Groundhog Day

Yesterday was a warm day for February…mid to upper 50’s. We noticed bees being drawn to the hot tub water again…sometimes I wonder if it’s the smell of the chlorine that draws them in?!?!?! I’m not sure. Either way, it prompted me to fill the bird bath and the water source in the apiary.

Nothing fancy…just a little water and some landing rocks. Maybe the bees use it, maybe not. I’ll have to pay closer attention when the temps warm to see if I catch any bees on these rocks attempting to collect water. The bees in both hives were flying. Some dead bees have been cleaned out from the hives. From the looks outside I can’t see any indication that things are going poorly…at least not yet. An hour or so after I was trying to provide water would you believe we got a light sprinkle of rain. Didn’t last long, temps didn’t drop and was just enough to get everything slightly wet. From the bees perspective it seemed an example of “God will provide”. This might be their last chance to get out and fly as we are headed for snow and colder temperatures. I hope they make the most of their warm days in between these cold spells we are having. February has been known to be very cold – the shortest month that often feels the longest! Here’s a short video to give you an idea of their activity this time of year…

It’s impressive to me that even in the winter months when temps are warmer the bees are buzzing. If you are able, zoom in on the bee on the blue dot…if you look closely, you can see her proboscis. 

As for Groundhog Day, we’ve heard the groundhog saw his shadow. But here, we don’t believe that groundhog knows anything about weather and hope for the bees that spring will soon be here to stay! In the meantime…stay warm and try to enjoy the snow. 

-Worker Bee 2021

A New Year

Officially 2022. We made it. A new year brings a fresh beginning that hopefully you are looking forward to. You might be thinking of resolutions or goals…ways to simplify or better your coming days ahead. Who knows, some of you might be considering a new hobby or craft…maybe beekeeping?!?!?! I’m partial but this would be the perfect time of year to start looking into spring bees. Do your research, reach out to those who can help and dive in.

It’s interesting how a new hobby can turn into a theme and/or passion in your life. We’ve had our bees for less than a year but we’re in pretty deep on the bee front. I love those little bees. The rest of the family loves them, too, but I think I love them most! It must be obvious because we received so many awesome bee gifts this holiday season.
Each of these thoughtful items makes me think of special people in our life. Connections. It’s not the gifts but the people behind each of them that makes life sweeter!

Yesterday was a very mild day with no winds. I strolled out to the apiary and the bees were indeed flying. When I have time to pay attention, it looks as if the bees that are flying this time of year take an interest in water. I’ve noticed our hot tub seems to draw them in. I’ve also noticed an interest in droplets of water that collect in various places. Watching the bees closely leads me to believe landing is maybe sometimes tricky. Seeing bees hover around the hot tub as if they want to land but are nervous or unsure but then when they do get their legs down they gather up the tiniest of water droplets. I’ve even been lucky enough to see their proboscis! I didn’t take this picture but it gives you an idea…needless to say it’s way cooler to see it first hand. 

Colder temperatures look to be headed our way. This week will bring the coldest temps these bees have had here, I hope they will be ok. We placed candy boards on each hive in early December. 

My understanding is these will serve as an “insurance policy”. We believe each hive is strong enough to survive winter without the additional feed but it was a “better safe than sorry” approach. I was also told it might help with moisture in the hive. Either way, they were easy enough to add and I hope the extra insurance will pay off for us come spring. 

Speaking of spring…I hope it arrives early this year. I’m anxious to get back to working with the bees in 2022. May it BEE a wonderful year ahead for us all. 

-Worker Bee 2021

Bee Thankful

As Thanksgiving is upon us, I found myself reflecting on our bees. It was about a year ago that thoughts of bees first entered our discussions as a family. I’m so thankful our family took this adventure on together. Without the support of each other I don’t think our apiary would have ever taken shape to successfully house two hives. Two hives that lived and thrived to produce forty pounds of golden goodness that we have been able to enjoy share with so many people. I’m hopeful our bees survive winter and we’re able to continue the success into next year. 

Beyond the bees, we have met so many wonderful people…first and foremost, our bee mentor. He truly has been a blessing and I’m so grateful to not only have him as a mentor but also, now, as a friend to our family. The connections we have found beyond bees extend to people we both know. I’ve learned that I am not the only one that thinks very highly of him – it’s become obvious that he is known and loved by many. Without the Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association, we’d never have been paired with our mentor. This organization provides a lot of support to new beekeepers and I hope to become more involved with all they have to offer in the years to come. Then, there are the individuals at Isabees. I’ve spent a lot of time in the store and have really enjoyed getting to know fellow beekeepers that work and shop there. The countless conversations and stories have added value to my days and it’s been a lot of fun to share a hobby with so many neat people. Finally, there’s the friends and family we’ve been able to share honey with…we appreciate you and your support. So many ask and inquire about how the bees are doing, it’s fun to share our adventures with others. I also feel like they, too, are rooting for the bees because free honey just tastes better than any honey you buy in the store! 

