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.