observation hive – The Healthy Honeybee

Cleanup

by Honey

A few weeks ago, I noticed that the bees in my observation hive had all died. This is not surprising, due to the fact that there are not that many of them and they are not able to huddle in a large enough mass to actually survive the winter. That’s what my regular sized bee … Read more

Workshop Review

by Honey

I was pleasantly surprised to discover recently that one of the people who attended my intro to honeybees and beekeeping workshops wrote a little review on her blog! Thanks Bianca! These workshops were geared toward families, so they were not highly technical nor were they designed to tell you everything you need to know to … Read more

Uncaged

by Honey

She’s out!! I set up the ob hive today so friends could have a look at the bees, and I noticed that the queen is out of her cage. Didn’t take long – everybody loves candy. She’s the one with the white dot in the picture. Hooray! Now we’ll have eggs and larvae to watch … Read more

New Momma for the Girls

by Honey

Many thanks to Ken for helping me yesterday with my queen and observation hive! The hive is a bit of a beast – it’s so much easier with two people and more experience (Ken’s, not mine).

Anyway, here’s the queen cage with queen and attendants – same one we saw yesterday, only in this pic Ken is uncorking the end. You’ll notice the white bit – that’s the ‘candy’ that the bees will need to chew through in order to free the queen. The cork is a precaution – there’s so much candy there that Ken also made a wee hole through it to get them started.

2 More Stings

by Honey

In spite of the sweat-inducing oven of a coverall you see me wearing, I did manage to get 2 more stings yesterday at the beeyard. Right through the coverall. So I ask myself again, ‘why do I wear this?’ Hmmm.