Honey 
Thanks to my wonderful sister for carpet! It’s a good way to keep the thigh-high grass from crowding the hives. Yet another trick I learned from Ken. There’s so much value in learning from someone who has many years of experience! I’m very grateful to have accidentally stumbled upon this family during my research days. … Read more
Here is a pic of my screen bottom board. Normally it’s under the brood chamber and I only see the front entrance part of it, but it’s on display here because we were cleaning the bottom board. (And by ‘we’ I mean Ken.) The screen bottom board is there to enhance the health of the … Read more
Here’s my little beekeeper smoking the bees, in her new hat and veil! I finally went and got the kids hats and veils of their own, and they enjoyed having them the last time we visited the beeyard. Especially this one. She wanted to do everything and see everything. So, she used the smoker until … Read more
The penny comes in handy again. Kid #2 ended up with a bee sting this time. This eases my mind, having both of them stung now. I’ve heard that beekeepers’ children and spouses tend to develop allergies to bee stings, due to being in contact with low levels of venom that would come off clothing … Read more
The bees were ready for a second brood chamber when we checked on Thursday, so here they are! Should make my next inspection more interesting, since I haven’t done an inspection on a double yet. I originally thought I would use only one brood chamber, because it sounded like it would be easier for me. … Read more
A big thanks to Ken and Steve for coming out to my beeyard yesterday! Here you see Ken scraping the junk off a bottom board – something I hadn’t thought to do since getting my bees. Here’s what came off them: . You can see different kinds of pollen – the different colour pollen comes … Read more
It looks like my queens have decided to grow some drones. See the capped cells that bulge out? Those will be male bees. The queen makes the decision to lay a male or female, usually based on the diameter of the cell. Once she’s made her decision, she makes it happen by either fertilizing the … Read more
Here she comes! Can you see the worker bee chewing her way out of the cell that she pupated in? Right near the middle of the picture. This is her first job as a fully developed bee. She is 21 days old, and full grown. She started as an egg, fertilized and laid by the … Read more
Every time I open my hives, I am on the lookout for my queens. It’s a good idea to know where they are, so they are not accidentally misplaced or incapacitated. However, for some reason the queen in my second hive seems to see me coming and vanish. I haven’t seen her since I installed … Read more
