Mid Summer Bloom

We now have some great bloom now with the Knap weed and Lavender.  Here a bee is working some Lavender on a hot day last week.

Amazing Bloom

Amazing Bloom

In just 3 days the bees on the new platform are quickly finding nectar sources at our home yard.  Beautiful clear and hot weather, coupled with an evening thunderstorm brought on some amazing flowering sights!

Ocean Spray

Snowberry?

 

Snowberry

 

 

Home Yard with the new platform

We loaded the bees onto the platform today.  We did have our share of 'drama' with a hive coming completely apart when it fell from the carriage.  We were able to get it calmed down and installed into a new box.   Exciting times indeed!

Hoisting the hives

Trying to live with Nature !

Hives on platform

Loaded and Finished!

Working Canola

Checking and Supering Hives

Today we inspected some hives on a very productive canola field.  Doing great here!

Bear Proof Raised Platform for my Bees !

I had another bear get into my main yard so I decided to build a raised platform.  The pipes are 6 inch well casing.  It was quite a struggle and lots of hard work, but it will be well worth the peace of mind.  I wanna see Winnie the Pooh try to shimmy up those poles after I put the axle grease on !

9 foot by 24 foot platform

Setting up new colonies at an outyard

The alfalfa is just about to bloom and the farmer is usually late in cutting it  - so this is a great spot for bees. 

Beautiful Morning

Installing Bees !

We loaded some bulk bees with purchased Russian Queens today and it went perfectly!  Beautiful weather and lots of bloom everywhere.

Bill loading bulk bees

Bees Loaded!

Released Package Queen !

I took this picture today as I wanted to check on my newly installed packages.  Check out this queen!  She is laying quite a pattern already. 

She is amazing and it was a very beautiful day in my bee yards. 

Observation Hive !

Today I brought in my observation hive so the kids could see a live colony and its queen.  Lots of interest and questions.  Kids love the bees!

Cabinet Hive Super

I performed several 'splits' from this very strong survival hive last week.  I was able to take 3 frames of brood and created 3 nucleus hives with them.  Later on, I introduced 3 new Russian cross queens into these.  The remaining queen is in her third spring and she is really laying well!  This hive continues to grow and to put up honey from this years flow. 

Survivor Cabinet Hive

So I gave the hive extra room and placed the honey super that they have nearly filled, in the middle with two new supers with drawn comb ready to go.  I came back later to check on it and you can't believe the warmth and heat coming up from the brood chamber.  There were bees working in the new supers as well.  This is going to be a an excellent hive this year!

New Cabinet Hive Design

This winter I had a few losses due to excessive humidity and dampness.  One of my hives that thrived during the winter was a top bar style hive that uses normal Langstroth deep frames in a 'cabinet style' hive body.  Based upon my success with this design, I decided to build 7 of these  hives from scrap lumber collected during the late winter.

The design is very simple with two 'saw horses' that support the hive body at a very comfortable height.  The main hive body has a 1/8th screen on the bottom with an entrance. 

Cabinet Hive Design

The Frames fit normally on the rabbit that is on
each side. 

I use 'insulator frames' made of stuffed cardboard on each end to help the new package or nuc hive stay warm at night.  The less stress the better this time of year when they are trying to build up for the nectar flow

Insulator Frame

These are simple to build. Its just an old clean frame with a cardboard sandwich with stuffed newspaper in it.  I used head duty staples to put it together.

Finished Hive waiting for package

This hive has an inner cover made to fit with a top cover that is sheeted with

aluminum to keep the weather at bay.   I made the top cover a bit long to give the hive more shade and weather protection.

Bees Flying !

The temperature got up to 37 degrees today and the sun was out for most of the afternoon.  Look who came out to play!