I think I’ve been shorting summer as a season. Fall usually gets my vote for favorite…the colors and cooler temps win my heart. Winter is always welcomed with hopes for a white Christmas. Although, winter often feels so long and when spring finally arrives it almost convinces me that it’s my new favorite. All the blooms and planting with the slowly warming temps make my heart happy. However, here we currently sit in summer…a time for swimming, road trips, watermelon, and sun tea. 

Many gardens are in full producing mode. There’s nothing better than a homegrown tomato from my Dad’s garden. The local produce stands are full of fresh fruits and vegetables.
🍎🌽🍊🍓🍇🍉🥕🥔🥬🥒🫐🍍🫑🍅

Even our own little container garden is producing lettuce – and we’re rooting for the little tomatoes on each end, too (we were a little late getting the seeds in the soil). 

My patio has all kinds of flowers in full bloom. Again, some seeds were later to the soil than others but we’ll appreciate the late bloomers on into August! 

Bees (of all sorts), butterflies and dragonflies frequent the flowers. Can you see the huge butterfly on the top of the butterfly bush?

Squirrels are constantly in the bird feeders. A deer with her two fawns were spotted in the apiary and the array of birds in the yard holds my attention all day long…hummingbirds, cardinals, blue jays, golden finches, blue buntings, woodpeckers, house finches, black capped chickadees…the list goes on and on! It’s so hard to catch bird pictures. No picture ever really does justice anyway. The chirps and songs could be called “music to my ears”. From my deck I can see a robin’s nest in the nearby tree and watching birds drink from bird baths that I try to keep clean, fresh, and cool makes the extra effort worth it. Although, sometimes I wonder if these birds I enjoy so much are predators to my bees?!?!? 🤔

Maybe I’ve not given summer enough credit?!?! The humidity is the biggest downfall with hot temperatures close behind but if I can look past those two big ones, there’s obviously a lot to be appreciated about the season of summer!  

With all the humidity and soaring temps we also find ourselves thinking of Christmas…”Christmas in July”…because we also have some down time right now to prep little festive gifts that we will enjoy sharing through the holiday season. Bees are always on our radar and this week we found cute little bee soap molds at the craft store. We’ve never done soap making and decided to give it a try. It was simple enough and we hope to improve our technique and colors but they didn’t turn out too bad for our first try…

We’re hoping honey will soon be in our future. The ideas are spinning on how to use it as festive holiday treats to share! In an attempt to not get the cart before the horse, we will hold off until that honey harvest is successful. 

I should probably confess that I have not been into the hives for weeks. To be exact I have not been in the hives since June 18th. Sigh. This might classify me as a “bad beekeeper”. I’m not sure. I’ve peeked on the hives. There are bees flying. From the outside there doesn’t look to be any reason for concern. I think I’m hesitant because it’s SO HOT – I don’t really want to suit up. I’m also hesitant because while I AM curious to see if I have capped honey in my supers, I would be smoking the bees and opening the hive just out of curiosity. I’m not in a position to pull the supers off just yet and even if I did notice an issue in the hive I’m not sure what I could do about it at this point. I’m also not sure how opening the hive in these extreme temperatures might adversely effect the work going on inside…so I’ve just tried to stay out of them. Time will tell if that ends up being a mistake somehow. In the mean time…I’m just hoping for the best! 

When I initially started the hobby of beekeeping I bought the full bee suit not too worried about it being hot. I thought to myself that I would just do my hive inspections during the early morning or late evening hours when temps were cooler. I quickly was informed that while that might seem ideal, all the bees would be home during those hours. The best time to do hive inspections is in the middle of warm days when many bees are out of the hive working! Makes sense now. It also makes beekeeping a very hot hobby at times. 

It’s summer – summer is hot. I hope you might grab a glass of sweet tea and enjoy summer for all that it is. We soon will be pulling honey supers for harvest. It’s a very exciting time assuming all has gone well in the hives. We’ve already decided that we will be adding two hives to the mix next year. It’s just too nerve wracking to only have two hives. If anything goes wrong, your honey supply is in real jeopardy. With a few additional hives we’ll hopefully be able to increase our honey supply and continue learning from both our mistakes and successes. 

Happy Summer.

-Worker Bee 2021

It’s here and the bees are working hard. Bee terminology is still sometimes confusing to me. When I speak of “supers” I think honey supers. These are shallow boxes that get added on top of the deep brood boxes. I’ve read that “supers” can mean box. But in my head it works better to call the shallow boxes honey supers and the deep boxes brood boxes. Less confusion in my head when talking to myself. There might also be medium boxes out there – and I might be using mediums as my deeps…I can’t be certain. Ultimately, I think I have deep brood boxes and honey supers but as always I might not have that quite right…still lots to learn!

