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Fresh Nectar..

The bees girls are busy at work, nectar is gathered and made into honey.  When the process is complete, the bees will cap each cell with wax to seal in the honey .  This is a frame showing the nectar in the wax cells before being finished and capped !

Poplar Blossom

The beautiful tulip poplar blossom - responsible for the red tint to our local honey.

Do you have what it takes to be a beekeeper ?

Tulip Poplars

Tulip poplar trees are our major local nectar source but they can get quite big so remember this when planting one.

 

Blackberries and bees !

Are you seeing the wild blackberry bushes in bloom along our roads ?  Good bee food !

The "rush" before the storm

My bees work feverishly before approaching thunderstorms.  Rushing to get that last bit of nectar or pollen before the rain.

Too much pollen in air !

Living down in a little valley, I love seeing the bees flying during the late afternoon (backlit by the sun). Today there is so much pollen floating in the air it is competing with my bees for attention !

Bees gathering blackberry nectar

What a beautiful Spring day, tulip poplars are blooming and blackberries too.  Our bees are very busy..

The Flow is ON !

My big Tulip poplars are starting to bloom in the top !  "The Flow" is on.  This is when our excess honey should be made - go bees !

Honeybees & blueberries

Freezing temps here this morning but the bees are working my blueberry bushes this afternoon.

Wild Cherry Blooming

Wild Cherry blossoms are brightening up the woodland - good food for our bees and now a freeze warning tonight... argh...

The piney woods on a warm spring afternoon...

I use dry pine needles for my bee smoker fuel.  With the impending rain I made a trip to the woods yesterday afternoon to gather some.  The temp was warm - the wonderful smell of a piney wood on a warm day will always seem like home to me.  I also found these beauties along the way.

Pussy Willows

Pussy Willows are such fun plants and they provide early pollen.  My bees love them.

Handmade Soap with Honey !

My honey and soap has traveled much farther than me ! Both have been to Italy. My Beetacular (lemongrass blend) is the feature soap at Villa Sant'Andrea
(http://www.santandreacortona.com/). Enjoy this beautiful location if you plan a trip abroad. But those of you who are stateside can also enjoy Beetacular ! http://carolinahoneybees.com/

Spring and buzzing bees.

A busy day in the bee yard !

Getting My Swarm Trap Ready !

One of my important early spring activities is checking my swarm traps.  I have one that is placed about 100 yards north of my bee yard.  I have caught a swarm in this trap every summer.  Sometimes it is a swarm that has left my own hives and at least once - it was a swarm from another apiary or a wild colony.  My swarm trap is made of an old weathered deep hive box with a nailed on top and bottom.  Ten Frames are inside the box and there are a few frames of old comb that will smell good to a bee and will not represent a real loss to me if they are destroyed. After the cold, windy weather -
I could see that the box had shifted and needed some attention.

 It is rare to get out to this box without being accompanied by the goats.  Who would have guessed that they knew so much about honeybee swarm traps ?! They certainly do not like the boxes that are full of bees !

Daisy is especially concerned that some of the frames must have too much propolis or (bee glue) on the ends to fit properly in the box. As for me, I feel that old frames are especially attractive to scout bees.  Scout bees leave the mother colony in advance of a swarm and select possible new home sites. Blake has become bored with the whole process and laid down to rest.  Daisy and I finish putting the box back up in the tree.  It is only about 6 ft off the ground but I have to place it low enough that I can get it down later when bees/honey are inside. 

All finished and ready for Spring.  I will need to walk by this box every week during the swarm season.  If a colony moves in,   I will remove it quickly or it will be so heavy I will not be able to get it down without help !

We have just finished and a scout bee is already checking it out !

New bees...it's spring..well almost

It's a great day when new bees come and the sun even came out long enough to put them in their new home !

Spring flowers

Honeybees and daffodils..

Local Honey

Pollen isn't always Yellow !

Female worker bees collect pollen from various flowers.  They wet the small pollen grains with nectar/saliva and pack it on their hind legs on structures called "pollen baskets". (though they are not really "baskets" but stiff hairs.)  Back at the hive, this pollen will be stored and used to feed young bees and nurse bees that have to produce brood food for young larva.  How neat is that ?

 

Beeswax Bee

Yummy smelling beeswax candles...

http://www.shop.carolinahoneybees.com/Bee-Candle-659.htm

Dandelions...breakfast of champions..

One person's lawn weed is another person's bee food !  carolinahoneybees.com

Creamed Honey Yummy !

Creamed Honey is available in my online store but only during the cooler months due to shipping !
www.carolinahoneybees.com

Winter 2013-14 go away !

