We wintered our bees with a deep which had been the queens brood chamber since we put the hive on the property, but we added a supra full of honey to overwinter them as well. Old Man Winter was not really that harsh this year, so they did REAL well. Since we have such a strong hive we decided to try to split our hive, thus making two good hives.
We are amateur bee keepers learning as we go, with knees knocking! Eric has been building, building, building! He does not have all the fancy tools but he uses what he has and his ingenuity as well and we have ended up with some pretty amazing end products. He was able to build each supra and hive body for much less than than buying them from a supplier. Mother Earth News has a Honey Bee Magazine that actually has plans for building your own hive. Eric basically used one of our purchased hives from last year to make his measurements before he began his work. The only thing we had to buy was the frames (pictured below) for each box. We purchased them disassembled and spent one afternoon working together until the project was completed. This past week we put those bee hives that he built into place. One of them has been put in place, but for now still waits on bees.
We are very hopeful that our now two hives will prosper and flourish from here. One or possibly both of them have to hatch out a queen, she has to take flight, mate and come back and start laying eggs. This all will take about 30 days and hopefully we success will be the end result!
We have our name on a list with Mr. Bundrick for a nuc, hopefully sometime this spring he will have one for us! If we don't get one from him, we may have to make an order somewhere online. The third hive is actually going on our property for the sole purpose of harvesting for Eric's parents. They have been purchasing honey from a coop for years now and are excited about having their own honey source free of charge! The only cost will be the bees themselves - about $90!
If you have a bee hive on your property, and it is a strong hive, it is time to start checking out the space inside the hive making sure they have enough room, so you can avoid a possible swarm. Once the bees plan a swarm.. there is little you can do to discourage them, as I understand it.
I could never work with bees. I get stung once and absouloutly freak out. Whatever part of my anatomy that got stung immediately swells up and turns a bright, painful red. I then proceed to walk around with a ice pack or if I have soccer practice that day, a handful of ice.
ReplyDeleteIn a year of working with our sweet bees, I have only been stung once and that is because I was not properly clothed. This past week while working with the bees, my suit was covered with them but I did not get one single bite!
DeleteWow. That's a lot of bees. That is a wonderful blessing to have your own honey.
ReplyDeleteIt is a lot of bees, we were amazed at how much they had increased since we last worked with them!
DeleteCan't remember if I've told you or not, Lynnie, but I gave up my chicken dream...but another one is going to come to fruition this year! We are going to get at least two hives of bees this year! So looking forward to being able to harvest our own honey again! Yours look GREAT...and what an awesome man your husband is when it comes to building his own...saves a lot of money that way!
ReplyDeleteDianna, no you hadn't told me yet. I hope you are good with that decision. I am excited about your bees, that will most certainly will be rewarding! My man is so talented in the carpenter area, plumbing area, ok.. all around! LOL. And yes, it has saved us a lot of money along the way!
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