Now, as for my hives…after a spring full of drama and stress I think we are in pretty good shape. Remember, this was the first spring of swarm concern. I think we effectively kept the hives from swarming…even if one hive did end up queenless (such a bad feeling). Hive #1 was my queenless hive. My bee mentor successfully put together a nuc with a new queen, some of his bees and what was left of my hive #1 bees. Hive #1 seems to be thriving again. This hive is not as established as hive #2 but the number of bees are increasing…it’s so obvious through simple observation. There are more bees in hive #1 than there were a month ago. Good signs. Sadly, hive #1 is working in the brood boxes and not the honey super…at least not yet. There is a super on hive #1 but as of this week zero honey in that super. There’s still time for them to establish and work that super – I’m hoping the hive will be strong enough and I’ll at least get one super off that hive this season. If not, I’ll work and worry to maintain them through the fall and winter in hopes that they will be strong (and not queenless) come next spring. A lot of work, worry and patience for no honey…but I’m still optimistic honey will flow from that hive this year!

Remember hive #2 and all that drama?!?!? That was the hive that I was certain I had made a mistake on and removed the supersedure cell from…well, time has told me that something worked out alright in there. Despite my mistake the hive still appears strong with lots of honey. I try not to disturb/work the hives more than I need to. Hive #2 had its first super added in April and the second in early May. I went ahead and added a third super last week. That’s THREE supers on hive #2. It’s too tall for me to even peek into now!!! Makes me nervous that it’s getting stacked so high but hopefully all will be fine. I think I could take off the first super and extract. Maybe the second, too? I’m not sure what all the “rules” are for removing supers. I’d prefer to do all the honey extraction at once as it in and of itself is a process but I’m also anxious to increase my honey supply!!!! These are all questions I’ll have to ask my mentor. I’ll keep you posted!

All in all, the supers are being filled with honey and to see that honey being capped (finished off with the white wax covering that seals the honey in the comb) makes a beekeepers heart happy! When we remove supers later this summer, honey extraction begins with uncapping to expose that beautiful golden goodness that we’ll then spin out of the comb/frames to place in jars to enjoy. I can’t wait!!! 🍯

– Worker Bee 2021

Yesterday our bee mentor returned to professionally assess the status of both hives. This spring swarm season has been confusing to me as I learn to understand more about bee behavior. Hive #2 had a few swarm cells. We did leave one…I think because if they are going to swarm they are going to swarm. There’s lots of bees in hive #2, we are trying to give them plenty of room – they now have two supers to work. Hoping they move some of the honey from the brood boxes up to the supers and all the bees will stay! 🤞

Now, that nuc box that has been baking for 14 days, the one with the new queen…all went well in there!!! My bee mentor successfully put together a nuc box of brood frames, a new queen, and a mix of bees that looks like it worked. The hive accepted the new queen. Hive #1 is now reassembled as two deep brood boxes. In another week it should be ready for a super. Hive #2 currently has two supers and if all goes well, I’ll be looking to add a third next week. 

The hot weather forecast is a little discouraging. I’m optimistic the bees will thrive but wonder if the record high temps will dry up the nectar flow prematurely?!?!? It will be interesting to see the pace at which the bees draw out the supers and how quickly they are able to fill with honey. They really are amazing little creatures. 🐝

I’m also thinking I might need to finish assembling a few more supers and the frames/foundation for each. There’s nothing worse than having a hive ready for additional supers and not having the equipment ready to go…I better double check to make sure I have it all set and ready if indeed I would need it for more honey than I know what to do with in the next few weeks! Fingers crossed that’s my next “problem”. 🤞

Looking back at the mistakes we made on our last hive inspection I was relieved to know there’s still hope for hive #2. I’m anxious to see how that hive plays out and if we will be able to successfully keep that hive from swarming.

Mother’s Day took on a bee theme here. We were blessed to celebrate with our Moms (our kids grandmothers). Walmart pulled though with the cake…

The kids got me a shirt and the cutest but tiniest honey jars…I think I made everyone nervous that the honey crop might be low this year. Nonetheless, I still look forward to sharing even if there might be less to share.

For now though, I’d say there’s still a good chance we might have a lot of honey come the end of summer! Ah…the highs, lows, and unknowns of this new adventure…it’s not for the faint of heart.

Worker Bee 2021

Remember my queenless hive #1?!?!? My bee mentor was kind enough to build me a new nuc with some of his bees, frames of brood and some of my bees from hive #1. All of this PLUS a new queen in a cage. The caged queen was sitting on top of the frames inside the nuc box. The bees were hopefully “getting to know her”. A piece of duct tape was keeping the bees from getting to her. Yesterday, after a few days of letting the box sit, I went to remove the duct tape from the queen cage. The bees had been feeding her through the screen of her cage. Once the duct tape was removed only sugar candy was keeping the bees from reaching and freeing the new queen. I’m guessing in a matter of hours they were able to work through the candy and free her. Hopefully they will accept her and in about ten days we will see evidence that she is laying on the frames. From there we will be able to reassemble hive #1. I wasn’t able to get any good pictures of the queen as I was just trying to not damage or lose her! This is the best I have to give you and idea…

You can just barely see a glimpse of her bottom below the screen. Inside the black tube is the candy – the bees will work through that to gain access and free her from the cage. It’s going to be hard to stay out of that nuc for ten days but I’m going to try to let it bee! 😉

– Worker Bee 2021

One year ago today we picked up our first two bee nucs. Today our apiary holds one thriving hive and one nuc box (thanks to our amazing bee mentor). 

