check'n out the hives July 20th

Whew! Was it hot! We met up with Gerry and he suited us up. We checked out the hives and everything was going good- a couple of mites, but the bees were moving up in the boxes right on schedule. We moved a couple of frames around to promote them moving up into the next box. We also have honey production too! Lots of yummy honey to be harvested sometime in late August Gerry figures. I suggested we try to make Mead http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead , but Gerry says it takes a while- maybe for next year? Does anyone know how? I would be interesed in giving it a try....

Bumble Bee Facts!

I found a pretty informative page on bumble bees which I found to be really cool! In response to Kathy's posts below, "bumble bees produce just a few grams of honey at a time, just enough for feeding their young, hence their honey cannot be used for commercial purposes". You can read some more interesting things about these guys on the following website: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/bumble-bee-facts.html

Alice

more bumblebee pics

bumblebee hive at my house

The other weekend, I was working out in our compost and happened to unearth a bumblebee hive of some sort... it was a collection of pods that were the size of a pinkie fingertip...they had a honey-like substance inside (even though I have heard from a few people that they don't produce honey). Whatever the liquid is, it is sweet and clear like honey....yes we tasted it.... I have posted some picutres here of the cluster and have saved it to show Gerry... the bumblebees are still happily living in our compost....Kathy W

honey box pics

Putting on the honey boxes!

June 25th 2010- We went out today with Jerry and checked out the brooder boxes to see how they were doing and Jerry said they looked just fine! He said we were ready to put the honey boxes on- and right on schedule too! We saw the queen in box 1 and cleaned up a few frames. Jerry opened a couple of larvae pods and he found some mites which the bees promptly ate. Here are some pictures of our time there.....Kathy W

How does a beehive make honey?

Anyone wondering how a hive works? check out this great link!

http://bit.ly/bFUtco