12-14-14 Visit

Fed bees in Vineyard sugar/water mix. Alex helped me make some wood platforms to place sugar on.

However we did loose one hive. Most likely the cold. There were minimal dead bees compared to actual hive. Have to think that it might have been the hive that swarmed late in the season.

All other hives still had some protein patties and we're doing well. I did not look deep in the supers, so not 100% sure but they all were pretty active. It was 60° and no wind when I checked. Was a little misty.

Late Fall Visit

Couldn't help myself on this 59° day and had to visit several hives. All orchard girls seemed to be doing well even with the - temps in the last 10 days or so. Supplement fed but most had some remaining patties within. Wild swarm hive from last year was quite wiley. 

Weather this morning

I Dare You Not To Have A Favorite From The List

http://www.realnews24.com/list-of-foods-we-will-lose-if-we-dont-save-the-bees/

Tucked in for winter

Made a last go around to check bees. All hives have decent numbers. Some more active than others. Supplement fed all. The weather is about to change so it may be weeks before I'm able to check again.

A Bee Friendlier Flower Bombing

Beekeeping Story-Finally a decent story about the honeybee plight.

Beekeeping: Beekeeper Chris Ruhaak of Loess Hills Honey Company harvests honey at Prairie Hawk Winery in Council Bluffs, IA.

Fall Update

Have been very busy with my other business and haven't been able to keep up with this blog. Just a few quick notes. Had a swarm mid September and Clarence Seale was able to help capture. Long story short, it was a strong swarm, found a queen 5-7 days later, then yesterday queen was gone and no eggs.
Very frustrating, but then it's out of my control what nature does. All hives seem somewhat slow with brood but then have had some wacky cool and then hot days. Have been supplementing with winter patties with most and sugar water to the swarm hive.
Just too busy to keep up on them all but will need to move them to their winter area soon. Here's a couple photos from the 19th of Vineyard hives.

Sporadic Visits

Have visited bees several times since my last post. Everything going well, but also winding down the season. I'm hoping for some great promotional and educational news soon in the Omaha World Herald. Stay tuned.

Showing the hives to a great local reporter this last weekend.

Loess Hills Beekeeping Association Field Day 8/9

Had a great day with our club bee keepers. Checked all hives and even harvested 7 frames. Partly cloudy with temps in upper 70's.

Jackson tagged along and helped. He was bored during part of the four hours, but was a trooper.

Orchard hives visit (Week of the 4th)

Decent growth in package and wild swarm. Both have second brood supers on, with one a honey super on wild. Established hive has decent honey stores but have yet to close much if it.

8-2-14 Extraction

Traveled down to fellow beekeeper Clarence's home to do my first large extraction of the year. Did a small extraction in July for tour group. Alex accompanied me but was of little help as he was very concerned with the 200-300 honeybees on the porch where we were extracting. I felt bad for him but overall he did well by the end. Got popped on the hand myself.

Ended up extracting over 70 pounds of honey. Have already bottle 40 bottles for delivery.

An outdated update

I have been visiting all the hives for the past several weeks but have not been updating info. All have been doing well including the tailgate swarm which was started with just 200 honeybees!

All established hives have quite a bit of honey and I should get a minimum of another 60-80 pounds of additional honey. All new packages have additional brood supers except one. Temps have been overall unseasonably cool in mornings with beautiful daytime temps around 80.

Extra info on small wild swarm. Did add a new Italian after two weeks of any sign of them making their own with the added brood and eggs I provided.

7-3-14 Orchard Visit.

All hives looking good, added deep to last package out there. Hive near barn has most of its honey frames 3/4 full. I'm wondering why the don't finish them off. It might be because some had eggs in them this early spring. Spotted queen on wild swarm. Beautiful day, 78° and calm.

Prairie Hawk Winery Tour Group Presentation

Had the pleasure with Clarence Seale of giving a tour group with Village Tour from Witchita, KS a presentation on honeybees and honey extraction. All thoroughly enjoyed and harvested the first of many pounds of honey this year. Sales by Jackson Ruhaak and photography by Alexander Ruhaak.

Consummate beekeeeper.

Waiting for our 48 guests to arrive.

Honeybee information being disseminated. 

In the bees

Full frame of capped honey

Showing off the girls

Conversation over the extractor

Liquid gold.

A conversation of history of a sunken ship near Kansas City.

Extracted frame

Honey sales at its finest.

Busy week.

Had a call 6 days ago about a small swarm near the Dodge House. Come to find out, very small and most likely lost their queen. Extracted from tailgate of a pickup with a brush and sugar water and sucked up the rest with a bee vacuum setup. Installed small swarm at a local vegetable farm and antique shop property. Did supplement with a decent sized frame of brood, eggs, and uncapped larvae. Will have to see what happens.

Added deep box on another package. Almost all packages have double brood boxes. Took 5 more small honey frames from one of the vineyard hives of which the girls weren't happy and sent a kamakazee bee down my back pocket. Yep, it smarted! 

6-22-14

Checked on vineyard bees, specifically a package of which had to make their own queen the last few weeks. Last time I had checked, no eggs. Today lucked out on this lightly breezy day around 78 degrees.  Found new eggs. Checked other packages and one large established hive.  Will need to add deep brood boxes soon on packages. Added a deep on orchard wild hive last week.

Busy 6-11-14 check

All hives had brood and most had visible eggs. High 70's with light breeze. Main reason checking was to change out any honey frames that were full and check on new packages and wild hive. 

One package at vineyard seems to have lost the queen. Seems they are in route to make their own queen. Did harvest a full honey super of honey from one established hive at vineyard. Other established hive at orchard seemed strong but oddly spaced brood pattern in some frames but not all. Will be watching closely.

6-7-14

Visited all hives today. Checked on viability of all new packages. Good build out on all comb with eggs and larvae. Wild hive and established colonies all doing well.

While leaving Prairie Hawk Vineyards stopped by the Swallow's Nest, Jayna's Country Store & Gardens. Delivered a few jars of our Loess Hills Honey Company, honey for her to sell. Check out the store with a lot of vintage antiques and fresh produce. Yummie!

Current view of wild and one new package area.

My helper for this afternoon.

May 31st additional queen excluder and check-up

Checked on bees this day and found that Parkwood hive queen did indeed start laying eggs! That's a big yeah and relief. Other new package at orchard seemed to be doing well and the workers let their queen out and was able to spot her and take photos. She also was laying a good number of eggs.
Established hive is brimming full of bees. Added excluder and added another honey super. Other photos are from a hike the following day in the Loess Hills in Hitchcock Nature Preserve.

If you look closely you can see the eggs in the cells.

Nice looking queen.

Mr. Dung beetle

Cousin bee.

Snail mail

Looking closely

The Lodge