Quick recap, hive #1 was queenless this spring. Our mentor was able to hook us up with a new queen, brood frames, bees and the bees from our hive #1 that were queenless. All this in a nuc box that now sits were hive #1 sat. It’s also worth noting that hive #2 is already supered (the third box on top of the two brood boxes where our honey goes)

The queen in the nuc box is currently in a queen cage. We hope the bees will feed her and accept her. On Tuesday I will give the bees access to free her and allow her to find her way out of her queen cage and down to the frames. Ten days from Tuesday we’ll inspect the frames for eggs/brood. Hopefully there will be evidence that the queen is laying and has been accepted. At that point we will be able to place the frames back into the brood boxes – strategically! 

With the nuc replacing the hive #1 brood box I need to store the beeless frames for about two weeks…while there are no bees, the ants are sure drawn to the brood box. And the brood box is leaking honey everywhere I set it. This is the bottom board and should NOT have honey dripping from above down to the bottom…I miss the bees taking care of this mess!

I didn’t want to leave the box on the ground outside as I was afraid the ants would be everywhere in it. I didn’t want to store it in the garage or basement for fear of ants and a mess of leaking honey. My best idea was to place it on a folding table off the ground outside. I’m hoping this will be a decent temporary set up until we can put the new queen and the bees back into this brood box with the frames of honey. 

While hive #1 is on the rebuild we’ll be hoping hive #2 doesn’t attempt to swarm. We’ll be keeping an eye out for swarm cells and watching to be sure the bees have enough space in hive #2. There are a lot of bees in hive #2 They should be able to complete a lot of work and produce a lot of honey. 

While the bees are hard at work we took some time today to celebrate one whole year of beekeeeping. We have a lot goals and ideas on how to improve and grow our hobby all while learning more as we go. We’re hoping to make some improvements to our very basic website and improve the info that can be found there as well. April 24th…bee day…the day we first introduced bees to our apiary…that’s worth celebrating, right?!?!?!

While our second year of beekeeping is off to a bit of a challenging start, we hope we’ll be able to successfully work through it and harvest honey again at the end of summer. 

Stay tuned…exciting times right now in our apiary!!! 

Worker Bee 2021

Do you celebrate Earth Day? If you know our family, we’ll look for any reason to celebrate. Earth Day is a fun one because it can be so simple. It seems fitting that we brought our first two nucs of bees home right around Earth Day last year. Prior to bees we might make a dirt cake to enjoy, go camping for the weekend, plant a tree, do an Earth Day craft, watch the Lorax or another nature/educational show. Earth Day is a great day to get outdoors – take a hike, go fishing (look up the free fishing days in your state – they might be coming up), visit a park (did you know all 4^th graders get a free National Parks Pass https://www.nationalparks.org/our-work/campaigns-initiatives/every-kid-outdoors), take pictures of spring flowers, pick up litter, put out a bird feeder. Invite nature into your life and appreciate the miracles that we tend to look past on a daily basis. It’s also a good time to remind ourselves to not leave the water running, turn off the lights and other electronics when not in use. Remember that saying “reduce, reuse, recycle”? Maybe take the day to reconsider the use of weed killers on your spring yard, dig out those reusable grocery bags, or give some thought to a garden and/or compost pile. There are so many practical options when it comes to celebrating Earth Day. 

Shortly after Earth Day comes Arbor Day…April 29th. If you didn’t plant a tree for Earth Day you have a second opportunity in honor of Arbor Day. Sometimes it’s fun to order seedlings and distribute to others in celebration of Earth Day or Arbor Day (https://mdc.mo.gov/trees-plants/tree-seedlings/order-seedlings). If you are interested, you can research organizations that are dedicated to the cause…you can volunteer and/or get involved.  Your local zoo or botanical garden might also host fun events for Earth Day that you could check out.  Some have a lot of fun with options through their local conservation department…for example, putting together a stream team (https://mostreamteam.org). A little research and you will find there are often volunteer opportunities or free educational programs to participate in. Here in Missouri you can sign up for free educational magazines for yourself (https://mdc.mo.gov/magazines/missouri-conservationist) and kids (https://mdc.mo.gov/magazines/xplor). With so many options there’s something for everyone! 

