Frances and the Bee

Really. It was the snowiest winter on record here in central Minnesota.  I often make references as to how long winter feels here, but this year was historical. We did a lot of shoveling and snowball throwing. We also did a lot of staying in, watching movies, and drinking cocoa. As always, we checked on the hives, too. We went into the winter with two hives. We had very, very high varroa mite counts in the fall and did some aggressive treatments in hopes to help the colonies be strong enough for what would be an extra-long winter. (Insert quiet winter waiting here.) I am pleased to say that warmer temperatures did return and one of our hives has wintered! In the fall, we treated these bees, separated the brood frames, and re-treated when the brood hatched. Then, we combined them all back together. Success!  These girls were out finding pollen even before all of the snow had melted. This colony has a wonderful temperament and everything looks right on track inside the hive. We ...

It has been since spring that I made an entry here. We have enjoyed another full season of beekeeping, which we are close to wrapping up. Here are some summarized notes about this season: We started with two hives and a destructive visit from a bear (see previous post). The bees weathered the bear's disturbance really well. For the hive that was spilled all over, the queen was not injured, so the bees went on building the colony and I think that the reduction in numbers may have helped them not need to swarm. Both hives spent the summer on the farm. The hive that was left untouched was pretty feisty to start the year but became one of the most pleasant hives to work that we have ever had. I am really hoping we can get these bees through winter so that we can have more time with them. The farm continues to be a beautiful refuge for the bees, and we enjoy our moments there, too. The kids get to play and learn, and us adults get to stop and visit a while. This year has had some especi...

A few days ago, I saw a post from the Minnesota DNR that explained how April in Minnesota was the gloomiest on record in the last 60 years (in regards to solar radiation). Having had snow on our Bee Day, followed by freezing temps for days on end, more snow, and rain, it made a difficult start to the beekeeping season. There was little chance to inspect, but we were able to see that the queens in each of our hives were laying eggs and the workers were starting to store up pollen on the days that were warm enough to fly. We had a good chat one evening about how to manage mite treatment. This would likely be the most challenging aspect of our season, so it felt good to have a tentative plan and have it off of our to-do list before the evening was over.  Then, we woke up to the sound of a piece of wood dropping on our back patio at 3 am. The sound had been a hive lid. Imagine our surprise when our patio light revealed a medium-sized black bear was making a major feast of our bees and ...

Happy Spring?? Minnesota is taking its time to switch over to warm temperatures, and I have some updating to do before I start the Bee Day update. I genuinely thought I had updated the blog last fall when the last of our hives died. I did not make a post like I thought I had. Although I left off with us treating for mites, we lost all of the remaining bees within weeks of my last post.  It was extremely disappointing after having had such a successful year; all hives survived last winter, we managed the most hives we have ever had at once in a beautiful new location, and we took our highest honey yield. Alas, all the hives succumbed and we didn't winter any. Many people think of beekeeping as being either really scary (being surrounded by 100,000 bees!?) or they think of it as being super idealized (scooping out honey whenever we want). Beekeeping is sometimes intimidating and is certainly beautiful and fascinating, but I want take a moment to remind readers that beekeeping is...

We are always seeing the changing seasons, aren't we? Fall really lets us know it, though. At the beginning of August, something fun happened this season that I wanted to share here before I give an update on our hives. Some friends of ours said they had bees going in and out of a knot hole in an old oak tree.  When we visited, we observed the activity and saw that they were honey bees!  Over the years of beekeeping, we have lost many bees to early season swarming, when half of a hive leaves with a queen to make a new colony.  We have always comforted ourselves that, although we are losing something, we are contributing to nature, but this was the first time we have ever seen a colony like this for ourselves. It was so amazing to see a colony "in the wild!"  I have heard positions on either side of whether honey bees should be considered "native pollinators" since they were brought to the U.S. from England. Honey bees have stolen a lot of the public attention as...