Of Drought, Dearth, & Drones
Last fall, and early winter, we experienced some significant rainfall events. One large storm after another sent water racing down our slopes, and off into the creeks. By December we were genuinely concerned that if that pattern persisted we’d slide into the creeks by...
Beeswax: Solar Wax Melter
One of the byproducts of harvesting honey is beeswax. A couple of weeks ago we took the last of our honey for the season from our hives. Although most of the frames will be reused for another year, a couple of frames were damaged during the extraction, and we also...
A Late Summer Honey Harvest
Although we primarily keep bees for pollination, we’d be lying if we didn’t admit that at some point we also hoped to harvest at least some honey. Last year, as the colonies were building up, we left the honey stores with the bees. We’ve had a smackeral or two of...
Hive Management: Salvaging a Hive with a Failed Queen
Last year our Salvia hive, sourced from a feral swarm that landed in a neighbor’s plum tree, was the most populous, and robust hive in our apiary. This colony was doing so well that we split the hive in February to replace one of the colonies we’d lost...
Inside the Hives After the Swarm
Last week two of the hives in our apiary swarmed. The Lavender colony swarmed on Sunday afternoon, followed 24 hours later by the Salvia colony. Both hives had been split this spring prior to the swarms, Lavender was split as recently as two weeks ago, but after...
Our 2020 Calendar Is Now Available!
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