We confess. Posting hasn’t been a priority. There have been a number of posts over the summer using our Facebook page, but in general we have been slacking with media. Thank you loyal followers!
Yellow jackets stress hives. Please do your part to reduce their populations!! We witnessed plenty of dead yellow jackets out front of hives and a full on war in the entrances of our Valley Chapel Yard. We killed over 40 yellow jackets with our fingers and hive tools as they sought to gain access to the hives.
We fit in some mite treatments using oxcalic acid vaporizers, but it definitely wasn’t enough! Our treatment routine was down a lot this year. We honestly aren’t expecting great survival numbers over winter due to the hot and dry summer and not enough mite treatments. We shall see. Most are good on food.
We were thrilled to find the hives with plenty of honey stores left in them! The queens have been super busy!
Definitely going to need to split some of these hives in May! Hopefully they don’t get too excited and try sooner. =)
I pushed brood down and leveled out food stores. I will definitely come back and do some hive leveling.
Some seriously impressive frames of brood. Bummed we are going to see cooler temperatures. Hopefully pushing brood down won’t be a problem.
Found two hives that didn’t make it. Both were small. One was really small. Found a telling reason why.
Overall we are pleased with how they overwintered here. Hive leveling next visit which will be after the low temps. The 3 box hive can handle giving up some frames of brood. 12 frames is plenty strong!
It’s extremely rare to make it through the winter without some losses. Hive loss is just part of beekeeping these days. The great news for us, this year, is our loss reasons appear to be mostly self-inflicted! Got busy and didn’t make some hard calls.
Using OA to treat the hives for mites, worked incredibly well! No mite infested hives thus far.
Unfortunately, we had a few hives that starved! Eeek! This is terrible! Even with a candy board on top they weren’t able to get to the food during the cold. Ugh. Should have gone in with frames of honey.
We lost a few swarm hives that should have had queens replaced in the fall. Darn.
Some were just too small and should have been combined or aggressively fed in the fall to build up numbers.
Overall we are pleased and post this as a reminder for this coming fall.
We’ve been patiently awaiting this day! Overnight lows are above freezing and the clusters are broken.
Spring inspections! Made it through a few hives, but ran out of time. Most of them look great. Combined two weaker hives. Added frames of honey to a few. Pushed brood down. Drones are already present. Swarm season is around the corner!
Busy Busy! It’s amazing how they find pollen when we aren’t seeing it yet.
Queens were easy to find and look great!
Now for the more challenging, but not too difficult one… find the queen below!
She looks like this.
Working bees after 3pm always seems to result in stings. Back at it tomorrow! Can you spot the queen in most of the pictures?
EDIT: Beekeeper note. I only pushed brood down on strong hives. I took two weaker hives and reduced them down to 1 box. Pushing brood down early is a risky move as we could still get freezing temperatures. I took a gamble.
Our hyper-local RAW honey is an absolute treat. It’s the best truly natural candy we’ve ever had. Really!
We watch our warming temperatures carefully to preserve the honey in it’s natural state, but in doing so, we get crystallization. There’s nothing wrong with crystalized honey, it’s completely normal. Be wary of “honey” that doesn’t crystallize.
Honey display at The Plant Farm
Our crystalized honey tastes amazing, but definitely takes some work to retrieve from the jar. Tea and coffee drinkers enjoy the hardened honey as it is easier to meter out and it’s not drippy.
However, peanut butter and honey fans could find it much more stressful to spread. Ever wonder why we use wide-mouthed glass jars? Wide opening for easier access and glass for gentle heating in a hot water bath. We’ve even been told of folks placing the jar over a heat register and letting it warm while the furnace runs. What’s your creative way to soften crystalized honey?
Honey display at The Plant Farm
Do you love our honey when it is firm? Do you crave the creamy texture of this natural candy? The Plant Farm has plenty of our 2020 first harvest honey in stock along with many plants to get you off to a beautiful spring start!
Winter is still alive and well here in Mica! Although we have been tempted to go through the hives during these tropical spring days, we know it’s too early to do more than verify food stores.
Photo credit: Paula
The bees have been super busy during these early spring days. They’ve been taking cleansing flights and aggressively foraging. Foraging for pollen, food, and water. Sometimes they get a little too hopeful. The neighbors feed a plethora of critters and added honeybees to the list.
Silly girls. Photo credit: Paula
So far we have only lost one hive this winter. Most of our losses occured in August. Some self-inflicted from failed late splits, others from yellow jacket devastation. It’s too early to give a final count, but we kept mites in check with oxcalic acid treatments and it appears to have been incredibly effective.
The girls even went bonkers over sawdust.
WATCH YOUR STEP! The girls even went after sawdust! Every spring, it’s amazing to see the bees find pollen even when we don’t see it. You can watch the hive entrances and see them bring back pollen. It’s a sure sign that it’s game-on for brood production!
Yeesh! The little demons are out already! It will be time to get your traps up soon to catch those queens! Vigilance in the spring impacts your summer population dramatically.
We lost a few hives due to yellow jackets last year.
This little terror landed on a board I was about to cut.
Super-short version: Our crane for moving hives was stolen!!!
Short Version: Loaned our bee truck to the neighbor and the crane we use to move hives was stolen out of it while parked out front of Enterprise in the Valley. Insurance won’t even begin cover it. New ones are $6200 with tax and freight. Used ones rarely come up. We need a crane by April! AHHHHHH! Neighbor trying to make it right.
Long Version: Tried to help a neighbor out that had vehicle trouble. It’s what neighbors do! They had used the truck before with no issues. A week later the neighbor drove to Enterprise to rent a vehicle and left it parked there overnight. (NOT WHAT I WOULD HAVE ADVISED!) Video surveillance shows 3 men in a truck come steal our bed mounted crane out of the truck a little after 8pm on a Sunday in January.
Insurance company is calling it personal property with a capped value at $1,000 minus the $500 deductible. The neighbor is determined to make it right, but new cranes are $6,200 and used ones rarely show up. Not good.
So. Here we are. Without crane. Hives need to move in April. Tick Tock!
Cannot afford to replace it with a new one. Used ones are super rare.
Still looking and hoping for a used one to pop up.
Not going to do a Go Fund Me campaign, though it’s tempting.
Please let us know if you have any leads on an Auto Crane part # 370871000 EC-2 Powered Rotation. 5 foot or 5 to 7 foot manual extension.
Thank you for your continued support as we try to bring you hyper-local hobbyist grade raw honey.
There is a police report filed and we could easily identify our crane given the opportunity. We would love to see justice done of course, but it’s just stuff. DO NOT put yourself in danger should you see something suspect. It’s not worth it.
The Harvest Moon Restaurant and Gift shop are located in Rockford, WA!
Not only do they have rocking food, they now have all three sizes of honey jars!!!
You can’t miss our liquid gold! And you shouldn’t miss it either. =)
The owner, Amanda, has worked hard to keep her employees working during these insane shutdowns. She is also incredibly generous in supporting local artisans. Please support HER by stopping in for some food and check out the gift shop!
The pizza was an absolute hit with our kiddos! Don’t forget the honey!
