A brief diversion from bees today. I’ve been planning out some new raised beds for vegetables and have been searching for the best wood preservative that won’t leach toxic nastiness into the soil. A little context: Pressure-treated wood today no…
Catching Up (aka: Poor Little Bees)
So I totally slacked off in updating this blog since last fall. Figured I’d try to catch up with just the highlights before things start to get hectic again. Going into the winter, Andoria looked nice and strong; Vulcan seemed…
New look, new features!
Changed a few things on my bee blog. You can now get notified of new posts via email by subscribing, and I finally have threaded comments enabled. Should adapt better to mobile devices, as well, in case you just can’t…
Robber Bees
Robbing: a sad but pretty incredible phenomenon to witness. Honeybees have a sense of smell at least as good as a dog (and are in fact replacing dogs in some bomb-sniffing situations). When you leave frames of honey sitting outside…
The Queen is dead. Long live the Queen!
Checked Andoria this past weekend. This was the hive that has had no brood at all for weeks, and the one to which I introduced a new queen last week. I was super excited to see capped brood and larvae…
Diary of a Wimpy Beekeeper
Experienced beekeepers tend to pooh-pooh protective gear (except for the veil—always necessary). Gloves make it difficult to work the bees without squishing them; bee suits are hot, bulky, and, most beekeepers think, unnecessary: the bees aren’t going to sting much…
Holy Roller Coaster, Batman
Wow, it’s been a summer of ups and downs for these bees and me! So the hive that swarmed successfully raised another queen on their own. That wait was a little nervewracking. It took a little over a month from…
Mean Girls
The ladies were mean last night. My husband was helping me move the heaviest boxes around on the hives (Note: see previous post. I’ll be moving to all medium boxes next year so I can handle them!). He got one sting…
Oh where, oh where have my little bees gone?
Oh where, oh where can they beeeeeeeee? After all the talk about this year being ripe for swarms, I still wasn’t fast enough giving my Carniolan hive more space. They swarmed. The Carniolan breed is prone to swarming as it…
First Inspection–Queen Spotted!
I was finally able to open the hives for an inspection this past Saturday, after waiting impatiently for a week. I was fed up with the gloves after just two uses, so I decided to try gloveless this time. Had…