It's only been a year!

We ended last year with 16 hives and lost 4 to the cold. The bees were determined not to disappoint, and we were up to about 34 hives at last count. We did the first rob Fathers' Day weekend, robbing only six supers and four more two weeks later. The first rob netted more honey than all of last season!

The first batch of honey has been bottled, labeled, and packed for selling. It is anticipated to go fast as all of last year's customers have been asking and asking, "Where's the honey?!?" We got 'em hooked, now we have to keep the supply moving!

Thanks to everyone!

Big Weekend Ahead

Weather, the common cold and having too many irons in the fire have delayed work in the bee yard and Labor Day weekend is catch-up time. We have honey to rob, hives to split/divide and an over-due mite check to perform. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this weekend because the splits/divisions can't be put off any longer.

Last week we set up a special colony that we made queen-less and placed grafted queen starter cells into this colony. Being queen-less this colony will want to raise a new queen so we should have more than enough 'ready to hatch' queens by this weekend. We will split and divide several of our existing colonies and place one new queen cell into each of these new hives. If we get rained out this weekend then we will have queen cells hatching out next week and no home to place them in. In case you don't know THIS WILL BE BAD!

We will try to take some photos and post an update next week.

Pa and Junior to the Rescue

I answered a call from the Hotline while at Wildlife this afternoon. A restaurant manager in Tuscaloosa had called reporting some bees that were causing problems. That was all the information the Hotline had been given. The Hotline asked if we knew of anyone that knew anything about bees, and I offered up Pa and Junior. I asked if we knew for sure if they were honeybees or some other stinging, flying creature. All she knew was that there were "bees" and they were causing problems. I gave her Junior's number, which was passed on to the Tuscaloosa PD. About an hour or so later, Pa and Junior were working on catching another swarm. There were about 3-5 pounds of bees fifteen feet above the street. Pa and Junior cut the limb and got the bees in the hive body and packed up. Of course, Junior didn't think to take pictures until after the capture.

Not Just the Weather

It turns out that the bees from Memorial Day weekend were not just hot, they were getting ready to swarm. On the 27th, the big hive - #3, swarmed without anyone knowing about it. Pa Keeper found the swarm in an old, closed up house nearby. Eight days later on Wednesday (June 4th), two attempts were made to catch the bees, but he was unable to get them out until Saturday. Also on Wednesday, Pa Keeper found a second swarm in the same house, but we don't know which hive they came out of. The #3 hive swarm was about 15 pounds of bees, almost 20 feet of comb, and lots of honey. This is after the first two capture attempts where they moved and started over on the comb. Busy bees. The unknown hive also had lots of comb and honey, but we don't know how long they've been in there, or even if they are our bees. They are not feral bees, though.


Because the bees haven't really settled down yet this year, we weren't expecting a lot of honey. But, with the #3 swarm and incredibly efficient bees, we do have quite a bit even before the traditional July 4th rob! Pa put the honey in jars with comb, now we have fresh cut-comb honey!

Hot weekend for the bees

The bees are doing well this weekend but it was very hot and humid. For most of the afternoon, they were seen covering the fronts of the hives. #s 3, 4 and 7 had some interesting activity. Many bees were facing down, either scraping or rubbing the surface of the hives. We think they might have been trying to get dry after a shower, trying to stay cool, or trying to get moisture off the hive.

Getting Started

We started out this year with just two hives from last year. All of a sudden, we have almost 14!