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| Pollination Wagon! |
One hive had some swarm cells, so I had a Nuc box ready - Thank Goodness for that. Its good to always have spare equipment in the yards at ALL times!
Monday, June 3, 2019
Adding Second boxes for these growing colonies!
One hive had some swarm cells, so I had a Nuc box ready - Thank Goodness for that. Its good to always have spare equipment in the yards at ALL times!
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Supering Hives and Some Roses too!
At one of my yards, the bloom is 'crazy good' with lots of different things for the bees to work. These were all Nucs just a month ago and now they are double hives. One of which is a 'triple'. It is an Italian queen that is going into 'overdrive' and they hive is building rapidly.
Beautiful Roses in bloom and a Bumble Bee too!
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| Productive Yard |
Monday, May 13, 2019
Catching Up!
Catching UP Post!
Lots of happenings over the past two months. We were successful with our Queen rearing season in CA this year using API's Italian and Carnie Cells. We got 45 out of 50 successfully bred. Amazing!
The follow two weeks, I arrived to load up my survivor colonies to move them back to WA. This is Mr. John Sammons, a well seasoned commercial Beekeeper with nearly 50 years of experience!
Once we got back, we setup these new nucs into their permanent yards. These are great places for bees!
Lots of happenings over the past two months. We were successful with our Queen rearing season in CA this year using API's Italian and Carnie Cells. We got 45 out of 50 successfully bred. Amazing!
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| Los Banos, CA |
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| Near Gilroy, CA |
Once we got back, we setup these new nucs into their permanent yards. These are great places for bees!
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| Bred Nucs at one of our Yards |
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| Another yard setup |
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| "Pollination Wagon" |
Last year, we completely rebuilt this trailer so we could simply move the colonies to a new yard and be completely 'mobile'. So far, things are working out great with this.
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| One of the Survivor Full Colonies from the Almonds! |
There were several colonies that I did not 'split down' in March. These were survivor colonies that came back to WA with the main load. This was taken last week. I will set these up as individual cell builders to make another 'batch' of nucs next week. I will keep you posted! These survivor colonies are Italian, Carnie and even a Buckfast queen too! Exciting!
Monday, March 11, 2019
More Sunday "Shop" Days in the Snow!
Winter has not loosened its grip in Stevens County. We still have about 2 feet on the ground, more in some places. The birds, along with a Palliated Woodpecker were 'screaming' quite a bit yesterday. I think he had 'something' on his mind, as most creatures do in the springtime! :-)
The box machine is running optimally now with near perfect cuts every batch. The pine also planes up nicely for the exterior side of the box. The inside is left rough - simulating a tree hollow. I've seen them 'propolize' it to make it clean and sanitary this way.
With the weather keeping me home during the week, I'm using the time - the best I can - by making frames. It is a tedious task but we are selling quite a few and this helps. They go together well with glue and staples. The pressure on the gun must be perfect. Too much pressure - and they blow through the wood. Too little pressure - the staple doesn't penetrate enough. Nothing is as easy as it seems!
The pine I'm using came from several neighbors who had their Ponderosa pine trees die. We have experienced quite a drought over the years, so this stress takes it toll on the forest. Fortunately, we were able to drop these, buck them up, and haul them to the mill. Our guy at the mill makes perfect boards everytime! We are quite fortunately to have such wonderful neighbors and friends. Every box that a customer buys from me - goes to help our Apiary, but it also goes to help folks right here in Stevens County. We are more than happy to share our blessings! The bees seem to 'pollinate' more than just flowers. LOL!
I hope to get up again next week - to make more boxes in preparation for our Spring. It will eventually come!
The box machine is running optimally now with near perfect cuts every batch. The pine also planes up nicely for the exterior side of the box. The inside is left rough - simulating a tree hollow. I've seen them 'propolize' it to make it clean and sanitary this way.
With the weather keeping me home during the week, I'm using the time - the best I can - by making frames. It is a tedious task but we are selling quite a few and this helps. They go together well with glue and staples. The pressure on the gun must be perfect. Too much pressure - and they blow through the wood. Too little pressure - the staple doesn't penetrate enough. Nothing is as easy as it seems!
