As I look to 2024, I’m concerned my little bee keeper is losing interest. He’ll soon be twelve and while he understands a lot of bee biology, he is also seeing that hive management is time consuming and often hot. He’s also in school during the days when it’s most convenient to get into the hives. He says he will continue to help with the honey harvest but will likely no longer be participating in hive management. While I appreciate his willingness to help with the heavy lifting of honey supers, I’m not giving up on him just yet as a beekeeper. I’m hoping to invest in a bee suit that is more comfortable and easier to get in/out of than he has had in the past. He’s out grown his first bee suit. I’ll hold onto it as you just never know who might need a little beekeeper suit in the future. He has been stung twice which has also worked against me. I personally will be working to remain sting free in 2024. All in all, maybe I can get him hooked on setting swarm traps this spring – that would be a good thing for him to master. Who doesn’t love free bees?!?!?!?

As I was looking for a fun Happy New Year image I stumbled across this and a new fun website. Check out this beekeeper and all she is doing. Wish she lived closer…and I totally have and enjoyed her queen spotting book! https://girlnextdoorhoney.com/

From our hive to yours…HAPPY NEW YEAR!

-Worker Bee 2021

What a summer. It’s been busy. The kids are already getting ready to head back to school and we have accomplished a lot on the bee front. Cleaning up our bee blog wasn’t one of those accomplishments…yet. It’s still a goal just hasn’t ranked high on the priority list. Let’s bring you up to speed on the most exciting front…HONEY! Late in July we pulled all remaining honey supers (I think there were a total of six) and extracted at our mentor’s house. You’ve heard me say it before…he has an incredible set up. We came home with three buckets of honey…more than we’ve ever had. And remember, this is on top of the mini extraction we did on our own. Restocking the house with honey is satisfying.

And I finally gave in and let the little beekeeper set up for sales. People were so supportive, and we were able to decrease our overall bee debt with honey money!

For any new beekeeper – I’d encourage you to keep a book. A book of expenses and profits. I didn’t do this because there was a part of me that just didn’t want to know! The initial startup is costly. BUT, if in time one would become good at beekeeping, I’m starting to see that there could be some potential for profits down the road. Now, I personally didn’t get into beekeeping for profits but others in the family enjoy the sales part more than I do. It’s a team effort, I’m trying to play along. My mentor mentioned he kept a log of honey he had harvested in his forty plus years as a beekeeper…335,000 pounds of honey! Isn’t that incredible?!?!?!? One of these days I hope to interview him and publish a blog of his story. Stay tuned for that.

Now, that honey we harvested all came from the established hives we purchased from our mentor in the spring. Without those hives we would have been without honey this year. Sad but true. The nucleus colonies we purchased for the spring weren’t picked up until May 15^th – that felt very late to be getting started. Sadly, today, I confirmed, one of those hives collapsed. The other nucleus colony seems to be holding on. My hope is that hive will gain strength and numbers, survive winter and be ready to rock and roll come spring. Today we disassembled Hive #1 (sad day) and treated hives 2-4 for mites. Once the mite treatment is complete, we will reassess to see if fall feeding will be necessary. It would be wonderful to have three strong hives come through winter – that would be another first for us! May we BEE so lucky.

Our drone bee was kind enough to haul and store all those honey supers in a trailer instead of our basement.

We sprayed the frames with B402, a biological larvicide, to keep the wax moth from laying in the comb. I made the little beekeeper do the spraying…spraying each individual frame is tedious but important (remember that picture of the yucky wax moth – we do NOT want that again). I hope he did a good job. If not, we’ll find out the hard way. Storing the equipment is a hassle and I feel like the frames are so vulnerable to ants, wax moths, mice, etc when not protected by strong bees! In the end, this is probably another ‘live and learn’ kind of moment in beekeeping – we’ll see if our method works this year and if not, adjust accordingly next year.

This year was our third honey harvest. I feel like we have gained a lot of knowledge and some confidence. We still have a lot to learn but I hope the bee adventures and successes will continue for many years.

On a slightly different note, the bees are really taking to my sunflowers. I’ll occasionally see them working other flowers in the yard but of all the varieties of flowers the sunflowers seem to be the most popular right now. The zinnias might be their second choice as I do see several working those, too. We’ve been blessed with significant rains lately and I’m hoping that will keep the bees’ resources flourishing so they can adequately prepare for winter. If you’ve never planted a small flower garden, I’d encourage you to consider it for next spring. Just a small portion of your yard or even a planter on the deck or porch. Sure, it takes some effort and watering, but you might be surprised how much joy the flowers and pollinators bring. Spring is a little ways away, plenty of time to put some thought into the possibilities! 

We hope you are able to get out there and enjoy the remaining weeks of summer. Keep those gardens watered and the fall flowers blooming. Honeybees will be working hard to prepare their stores for winter. We appreciate all the support and hope to encourage any other beekeepers wanting to jump into this hobby. And if you haven’t already, pick up some honey from a local beekeeper…fall is a great time to enjoy the sweet goodness on cornbread, pumpkin bread, pancakes, waffles, and all the other sweet fall kind of eats…maybe even a peanut butter and honey with your chili if you’re into that kind of combination…one I’ve never understood! (then again, maybe I should try it!)