Since getting our bees we have fun sending out a little note each Earth Day with seed packets in it. 

However you decide to spend your Earth Day we hope you enjoy it. 

Photo courtesy of https://www.bee-america.com/content/celebrate-earth-day-home

Earth Day Every Day.

-Worker Bee 2021

Today my bee mentor came over to help me with the initial spring inspections. I still have the one hive with very little activity and the other with high activity. Sadly, upon opening and inspecting hive #1, we found the hive to be “queen less”. 😩 Not what any beekeeper wants to hear. I guess the good news is that the other hive looks great. Plenty of brood and lots of bees. 

As for the queen less hive, we think we might be able to take a few frames of brood from the strong hive and try to requeen hive #1. The cost of a single queen is a fraction of the cost of a new nucleus colony. Hopefully the bees will accept her. We’ll attempt this move this week. Fingers crossed everyone gets along and hive #1 can get back on track. 

I did ask about letting the bees raise a new queen – they might. But when a hive raises a queen out of desperation you run the risk that she might not be that good. It will also take more time to raise the queen on their own. Purchasing a queen from a reputable source better ensures queen quality and saves time…letting us get back to honey production as quickly as possible. 

Now, something to think about…if BOTH hives had been strong today (goodness I wish they would have been) we would have been placing the honey supers on. Hopefully this is just a slight delay and we’ll be working with two strong hives again soon. 

Lessons learned…I should have taken a peek into the hive sooner (on a warm day in March). I wish I would have taken better note to when I first noticed hive #1 appearing not as strong as hive #2. We do recall that hive #1 was always a little behind hive #2 last year…maybe this was due to the fact that the queen wasn’t as strong. Either way, I sure thought she would last longer than just one year. I hadn’t expected to be faced with requeening until at least year three. Unfortunately, here we are in our second spring and already desperate for a second queen. 

Fortunately this requeening process is simple enough as my mentor is awesome! Just so happens he ordered 40 queens and they are scheduled to be delivered on Friday. He doesn’t think he will need all 40 which means he’ll have one for me to purchase! I’m hoping the bees in hive #1 can hang on through this week and then we’ll be able to successfully introduce the new queen with some brood from hive #2 to get hive #1 up and buzzing again. A little stressful, a lot could go wrong but maybe it will all work out alright. 

On another note, my mentor hooked me up with some old bee equipment to serve as decor on my front porch. A bottom board, two brood boxes and an outer cover now stand as a hive outside my front door. Maybe some day when our honey production picks up I , too, will be able to tell honey purchasers that “the honey is in the hive”. Our mentor will have porch pick ups for his honey (he’s a seriously successful beekeeper) – customers know where to find it and there’s an envelope inside labeled “honey money”…how fun is that?!?!? For now ours is empty and simply serves as decor but I feel it holds a lot of potential! 

Waiting for the arrival of the new queen is going to be hard. In the mean time I hope the small amount of bees in hive #1 can hold on. I guess time will tell. I’m learning that beekeeping comes with steep highs and lows. I’m ready for the next high…specifically, successful acceptance of a new queen and a strong hive #1. Please! 

-Worker Bee 2021

Finally. Longer days, warmer temps, green grass and blooms all over. Normally, this is the time of year I would be putting down fertilizer. I love a crisp, full, weed free and green lawn but this year is different. I’ll bypass the fertilizer (saving some money) to help please the bees. In looking around I’ve noticed honeybees frequently on the dandelions. So, if you hate paying for fertilizer put your wallet at ease all while helping the bees. And don’t judge your neighbor’s yard that’s full of clover and dandelions…they are now my favorite neighbors to have! 

I’ve been waiting to do our spring inspections with my bee mentor. I think I know what to look for and hope for but having him there to talk me through it is a luxury I’m not quite ready to give up. I have been watching and observing the hives. While both have bees coming and going, hive #2 just has so many more bees flying. Today I panicked and was worried hive #1 was possibly dead. I just wasn’t seeing as many bees and I wanted. 

Without the little beekeeper or my mentor I decided to suit up and go take a peek. It was sunny and 70, I thought it would be ok. I had the smoker on hand but didn’t use it. The less I disturb the bees the better. As I opened hive #1 I was relieved to see bees. 

While I was happy that both hives had bees, they were different by comparison. Hive #1 had only made a small dent in the sugar board (food) while hive #2 had completely consumed it. The sugar boards were placed on each hive last year as an “insurance policy” for winter. My understanding is it helps ensure the bees won’t run out of honey and starve. I’m not sure how to interpret what one hive having none left and the other hive having a lot left means. I’m hopeful to gain better insight from my mentor. I’ll keep you posted on any conclusions. 

As spring continues keep an eye out for honeybees. Feel free to plant flowers and grow weeds in your yard…it makes the bees and beekeepers happy! 

-Worker Bee 2021