First Spring Inspection & Sad News

It’s been a long time coming, but last week Wayne finally had time to head out to our land and check on the bees.  The hive stand & hives as he found them are above.  One obstacle hurdled.  There has been some bear activity around our land over the last few years and I was [...]

Bee update: maiden flight?

We had a few minutes today before leaving for Spring Daze in Cary so we decided to do a quick hive inspection.  As soon as we opened the nuc, I knew something was wrong.  The buzz from the hive was different than usual, and the girls seemed quite agitated.  Inside we found frames of honey, [...]

And then there was one…and then there were two again

I recently got a message from a friend who was looking for a hive.  Since he had given us our original hive (which we still have), we offered it back but warned that we found the bees to be quite aggressive.   They weren’t bothered too much by that, so we set a date for [...]

Recent Inspections and a Surprising Revelation

Last weekend we (finally!) had time to inspect both hives.  I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m rather nervous about our taller hive.  The bees are just plain aggressive.  I hope that I’m exaggerating this feeling both in my head and in my posts, but I won’t know until I can talk another beekeeper into coming [...]

More Lessons Learned

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – beekeeping is just an ongoing series of lessons for me. Wayne had some time the other day and decided to check on the middle hive.  He reported back that it was completely devoid of bees.  I would be devastated if I hadn’t been expecting it.  The hive [...]

Lesson Learned

Today Wayne was kind enough to fix the inner cover for me to prevent robbing.  Basically, the war between the bees and the yellow jackets has continued leaving a feeling of panicked activity all around.  I pulled off the top cover once and found yellow jackets just hanging out in the top of the hive [...]

Beekeeping Webinar

I participated in a Webinar last week with Kim Flottum from Bee Culture Magazine.  They discussed fall concerns with the hive, feeding, and storage of hive parts.  I learned (as I expected) that I have a bit of a problem with small hive beetles.  I ordered a Hood trap and set it up today with [...]

First Sting – A Rite of Passage?

Today I received my first sting as a beekeeper.  It was quite stupid on my part.  I was just visiting the bees, one landed on my leg, and (without looking), I swatted assuming it was a mosquito or another bug.  I watched the bee twirl in circles as she pushed the stinger into my leg, [...]

Bees Galore

In March, W & I (and about 1300 other people) had the privilege of attending the Organic Grower’s School.  We always learn quite a bit and made the decision this year to split up for individual classes.  W opted for Building an Outdoor Clay Oven and I took Beginning Beekeeping.  Neither of us were disappointed with [...]