Busy Bees

I remember a few years ago I read an article about bees and then my hubby and I watched a documentary on colony collapse. I looked at him and he knew what I was thinking and he said " we are never getting bees". Oh by the way thats my husband in the bee suit.

Last year we had gotten bees and everything was fine with them until about February. On an unseasonably warm day we noticed that our bees were acting a little odd and when we opened the hive almost all were dead. There are lots of reasons why this would happen. A more experienced beekeeper told me that with the temps getting warm and cool every other day the ball the bees make to keep warm  may have broken up thinking spring had arrived only to have it get below freezing again and they died. Whatever the reason we were bummed.

We had already ordered some bees to start a second hive so we knew we would have at least one but decided to order package of bees, With a nuc of bees you get around 10,000 bees with four frames that usually already have the queen laying eggs in. In a package of bees you get 3-5 thousand bees with a new queen in a box that they have to eat a sugar cork to get to. These bees have been taken from a healthy hive and if the queen was just put in there with them would kill her. Because they cant get to her and they have lost their queen they are kind of angry at first but as they get use to her smell by the time they are able to get to her they love her like their old queen. Another difference between a nuc and a package besides price is where they are at in the building up for the next winter. The package bees are at least a month behind the nuc.

Here it is getting to be the end of summer and the bees have been busy collecting pollen and making honey. As my hubby was inspecting the smaller hive this morning he brought me a present, propolis. This is a wonderful thing. Its a natural antibiotic, its believed to help lower blood sugar, help with minor burns and even help with ear infections. I am not a doctor nor am I telling you to stop seeing your doctor if you are on medications.

The best news was with the 1 1/2 quarts of honey that we were able to get today, in a few weeks, there should be more in the bigger hive. I promise you that we leave plenty of honey for the bees. There are some large scare bee keepers who take all the honey and then feed their bees sugar water over the winter. I personally wonder if that is contributing to some colony collapse.  How would be handle having all our food taken away for the winter and only being able to drink sugar water?

So here is my sweetie turning the extractor and a picture of a little honey with the capping from the frame. We had to strain out all the wax and little bee parts. We set the frames with the wax outside near the hive and the bees cleaned it all right up.

Have a great Saturday. We are going to go stargazing tonight unless the hubby isnt feeling it. He actually got stung on the leg by one of the bees. Thank goodness he thinks the honey is worth the stings.