Mud Songs

Jeff’s Splinter Colony

Phillip — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:28:12 +0000

Jeff Harris, from Clarenville, Newfoundland, dropped off some photos and video of one of his swarms from July 18th, 2011. I plan to do everything I can to avoid swarms where I live. Even though the bees are their most docile in this state, I got a feeling most people in my urban ‘hood would [...]

Dry Sugar Check Up and Pollen Patties

Phillip — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:13:46 +0000

It was warm enough today (1°C / 34°F) to take a peek inside our four hives and add some pollen patties. I didn’t have to top up the dry sugar that was added 46 days ago. The bees in the foundationless hive are low on honey, as I suspected, and have eaten through the most [...]

And So It Goes

Phillip — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:18:34 +0000

File this one under “Another Slow News Day.” What do rotting honey bee corpses look like in the middle of February after being buried in snow for a couple months? This: We had a heavy rain storm over the weekend that melted and washed away most of the snow and revealed the bottom entrances of [...]

567 Days of Beekeeping

Phillip — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:33:40 +0000

Here are four and a half minutes of photos from our first 567 days of beekeeping. It’s not a “best of” collection, but it’s the best I could put together in 20 minutes (there are more photos of bees than beekeeping per se). It should look half-decent played back in full screen at the highest [...]

Gone Away is The Bluebird

Phillip — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:25:01 +0000

THE FOLLOWING WAS LAST UPDATED ON FEB. 12, 2012 (A PREVIOUS UPDATE INCLUDES A VIDEO). Yup. It’s still winter. I hear that honey bees in the UK are starting to bring in pollen. Well, goody for them. About an hour later: Two days later (photo taken from inside the house): Again from the safety of [...]

How to Make Pollen Patties

Phillip — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:50:56 +0000

We feed our bees pollen in the form of pollen patties for two reasons: 1) To get the queen laying in late winter, around mid-February, so that the colony’s population is at a healthy level when spring arrives. 2) To give a nuc colony the boost it needs throughout the summer so that it can [...]

Crystallized Honey (After 4 Months)

Phillip — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:08:29 +0000

THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE ORIGINALLY POSTED. Some of our honey from 2011 has begun to crystallize in the bottles, specifically the extracted honey that was always cloudy. The crushed-and-strained honey is no longer perfectly clear like apple juice, but it’s still liquid. LEFT: Crushed-and-strained honey from Sept. 27/11. RIGHT: Crystallized extracted honey from [...]

Winter Begins

Phillip — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:49:25 +0000

It was -14°C today with a -26°C (-15°F) wind chill. The hives bore it well. Only another three months to go, if we’re lucky. Continued in Gone Away is The Bluebird.

Beekeeping Start-Up Costs (2012)

Phillip — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:30:42 +0000

The following is a rough cost estimate and guide for setting up a bare minimum honey bee hive on the island of Newfoundland in 2012. (It’ll come to about $700.) It’s better to start with more than one hive, but if you need to go cheap, this is the way to do it. We order [...]

Ants Eat Hive Insulation

Phillip — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:21:35 +0000

A word of caution to beekeepers who use hard insulation in their hives for any reason: some ants have an appetite for insulation. Check out this photo sent to me from a beekeeper in Indiana: I doubt this kind of infestation would be an issue for beekeepers on the island of Newfoundland or in similar [...]