05/17/2026
Swarm call! At least it was local!
Bountiful Bees of Broad Street
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Local New Jersey Honey from Mercer, Monmouth, and Middlesex counties since 1996 Kosher since 1999.
05/17/2026
Two "free" swarms moved into boxes in my driveway. No fanfare or great videos - their arrival was not witnessed.
Note one hive likes a South facing entrance which is "the norm" while the other prefers a North facing entrance. Renegade bees!
05/17/2026
Few pursuits offer as many opportunities to trash a kitchen as beekeeping does!
Here I'm using a hot wax pipette type tool to secure cut comb foundation to the frame wedge
05/17/2026
No bear fence yet. Sitting on the deck pondering how I want to mount some of the fence components. Watching the green charge light on the fence charger flash every second feeling somehow the green light will protect me against...anything! 1 joule of output.
05/16/2026
The first frame shows the "wedge" under the top bar where it was pressed against the sheet of foundation then stapled.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try to pinch the wedge against the wax sheet in very hot weather it will sag and become useless.
This contraption was supposed to fill with molten wax that you could then carefully dribble along the top if each frame, on both sides
In reality its more like stick welding. The wax flows regardless of whether your finger is blocking the small vent home on the tools wooden handkerchief.
Once it starts flowing you move the tool along the length of the wedge, trying to get good "pe*******on" and a decent bead.
This was my first attempt "welding" cut comb honey foundation. In two month's time well know how it worked
05/14/2026
What remained after the bear strike
The saddest image was of a forager with pollen on her legs, returning to the inner cover on the ground seeking to deliver protein for the larvae that the bear had eaten days before.
There was also a crushed Eastern box turtle in the pasture area nearby which I read can be eaten by bears in the Spring when bears are desperate for protein - though it may have been crushed by the tractor when the pasture was mowed. Just sad all around.
Will return to mow the area prior to installing an electric fence.
05/13/2026
Awaiting recycling as a bird house, this old brood box has front and rear "entrances" which appeared to match for the bees' needs.
Transferring the colony to newer "digs" early in the morning.
05/13/2026
A new bee yard farther North. I was warned that a bear strike was inevitable. At least the loss was limited to one hive.
Electric fencing supplies are coming.
05/05/2026
This colony of bees is thirty-five feet off the ground, in the outer masonry wall of a gymnasium. The entrance is about four and a half feet below the top of the parapet wall, which is about 30 inches high. If there wasn't a parapet wall someone other than me would have taken this video since I would be unable to even peer over the edge!
04/22/2026
Bees are working this first super of drawn comb immediately over the queen excluder. I will want to examine tge frames in the brood box(es) under the QE to possible induce them to fill out any outside frames of comb, and if any unused darker combs might provide a chance to cull those and replace with new foundation
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