A new Bee Year

A new year is coming. Plan to make it a more bee friendly one. If you cant keep bees (or don't want to ) , you can do other things to help. Plant bee friendly plants in your gardens - even a few may help. A small water garden with some pebbles along the edge can provide clean water. Use less pesticides on your lawns. Let a few flowering weeds grow !

Happy Holidays !

I hope everyone is having a happy and safe holiday. Thank you to my many customers who made Carolina Honeybees Farm products a part of their holiday celebration.

Winter begins for us...spring around the bend for bees

So the winter solstice has passed and we are officially in the winter season.  The bee colony runs on a different schedule .  In a normal winter pattern (what's that these days) the queen bee would have been taking a break from egg laying for several weeks.  Shortly after or around the winter solstice she will begin to lay a few eggs (maybe only 4 or 5 a day.)  As the weeks go by and some pollen/nectar sources increase the number of eggs laid each day will increase.  After 3 weeks of maturing these will be new bees born to replace the older dying colony bees.  Very shortly, Spring will be on inside the hives...even though it may be wintery and cold outside !

Drones for Christmas

The larger honeybee with big eyes is a drone (male bee). Colonies do not normally let drones overwinter - maybe there is a problem inside ? Nothing I can do this time of year but I will document and watch what happens. With beekeeping we watch for things that are "outside the norm".

Beekeeping Classes

Would you like to know more about beekeeping ? Maybe have a hive of your own or maybe you just like to learn new things ?  Please consider taking a beekeeping class.  The Pickens County Beekeepers Association offers the best class around. ( Yes I am probably influenced by the fact that this is my home club and I am one of the instructors... LOL )  Local associations offer classes taught by unpaid volunteers.  Please join us.  For more information email Kevin Nicholson  ridercoach62@yahoo.com

Crystallizing Honey

Is your jar of honey doing something strange ?  Do you have lumps, clumps or grains flowing around as the liquid becomes cloudy ? If so, you are probably experiencing crystallization.  This can be a good thing when making creamed honey where we control the rate of crystallization and end up with a smooth yummy product.  Allowed to crystallize on its own honey will be gritty and grainy and just try to get that out of a plastic bear !  Several things can encourage this process with the main factor being what type of nectar the bees collected to make your jar of honey.  Some types of honey crystallize fast, some slow, some never.  Raw honey (which we want and is minimally processed) can be a common victim of crystallization.  Don't throw out this honey, it is not ruined or even lesser quality.  It does not mean that it has been improperly handled or compromised in any way.  The best way to return the product to its former glory, is to put it in a glass jar, heat some water on the stove to "almost" boiling then turn off stove-gently set the glass jar of honey in the water bath, gently stir, (do NOT get any water in the honey).  You may have to repeat this several times but the product will re-liquefy.  You can even do this if you have a bear . (If you have a gift - gently remove the safety seal - wipe clean- transfer honey to a glass jar temporarily- re-liquefy and then pour back into bear and re-affix the seal and top.) Some people put honey in the microwave but I dont recommend that as it may destroy some of the nutritive value.  Remember, this is a natural process that we face when dealing with a raw product versus one that has been super-processed and looks great on the shelf for years.

Prep for Spring Swarms

 

Honeybee colonies swarm. It's just what they do. Some swarm very little and some swarm a lot.  Beekeepers normally try to minimize the behavior because it is risky for the colony that may fail to requeen itself and it means a smaller honey crop.  I have a large cedar tree near my hives that keeps attracting swarms that sit down too high up for me to reach.  I had it topped and now it looks awful.  I hope to shape it a bit.

The only problem is I had way too much help. LOL