As for the bees, I’m hoping they are tucking in tight for winter. We have one more mite treatment coming up and some possible winter feeding as needed. If all goes well, they will welcome spring like many of the rest of us in a few months. But until then, I’ll be trying to not worry too much about them freezing or starving to death. We will keep you posted.

We and the bees wish you a very blessed Thanksgiving Day…may we all find a few things to be very thankful for.  

Photo courtesy of: https://thehobbeehive.com/

-Worker Bee 2021

Happy Halloween

The bee theme has become part of our life. Halloween is no exception (at least for this year). There might have been fighting, tears, frustration and/or arguments leading up to this pic but we’ll stick to bee stories and info here!!! 

Nonetheless, hope this makes you laugh!!!

Happy Halloween from us and the bees!!!

Worker Bee 2021

Sharing honey

One of the best parts about beekeeping is being able to share honey. I think it even tastes better when it’s free! We’ve already been able to share several jars and look forward to the continued sharing as the supply lasts. 

Today I had a crazy thought to share a little honey with the bees. I’m not sure if it was a good idea but someone had refilled our honey dispenser from a new jar…this has to be done rather frequently around here (we need a larger honey dispenser!) 

Once poured from the jar, there was just a little bit of honey left in the bottom of the jar. Now, I could have and maybe should have just washed it but where’s the fun in that? I was amazed at how the bees cleaned up the honey supers after the honey had been removed so I thought I’d see what would happen with this little jar. So, maybe against my better judgement, I placed the almost empty jar and lid on the deck outside the kitchen window to observe…

It was still fairly early when I set the jar out and within an hour or so I noticed a few bees. Now, if you have seen The Bee Movie, there is a part where Barry is literally swimming in honey…even going under to avoid listening to his mother lecture him. As you might have guessed the bees today were not as smooth in the honey as Barry in the movie! 

If you look closely you can see a few bees look to have drowned in the small amount of honey. Talk about feeling like a “bad beekeeper”. I’m not certain they were dead but they were drenched and a complete sticky mess. With that I decided to flip the jar over.

The bees and honey both slid down. What a mess. But I left it and within another hour or so more bees came.

As the day went on it got pretty buzzy out there. So much so that I was hesitant to let the dog out. She was not thrilled…

Having been fairly hands off with the bees since the honey harvest it was nice to have some of them close to observe through the kitchen window. 

By early afternoon they had successfully cleaned up the jar. No sticky mess left at all. Sadly, there were a few dead bees below on the deck. I guess they really did drown in the honey…however, they aren’t laying there with honey in them, I guess the other bees cleaned it off them, too, even though they were dead?!?!?! 🤷🏻‍♀️

In hindsight, this would not be something I would do regularly. I was curious and had fun with the little experiment but I hope I didn’t encourage bad behavior in my bees. I certainly don’t want them returning close to the house regularly for any reasons. I also hope it doesn’t encourage any robbing behaviors that could be detrimental to either hive. It also made me wonder…if I placed an empty sticky jar of homemade strawberry jam out there would they “clean it up” in a similar way or does it only work with honey??? Maybe that’s an experiment for another day?!!!?! But for now, I’ve come to the conclusion that we will only be sharing honey with family and friends. 

-Worker Bee 2021

Stings

One of the concerns as a new beekeeper is stings. If you remember the epi pen story you know there was a sense of responsibility to have a general understanding of bee stings and what they could mean to any of us as a beekeeping family.

Thus far I have to report TWO STINGS. Yes, it happened. But not like you would think. Both stings came this summer. The first victim was our little beekeeper. His comment that summed it all up nicely was “how embarrassing, I’m a beekeeper and I get stung by a wasp”. Yes, a wasp. He was in the swimming pool floating on a raft when the wasp simply landed on him and stung him. He didn’t even swing at it or anything. Seems so wasp like – I don’t think a sweet honey bee would ever sting in such an uncalled for sort of manner. In the end, he took it like a champ and recovered just fine.

The second sting victim was our little four-legged family member. She was outside playing with our queen bee in the yard and suddenly yelped, ran away and drew up her front paw. It was obvious that she was in pain and from what we could see it appeared that she had maybe stepped on something that stung her. It was swollen and red but she allowed us to soak the paw in cold ice water which seemed to ease the pain. She sulked around for the rest of the day but thankfully no other care was needed and she was back to her vibrant self the next day.

Our master beekeeper shared some research indicating that it takes about 200 stings per year to better “ensure” (if you will) not having a serious reaction to bee stings. In other words…if I understood it all correctly…if you can get stung at least 200 times per year your chances of ever having a severe reaction to a bee sting drops off significantly. However, if you get stung more than 20 but less than 40 times per year (these exact numbers I do not remember) the research suggested that you might be more likely to have a significant reaction to bee stings. While I can’t remember the exact research and do not have a link to provide it left me drawing the conclusion that there is no way I am going to try to get stung more than 200 times per year and it might be best to simply minimize all stings in order to stay safe from severe allergic reactions! In listening to most beekeepers and their sting stories, many stings seem to happen when beekeepers rush or are a bit careless. I’m happy that I have been able to avoid stings thus far but I do try to be careful, take my time and always wear a full bee suit and gloves. So far this method has worked and I hope it will continue to keep us sting free!  

