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Showing posts with the label beekeeping

Bringing Home a Swarm

      A couple of weeks ago, the most EXCITING thing happened! My sister-in-law called us at about 8PM one weeknight.  Weeknights in winter or early spring are boring for us.  I make dinner, we do dishes, we eat, and we kick back.  Until the weather warms up and there is mowing to do, we generally don't do much that is entertaining during the week. My hubby was all laid out on his bed watching TV and I was in a similar position in my recliner.  My phone rang and my sister-in-law rarely calls me so when I saw her name on my phone, I answered right away.  She asked me if we still had honeybees?  I told her that all of our three hives had died the previous year so we didn't have any.  She told me that a friend of hers was mowing and found a bunch of bees hanging on a branch in her yard.  Normally, if bees are in a tree they are nearly impossible to capture.  You have to get the queen and if she would be inside the trunk ...

Spring is here! Honey Haul

Finally... spring seems to have arrived. We have gone from coats and sweaters to shorts and flipflops at my house (yes mom.... I wear them to work every chance I get). The trees are budding out and are just on the verge of blooming. Our bees will be thrilled with that. There are daffodils blooming all around and I think my crab apple tree will be opening some blooms by the time I get home this evening. We started feeding the bees sugar water this past weekend. Each hive consumed 1 quart of sugar water within 2 days. We added more last night (3/30). Hubby tried to put the feeders out at lunch, but the bees were ALIVE with activity and he didn't have time to "suit up" so we just waited until slightly before dark and changed the feeders out. Today its suppose to be in the 80's. It is SO HARD to stay at work when we are having such glorious weather! Two new swarms of bees are ordered. They will arrive April 17. My brother and his wife are also getting...