Queen-right is a good sight!

I have a peculiar way of "doing business"....I lost all three colonies over the past season, but bought a new hive to begin this year with 4... My husband asked me this question: "Aren't you supposed to learn how to do this right, before you expand the operation?" When I think of how much sense that makes, I wonder to myself....why? Why did I get another hive.....plus an extra deep (so perhaps, one of my colonies will be so awesome I'll run one with a double deep). What is so compelling that I would spend this money in these tight times? What makes it worth it? It's not for the money I get from selling honey.....it's not because I have nothing else to do.....it's not because it is a hobby I know everything about! I think it has something to do with the wonder of Mother Nature. The sweet way honeybees work together to serve a common purpose. I am fascinated just watching the activity on the landing board...and imagining what's going on in secret between the man-made frames inside. I'm installing a new colony in my backyard this weekend. I've checked with my neighbors and they don't mind...a couple even want to watch me!! I have a beekeeper friend who gave me a split a few weeks ago. I checked on my newly accepted queen yesterday, and she is a laying racehorse.....is it OK to talk about a honeybee that way?? She had at least 4 frames of capped brood, eggs, larvae , the whole works. I'm excited. Hopefully the 3 new packages coming this weekend will get as good a start, and then we'll have rain and nectar this year!! Queen-right just feels so good!! Till next time, Bee kind! Kb

Back in the Bee Business!

After having one colony obscond sometime in December...and finding my double-deep dead-out in The winter, I'm back in the bee business! Which is kinda funny, -cause I'm not actually in any business at all! By saying I'm back in the business, all I mean is that I have a new colony, new queen, and a new attitude! I CAN DO THIS!!! First week of April will find me with 3 more colonies.....so I'll manage 4 hives I this year....and actually keep records! Hopefully, you'll benefit from my new year's effort! Bee kind, KB

Double deeps, no more

Collected sample of bees from my bottom deep......all dead, a little handful of a cluster. Will send to the lab to see if there is any disease detected. I suspect they just froze to death....in south Georgia....froze to death. Crazy.I'm. so. Sad. Now I have just a 5-frame nuc I hope makes it through winter.....a sort of starting over. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he Lord make His face to shine upon you and give you bees.....I mean peace. ;0) Bee kind, Kb

First "dead-out" leaves me puzzled

.....and sad.....I can't believe my strongest colony is no more. I went out to feed the bees for the first time(they had plenty stored away) and found one of my hives empty....empty...like my heart felt when I lifted the medium super of pollen and honey and found no bees... Gone. Was it the queen who was so strong just 2 weeks ago? Was it the workers who decided enough is enough? I only hope they all took off to some hollow tree somewhere, to live through winter. I realize the bees do not answer to me, but I was hoping for this colony to remain strong......guess I'll just hold off getting my 4th hive till 2013. On a brighter note, Merry Christmas y'all. Bee thankful, Kb

It's here!!!!

It's been a lovely weekend.
Almost frost on the pumpkin Friday morning....first fire in the fireplace and home-made Brunswick stew...and Then, today, mid-seventies, with the most gorgeous autummmmmn sky.  I close my eyes and breathe in the season...mmmmm

OK...back to reality.

 Harvested the honey this weekend...(my first ever!!)
did ya hear that?

Harvested the honey this weekend!!!

Thankful for the electric decapping knife...it removes the caps from the honey cells to allow the honey to flow fly out. The honey flies out, because we spin it around in an extractor at the speed of sound  a very fast rate, and by centrifugal force, the honey spins out into a huge "tub'...sort of....anyway, I should have taken a picture of the manual extractor at work...we had a 'slanging' good time.
After the honey exited the extractor, through a double veryfinesieve, it fell into a bucket with a "honey gate"...I especially like the honey-gate.
It's kinda too late to get into all that, since I have to be at work in a quick 7.5 hours!!



from the flower //to the bee //to the hive---from the frame..to the extractor...to the veryfinesieve...to this bucket
to the bottle to the tongue of grateful souls!! ;0)





DD gets in on the action. His help is invaluable!!




Very thankful for the harvest, albeit a small one.  More thankful for so many other blessings.
It's been a lovely weekend!!


bee kind to one another!!
kb



Honey do ya' love me?

Today I harvested my FIRST 'crop' of honey...one super... nine frames.....and I am so excited! It is still in the 5-gallon bucket, but it is the sweetest honey I have ever tasted.  The 'oldies' all told me it would be that way...that there is no honey like your own.
We have had an incredibly dry, hot two summers in this neck of the woods.  I get such pleasure out of merely taking care of the bees, that I wasn't expecting to get honey at all this year. I  discovered laying workers a week and a half ago, so I combined that deep with the one next to it, (with the newspaper layer beteen the 2 deeps)hoping they will survive the winter, to be split in the Spring...just need a good queen...
I also have a nuc with 4.5 frames of bees that I am hoping will survive the winter--if all goes well, there will be 4 colonies in the Spring and I hope--with God's provision of enough rain and flowers--to have at least 4 supers of honey next September....
I am ALSO hoping to get "BLOGGER LESSONS" from one of my children, so I can post the really nice photos of my adventures.  Everytime I try to put a photo on the site, it 'jumps' to the beginning of the post....

Does anyone know where I can get honey labels custom made?  I am not your ordinary sort of person, so I don't want just an ordinary honey label!! (lol)

I've just discovered there is something sticky on my wrist ...  and forearm....and chin.....  Guess I'd better go clean up a bit!!
bee kind to one another!!
kb

WAWAWAWAWAWine...........

Yep-I said it...w i n e.....

OK_ so what do bees and wine have to do with one another?
Bees like grapevines, and I like wine... and bees....(heehee).
Another way to put it is "the more bees you have visiting the grapevine, the more grapes there will be; the more grapes, the more wine...get it????

So tonight my hubby and i started "brewing" some wine from the grapes at the beeyard. We didn't use our feet, mainly because we didn't have a vat...but we did get those grapes popped and all mixed up with the sugar and yeast....we'll see how THAT venture goes.

Ought to be ready to bottle by the next full moon.....

;0) I feel a camping trip in the making!! ;0)

till next time, bee kind!!
kb