We needed a way for bees to access water. It’s pretty simple: just a 2.5 gallon galvanised poultry waterer and some multi-colored glass marbles. The bees use the glass marbles or beads to land on and drink from, and it keeps them from drowning. The decorative glass beads or marbles are available at almost any […]
Easy Honey Bee Watering Station Read More »
The natural sugars in honey will eventually bind together and form little crystals, which will make the honey harder. The pollen in honey contributes to this binding process. Small pollen particles provide a platform for the crystals to form. Bee pollen is packed with vitamins, minerals and healthy amino acids. We don’t extend shelf life
Decrystallizing 5 Gallon Buckets of Honey Using a Sous Vide Machine Read More »
We had harvested several frames of honey last fall using the crush & strain method as opposed to spinning the frames to get the honey out. Afterwords some honey and comb is still left on the frames. During a nice, warm winter day we set the frames out and let the bees clean them up.
Honey Bees Cleaning Frames Read More »
I set up a swarm trap today less than a hundred yards from our bee yard/orchard. Last year I put them up about 12 feet high. The traps were so heavy (with bees) that it was quite a challenge getting them down while on the ladder. This year I’m going to try a few traps
Honey Bee Swarm Trap Setup Read More »
5 weeks ago we caught a swarm in one of our 7-frame Layens swarm traps. This morning we transferred the colony from the trap and into our 3rd 20-frame Layens hive. Never again will we wait so long between catching the swarm and transferring the colony into a full hive! The swarm trap was so
Another Swarm Trap of Local Honey Bees Installed Read More »
We had one of our honey bee hives swarm. I was working in the garden and could hear them buzzing much, much louder than ever before. I went to investigate and saw a cloud of bees at the top of a nearby pine tree. They massed around the queen on a branch for a couple
We overwintered kale that we’re letting go to seed. Honey bees have discovered it on this cloudy, but warm day. Dead Nettle, Johnny Jump-Ups and Chickweed are blooming all over the garden, and a few dandelions too.
Honey Bees Foraging In The Garden Read More »
Our Honey Bees are riding out the winter in 2 Layens horizontal hives. They both have more space to add empty frames. We also have another Layens hive ready for bees either through splitting an existing hive or catching another swarm this spring. I just finished building frames in the workshop so we’re ready to
Building Honey Bee Frames for 2021 Read More »
We were fortunate that another swarm of bees moved into a bait hive at my parents’ property. This morning we transferred the bees into a new 20 frame Layens hive at our place. They had some comb built on all 7 frames. We saw the queen, eggs, capped and uncapped brood, pollen, and capped and
New Bees Installed Into New Layens Hive Read More »
We finished building our Layens hives and installed our first swarm of bees that we caught. The swarm moved into an empty 7 frame bait hive (no pre-drawn comb on the frames) on May 1st or 2nd. So, in just under 3 weeks they have a quarter to a third of 6 frames drawn with
Installing Bees In A Layens Horizontal Hive Read More »