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.

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.

Honeybees & blueberries

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

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 :(

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 !

Drones in Fall ?

Bee Colonies have a reason for the things they do.  My role as beekeeper is to try to figure out when something is wrong that may threaten the viability of the colony. Drones (male bees) are kicked out of the hive in fall.  When I see one hive that is keeping drones when the others have evicted their males, I worry that this might be a sign of trouble even though things look ok.  It's a puzzle !  The bee in front is a worker..the bigger eyed drone is just behind.

Bees on Buckwheat

I love planting a small patch of buckwheat in my vegetable garden after the corn has finished.  It will bloom in 30 days and gives the bees something to do when not much else is available here. (Buckwheat should not be planted where grazing animals can get to it !!)

Honey bee working buckwheat blossom

Small patch of buckwheat beginning to bloom