Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Visit to Prairie Hawk Colonies

12-18-13
Temperature at time of top board removal. 50°
Microtel bees seemed fairly lethargic but a nice grouping in middle of box. Some flew around as I added honey for their supplemental feed.
Did same with larger colony with honey super still not removed. Good numbers for winter it seemed. 

HyVee Mall of the Bluffs Honey Sales

Our raw honey sales have taken off at our 2nd HyVee location. A sweet partnership  has made for brisk sales. Thank you Shirley for keeping our honey stocked!


Saturday, November 30, 2013

11-30-13 Visit

Nice warm evening (57°)for a visit and supplemental feeding. Thanks Cole Gallo for the photo. Both orchard colonies seem to be doing well.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Expansion

Big news coming soon. Stay tuned.

End of season feeding time

Visited bees at Prairie Hawk last week. Made sure reducer board was only one opening to minimize cold air coming in. Bees weren't happy for the visit late in the day. Had to use a flashlight and car headlights but temperature was 67 degrees. All was well. Forgot I still had a honey super on large hive. Guess they should have enough surplus honey throughout winter. Not sure if I will remove or not. Honey selling briskly the last couple of weeks. Excited about what the next year will bring.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Hot Homemade Honey Apple Cider

Ingredients for Homemade Honey Apple Cider:4 lbs apples, assorted variety (about 8 medium apples)
1 medium orange
4 small/ 3 medium cinnamon sticks
1 whole nutmeg
1 Tbsp whole cloves
1/2 cup honey, plus more to taste (we used 3/4 cup total).
10 to 11 cups water.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Moving Day!

Finally had time to move bees today. It's not an easy process but needs to be done to get them ready for the winter. They have to get sun during the day but out of the North wind behind a structure if possible. Both sets are behind farm buildings.
Was able to borrow moving brackets from fellow beekeeper Eric. They worked slick but still needed an extra set of muscles. My nephew Justin helped me move one while my Alex helped with three others.
A 70 degree day made for active bees even though I had closed their entrances. Glad it was accomplished as the lows are now reaching freezing temps most nights. Added feeding patties for supplement.

Friday, October 11, 2013

A reminder of some of the health benefits of "Raw" honey.

Health Benefits:
1. Prevent cancer and heart disease:
Honey contains flavonoids, antioxidants which help reduce the risk of some cancers and heart disease.
2. Reduce ulcers and other gastrointestinal disorders.
Recent research shows that honey treatment may help disorders such as ulcers and bacterial gastroenteritis. This may be related to the 3rd benefit…
3. Anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-fungal:
“All honey is antibacterial, because the bees add an enzyme that makes hydrogen peroxide,” said Peter Molan, director of the Honey Research Unit at the University of Waikato in New Zealand.
4. Increase athletic performance.
Ancient Olympic athletes would eat honey and dried figs to enhance their performance. This has now been verified with modern studies, showing that it is superior in maintaining glycogen levels and improving recovery time than other sweeteners.
5. Reduce cough and throat irritation:
Honey helps with coughs, particularly buckwheat honey. In a study of 110 children, a single dose of buckwheat honey was just as effective as a single dose of dextromethorphan in relieving nocturnal cough and allowing proper sleep.
6. Balance the 5 elements:
Honey has been used in ayurvedic medicine in India for at least 4000 years and is considered to affect all three of the body’s primitive material imbalances positively. It is also said to be useful useful in improving eyesight, weight loss, curing impotence and premature ejaculation, urinary tract disorders, bronchial asthma, diarrhea, and nausea.
Honey is referred as “Yogavahi” since it has a quality of penetrating the deepest tissues of the body. When honey is used with other herbal preparations, it enhances the medicinal qualities of those preparations and also helps them to reach the deeper tissues.
7. Blood sugar regulation:
Even though honey contains simple sugars, it is NOT the same as white sugar or artificial sweeteners. Its exact combination of fructose and glucose actually helps the body regulate blood sugar levels. Some honeys have a low hypoglycemic index, so they don’t jolt your blood sugar. 
8. Heal wounds and burns:
External application of honey has been shown to be as effective as conventional treatment with silver sulfadiazene. It is speculated that the drying effect of the simple sugars and honey’s anti-bacterial nature combine to create this effect.
9. Probiotic:
Some varieties of honey possess large amounts of friendly bacteria. This includes up to 6 species of lactobacilli and 4 species of bifidobacteria. This may explain many of the “mysterious therapeutic properties of honey.”

10. Beautiful skin:
Its anti-bacterial qualities are particularly useful for the skin, and, when used with the other ingredients, can also be moisturizing and nourishing! For a powerful home beauty treatment for which you probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen already

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Early fall visit.

85 degrees today and sunny. Bees seemed happy and busy as usual. Even noticed some bees at Vineyard with filled pollen sacks. Thought about harvesting some small frames from orchard but some were it quite capped off. The earlier troubled hive had a plethora of brood, which seems odd since we've had cooler evenings as of late (50's). I did however harvested a full honey super from the strongest hive I have at the Orchard.

The photo was taken shortly after lunch and shade from trees is covering the boxes. Have to remember to place differently next year.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Update on Microtel bees.