Argh, more winter weather.  Maybe it is just my imagination but it has been uncharacteristically cold and damp this winter.  I have lost one colony and maybe 2 more but it has been too
cold to check.  Now we are having another winter storm.  I hope the marginal size colonies are okay.  I have heard from several local beeks who have lost all their hives this winter. So sad.

http://shop.carolinahoneybees.com/Wildflower-Honey-12-oz-Bear-002.htm

Goatmilk & Honey Soap

2 great logs of Goatmilk & Honey Soap.  Ready to age and become gentle, natural soap !

dry pollen

Honeybees need pollen to raise baby bees. This process starts inside the warm cluster months before Spring. Pollen was gathered during the fall and stored for this purpose. If weather conditions do not allow good fall pollen foraging, the bees can be in a pollen deficit. I filled my pollen bucket about 10 days ago - today it was empty !

I filled the pollen bucket and about 20 minutes later..... a crowd had gathered. This pollen will be used to raise young bees that will be responsible for gathering nectar to make honey for them, me and maybe you.

More cold on the way....dry sugar feeding....

Today was a balmy warm day with temps above 60 degrees.  More polar cold on the way. No time to mix candy for the bees so a little dry sugar will have to do.  Some colonies have good honey stores in the top box, some are too light weight.  Sometimes a colony will "starve" with a full box of honey on top - for some reason they just will not move. This will at least ensure that each cluster has some food within easy reach. .

Success ? Maybe...

My emergency feeding may have been successful.  The bees definitely ate the candy mix that I provided.

Emergency Feeding...

The first week of January 2014 brought a forecast of record low temps for the time of year in our upstate area.  With the coldest temps in 20-30 years being in the forecast, I was filled with worry for my bee colonies.  My worse fear was for my marginal colonies, ones that might make it through a mild winter and thrive but will perish in extreme cold.  These smaller clusters happen for various reasons - some maybe my fault - some maybe bee genetics or pests/disease issues.

Despite good fall prep, I am always concerned that clusters wont be able to reach food when it is needed.  I hate making candy boards and the required rims/shims.  My answer was to try to give the bees a scoop of sugar right on top of the cluster for emergency rations.

First I mixed pure cane sugar in a bowl with just enough warm water stirred in to make it start to stick together. I also added in a bit of Honey B Healthy and a small amount of honey.

On a "somewhat" mild day before the "polar vortex", I quickly opened each colony (not removing any frames and trying to minimize the time with the colony open.  I found the cluster and placed a piece of newspaper on top of the cluster - dampened this with a spray of sugar water - dumped a clump of the candy mix on top and got the top box back on.  The candy mixture was pliable and molded between the boxes not requiring a shim.  I am convinced that this practice helped some of the colonies survive.  This was an emergency situation and I hope helped some of the smaller clusters survive the record cold.

bee tongue

A honeybee "tongue" or proboscis is actually made up of several mouth parts that come together to act like a straw - used to suck up liquids.

Sticky bees

Every beekeeper has had bees drown in sugar water feeders.  We try to keep the deaths to a minimum because we are trying to help the bees not kill them.  When a feeding bee gets a little sticky syrup on her, she will try to clean herself well before taking flight back to the hive.

Honeybees gathering dry pollen

Each year I put out dry pollen substitute for the bees.  My normal choice is Megabee.  I placed the bucket out Saturday and the next day it was a popular spot !

Coldest blast in 20 years ? not good for honeybees

With the record breaking cold weather that we have experienced, I fear that many of us will have dead colonies.  It has been too wet/cold to look since the cold spell but ASAP I will do a very brief  inspection to see who survived.  Package bees will sell out very fast if we experienced great losses .  Also bees use extra food when it is cold, at least give your hives a quick look to check food stores when the weather allows !

Deadout

A day no bees will die ?  I don't know when that will be.  With the frigid cold in our forecast, I fear many colonies will perish in the next few days.  Is it "survival of the fittest ?"  Maybe so but nothing is sadder to a beekeeper than a dead bee colony.  The bees in this picture are dead and it is my fault.  Yes they would have probably died even if they lived in the wild without beekeeper management but they didn't die in the woods.  They died in a box that I put them in.  They obviously starved during a recent cold spell even though all the colonies seemed to have enough food not very long ago.  The warmer weather we have had causes the bees to use more food.  Maybe these bees were not a thrifty with their food reserves, maybe a larger colony robbed them of some food, maybe they were weak from a virus or other health issues.  We will never know.  Failing colonies are a part of beekeeping, sometimes no matter what we do a colony will die -  it does sadden my heart though :(

New year, time to order bee packages ....

Each year new beekeepers order package bees to start new colonies and experienced beekeepers buy bees to replace those that die over winter. The bees come in a wood & screen package with the queen in a special structure inside and a can of ...syrup for food while in transit Where to purchase bees is a controversial topic and this is MY opinion. Everyone has one. I purchase my bee packages at Bee Well in Pickens. (No I do not get a discount) They have the best price, the packages have statistically done very well for me and the owner goes to the bee farm in GA to pick up the bees himself and often helps fill the packages. They never spend time in the hands of postal workers or others who do not understand the needs of bees ! The most important aspect of a bee package for me is healthy bees in the group and a good weight(number of bees) to the package. If I want to add new genetics to my apiary, I can order queens from other sources and diversify my bee genetics during the summer after the honey flow is over. Consider starting your beekeeping adventure this year !