May
17
2016
After inspecting a few colonies on May 7, I noticed a significant proportion of the foraging bees returning to the hives were loaded with pollen, so I snapped a few pictures shown here - just with my iPhone 6.
Honey...
May
02
2016
A queenright hive is a hive with a queen, preferably one laying eggs. So, in the subject of this post, I may be using the term loosely, but I'm still a happy beekeeper for the moment. On Friday, I...
Apr
28
2016
Our 2016 season colonies are off and running! They are not all queen-right yet, but it's something we'll be monitoring when possible as we go along. Here is Aidan helping me prep and level the hive stands near our...
Apr
02
2016
It's been a long time since posting. When I'm at home, the kids manage to do a pretty good job of keeping me away from the computer. But it's time to take stock of where things are at with...
Nov
18
2015
We have been taking steps on preparing the 5 hives in our NE Iowa bee yard for winter. The decisions on what exactly to do are not straightforward - I learn new things that some people do each year....
Sep
13
2015
We thank God for a bountiful honey season. There are always a number of factors and things that can come up out of your control that will reduce or negate the honey that you can spin out. This time...
Sep
13
2015
Jana organized a super field trip experience that took advantage of the honey extraction that was going on. There were 5 stations that different groups of kids rotated through in our house and garage.
station 1 - honey extraction -...
Sep
13
2015
We actually began extracting the night before we planned - Labor Day night - after the kids went to bed. Jana described it as two kids the night before Christmas or two kids in a candy factory. We just...
Sep
13
2015
On September 6th, the day before Labor Day, we went to the bee yard to pull off the honey supers. It went real well, but perhaps involved a bit more moving of the boxes than turned out to be...
Sep
13
2015
On September 5, we went out to the bee yard on my folks property to prep the hives for honey super removal on the following day. My brother Cory drove up from Colorado (near Boulder) for the weekend, so...
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