Bee Angry

Bees were not wild about being inspected today, even less wild about having some of their honey taken. But they needed room. Noe kind of wishing i took their whole supers and replaced them. Always learning.
Mite strips are in, each has four new frames to build on.
they really didn’t want to give up honey today so right now they’re out there robbing the frames i took. no huge deal, it’s theirs to take - just hope to be able to extract later so it’s not all over the yard.

hives looking strong! hives 2&3 have a bit of a beetle challenge and they maybe running out of space. will seek advice on beetle control and space management and plan to put mite strips on next weekend.

harvested some honey - new queens doing well!

all hives appear to be queenright! hive #1 larvae and capped brood cells and they’re building out a bit, hive #3 eggs and larvae. hive #2 they’re filling up the honey supers and very busy hive throughout.
will wait another week and add a honey super to hive #3 bc they need some room. gonna leave hive #1 without a honey super until they’ve built out more of the brood chamber bc they done need a bunch of extra room to manage while their young queen gets established. good day for the bee yard!

Hive #1 has a queen but not laying. Hive #2 doing great but building crazy comb in the honey super. Hive #3 still no queen, one queen cell but probably going to get a queen to requiem before it dies out. Tough week. Time to brew beer.

culled a few queen cells and maybe going to try to raise one outside the hive?

We like our bees with just a dusting of powdered sugar! (It's really a natural treatment for varroa mites. When you dust them with the sugar, they clean each other off and pick off any mites if they find them. Plus, free sugar!)

Bees and blooms (playing with our camera's macro lens)

It's been a long road but things really seem to be happening in the new hive and we added a honey super so they have lots of room to use the nectar that's flowing all around us! Looking forward to a good season and maybe even splitting this hive or getting some new hives. Talk again soon!

As vendors load in at , we wanted to remind everyone why it's so important to consume with this info-graphic from Local Roots NYC. For starters, conventional honey can contain up to 49% corn syrup and yet still be labeled as honey! That's astounding! Just another reason to get on down to Rockaway Beach 97, get to know your local , and get your hands on some real !

This is why we say that the honey you typically buy at the store isn't real honey. Yes, it's somewhat similar, but if it's from a plant that just feeds bees sugar syrup, it lacks everything that makes honey so awesome.

Rebuttal: bees turn sugar into honey

We use all natural means to manage the pests in our hives. Aside from an unfortunate spiral last summer due to tons of rain and a rotten neighbor, it's kept everything going strong. This is good news!

New York Honey Bees Evolved Resistance to Disease After Exposure to Varroa Mites An international research team has some good news for the struggling honey bee and the millions of people who depend on them to pollinate crops and other plants. These valuable pollinators have fac...