#backyardbees

[fuzzybuttbees]

Happy Father’s Day from our hives to yours!! Fun fact: male bees are called drones. Basically, their only purpose in the hive is to fertilize the Queen. If they’re successful in that endeavor, they’ll die during the mating flight. The other males will live fat and happy through the summer eating the honey that the ladies bring in, but come fall the ladies will kick them out to starve to death or freeze rather than waste resources through winter! We did a full inspection of both hives today because someone in our Bee association suspects they may have a case of European foulbrood. Our ladies look healthy and happy though! Ophelia had a beautiful brood pattern and we saw tons of eggs. Nefertiti’s pattern is occasionally a little spotty, but overall very nice. We’ll need to keep a close eye on her hive because we found some small signs we may have a laying worker. The Ashley’s are bringing in tons of honey in a beautiful array of colors hand over fist!

[vtafoya1]

We've been into the #hive and I have SO many pictures to share! 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 #bees #savethebees #backyardbees #buylocalhoney #ilovebees #bee #beekeeper #beekeeping #apiary #honeybee

[nellbie]

Bee update. They're making honey and seem happy as clams. Makes me one happy bee Mama. 🐝🐝🐝 #bees #beekeeping #napaperks #backyardbees #honeyhoney

[littleowlarts]

Life With Bees: The Comb Chronicles Well, it sure is quite the rollercoaster of emotions, caring for these sacred little creatures. But today's hive check-in seemed to yield positive results. Will share more later! . . . #happybees #backyardbees #backyardbeekeeping #ilovebees #beesarecool #beehive #hivemind #apiarist #buzz #pollinators #savethebees #fortheloveofbees #lifewithbees #combchronicles #madebynature #inspiration #insearchofthequeen

[fuzzybuttbees]

Quick inspection over Memorial Day weekend. Queen Ophelia has ramped up her laying and the Ashley’s are bringing in tons of nectar and pollen, so they were ready to get another super! That’s a good sign because this hive will have to grow a ton in order to put away the stores necessary to make it through winter. Queen Nefertiti looks to have slowed her laying a little, but her ladies are still bringing in honey at a breakneck pace. We had to add another super to their hive, making that the tallest hive we’ve ever had. If the summer heat doesn’t scorch all the flowering plants to death, we should have a really nice honey harvest from them this year.

[fuzzybuttbees]

Got in Ophelia’s hive this morning to see how they’re doing. The hive is tiny but has stopped taking sugar syrup, so it seems like they’re bringing in all the nectar they need. Ophelia has started ramping up her laying as well. We’re hoping to see this hive really grow quickly now!

[fuzzybuttbees]

Honey Harvest

Most beekeepers from our association live in fairly rural areas and harvest their honey at the end of July to prevent it from becoming contaminated with snow on the prairie - a type of flower that begins to bloom this time of year and makes honey taste like green pecans. We don’t have to worry about that because we live in a primarily suburban area that is pretty well landscaped. We went ahead and harvested anyway, just because our ladies have been so productive this year! Our hives were wonderfully calm while we were removing frames and supers!

When you pull honey off of your hive, you have to make sure that the frames are at least 80% capped. This ensures that the water content is low enough that the honey won’t ferment in storage. We were a little cautious and left a lot of frames on our hives but still managed to pull 7 gallons (about 83 pounds!) of honey! Yum!

We put the emptied frames back on the hive for the ladies to clean up. When we went to remove them Queen Malia’s hive had capped four frames of honey in as many days, and Queen Nefertiti’s hive had capped one frame. If they keep it up, we’ll have to pull honey again this fall to get the hives down to a good size for winter!

[littleowlarts]

View this post on Instagram

Bees in slow-mo! • It has been dark and cold and rainy for days, but the sun finally came out mid morning. So I thought I would go check on the bees when I got home. • First of all, I highly recommend turning the sound up. Secondly, I love how they emerge and clean off their faces + antennae before taking flight! Also, I watched one bee help right another that was stuck up-side-down. It was pulling it by its two front legs! They flew off together once the situation was resolved. Too cute! • I think we will be checking in on the hive tomorrow to see how they are getting along. I can't wait! Fingers crossed all looks good in there! . . . #backyardbees #ilovebees #slowmotion #buzz #beesarecool #beehive #beekeeping #lookatthosefaces!