@Hembrain my bees are looking good they're all growing I'm not very happy with this year's honey flow it seems very slim. Out of 45 hives I only got eight with honey supers on and I think only four of those are actually going to make honey

@plantcollector that's a lot of hives! Sorry to hear it's been a disappointing flow season. Any sense what might be going on? When I see other people's hives as I'm out driving, many of them are just the brood box.

Ringo caught up! We are used to seeing Paul beard when it's hot and humid, but this is what surprised our eyes the other day. Ringo is on the left. The new brood must have emerged!

The bees have become more ornery and prone to sting lately, so I marvel at the bravery of the little butterfly that hangs around.

We harvested honey this week, a venture that was (at the risk of sounding overdramatic) quite life-changing. I was blown away that our two new hives, in the space of just two and a half months, had been so super-productive that they yielded eight and a half gallons of amazing honey! And that's after we left them a good stash to work with. Here's the photo record:
Check out Ringo's bees! Now that we can get in the brood box, hubby is looking for the queen.

It looked like this when we were done. Not for the faint of heart! No stings though.

The sweet reward!

Stickiness gets everywhere somehow. There's no seamless way to uncap honey. Seemingly endless extracting, but it's a fun challenge. Turns out I had always wanted to spin honey out of comb!

82% sugar is pretty viscous at 73 degrees.

But it cleans up! It has a beautiful complex flavor with floral, herbal and slight mineral tones. Likely heavy on the yelow poplar, with some dutch clover and who-knows-what.

Celebrating the success, because it helps to offset the heartbreaks.
The bees got to clean their honey out of the old comb, which they get to use again in the future.

YUM!!!


Oh by the way did you find the Queen?

gardengus said: YUM!!!


Oh by the way did you find the Queen?

We are really bad at spotting our queens amid the fray, so no, we didn't find either queen. I took pics of each frame with brood, but haven't yet found her even looking at those. I think she may have been on the lower edge, where there is a lot of activity. One day we will mark the queens and that will make things easier.

Here we are in January of a brand-new year and it's below 50 degrees so the bees are laying low. Yesterday, I put my ear to each deep box and was happy to hear the hum of life. As we enter the toughest few months for our hives, I'm hoping we have done enough to control varroa mites and that our girls have enough food. (Our stronger hive still has a double deep so there is plenty of space for honey stores and an in-hive syrup feeder. Our weaker hive has more limited space, so gets fed right now via an inverted quart mason jar in an otherwise empty upper box. Both have pollen patties. The problem-solving, compromises and adaptation apparently never stops.)

Next week, at the beekeepers meeting we will hear about swarm traps, and then maybe we will build and erect a few traps to keep the bees out of the owl boxes in spring. We found a wild colony in an old hollow tree in the back of our property and consider it a cautionary tale.

We are wishing the bees well and are mindful of staying engaged with them even though it is a time of low activity. Happy New Year, bees- and beeks! Hoping 2024 will be a strong year for all.

Do you know who is speaking about swarm traps

Who's that?

@plantcollector I'm so sorry to only be seeing your message now! It was an excellent program by David Sams of Clinch Valley Beekeepers and TWRA. Chock full of insights about what bees want, he was! I feel like I understand the logic of a swarm trap in a whole different light. Swarms collect/rest on saplings etc on their way to a cavity that scout bees have identified as an adequate permanent home, usually a few miles from the original hive. To passively catch them, the trap needs to meet their criteria. Horizontalhive.com apparently has plans for a cool box that we got to see, and hubby and I intend to build some. The box is designed to hold actual frames and also has space in the box beneath the frames so the scout bees "approve" of adequate cavity size. If one catches a swarm and the bees build comb and deposit honey and lay brood, it is relatively straightforward to transfer the frames and bees into a deep.

I was dismayed that swarms reportedly are looking for 10 to 18gal-sized cavity to set up in. That means to be inviting, traps have to be pretty big! Strong hives swarm, and 40 to 60% of a strong colony is a lot of bees selecting what they think is a "forever" home! Other tips: bait traps with a little strategic scent, locate in shade, strapped on the eastern side of a tree, 3+ miles from apiary, ideally in places where swarms have been seen before, with traps a mile apart or so. Mounting it at shoulder-height is ok unless interference likely. He suggests offering neighbors and landowners honey for each swarm collected on traps erected on their property.

