Frances and the Bee

The springtime weeks when tiny green leaves sprout all about just never get old.  These flowers bloom first in our yard. They are only a few inches tall but, trust me, they are packed with hope for warmer weather and brighter moments to come.  The unseasonably warm weather we have been having has many of us Minnesotans wondering if spring really is here to stay. Most agree we probably still have at least one surprise snowstorm yet to come. If you put your snowblower away, you know, that will be the day it snows. Regardless, the beautiful, warmer days have had the bees very busy. We even broke a record for a high temperature last week when we reached 84 degrees F.   Since we are talking about breaking records, this is the first time we have had all of our hives survive through winter, and we couldn't be more happy about it.  We attribute the success, so far, to a lot of things we did differently last fall, including heavy end-of-season feeding and treating for va...

I realize that I think of updating this blog much more often than I do.  The beekeeping seasons are full of decisions, notes, and moments I would like to remember, but time just passes so quickly and the days are full.  This post has been something I have been putting off, though.   In late July, we lost Lee, who I called, "Mr. T," here on the blog. He was a friendly martial artist and retired correctional officer, a veteran, a naturalist and musician. He had been a friend to our family for over 30 years. He had a very short battle with cancer. Lee was the reason that we started beekeeping instead of letting it remain a daydream. Our bees have been kept on his land and he was one of their biggest cheerleaders. The last time I saw him, he brought us cold glasses of water while we were doing an inspection in the summer heat. I told him I wanted to update the blog again (since he was one of the handful of people who really read this), but that I wasn't sure I shoul...

Since I don't update the blog often, sometimes, when I sit to write, I wonder where to start.  After the last two years of beekeeping, we found ourselves in a place of learning mostly from the mistakes we made. Honey yield is not our main goal of this pursuit, but it is a goal, and we just didn't have the harvests we'd like to see. We haven't been as successful at getting our bees through winter as we want to be. This beekeeping year, we regrouped and have been working hard on keeping up with spring feeding, doing inspections more often and with more intention, learning MUCH more about pre-swarm behavior and inside-the-hive space management, etc. Each week, I kept thinking of updating my notes here, but I knew that several days later, we'd have more we had been thinking or doing...and so here we are in July, 2020. Oh, 2020.  I won't address the upheaval this year has brought with it except that, in the particular theme of things here, it brings to my mind quite ...

It is now August, and signs of the last part of summer are all around.  The county fair came and went, the school supply lists are out, and the leaves on the trees can be heard a little more as the wind blows through them. Minnesotans, although very fond of autumn, try not to mention its pending arrival.  We are soaking up every last drop of summer here. In my last update, we had two awesome hives and I was daydreaming about a stack of honey supers taller than me on each one. We started to see fresh, capped honey. With the changes in season come the usual changes to plant and animal life in the area. The corn is high, some of the flowers are going to seed, and the deer are out at sunset to eat up soybeans.  This isn't to mention how plump some of the toads have gotten: Unfortunately, though, we have also had a change in our beekeeping season. During one of the inspections a while back, we saw that the brood patterns were really healthy and we decide...

Some people have been asking if the remaining hive has made it through winter.  Unfortunately, it did not, so we are awaiting a fresh start again this year. It has been sort of a slow start to the season, though.  I read the other day that it felt like the 57th day of February here in the Midwest. It's sad, but true. We are right in the middle of April, and still looking at another snowstorm in the forecast for the upcoming weekend.  On April 5th last year, I wrote that we had just picked up our bees. We know a couple people who have received their bees here, including our mentor, Mr. Martin. Because of the cold, he has been keeping his bees in the basement and just installed them yesterday. Mr. Bee, Little Mr. Bee, and Scout were able to be there with Mr. Martin yesterday when he moved them back inside. He can keep them there for a couple of weeks now since he has provided them with honey and controlled temperatures. Here is a photo of Mr. Martin and one od his ...

Summer is full of activity in Minnesota, for us and for the bees. We have been visiting parks, pools and lakes, fishing, picnicking, and spending as much time as we can outside, and, of course, checking on our bees. We are already in what is one of the main nectar flows in our area. This means it is prime time for bees to be collecting nectar and storing honey. We will be checking on the hives about once a week to make sure that the bees have enough space to work. Honey is often called "liquid gold". It is a very sweet reward for the labor of beekeeping. Many people don't know that there are other simple joys in beekeeping aside from just collecting honey. For example, our second hive is doing remarkably well, and it's really neat to open the cover and see a full box of frames like this: Every year, I look forward to the first time I see an emerging bee. This is the first time I have tried to post a video here, so I hope it works. Here is a short clip where...