Colonies successfully delivered to California!

Some of my hives were setup in an almond orchard in Central California for the winter.  This is quite amazing in that it was almond 80 degrees F every day while I worked there.  The bees 'woke up' from being pretty cold here in Eastern Washington.  They were hungry so I provided them with extra syrup and pollen patties.

Beautiful Almond Orchard

Placed Hives with Nuc Boxes

The "Nuc Boxes" in the foreground are for next years new colony starts.  We should do great here with lots of drones and sunny weather in April!

Pollen patties - they loved these!

When the bees 'woke up' they were extremely active and hungry.  I fed lots of syrup and pollen patties to each hive.  They seemed to enjoy this!

An old memory...

This picture brought back some great memories of my youth.  I spent quite a bit of time on the

Toluomne  River hunting and fishing.  It is so exciting to come back to this area - doing something different with my bees.  This Spring is going to be great!

It turns out that there are many beekeepers who overwinter their bees here. This yard had hundreds of hives near a place called "Dry Creek" just about 20 miles away.

Other bee yards

Prepping Colonies to go to California for Winter and to Pollinate the Almonds!

Over the past few days, I've been working on setting up my trailer for my annual trek to California.  Its a long drive, but always fun and interesting.

This year I will be taking down 43 colonies to overwinter and to work the Almond pollination.  From these colonies we will raise new queens and build Nucs for sale as well.  In April, I will be picking them up and bring them home for a 'second round' of Spring.

I put my little 'hive lift' to work today and it is a serious back saver!  It works great!

If you are interested in this - leave me a comment and I will go into more details on this.

Thanks!

I will post pictures of my trip and where they will spend the Winter next week.

Prepping Trailer for the Trek. 

Hive Lift in Action!

Hive Lift in Action

Using homemade 'Bee Escapes' to clear bees from supers

For several  years now, I've been trying to find an easy way of clearing Bees from my honey supers.  I've tried the 'Bee-Go' and hand brushing them, but nothing seem to work very well.  

I saw how many Bee equipment makers offer these 'Bee Escapes' and I was a bit skeptical.  However, I decided to build some following their design as close as possible, and gave it a try last year.  You know what?  They worked PERFECTLY.  I was amazed that coming back the next day - all of the Bees moved down to the lower supers, leaving the ones above the super - absolutely clear!  

Simple plywood Bee Escapes with 3/4" entrance hole

The theory behind this is that the bees move down during the day and evening to be close to the queen.  When they go down through this little hole - they have no trouble doing so.

Here is the 'unpassable' maze!

However, when the bees try to get back up they are confronted by a 'maze' of sorts that confuses them.  They can't figure it out for some reason!  They get 'stuck' underneath this barrier and are excluded from the honey super above.

This year, I left quite a bit of honey supers on and didn't harvest it.  I wanted to makes sure I had plenty 'banked up' for this coming spring when I raise our Nucs.  Nothing feeds a colony start better than a simple frame of honey - right next to the brood chamber!  They really 'explode' on this.  It is exciting to see for sure so this practice of saving a bit back for the following spring is a great way of managing new colonies.

Giving them syrup in the spring up here is problematic and besides... Honey is the best food for them anyway! 

The top green honey super will be 'cleared' in 24 hours

Showing Third Graders about the Bees - Sampling some Cut Comb!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of talking about Bees with a group of 3rd Graders in Spokane yesterday Morning.  It was fun!  They kids always have great questions and are VERY curious about the bees. 

The colors are beginning to change a bit.  It sprinkled a little bit and the forecast calls for colder temperatures this weekend with snow in the mountains!  Imagine that?  So early but things have been rather unpredictable this year - weather wise!

Some are very productive!

Lots of Questions and Interest

Showing the kids the Smoker and Veil 

Trying some comb honey!  

Cool and Wet Conditions bring on a 'mini Fall flow' here in Stevens County!

We have had some nice cool and warm days lately.  A few rain storms have blown through but we are getting some nice sun breaks too.  Temperatures in the 60's now.   It is a nice 'gentle' way to move into Fall and the bees seem to like it!

My colonies seem to be doing well - considering the lack of food in the environment.  I have done some supplemental feeding as of late with a few of my yards - where the dearth seems to be rather tough.

Today, I was working in one of my yards when noticed that the we have some dandelions coming on.  I was able to capture one of my gals working this.  I was a bit amazed by this!

Up Close - Note the Pollen!

Dandelion bloom!

This time of year, we can get some knapweed that seems to 're-bloom' too.  Most folks hate this weed - but I know my bees LOVE it!  :-)

Dandelion and Knapweed blooming

Second Round of Varroa Treatments

This morning I had to get up before dawn to move some hives.  They were not happy about it! However, the Sunrise was incredible.  A light fog hung in the air and it was quite still and so beautiful.

Sunrise in Stevens County - Washington State - USA

Later that morning, I went out and applied another treatment to my hives to deal with the Varroa.  I'm switching thing up a bit to not rely on one treatment type or method.  The fogger with Oxylic Acid is fast and efficient.

Applying Oxylic vapor to the hives on the trailer

They get a bit upset with this.  Not too bad, but I still suit up with my veil.  They can be nasty this time of year!

Overwintering Presentation with the Northwest District Beekeepers Association!

It was our pleasure to drive on over to Snohomish yesterday to give a presentation on some tips and strategies for helping our bees overwinter successfully.  It was a lot of fun!

It was a great group too - lots of great questions and idea sharing.  Beekeeping is a community effort and to learn new things is always exciting.

Here is the link to their great website!  Lots of good information in there!

https://www.nwdba.org/

Much thanks to Mark Salser and Meagan Wells for hosting us for this event!

I look forward to helping your group there next Spring for Nuc and Packages too.

Lots of great questions and idea sharing!

Slide Deck From Presentation

Handout