Making Bee Tea

Here is a little video on making syrup to feed your bees that is a little more delicious for them than simple 1:1 syrup.

Hive in Tree on Capitol Hill

I got a call from a nice woman last week about a hive in her tree, so took advantage of the vacation this week to go check it out and see if we can save the bees and remove her problem.

It is a beautiful old tree and we don't want to injure it in the process.  The hive entrance is on the left side of this picture, right where the tree narrows.

The Mirror Hive, Part 2

Many of our new hives have seen problems with the beeswax foundation sagging, dislodging from the frames and connecting with eachother or the walls of the hive.  This was in part due to the bees crowding a single frame at a time and having their weight deform the sheet.

The Rhode Island Apiary, New Foundationless Frames

We traveled as a family to Rhode Island, me to get the house ready for Spring, and for family to visit their relatives.  I took the opportunity to introduce some of our Russian stock to a new hive and to try out some northern stock...which wasn't yet.

51 Packages:

Ouch
Swelling
100's of miles
Benadryl
Rain
Delays
Veil appreciation
51 new colonies
Swelling

More Fun Press For DC Honeybees

2nd Inspection of Foundationless Frames 14 Days After Installing Bees

Installation at the Farm at Walker Jones

The kids and I headed over to the Farm to install their hive ahead of next weekend's bee delivery.  Today was a special work day at the Farm, with new beds being dug and prepared, old beds being torn out, and berries and figs being planted.

The Mirror Hive, Part 1

I made some adjustments to the Eastern Stand to get it to its final configuration.  I hived the bees from the older double nuc into Westerly, and installed a shiny, new, double deep hive in its place.  This hive is the Mirror Hive, so named because its configuration matches exactly or closely what I have recommended to our soon-to-be beekeepers.

It's Hard To Look Cool In A Veil

Ouch.

I thought I was supposed to be desensitized after all these stings!

DC Honeybees TV - Checking Out Our Foundationless Frame Progress

We hived our two packages last week in supers set up with our foundationless frames found here.  We had some problems with the rig as the horizontal beeswax strip softened in the warm hive and the bees dragged it down.  The simple solution was to remove the excess strip beyond the craft stick and have them build from the center of the top bar, out.