Bees, Bees, and More Bees!!!

[JimWWhite]

Well, we started the year with only one hive of our three to make it through the winter. We lost two hives basically because they just starved to death. From my understanding it got cold enough that the wintering over colony clustered in a ball around the queen and couldn't or wouldn't get to their winter honey supplies. There were two supers above both of the hive bodies that were full of their honey. They'd completely consumed the honey stores in the hive body but ignored the honey above them. When we took ours off back in the fall we left them with more than enough to get through the winter. The more experienced beekeepers here in our association tell us they had it happen to them too. But not to worry. The remaining hive was extremely strong at the start of the nectar flow back in late February and got up to full strength quickly. Then in March we ordered two new packages of bees from Brushy Mountain Bee Farms and re-populated the two hives we lost over the winter. Now we had thee hives. Then in early April we saw the colony was about to swarm so Teresa went in and did a manual split of the hive and created a new one. Then there were four hives.

Then with great luck we met someone who wanted to sell his bee hives but there were no bees in them. He was going through a divorce and lost interest in beekeeping. We bought four complete hives from him and went down to pick them up. We loaded three of them up on the pickup and I went back to get the fourth one. When I opened it up bees came out. A feral swarm had taken up in the hive body and set up housekeeping. A free colony of bees plus the queen!!! That's a $125 freebie. Paid for the four hives we just bought! Teresa came back and sealed it up with tape and then I loaded it up and took it home and we set it up on a new stand on the back of the property. Five hives. Then I came home on Friday at the end of April and there was a huge swarm of bees under the carport where we'd left the boxes we'd bought from the fellow. They'd found the empty hive boxes and they too set up housekeeping in one of them. We moved them down to where the other hives were. Six hives. And finally, this week the original hive showed signs again of swarming so Teresa did a manual split again and now we have seven hives. We've been busy as bees all spring!!!

And all this time I'd been working my tail off building a fence around the garden and getting things ready for planting once the last frost passed. We had a late frost the last week of April. Finally last week I finished the fence which was 50' x 75' x 4' around the entire garden. We had to do it because my granddaughter gave PawPaw a puppy for Christmas and it loved to dig in the raised beds. When she messed up Teresa's asparagus bed I thought she was a dead dog. But I was given the task of putting a fence up to keep her out. By the way, if anyone says they're going to give you a free puppy, run! There ain't no such thing. This free puppy has cost me over $1000 now...

In closing I've got my Campari tomatoes in the ground and they're thriving. Can't wait to see how they do. I'm betting they make true and the fruit is identical to what we were buying at CostCo. The romaine lettuce has been great but it's about to bolt with the heat we've been having here the past few days in central NC. And the potatoes are doing really good. I've hilled them twice already.

So that's the news from Miss Teresa's Chicken Ranch and Bordello. There ain't nothing much happening here!!!

 

[Collector]

Wow Jim that is the craziest thing I have ever heard of, from 1 hive to 7 amazing!
We bought 2 new puppies last year, and they dug up my wifes asparagus patch also amungst everything else they have destroyed Grr.
Good to see you its been awhile!

 

[ninnymary]

Welcome back Jim. That is alot of hives and bees. How much honey do you predict you'll get? I've heard that local honey from a farmer's market is best. It's less processed and is good for reducing allergies. Well I didn't know it would cost me $17 for a pint! I just may have to go back to getting it from Costco.

Mary

 

[JimWWhite]

Welcome back Jim. That is alot of hives and bees. How much honey do you predict you'll get? I've heard that local honey from a farmer's market is best. It's less processed and is good for reducing allergies. Well I didn't know it would cost me $17 for a pint! I just may have to go back to getting it from Costco.

Mary

The going price here is about $6 a pint or $10 a quart for local honey at the Farmers' Market. When people find out you've got honey you suddenly have lots of friends. Most of our harvest, which we plan on doing by mid-June will go to family and co-workers. You know how it is... Family is free but co-workers pay. They'll snap it up as soon as I bring it in and post an email to come and get it. In the past when we take off our two shallow supers we'll get right at 2-1/2 gallons of honey per hive once it's filtered and in jars. My guess is that we'll only be able to take honey from two of the hives in June but in September we'll be able to take from all of them and we should get at least one super per hive and some of them will have two by then. The only processing we do when we harvest is to filter it and put it in clean sterile jars. Honey doesn't need to be pasteurized or anything like that.

And thanks for the welcome back. Didn't go anywhere except to hibernate with my Baker's Creek Garden Porn, eh catalog all winter long...

 

[so lucky]

I buy local honey from a beekeeper here in SE Missouri. I believe he charges about $6 and $10, also. It sure is good!
Ninnymary, did you read the article about all the honey imported from other countries having been cut with altered honey from China? Apparently there is no practical way to differentiate between "their" honey and "our" honey. Best way to get all the benefits is to buy from someone you know!

 

[ninnymary]

Yes, so lucky, I did hear something like that but didn't read the article. A quart of local honey is $35 here! I gasped when they told me the price. I go through alot of honey. I use it every morning on my greek yogurt. I don't like the tartness of yogurts but eat them because they're good for you.

Mary

 

[Jared77]

Ninny at that price you could have your own hives after a few quarts!

Jim glad to hear things are going so well for you. Bees definately on my want list, but I'm still in research phase.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Wow Jim, that's quite a story. We're having a banner year here in rural Indiana with swarming bees. I have 4 hives and they're doing great this spring. Last year I harvested 189 pounds of beautiful light colored honey.

I started helping our beek club members who do cut-outs and swarm recovery last year. Very interesting stuff. But none of us suspected what this spring had to offer. My friend and I have collected 30 swarms so far this spring and swarm season is just getting started. None of us in the club thought that we'd ever say we had too many bees. But this year everyone has all the bees they can, or want to, handle.

Back in March I did a cut-out in an abandoned cabin for a lady. There were 5 stud spaces in an outside wall full of bees and comb. There were three 5 ft. long combs in each stud space. Amazing. I brought home 6# of bees, 12 pounds of comb for melting, and two 5 gal. buckets of honey. This was in March! Can you believe it?

Learning about the amazing honey bee and having one's own hives is a great hobby.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Wow, really interesting, i'm totally fascinated by bees and their keepers

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Wow, really interesting, i'm totally fascinated by bees and their keepers

Fascinating is an understatement. If you want to learn about an absolutely awe inspiring creature, just study the life and life cycle of the honey bee. Truly amazing.

Here's a little beekeeper's topic that you might find interesting . . . a little research will reveal and astounding belief. "Go tell the bees". You'll have to look it up.