Advanced Beekeeping Class

I can just buy bees and a hive, right?  Stick it in the backyard, put some flowers in...  No - bees are complex and you need to understand them.  Attending classes, even when you think you are doing good, is worth the time and money!

Today in my class, it was like an ah-ha.  We took the class with our bee-mentor, Joe at Country Barn Farm.

Spring Management

When do you put another super on?  Today I learned that you should over-super in Spring and under-super in Fall.  So on my list of spring management for April will be to give our surviving hive(s) honey supers to work with.  Maybe this will keep them focused on working on drawing out comb and not swarmy (not a technical term!) this year.

Did you catch the "for April"...?  You need to know when you are getting spring flowers.  Be ready for that.  So if April is your flower time, then get it on for end of March.

We can take a honey super that doesn't have drawn out comb and stick it on.  Let them work it for a week, check it.  Are they building it out well?  Great, then add another but between brood box and the super from last week.  Gives them plenty to do.  Skip the queen excluder at this point.  Wait for them to be working it really well before adding the queen excluder.

What an ah-ha.  But that happens with bees.  They are so fascinating and there's so much to learn!  I'll be sure to share the photos when we do this.

Let's see if this plan helps us with our remaining hive(s) and keeps us from a swarm during swarm season!

Spring Planning Time

It's that time of year - get those supplies purchased and order your bees!  Already we have ordered some honey making supplies.  We're hoping this is the year we will be bringing in the honey!

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Our current bee plan:  In addition to acquiring a couple of nucs normal bee vendor, we decided to see what we thought of the Saskatraz bees.  OK - think of that word.  Where in the world would they be coming from...?

Did you say Saskatchewan, Canada?  Then you would be right.  There's a honey bee project ongoing there to focus on "honey production, wintering ability and resistance to mites and brood diseases."

So it is like buying an AKC bee.  They come with papers.  Depending on which lineage they come from, they have a varying defense to varroa mite and increased honey production.  Plus, "all families have good to excellent wintering ability in Saskatchewan, intermediate to excellent hygienic behavior and acceptable temperament."

Let me put a pause on the acceptable temperament.  Yes, Chris will be getting stung.  HA.  They are slightly more aggressive than Italian bees.

So let's hope for great season and hope that the hives left keep going until Spring weather breaks.

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Info credit: The Saskatraz Hybrid Project
Photo credit: Mann Lake

Friday: Swarm Again

As our bee mentor put it:

It is a swarmy kind of season!

It happened again!  This one was a little bit more of a challenge, but we caught it!  Chris has the privilege to watch it leaving the hive, pouring out.  Then it swirled above the apiary and to our rhododendron again!  We will definitely be protecting that bush for years to come.  There were a lot of bees this time; so we put them directly in a hive rather than a nuc box.

Video:

Photos:

Swarm Season

Guess what time of year it is?  Swarm season!  It's a bit later this year, but it is upon us.

We missed our first hive swarming.  So we're keeping an eye on this one:

Today, my dad was out weed-whacking and found this.  I'm so glad it was low!

What did we do?  Well, I got the shears and Chris got a nuc box with three frames.  We just slid the box underneath it and clipped the branches.  We also added a frame with brood from another hive in the hopes to keep them there.  (Start to finish, no protective gear, 8 minutes and back to work-from-home!)

When it is dark tonight, we will move it into the apiary to protect them from the bear!

Spring 2020 - in lockdown

This spring has definitely been unique.  We are currently dealing with COVID-19 and sheltering in place.  But that doesn't mean that the bees are sheltering in place!

Bees have been busy bringing in the pollen even before we saw any blossoms.  We did loose two of our four bee hives over the winter, but the two left are going strong.

Bees bringing in pollen on March 19.

Our front hive has been so productive, we did a quick split.  You can see us bumbling around in the video below.  We're still new and with a long break over winter, we are rusty even with our newly gained skills.

In the video, you will see us check both hives.  We then proceed to clean out the comb made in the empty space of the front hive.  Move some bees to a nuc box (a specially designed used for raising queens, swarms and starter honey bee hives).  After, we called our mentor - Joe - and we acquired a wintered queen to place inside the nuc.  Currently, the worker bees are working on releasing her from the little cage that is blocked by sugar.  Today, we will go out and make sure she is out or release her (once the weather is a bit warmer).

"Just bee yourself, do your own sting" @ Getz Apiary

Spring Time at Getz Apiary

It's definitely spring time here at the apiary!  We have new bees (three colonies in total) and we also added two ducks to our feathered family.

Ducks

Christian worked hard on building a safe enclosure for our new ducks, Molly and McGuire.  They appreciate the 8 foot deck and the 44' pool.  We have a rouen duck that is darker in color similar to a mallard and a pekin duck.  I think they are both female...

Back to the bees...

We picked up one colony from Eden Apiary.  Burl Knupp is the President of Westmoreland County Beekeepers Assoc., a Master Beekeeper, and Owner of Eden Apiaries.  He is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to bees.

Speaking of knowledgeable... We picked up two more colonies from Bill Kopar of Kopar Farms.  He "provides pollination services to farmers in the area while at the same time building up the health and numbers of his bees to sell them.  Kopar Honey Farm creates many value-added products like honey and beeswax from which are made things such as lip balm, lotion, or candles.   Along with selling products and bees, Bill gives many lectures to a variety of audiences, from university classes to garden clubs, relaying information relevant to the skill and knowledge of the people he speaks to."*

Here you can see how hard at work they are:

We noted a log of drone brood.  So we've been taking these and scraping it off.  Yes, we kill drone when doing it (the chickens love to clean it up).  However, the purpose cuts back on varroa mite introduction since it is the drone they like to attack the most.

And spring just isn't complete without a waggle dance from one of the ladies.  Do you remember what purpose it serves and can you find it in the video?

Lastly, check out the addition to my truck:

As always, stay up on our latest photos and videos by going to https://www.facebook.com/GetzApiary/.

* quote from https://beavervalleybees.net/index.php/beekeeping-supplies/