-Worker Bee 2021

We are underway! The bees seem to be thriving to the point that we almost can’t keep up with them. Remember, we gained two well established hives in our bee yard this spring in addition to two nucleus colonies that were installed late spring. The two established hives have boomed to the point that I am struggling to give them enough space. Each of those hives has filled a third honey super. That’s great, right? Except that I am out of supers. Well, not exactly…I have supers it’s just that they are the wrong size. I’ll try to explain… 

I started out with two eight frame hives. I chose eight frame hives because I’m weak and they are a bit smaller and lighter. However, when you get the opportunity to acquire two well established ten frame hives (each holding nine frames) that is HARD to pass on! Those hives are the only reason we have honey right now! Good decision to add those hives but now I have two different kinds of equipment. So, while I DO have eight frame honey supers, they won’t fit the ten-frame hives that need them.  

When you have two hives that have filled three honey supers and you are out of equipment it’s an uneasy feeling. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do. Maybe I could just cap them at three supers but what if they aren’t happy. What if they don’t have enough space? I went down to the bee shop and was advised to address the “filling up” issue I was seeing. I didn’t want to purchase additional equipment because I would have to store it…not to mention my hives are getting so tall I wouldn’t safely be able to add a fourth super and manage it. Honey supers are HEAVY when they are full of honey. So…I rented the extracting equipment thinking I’d just quick pull the capped honey and then return the empty super to each hive. Simple.  

The rental couldn’t have been easier. Picked up all the equipment we would need (extractor, uncapping knife/scraper, uncapping tanks, etc). We get home and set up…there’s a learning curve to all of this. We have extracted two times in seasons prior BUT we were spoiled in that our fabulous bee mentor invites us to his house where his set up is beyond impressive. Apparently after forty years of beekeeping you work out all the kinks and run a smooth operation. We’re a bit of a mess. I’d even thought maybe we would just extract the frames in the kitchen. That would have been insane! What was I thinking? You should have seen our garage once the process was finished. 

Let me back up a bit. When pulling honey supers you have to get the bees out of them. And it’s a lot of bees! Our mentor showed us how to use a fume board and it’s rather impressive. Spray some stinky stuff on the inside of a lid, if you will. Place on hive, wait a few minutes and all/most bees move down into the hive…it forces them to because they obviously don’t care for the smell. I have a fume board…but for an eight-frame hive. See this ongoing challenge? I didn’t want to purchase a ten-frame fume board as I thought I could improvise using cardboard. Cut the cardboard to size and then sprayed the cardboard as I would the fume board and them used the outer cover to help seal the sides down. It worked pretty well. BUT…once the frames were in the garage and the door is closed (always close the door so the bees from the hive don’t follow the honey!) you begin to see how many straggler bees you have brought with you. Now, had I been doing this in my kitchen I would have more diligent in trying to remove all bees but it’s likely you miss a few…can you imagine the blog about bees in the house?!?!?! Just a reminder that things can always be worse.  

Despite the straggler bees in the garage, we were able to extract the frames without being stung. They are attracted to the lights up above but are still tempted by the honey we are handling. We were able to use caution and put a fan on us (to blow them away) while frame by frame uncapping and extracting the honey.  

Our mentor has an amazing electric extractor that holds more frames (I forget how many but definitely more than six) – never had we used a manual extractor that you physically have to crank and spin to remove honey from the frames. We thought it might be “fun” and it was…for like the first five minutes. It was work. It takes forever AND the honey was really thick…it was almost impossible to get it to all spin out. This is frustrating because not only are you losing out on your honey harvest but your frames are a sticky mess. Be it what it is, we were counting it as a “learning experience” and doing the best we could. After all, this entire process was not only about extracting honey but also about freeing up equipment to give back to the bees as they were in need of more space to work.  

We were able to get the supers back on the hives before dark that same day. Some of the frames still had so much honey in them that we opted to replace them with foundation only frames. These frames do not have drawn out comb so the bees will have to work to build the comb on those frames before filling them with honey…might slow them down a little bit as the honey flow comes to a close this summer. Decisions had to be made, not sure we made the best decisions but for now the hives should have enough space for them to work the rest of the summer…we hope.  

With all the honey extracted and filtered (and note…be sure to filter the honey as it comes out of the extractor and into a bucket…we almost flubbed this step!) and safely in a bucket all we had to deal with was the cleanup. Such a mess. We had honey everywhere. On the floor, we had walked in it, and I still had about six frames that were only partially extracted. It took days and when it takes days to clean up all the honey you draw ants. It’s hot in the garage and you have to keep the door closed or the bees will find the honey. It’s sticky. Doesn’t that sound like fun? In a perfect world where life stops for bees it wouldn’t have been such a scattered and sporadic process. But in between practices, games, graduation parties, church, sleepovers at grandma’s house, dinner out…that ants made their way in. But I will say, I knew they would be coming…if there is honey left the ants always seem to find it. These are the things you learn as a beekeeper! 