The pine I'm using came from several neighbors who had their Ponderosa pine trees die. We have experienced quite a drought over the years, so this stress takes it toll on the forest. Fortunately, we were able to drop these, buck them up, and haul them to the mill. Our guy at the mill makes perfect boards everytime! We are quite fortunately to have such wonderful neighbors and friends. Every box that a customer buys from me - goes to help our Apiary, but it also goes to help folks right here in Stevens County. We are more than happy to share our blessings! The bees seem to 'pollinate' more than just flowers. LOL!
I hope to get up again next week - to make more boxes in preparation for our Spring. It will eventually come!
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| Bear "Proof" table safe and snug |
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| The shop is warm with a fire in the stove |
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| The ongoing construction of new frames |
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| A customer's kit - just finished |
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| The box joint machine is well tuned now |
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| These logs were 'rescued' and taken to the mill to make our boxes |
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Making Foundation-less Frames
I like using "foundationless" frames in my brood chambers. However, it does require a bit of planning and time to setup. Placing one of these 'sandwiched' between two drawn frames is the best way getting these drawn correctly. Otherwise, the bees will go 'freestyle' on ya and make a big mess.
Each frame has a 1 inch 'starter strip' of wax foundation - to help get them started.
The other advantage is that they work better for queen cell harvesting in a cell builder hive. The plasticell will not work very well for cell cutting. I've done it over the years with average success. However, when I'm cutting them from a foundationless frame - it seems to work much better.
The third advantage is that the bees seem to like it and will draw them out pretty darn fast! I've done experiments with these in the past and they will have one drawn and in 'production' with brood in around 20 days or so. Pretty amazing!
The forth advantage is that these can be recycled by simply melting the frames with steam and you end up with clean sterilized frames ready for starter strip and reuse in the hives.
I like to paint these frames with two stripes of paint that corresponds to the 'queen mark color' for that year. So, in this case I have used Green with is the color for years ending in '9' and '4' I believe. This makes it quick for me to identify them in the box during inspection. My goal is to be able to recycle all of my comb on a 3 year rotation.
Each frame has a 1 inch 'starter strip' of wax foundation - to help get them started.
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| Gently stacked and drying |
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| I mark these with the 'queen' color for 2019 |
The other advantage is that they work better for queen cell harvesting in a cell builder hive. The plasticell will not work very well for cell cutting. I've done it over the years with average success. However, when I'm cutting them from a foundationless frame - it seems to work much better.
The third advantage is that the bees seem to like it and will draw them out pretty darn fast! I've done experiments with these in the past and they will have one drawn and in 'production' with brood in around 20 days or so. Pretty amazing!
The forth advantage is that these can be recycled by simply melting the frames with steam and you end up with clean sterilized frames ready for starter strip and reuse in the hives.
I like to paint these frames with two stripes of paint that corresponds to the 'queen mark color' for that year. So, in this case I have used Green with is the color for years ending in '9' and '4' I believe. This makes it quick for me to identify them in the box during inspection. My goal is to be able to recycle all of my comb on a 3 year rotation.
Saturday, March 2, 2019
March is for MAKING boxes! AND a Cougar Visit too!
The weather has us snowed in here! We have about 3 foot of it on the ground but that won't stop me from snow shoeing in and getting to work.
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| 'Westerns' |
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| In the Box Machine |
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| More Westerns |
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| 10 Frame Boxes |
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| Cougar print outside of the shop! |
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Winter 2019 Work Ups for the New Year!
Sorry about my absence from my blog here. We are building a new home and with my job and the bees - it sure keeps me busy!
This year started off in January rather warm and pleasant. I actually thought we were in for a 'soft' winter. I could not have been more wrong! Winter came back with a vengeance and brought sub zero nights with 3 foot of new snow in just 16 days!
So, the family and I are focused on building equipment and making frames. Here is the box machine that we use to make the 'finger joints' for our boxes. When this is running, I am VERY careful. This is a dangerous machine for sure. One mistake, and it would be my last!
This year started off in January rather warm and pleasant. I actually thought we were in for a 'soft' winter. I could not have been more wrong! Winter came back with a vengeance and brought sub zero nights with 3 foot of new snow in just 16 days!
So, the family and I are focused on building equipment and making frames. Here is the box machine that we use to make the 'finger joints' for our boxes. When this is running, I am VERY careful. This is a dangerous machine for sure. One mistake, and it would be my last!
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| Box Machine |
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| Example of our Boxes with enclosed Varroa Screen |
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| We are building up inventory! |
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| Libby helps me with Frame Making |
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| Saw this at the WSBA Conference at EWU this year. Perfect. We are crazy for sure! LOL |
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