#beeks

[journiland]

*This was Saturday's post, but Tumblr ate the draft, and now has miraculously restored it. (I'll update more later or tomorrow, I'm a bit wiped out today.)*

WV beekeeping conference yesterday:

The "social event" in the evening had my kind of music!

And after a night at Holiday Inn Express, we're back:

Voted for the best photo, and best beek invention. I'm out of space, but here's a few of the inventions:

Still need to vote in the blind honey tasting, and have two more classes.

[new-beek-on-the-block]

Beekeeping Season 1, Day 1!

My mom and I went and picked up our nucleus colony of local Carniolan honeybees (Apis mellifera carnica) this morning. Transferring them from their nuc box to the full-size hive was pretty simple and went off without a hitch. They were extremely gentle, even though we had some minor trouble with the smoker. Neither of us wore gloves and neither of us got stung. There was a little bit of burr comb (extra stuff they build where they technically shouldn't, because they want to make more wax cells for more storage and brood rearing) and they'd glued the frames into their temporary box pretty well with propolis, but it wasn't a big problem.

We did not see the queen despite looking for her on each frame. She’s marked with a very bright yellow spot for easy identification. If you see her in one of these pics, let me know! 

Now all we do is wait for them to settle in and continue feeding them sugar syrup on demand. 

[derekmasselink]

Happy BC #dayofthehoneybee! May 29th has been officially declared as the Day of the Honeybee by our longest serving Agriculture Minister @lanapopham. While E veryday is a honeybee day for the ~4300 of us BC #beeks, it’s good to have an official day of recognition for the general public. 🐝🐝🎉👊🏻💥❤️🍯🍯👍🏻(b&w images by @everest_masselink) #swarmcatching #localbees #ultreiaapiaries #ultreiafarm #cowichanvalley (at Ultreïa Apiaries) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeKL-0Kvm-3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=