Kind of like where parents go from counting their baby’s age in weeks to months, I’m wondering how much longer the beekeeping posts should be counted in days! Well, up to day 59, it’s still days. I’m got back into the hive today after a little over two weeks, having left them with about 2 gallons of feed. The feeder was empty, they seemed happy enough, but there wasn’t much going in terms of build-up into the second box. The empty comb in that second [...]

Well, I might as well get it over with and tell you: my sting-free streak is over. I was getting a little too cocky with a loose fitting blouse over my jeans – and one of the bees found my a nice “tender” (ahem) patch of belly to commit hari-kari on. It actually did not hurt that much (my pride stung more). The hive looks good – lots of activity at the entrance and a settled hum inside. I am a little worried that the [...]

Bees are coming along pretty well, especially considering that the last two weeks have been almost straight rain. Of course, that also fell during a time when I couldn’t get up there and I had left them just a little food, since they had pretty much stopped taking it. I was worried, but found them flying and filling up the comb they have built. Not much new comb since the last inspection, but this makes sense since bees make the most wax when they are [...]

In a sign that this beekeeping thing is definitely getting out of control, I drove all the way to the cabin today just to check on them and attend a beekeeping meeting tomorrow. Clearly, we’re serious the bees and I. I started to fix some of the issues that I created with my hasty assembly of the bee hive. First, I picked up some pretty green stain to protect the boxes from rot. Once again though, I was foiled by the shipping fairies, who failed [...]

May 20, 2011 I know I am not supposed to be opening up the hive so often, but it’s been a bit of a learning. Things today looked much the same as yesterday. I went in to replace the undrawn frames with foundationless frames – it was my intention to start that way, but in the chaos last week, I didn’t have them ready and also had to really level the hive properly. Looking forward to seeing how that goes. I also wanted to see [...]

May 19, 2012 Bees have been in the hive just shy of a week – it has been really an ideal week for bees (and people). No rain, little cloud, comfortable temperatures and lots of flowers and trees in bloom. Hive looks fine from the outside – a little grey bee poop on the front of the hive for decoration. There are a fair number of dead bees at the front, but there were a good amount in the package itself and they went in [...]

May 18, 2012 I’ve been wondering all week how things have been going with the bees. We arrived too late today to have a look, except to confirm that the hive was still standing. There’s that, at least.

May 13, 2012 Happy Mother’s Day! Mine found me leaving Tom with a bowl with cereal in the kitchen while I ventured down to see how the bees were doing after my fairly disastrous install last night. Surprisingly, they seemed to be ok – at least not all dead and still there. The feeder can was plugged up though, so I had to deal with that and do some improvising with the hive set up that I may well come to regret, but it was [...]

May 12, 2012 This bee-keeping adventure is not off to a auspicious start. I got a call this morning at 7:30am from a cheerful lady at the Springville, NY post office telling me my bees had arrived. This would have been good news except that a). I was scheduled to be at a breastfeeding conference all day in Toronto, b). none of my equipment was set up and c). my husband was out of town and I had no one to watch the kids. Panic [...]

My feature in Nov/Dec 2011 Natural Life Magazine – fermented foods and how to make your own small-batch sauerkraut.