Tag Archive for ‘Beekeeping’
POLLEN NATION
It is estimated that the work of bees provides $16 billion dollars of value annually in the U.S. alone. Pretty scary fact don’t you think that these little guys play such a big role in our food chain.
RE-QUEENING
In the apiary, queens rule. The queen bee determines the whole chemistry, demeanor and health of the hive.
DOWNSIZING THE HONEY COMB
Natural (smaller) cells are better especially those of us who are choosing chemical and antibiotic free hives.
SILENT SPRING
We’ve been keeping bees in the city on and off over the last 18 years (Farmer D started keeping bees back in 1972 on the first homestead in New Zealand.) For me, the honeybee has always been part of my childhood. Growing up, helped harvest honey and remember folks coming from all over to buy the gooey raw nectar.
HOMESTEAD HONEY HARVEST
After a cold and drizzling beginning to July which delayed us a few week, and ‘thanks’ to the hot weather, we got around to extracting honey and bringing in nearly 55 lbs in just under two hours! From what I heard, this is only about 1/3 of the what’s still in the beehives.
BEE LINE!
Beekeeping is slightly more involved than say keeping ducks or chickens. Sure the bees do most of the work, but you have to stay on top of your hive maintenance – no slacking. Besides, bees are independent – they don’t listen to nobody!
URBAN BEES: REQUEENING
Since we captured that feral freebee swarm back in April 2007, we’ve taken a pretty relaxed approach to urban beekeeping by letting the bees, well just “bee.” However, we are constantly checking the health of the bees and hives. Just recently, we noticed that one of the hives was different.
SAYONARA SUMMER
{note: this entry was written over ONE week ago, and delayed in publishing by the injured duck } There’s some interesting goings on around the urban homestead The guys have been filling up the driveway with piles of sand, lumber is being brought in, coils of huge black hoses and more! Yep, there’s some serious [...]
NOW THERE ARE TWO
Off comes the top box with the second queen that they isolated a few days ago Keeping the bees calm with smoke Beekeeper D checks on the new queen and her brood A new hive joins the urban homestead. Long live the new queen!
BEEING DIVIDED
The old hive get’s taken apart by Mr Beekeeper. He’s gentle and the bees don’t seem to mind him disturbing their home. Talk about a pro! Justin peers in for a look see, intently trying to spot the queen. Is she on this comb? Found her! Bottom right corner of the comb there’s a cluster [...]