The presenter pointed out that 45% of "package" bee hives fail in the first year , and that swarms are usually strong- and free! Swarms may need mite treatment, but I guess that's how it goes.

BCBA has some good speakers. They may post the slides from January's presentation. In March, Bob Binnie is presenting, and I'm looking forward to hearing him. Bought some of his sourwood honey in the mail a couple of months ago and it is transcendent! Come if it suits.

Yes horizontalhive is the same type of swarm box that I use. I have 20 of them spread throughout sevier County last year I only caught eight swarms but the year before that I caught 19. I've never heard of your speaker it sounds like he was pretty knowledgeable about what he was talking about. I like to keep an empty swarm box in my truck and when I go to take one down that has bees in it I immediately put an empty back in its place. I bring it home at night and then the next day I transfer it into a deep box

That's a lot of swarms, Heath! Sounds like you have it dialed in.

We have been given 3 new hives, and got to check them and the existing two hives yesterday. We have called the new ones Brandi, Natalie and Dolly, as we needed to add a feminine vibe. It's awkward to call a beehive by a male name when the worker bees (and queen) are all female!


The difference in strength between our older two is amazing! We stole a frame of brood from Ringo and "fed" Paul (the weaker hive) yesterday. We'll probably need to split Ringo before it swarms, so we'll keep eyes open for active swarm cells.


Buying hive components for so many growing hives is really expensive! We would make them, but time is in short supply.

Things they don't tell you when you start out:
It's a LOT of work! Heavy and hot. And then you get stung.
It's going to be expensive in the first couple years. Maybe really expensive.
If you want to be successful, you better learn to speak beek as fast as you can.
The bees will break your heart sooner or later.
You will purposely kill 350 bees per hive when you check for mites effectively.
You will probably feel guilty for wrecking their comb structures and ill-placed brood.
You will feel even MORE guilty if you don't get in there, and fail to meet their needs in a timely way.

And then you see them working the flowering peach, and it makes you really happy...


It's like parenting. Not for everybody. Necessary for survival. An enriching experience.

Rewarding & educating but not for everyone

Our bees are out and about but too cold and windy for a full hive check
waiting on a nice day.

How do bees fare when the temperatures get up into 90s-100?

I enjoyed reading your post @Hembrain. I would like to keep beehives but it is so cold here in winter and there are always bears frequenting my yard that it would not be possible for me. Most I can do is supply the bees with lots of flowers for nectar.

tigerpaws said: How do bees fare when the temperatures get up into 90s-100?

I enjoyed reading your post @Hembrain. I would like to keep beehives but it is so cold here in winter and there are always bears frequenting my yard that it would not be possible for me. Most I can do is supply the bees with lots of flowers for nectar.

That is a worthwhile effort, nevertheless!

Bees do pretty well when it's in that range. Amazingly, they like the inside of their hive to be 98 degrees F, and need it warm for brood and working wax. They have a harder time staying cool when it's hot and humid, so they will often hang out on the front of the hive on hot and humid evenings.

Our hives are growing in bees and number! Ringo was busting at the seams and had made swarm cells, so we split him and made George. Both are doing fine. A friend gave us three more colonies and we figured that it was time for female names (of living musicians for a change), so we named them Dolly, Natalie and Brandi.

And then we got a call...

Swarm-catching doesn't get much easier than this: three feet off the ground and settled for the night! We clipped the branches and just laid them in a deep box. Got every last bee! Took the colony home and put it in the spot we had waiting. Called the colony Carlie (after the young lady who spotted the swarm).
Extracted the branches the next day. The bees were still bearding and festooning on the inner cover.



Carlie makes #7! We will probably leave her in a single deep as the flow just started and it will take a while to create brood. We're getting honey supers ready. It looks like a good flow year so things could get nuts.

We have several swarm traps waiting for any colony that gets the urge to get gone. Here's hoping...

Beautiful capture.

I'm so jealous! Due to certain complications and a major foot injury at my house, looks like I'll be waiting at least another year before getting a colony. Really disappointed, but still looking forward to next season.

Oh no! Sorry to hear that. Gives you more time to learn how bees think and behave so you will do a really great job of meeting their needs when the time comes.