Almond Orchard Bloom is INCREDIBLE !

The almond orchard, where my bees overwintered, is in FULL bloom now.  It is so beautiful there.

We will be going down to start Nucs and New Queens in 3 weeks, so our timing is great.   We are still in snow in some areas here but it does warm the heart a bit seeing these wonderful pictures from California

Hives doing great with the Bloom

Amazing!

Amazing Warm Days there!

A Beautiful Day to work in my Shop!

We are still in the depths of Winter here in Eastern Washington State.  As I drove in, there was a blizzard with lots of snow coming down. 

Winter STILL has it's hold on things here!

It was just me and my two canine buddies going up.   They love to go but typically 'over do' it by running and playing so hard that that crash later.

In the wood shop, I spent the bulk of the time building 2 frame 'breeder nuclei' boxes for raising queens.  This year, I had some outstanding survivor colonies that I want to raise some queens from.  Local queens are very good and those colonies tend to be rather better adapted for our weather and environment conditions.
The box on the top - is a 4 frame Nuc box for our efforts in California.  I hope to have over a 100 of these for next year.

All built with locally supplied ponderosa or what is called 'yellow' pine here.

Breeder Nuclei

On a side note, I've been building a 'tiny home' office for our place this year, and as the day progressed the sun came out and the fresh snow had melted.

Late Afternoon Sunset light

At the same time, my 'helpers' crashed in front of the Wood Stove.  Sound Asleep. 
It was a wonderful day.

Inspecting local hives here in Spokane

Winters can be tough on our Bees here.  However, 2019-2020 has been rather mild but damp. 
I put on the sugar feeder box back in November along with a Insulator box with burlap as a moisture wick. 

When I inspected these today the survivor's burlap was damp so I replaced it with dry burlap.  A few of the survivors were working on the sugar.

Eating the Sugar!

I added more sugar and and feed the DFM Probiotic treatment too. 

This hive is really strong and notice - no nozema staining either!  :-)

This was a caught swarm (6-26-19) that is just booming!

California Trip to Prepare for Almonds

This weekend, I flew down to California to prepare my hives for the Almond Pollination.  The day started out with rain but quickly the sun came out and made the afternoon a delight!  It was beautiful.

Prepping for Almond Bloom

DFM with Power Sugar Feed

I applied the DFM probiotic to the bees again this year.  Last  year, this helped with the build up

A blessed day for sure!

First Post of 2020!

We are getting ready for an exciting year with our Bees.  I made it in to our main yard this afternoon to check on the bees and to work on boxes in my shop.  I saw a single bee flying outside of her home and she quickly went back in!

Trailer Bees Overwintering at our Home Yard

I prepped some materials for making more deep boxes next month.  This helps keep them straight and dry before I run them through the joint machine.  The strap really works!

Drying Rack Setup

Next week, I will be flying down to California to prep the hives there for the oncoming Almond Bloom that starts first week in February.  I am excited to see how they over-wintered in Sunny California!

The Year in Review - Moose Meadow Bees 2019!

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our customers, family and friends for making this year the best one yet for our Apiary!  We grew quite a bit, made lots of boxes/equipment, raised queens and Nucs and harvested lots of delicious honey!  We even took 41 hives to California for overwintering in the Almonds.

We are excited for the new  year and are hoping to raise 200 nucs this April.  Please check back early next year - if you are interested in signing up for Nucs.  We would love to help you too!

Final Winter Preps for the Colonies staying here - at our Farm in Eastern Washington

This weekend, I put my hives to 'bed' up here on our farm in Eastern Washington.  The weather is about to turn pretty cold so I want to do my final preps to give them the best shot of surviving our long winters here.  

The first step is to provide a 'sugar box' for emergency feed.  Bees like to move up in the supers and this seems to work well.  This is just simple dry table sugar you can get from a store.  I use one sheet of newspaper that they can chew through it.  The sugar will crust over a bit from the hive moisture and new 'dry' sugar is exposed as they eat their way through it.

The 'sugar box' is a simple box with 3 or 4 inch walls with a 1/2 inch screen mesh. 

Sugar box placed on brood chambers

Once the sugar box is placed on the hive, I use another box that is filled with burlap.  This acts in two ways:   It insulated and removes moisture.  The key to winter survival is for the hive to be dry and well feed.  Moisture is the real problem here.

Simple box with stand offs

Burlap scraps

 This insulator box is a simple thing - just a an old box with some stand offs to support the burlap.  This burlap can be removed later in the winter - if it gets too moist.  The point here is to trap the moisture here - and away from the bees.

Here's the setup for a different perspective:

All Set for the Winter!