It's been a very busy past two months. Have been only out to harvest frames twice and reduce honey supers down to two deeps boxes and and a honey. About ready to extract honey from frames and add winter patties to supplement going into late fall and start of winter. The bees are still bringing in pollen and it's been unseasonably warm. It was in mid 90's here yesterday. Stay tuned!

Gnarly Girls

So...where do I start? Last week I decided to harvest some frames from the vineyard hives. I brought a family friend, John M. and introduced him to beekeeping. Didn't have much time so was unable to harvest more than one hive. They weren't to happy and one got me through my jeans.

Here's a pic from that visit of a nice garden spider that was camped out in front of the hive.

So today Alex an I went down near Sidney, Iowa to help out fellow keeper Mike G. Checked his bees and gave him some tips. Again one girl got me through my suit on my stomach.

After that, it was getting close to 6 which should have been my clue. Normally you do not do major checking or harvesting typically in the evening.

Guess what I tried anyway. Went through smaller hive without much issue which was a small MoValley swarm. Doing well, but there will not be any harvesting this year. Moved on to next hive which I recall was a split from orchard hive. First few minutes were fine as I smoked but slowly the hive became more irritated and the hum more intent. Focusing the soldiers on my being their pheromonal stings brought more and more to my suit and head gear. So many in fact they began stinging through my suit. Of course finally unnerving me allowing some to creep up under my jacket and inside my head gear. Trying to keep my head as they began stinging the side of my head. I quickly closed hive after only harvesting 2 small frames but only with the help of Alex as he picked up some tools and dispatched a couple on my head as I took off my garb. Thanks for my helper.

Hopefully will be back at it tomorrow.

How bees in Nebraska, Iowa play crucial role in local food economy - Living - Omaha.com

How bees in Nebraska, Iowa play crucial role in local food economy - Living - Omaha.com

8-1-15 Visit

I checked one of our yard hives as I thought the numbers I had reduced suddenly. However everything looked good, so, many brood and lots of capped. Was difficult to see eggs but pretty sure there was some in there. And after that Alex and I check the orchard hive as it had been several weeks. Harvested about 40 pounds of honey. Checked down to second deep and there were many brood capped. Guessing there's 50 to 60,000 bees in this particular hive.

Courtesy my wife Melanie, a photo of me with the yard hive.

Extraction Day 7-25-15

Spent most of the day extracting honey from four out of the nine hives. Out of the four this is only a small percentage of honey that was ready.

Stifling to say the least. Feeling for the girls this week.

 

7-20-15 Visit

Had been a couple weeks since I visited these hives. 1/2 were harvested and the other 1/2 almost ready. Was thinning out weeds on 1st hive and the girls were not happy. Of course I had yet to smoke them and got nailed through my jeans. Not bad as stinger really can't stay in through the fabric. Anyway, harvested 60lbs worth. Which is just a fraction of what might be harvested.

7-16-15 Visit

85° with 82% humidity. Yeah, pretty sweaty after I was done. And I only checked 2 hives. MoValley Swarm is doing ok but slow. Found eggs immediately in top deep box.

Other split hive has two deeps and honey super. Harvested 3 frames from honey super. They got so riled up that I thought all out anarchy was upon me. I stopped harvesting at that point. It was almost sunset. Alex through sticks for Hershey dog and Schweeps dog.