Did our first hive split this year. Probably should have split it two weeks ago, because it already swarmed once. 10 queen cells in there, a good chunk sealed! (did find a queen in there, maybe a new one). #beekeeping

Put a feeder on my Center hive yesterday with 2:1 syrup. Less than 20 hours and more than a third appears to be gone. This was the high population hive that felt light. Consecutive rainy days forecast and not much to forage on.

Well shit just got real. At the end of class I found out I'm in the first shipment and there's a good chance my 3lbs package of 10,000 bees will be here March 28th. The nucleus colony of 5 frames will arrive on April 10th. I'm ready but it made me really think about things.

Have a good night everyone!

Anuncio de venda de diferentes colmeas de cadros móbiles modificadas por Benigno Ledo. Tamén se ofertan outros utensilios apícolas e insumos vinculados coa apicultura moderna. Foi publicado no xornal El Ideal Gallego en 1923 #historiaeconomica #apicultura #beekeeping #abellas #industriarural

Honey bees on the hazel catkins.

I got a new shirt from my family. It's my kind of humor.

Hmm, this feels exactly like when you go to the dentist and they numb your mouth and you can't feel anything for several hours. Fine, learned my lesson. Suit up even for simple operations, just in case. DOH. #sting #iamadummy #beekeeping

Drat. Setting up a bee swarm trap and got stung in the lip. Should have suited up. Now we get to see how allergic I am this year. (piled in the antihistamines just in case LOL). Doh. #beekeeping

(Update: so far, just a fat lip, LOL. Would have reacted badly by now if it were extra potent. This was probably an accidental, i.e. bee enthusiastically flew into my mouth as they tend to do and accidentally stung my lip when I spit it out, vs. deliberate).

A warm sunny day and all 3 hives are active but I don't think there's much out here for them to forage on.

Some slow bees to enjoy at 25% speed.

This is the West hive today. I've seen each of the 3 hives busy now so I think they made it through the winter ok so I'll just have to see how much food they have left one of these days while it's sort of warm. Cooler and wet weather coming they say.

A bee with hazel pollen today, a few others had orange crocus pollen, a generous source for early bees #beekeeping

Someone in the area must have crocuses on the south side of their house because there aren't any sprouted up here. Also a still of the other bee on the snowdrops.

Should see some pollen from the hazel trees in a week or so if it stays warm. The catkins are expanding fast. Last year there was pollen and bees gathering it for one day and then the wind blew about 50mph and no more pollen.

Some bees flying today, February 24, 2025, before it started raining.

I was just taking the capped honey and comb off a couple of frames by hand and I stepped outside to put one of the scraped off frames in a deep super sitting on the lawn that had left a couple mostly empty frames in. There are tons of #bees feeding in there! This is the first 65°F day we've had in a long time.

I wonder if this is a good way to catch a swarm? Maybe they will check out the actual empty hive about 220 feet away? #beekeeping

#Bees didn't make it through the second #PolarVortex in late January. Did an inspection today. Can't figure why they never moved up into upper deep super full of capped #honey & so they froze. Looked like a lot died in the first #PolarVortex & the remainder during the second. I pulled 8 frames full of capped honey (both sides) & brought them in. I'm going to have to extract honey soon. Left the other mostly empty frames out there in a deep box. I will have to put lure out soon. #beekeeping

The first beehive is painted. The color is a pastel blue. The other will be painted pastel yellow, and then I will mix the boxes. Now it's time to actually leave the house.

How is your day going?

Today's beekeeping task: scraped all the wax off an entire hive's worth of frames, and tossed the plastic foundation, in case of pesticide contamination. Keeping the frames, but gave them a very thorough wash in strong soap and water to remove any residue. Lost that hive to someone nuking it over a fence last year with some kind of pesticide. Assuming this is enough since most OTC pesticides/foggers only have about a 6-9 month persistence on surfaces, and can be washed off with soap and water. (also, the ants had started in on the hive, indicating the pesticides no longer active... would kill the ants too). Wax removed because it retains and absorbs dirt and pesticides etc. #beekeeping