Bee venom has been discussed and studied for use in the medical field from allergy treatment therapies to uses with other diseases and autoimmune disorders. The scientist in me finds it all rather interesting as the immune system is sometimes hard to predict and figure out! But for now, my goal will be to avoid bee venom at all costs! 

As summer comes to a close, keep an eye out for the honey bees (and other meaner stinging insects). The bees are hopefully finishing up their summer work in an effort to best prepare the hive for winter. Remember, our sweet bees don’t want to sting – a sting will be uncomfortable for us humans and pets but it guarantees death for the poor little bee. Sting free we all hope to be – unless you are one of those crazy beekeepers looking to land 200 plus stings a year, craziness! 

-Worker Bee 2021

Honey in the House

It’s taken a few days to come down from our honey high. Honey extraction was a lot of fun. Following extraction and filtration comes bottling. Our mentor had suggested letting the honey sit for a day or two prior to bottling as it gives the air bubbles time to move to the top and prevents excessive bubbling in your jars. However, when you have a very excited little beekeeper, waiting became almost impossible. Our jars may have a few more bubbles in them than others but it was a small trade off for the sad face on a boy that didn’t want to wait. 


He began bottling at 6:30am and we didn’t finish until about 9:00pm. It was a team effort and wouldn’t have taken so long if we’d had the proper bucket with a honey gate. Next year! 

I think we filled about 52 honey jars of various sizes and a handful of other glass jars. We think we have enough honey to hold us until our next harvest! 

The kids have been using it on bagels and toast. I prefer it on a biscuit! 

I’m also looking forward to trying it in recipes! Right now we have so much honey I’m even using it as decoration!!!

Too much honey is a problem I’d love to continue having!!! We’ll have to take good care of these bees in hopes that they survive and thrive through their first winter here with us. 

-Worker Bee 2021

Honey!

Yesterday was extraction day! And oh what a glorious day it was. Successfully harvesting honey was about as cool as spotting a moose in your backyard or walking up to the Grand Canyon or even hiking Devil’s Bridge near Sedona! 


Super cool experiences that pictures don’t do justice and I would say our day of extracting honey ranked right up there near these other epic experiences in our lives.

Now, I know that sounds dramatic but when you think of the journey from researching to purchasing equipment and prepping an apiary and buying bees and then trying to keep an eye on them and keep them alive…it’s definitely been an adventure all in its own. 

Yesterday marked a milestone we had hoped for. We were able to remove the honey supers. One super from each hive (hopefully next year we will have two supers on each hive). Now, removing supers is one thing…removing supers without any bees is another! Our mentor used a fume board and some really bad smelling stuff to drive them down from the supers and back into the brood boxes. His equipment wasn’t exactly the same fit on my hives (he runs ten frame hives and I run eight) and while most of the bees did leave we had a few stragglers. This meant each frame had to be removed and remaining bees were brushed off. Tedious but not a huge deal. Makes the bees a little buzzier but I’m happy to report there were no stings. 

Once most all bees were removed we needed to transfer the supers. They were heavy but even as an out of shape forty something I was able to carry a super about 50 yards to load into the truck. From there we headed to our mentors house were he had a set up beyond what I ever could have imagined! 

In his heated/cooled garage he had running water and all the honey equipment necessary for extraction. It was an incredible site to see. Years upon years of beekeeping at its finest. (I hope to one day get his permission to share his story). The little beekeeper and I were awestruck. 

So here we are in this incredible set up and we are about to extract our very own honey. Our mentor shows us how to uncap the honey – this can be done with a hot knife sort of thing or a safer little scraper. We opted for the safer scraper seen demonstrated here…

After uncapping, the frames are places into the extractor that spins the honey out. It flowed into a bucket…

and then we took that bucket home. At home we filtered the honey to remove any remaining wax. 

Just pour from one bucket through the strainer to another bucket without making everything a sticky mess! It went better than I expected. 

Because we were unable to secure a bottling bucket (bucket with a valve for bottling on it) from the bee store we had to improvise and we hope this five gallon drink container will work out ok for us. 

For a size comparison, here it is next to a gallon of milk. 

I even put it on a scale and it weighed in at forty pounds! 

We’ll let this sit overnight and attempt to bottle tomorrow. It was fun picking out jars, containers and labels at the bee store…I wish we had more honey!!! 

As for the bees and the hives…we set the super frames out near the hives so the bees will clean up the mess of extracted frames. It’s amazing how they are able to track it down outside the hive and clean it all up. Then I have to freeze the frames for two days to make sure there aren’t any unwanted mothy eggs in there. Then they can be stored in the basement without any issues…I hope. 

We also need to treat for mites. We assume that we have them, most hives do. Apigar will be our method and hopefully we can reduce the mites enough so they will not negatively effect the colony too terribly much. We also spotted a few hive beetles, but again…we’ve heard they are very common in hives and are simply hoping the colony is strong enough to handle these pests. Our goal now is to help maintain a strong hive so they will successfully survive the winter and we’ll get to do all this fun honey stuff again next year!!!

-Worker Bee 2021