Spring New Beltane Moon One of the new colonies is queenright for sure. I saw the white, curled up worker bee larvae resting in their cellular incubators. The other colony, I’m not sure. […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bee-Keeping, The Third Year
Fall Full Autumn Moon Our revels now have ended. The very last of the year’s harvest, four-foot long decorative squash and birdhouse style gourds, Kate brought in yesterday. The bees are done for the year. Two colonies will die over the winter and the third, with luck, will survive. Even if it does, this is […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bee Diary: April 17, 2011
Spring Full Bee Hiving Moon First full outdoor morning. Took off all the hive boxes, cleaned every frame and the hive boxes, prepared hive boxes for the packages due next weekend. The divide from last year’s parent colony had a lot of remaining honey, so I put four frames from it in each of two […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bee Diary: June 24, 2010
Summer Waxing Strawberry Moon I got through 2.5 hive inspections. The package colony has beautiful comb, an excellent egg-laying pattern and is now ready for the third hive box. That’s as far as it needs to go as soon as it fills out at least 8 frames in the new hive box. That should happen […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bee Diary: Memorial Day, 2010
Beltane Waning Planting Moon Hive inspections today. A rhythm to the process has begun to set in, not jelled quite yet, but getting there. In the honey house, the converted machine shed where we parked our various internal combustion contraptions, off come the hat, the gloves, sweatshirt. Pick up the smoker, toss two handfuls of […]
Read the rest of this entry »A Bee Day
Spring Waxing Flower Moon The drought took a hit last night and this morning. We had almost an inch of rain and it all fell right in the window when I needed to hive my bees. Wouldn’t you know? Today had a bit of the comic routine to it. I got up this morning ready […]
Read the rest of this entry »More Bee Stuff
Spring Waxing Awakening Moon The bulk of the bee woodenware has come: frames for honey supers, honey supers, foundations for honey supers, a bee brush, a feeder for syrup and a bunch of pollen patties and goop to make my own if I need to do so. While this may seem like a lot of […]
Read the rest of this entry »A Warm-Blooded Insect?
Spring Waxing Awakening Moon Sunny, but cool though warm weather seems fated to come our way. Ice out has advanced on Round Lake though there is still rough, weak ice over most of its surface. Many daffodils have speared their way up through the leaves and other detritus from last falls end of the growing […]
Read the rest of this entry »Excluded Queen, Clean Fins
Summer Waning Summer Moon The smoker worked. Mostly. The bees have had 2 to 2.5 months of breeding, brooding and comb building. There are a lot more bees than there were in April when Mark showed me how to load a box a’ bees into the first hive box. Weekly I’ve checked each frame, when […]
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