Al's adventure with honey bees.

[trail twister]

Kare and I went on several days to set down with a young lady to design and print our honey lables. were luck we put the program on a CD because the place closed its door a year later. Flower pictures from Kare's gardens.

Went to a Auction and bought two trailer loads and 3 truck loads of stuff for $10.00. People are afraid of use wooden ware. I scorch the stuff and have a big tank I mix 4:1 ratio of bleach to water and soak the stuff for about 7 days.
Also got Jars lids and other things.

Another auction buy for $2.00, sold one set up to a fellow for $2.00
so was free except for the drive.

Planting Clematis along side the Honey house.

A stack of extracted honey supers set out for the bees to dry. they clean up every drop.

A frame of brood from eggs to capped.

We do not have meen bees. I breed our queens with gentile queens and drones from gentile hives.

Mouse guards over a entrance reducer. used reducers for about 4 years then just got rid of them.

Any questions?


Al

 

[Upsy Daisy]

Takes me back to my childhood days, my grandfather was a beekeeper (but not on a grand scale like you). We loved going up to visit him as we kids found the whole experience so fascinating and educational .

 

[Sheal]

You've been very thorough Al and the pictures have helped to show us your set up. Thank you again.

Two questions....

I believe the queens are larger than the others, is there much difference in size?
Also, how often do you 'harvest' the honey please?

 

[trail twister]

The queen with the black tail, workers with sort of strips.

We harvest the honey the first round about mid June after the Danolion bloom/flow is over in our area.

Second harvesty in last week of August or first week of September. Hopefully we miss the Golden Rod bloom ( makes thick dark honey, great winter bee food.


Al

 

[Sheal]

Thanks Al. Twice a year and with what was it? 140 hives approximately. It must take a while to get through them all.

 

[trail twister]

Ya it does. We will pull honey supers during the day. wait till dark so the home girls are sleeping and unload. Next morning start uncapping and extracting.

You would think we had rang a dinner bell, the bees can smell the honey thur the cracks around doors and windows and the air vents. they will be all around the honey house to the extent scares the UPS delivery guy and other visitors.

Al

 

[MaryMary]

I opened the bees just before adding the second deep and saw workers draging the queen out of the hive.

They rejected her? And... How long does a queen live? What happens when they get old? A new queen takes over?

A swarm happens when a new queen is born, and then some of the workers ally with her, and they move on to form a new colony?

Year 4 I was a whole lot smarter and decided i would start raiseing my own queens.

How do you go about raising a queen?

So I startedd serching for more out yards. Found one across the road from my farmer friend, a christmas tree farm.

What does Christmas tree honey taste like?




140 hives? Are there fruit farmers anywhere close enough that might rent them from you? When my sister lived in CA, we drove past an almond farm, and she told me that to ensure pollination, the farmers rent beehives. I think she said they normally get about two hives per acre.

I'll probably have more questions later, but it's late, and I'm sleepy.

 

[trail twister]

In the wild a queen can some times live about 4 years. Her only job is to lay eggs.

Most swarms leave the hive before the new queen is born, I guess you could say.
There are queen cells yet to hatch in the hive. There are 5 queen cells on this comb I cut out of a house so the colony was close to swarming. One queen will hatch and go around and sting rhe other queens in their cells. But if two queens were to hatch at the same time they will fight and one will win some times nither wins.

Raiseing queens I tried the spoon method of scooping larva from a cell and adding it to a wax cup.
Place several wax cups on a rail and hang them in a nuc box with a bunch of worker bees and no queen.
Couldn't get the hang of it.Billy taught me the cell punch method. Just punch the cell out and wax glue it to the rail
The workers will draw the cups out to look like the cells above. Since we know the time line for a queen to be born in days I will cut them off the rail around 5 days before they hatch. Put each in a nuc with workers and no queen and put the nuc in a bee yard about a mile from a yard where I load up with drones(males) to mate with her.

Christmas tree honey. Nothing at all. But a lot of wild flowers grow in that Christmas tree farm.

There are a few here who rent out hives to Blue Berry farmers and a few do some apple orchards.
I wouldn't do that as there is a lot of work and equipment you need like a flat bed truck or trailer and a fork lift to movew the hives about the fields.


Al

 

[MaryMary]

Thank you!


How do you protect the hives in the winter?

put the nuc in a bee yard about a mile from a yard where I load up with drones(males) to mate with her.

Why do you put the drones so far away?

 

[trail twister]

I just put the flashing in the screen bottom board to close off the out side air a bit for winter. The bees them selves keep the center of the cluster at 94F all winter. I allow snow to settle on and around the hives for insulation.




The drones ar so far away because they have what is called drone congaateing areas where drones gather. A virgin wanting to be mated flys thru that area and the drones give chase. The fastest strongest will catch her and mate. She will mate with up to 50 to 60 drones.


Al

 

[MaryMary]

50 to 60 drones?!?

(Gives whole new meaning to "busy as a bee." )

 

[trail twister]

Not so many seeing as she lays several thousand eggs a day in the spring thur summer and they need to be fertile to make worker bees for her life.

Every drone she mates with dies also.

Al