Decided It was about time to visit the Microtel bees again. It had been two weeks. It's a good thing I did, they look like they are about to move out. I added another deep box. Hope they will be fine. Only was able to get off a couple shots before one decided just sting me on my arm. That's what I get for approaching without my suit.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

The Sting

This morning was quite adventurous and traumatic all in one. A visit to Vineyard hives was the first my nephew Justin visited the bess let alone help with the harvesting and checking of honey and honeybees.
Jackson sat in the vehicle even though temps were 85 degrees and climbing. Thus making the 9am visit, still a sweaty proposition. Alex our photography took a few shots while we were there. The bee shot was of our Microtel bees.


After visiting the vineyard we headed to the Orchard hives to check on them. Currently still trying to nurse one of those hives into being. Pretty sure still no queen and they apparently have been unsuccessful in making one as well. Anyway the other hive seems still strong though numbers look smaller but we have two deeps and two honey boxes on hive. Stole once again some early brood and placed into weakened hive. 
When done we were almost ready to go and Alex yelped. He had been towards the back of the vehicle when he was stunk directly under his right eye on his cheek. Unable to attend immediately help, he ran around screaming as several other bees were trying to follow up with some more torment, being warned by the stinging pheromones. As I approached some bees were following me as well, and we were afraid of them stinging him. Finally I was able after a few minutes approach and extract the lodged stinger from his cheek. Already swelling and tears with in his eyes, more bees came and he was off to the races. Pretty sure he'll be a sprinter in high school. After the bees dissipated we loaded up and have quite a story to tell. Don't think he'll be wanting to visit the bees any time soon. Though for those who read this, honeybees don't just come and sting you. A few apparently smelled the honey in the back of the vehicle and came calling in that area. One lit on his cheek and he swatted at it, thus the sting.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

8-6-13 Visit

Took 3 more honey frames from the Vineyard hive, only a few more and i'll have another 50 lbs. Pretty good year since these are all new colonies. Orchard hive North is still struggling. No sign of new queen nor her offspring. Placed a small sampling of brood from Orchard South so they can continue to keep numbers but I'm afraid unless the new queen shows with eggs, it will most likely parish.
Microtel hive continues to grow stronger but not as fast as I'd like it. Therefore I gave them a half frame of brood from Vineyard hive. Vineyard hive is strong and I hope it will still be fine after losing some of their own to help another. Guess we will find out.
Here's an image I took at home on one of our butterfly bushes. This bush is nearly 10' tall and covers a 1/4 of our south elevation of our house. I think it's about 6 years old now.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Times and trials

So, for the past month I've been dealing with the two Orchard hive losing their queens. At a loss as to why they disappeared however replaced the twice and finally one took and the other hive finally got tired and made their own. They did this with the help of myself by me giving them brand new brood from which they made queen cells from.
So today harvested a couple more frames of honey and saw that one hive gas eggs and is doing well and the other has a new queen. Yet to make her virgin flight, so hoping for the best.
So far I have harvested about 50lbs if honey. Will start bottling soon.
Also caught some wild bees at the Kelly residence with the help of Clarence. He was moving them in to a new box this week.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Update on a hot week

 Some honeybees are hanging out outside of box with the high 80 degree temps.
 Even though it rained half the day the bees were active this evening but mostly trying to stay cooler.
 Microtel bees are doing well but decided to try out my sugar feeders. Installed two gallon feeder this evening.
Filling with sugar water so they can build comb quicker.
 Strong numbers. The transfer killed very few of the wild bees.
 In four days, the honeybees built out 2.5 frames.
1/2 the honeycomb are filled with new eggs? The queen must be happy with her new digs.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Wild Bee Install Day

Ready for install of Microtel bees


The only bees left outside of brood box in evening of wild bee install.

Peeking out the top board.

Received my new brood box from Clarence @ CS Honey today. Had bees in temporary cardboard box  since Friday. In the mean time the queen had started laying eggs in the comb that the workers had already started building. Hoping that she wasn't damaged while I poured them in. Will be going back after this evening to shut brood box and take way cardboard. Crossing my fingers.
I also checked all other hives and they all are doing well with strongest at the Vinyard.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Visit 6-17-13

All Photos by Alexander Ruhaak
No wind, temperature was in high 70's but earlier was in 80's.
 Inspecting Prairie Hawk Vineyard hive.
 This is what happens when you leave one frame out. Pretty cool. They made their own. I hoping to keep it as it's full of eggs. It's attached to the top board. They made this comb in about 8 days.
 Catching me in a serious mode I guess.
 Here I'm checking on a beekeeper friend's bees.
 Not sure why they group like this, pretty cool.
Sunset caught by Alex.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

 I have removed all the reducers on all the brood boxes.
 I believe this is a Daring Jumping Spider. It doesn't look like it dares. 
Looks as if it plays for keeps.
 Guess I should get a few more frames. Looks like I'm making my own
custom honeycomb for my honey.
Filling the frames quite nicely in vinyard hive.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Week of May 20th

Meeting of the minds. It's amazing how they communicate.

Playing while I tend the bees

The exchange

Perfect comb.

I had never noticed this demonstration before. While pulling frames apart
to check the brood, the bees made a chain to try to keep them together. Not sure exactly what they are doing, but it doesn't seem to hurt them.