Category Archives: Uncategorized

Both, our mentor and our family, had vacations planned to the beach for the last few weeks of July. And speaking of vacation, check out this vacay pic… Of all the things you think you might see in the ocean, never did we think it would be a honey bee! Poor little bee. Before becomingContinue reading “The Honey Harvest is Today!!!”

Remember Taxonomic Classification from Biology class? Every living organism is named scientifically and classified into seven groups…working from the largest most inclusive group (kingdom) all the way down to the most specific group (species). Or maybe you remember the saying “Kings Play Chess On Fine Green Stools”? The seven groups in the classification system are:Continue reading “Apis mellifera”

Things have been going so well with the bees since we began this journey. However, this week we got a taste of reality. I was probably overly optimistic to think I could slap a super on each hive in late June with only foundation hoping it would result in drawn out comb and honey toContinue reading “Super Reality Check”

Great news… Isabees received the super frames and had them all assembled and ready for pick up. I hustled in to grab them and after another quick peek at the first supers, decided to go ahead and add them to the hives. I hope this wasn’t a mistake. Time will tell. I could see thatContinue reading “The Second Super”

Just twelve days ago we placed the eight frame honey supers on top of the second brood boxes and left for the lake. Today I had time to get out there and look at each of the eight frames in the supers and they are completely drawn out. Each frame has honey on it andContinue reading “Twelve Days”

What a month it has been. So far we’ve just been conducting hive inspections and keeping the sugar water feeders full. It hasn’t been too stressful. Keeping track of time is probably the biggest challenge and I’m glad we have a little bee journal to document what we do and when because the “I won’tContinue reading “Honey Supers”

Just four short days after adding eight new frames in the second brood box I am happy to report the bees appear to be keeping busy. They have almost drawn out the new eight frames. Our mentor thinks it will take about two to three weeks for the second brood box to be established andContinue reading “A Brief Bee Briefing…”

We were happy to see the warmer temps of summer but today we got a small taste of what it’s like to be a beekeeper (in full beekeeper gear) when it’s hot out…and it’s only going to get warmer. Sigh. Neither of us like to be hot and we actually discussed the risk vs rewardContinue reading “Sweaty Situation”

I guess. It seems like there are so many of them and they still haven’t finished drawing out the original eight frames in the first brood box. What is taking so long??? I guess it’s only been two and a half weeks since we moved them into their hives. We thought we might get toContinue reading “Busy Bee?”

Today, with the help of our bee mentor, we successfully completed our second hive inspection. Our bees seem happy and behave well but neither hive is taking a lot of sugar water. I had sugar water mixed and ready to add but seeing that we didn’t need it I was told I could freeze itContinue reading “Mean Bees”