Now, finally…let’s address those six partially extracted frames. I was advised to put them back in the hives…take out the frames with just foundation and put the partially extracted frames back in for the bees to clean up. There were concerns of robbing with this approach and I’m very glad I didn’t put these partially extracted frames in my weaker colonies as I had considered as I don’t believe they would have been strong enough to defend against robbing. I COULD have slipped them back into the stronger hives and maybe I should have but having been in the hives so much I didn’t feel good about getting back in there for a third time so they could clean up my mess. Not to mention I wanted to slow them down a little bit and I thought the foundation frames that I had given them might help with that. Maybe? Maybe not? I’m still trying to figure a lot of this out. Anyway, I didn’t put the partially extracted frames back in. Instead, I took them away…miles away…to see if other bees might clean them up. No luck. Mind you…now I have sticky honey in the bed of the truck that needs to be cleaned up, too. Good times. All that to just finally have the frames sitting out about 100 yards from my apiary in hopes that bees will find them and clean them up for me. As of this morning they had found them. I’m curious to see if this cleanup is a one-day kind of job or if it will take them more than one day to get all that honey out of those frames. Time will tell.  

On a sweet note though…we ended up with a good amount of honey from this extraction. We pulled three supers and extracted most all (a few frames that weren’t completely full or completely capped we just left to be returned to the hive) of the frames at least partially and got (I should have weighed it) almost a full five gallon bucket of honey. I stumbled upon ½ gallon mason jars at Walmart…6 ½ gallon jars for about $13. This proved to be the quickest and most efficient way for me to store the honey. Later, when I have more time and patience, we’ll be able to pour from these half gallon jars into smaller usable containers as needed. 

This extraction also brought about a first…honey sales!!! This is our third extraction in our third year of beekeeping and never have we ever accepted money for our honey. I had hoped we never would, that I would just always be giving it away. However, beekeeping has been somewhat expensive and the little beekeeper has been so anxious to incorporate sales into our small operation. If all goes as planned it looks like this year will provide a lot of honey so we went ahead and offered about ten jars for sale. They were spoken for rather quickly and we appreciate the support. The extra funds will help us absorb some of our mistakes and mishaps along the way. It will also aid in the cost of equipment/jars and in the terrible event that we lose our bees…we’ll be looking to purchase more!  

We did learn a lot in this crazy spur of the moment extraction process. I think the biggest lessons were we should never bring honey supers into the kitchen…the garage is probably our best option even if it is hot.  Cardboard on the floor would make cleanup easier once extraction is complete. We also would opt for an electric extractor over a manual extractor…that is until we price them and then maybe we would feel differently! We’ll have to hope the honey sales are solid enough to purchase that electric extractor when we need to purchase one of our own.  

In the next month we hope to clean up our blog. I need to learn more about how to organize and post…we are struggling with photos being included in the blog (hence no pictures in this post). We also need to bottle and sell more honey from this extraction before our next honey harvest. Then as fall rolls in we’ll try to stay active in hive management. We’d love to be able to over-winter all four hives and start strong next spring. If we are successful, we might be reaching the point of “having more honey than we know what to do with”…may we BEE so lucky! 

– Worker Bee 2021

It’s come and gone. It got me thinking about the bee “mom”…the queen. A fully developed female that lays eggs…lots of them. There’s only one queen in a hive of thousands and without her everything falls apart! I’m told queens will not sting you. A queen bee will emerge from her cell in sixteen days (compared to 21/24 days for a worker or drone). In three short years of beekeeping, we have learned the pain of being queenless. It’s a terrible feeling, without a queen the hive is doomed. I’ve read that queens live for about one year compared to workers/drones that have a lifespan of just five to six weeks. Bee Biology is fascinating and we still have so much to learn! 

If all is well we should currently have four queens in our apiary. Today we picked up two nucleus colonies. They came in on a truck from KY/TN area. I believe there were just over one hundred nucs on the truck. 

We grabbed our two and got them situated atop their soon to be brood boxes. In a few days we will transfer the five frames that make up the nucleus colony to a brood box with an additional three frames. From there we will work to grow a strong hive of two brood boxes. It’s so late in the season I’m doubtful either of these two nucs will produce honey this season but we’ll stay optimistic and maybe be pleasantly surprised. 

There’s always challenges in beekeeping. Storing frames of comb and honey in a place safe from other living things can be tricky. Today, I was introduced to the dreaded wax moth. I’d heard of them. Read about them. And today, met them. Ick. I think the damage is minimal. Having bees to protect these frames makes things so much easier. I cut out what I could and threw the frames in the freezer for a few days. Once the hives are established, I think I’ll be able to give the frames back to the bees and they will clean them up. 

Ick.

I hope you were able to enjoy your Mother’s Day! I can’t help but wonder if my bees or my kids will bring more challenges in the year ahead but either way I’m happy to have the opportunity to watch both my bees and kids continue to grow and hopefully thrive! 

Happy Bee-lated Mother’s Day!

-Worker Bee 2021