Category: Beekeeping

A few weeks ago, my Warre hive arrived (in pieces.)

 

I was really impressed with the craftsmanship of the hive but not so thrilled that there weren’t any instructions or screws to assemble the hive. I was able to figure it out on my own. Also I have the tools (screws, drill, and wood glue) needed to complete this project. But, I  couldn’t help but think there might be others not good with these type of things  that were in for an unpleasant surprise once their unassembled hive arrived!

 

Since my nephew was visiting, I didn’t assemble it on the Saturday that it was received. And although I was planning on putting it together last Saturday, I decided to hold off until later. You see, there were a few things that I needed to do before I started assembling my beehive.

In order to make the honeybees home more “bee friendly” I’ve opted not to paint the hive with ordinary paint. It seems that’s done more for the beekeepers benefit than the bees.  Instead I’ll be “painting” my hive with a combination of Linseed oil and natural bees wax. Linseed oil is a natural preservative and will increase the longevity of the hive.

Efficacy of hot wax dipping
“Robinson and French (1984) indicated that some apiarists found that hot wax dipped treatments lasted in excess of 15 years before retreatment of the material became necessary. Some beekeepers have indicated that well-treated boxes will last for more than 20 years before further treatment is required.

Additionally, the inclusion of beeswax makes the hive more friendly to honeybees since they already know what that smells like, I’m hoping it’ll convince them to stay in their brand-new home.  I thought I had natural beeswax laying around. I use it in soaps, butters, and lip balms but I completely forgot that I gave about three pounds of it away to someone new to making skin care products. No worries, I ordered more. That along with the linseed oil is enough I need to “paint” the hive this weekend. One day next week, I’ll assemble my Warre beehive.

I did find a site that has a  Warre Hive pictorial guide, I found it helpful for a few things I questioned.

 

Resource: How to preserve hives naturally

This past Friday I ordered my Beekeeping suit. It arrived today!

 

I did a lot of research before settling upon the above bee suit. The majority of the advice given supported purchasing a larger sized suit. The reason people gave for ordering a larger size was that there would be more material between the suit and your skin so if a honeybee was to sting the suit your chances of being stung would be decreased. That made sense (to me) so instead of purchasing the size small, like I’d originally planned, I ordered a large beekeeping outfit. If you look closely, you’ll notice that I wear toe rings; four total – two on each foot. I’ve been wearing them for about twelve years. They rarely come off my toes.

 

The beekeeping suit is roomy! I guess it would be since it’s a large and I’m a size small. I’m not complaining since this means that I have plenty of room to wear regular clothes underneath. Which means I have extra padding in case a few honeybees try to test out their stingers. I told my daughter I felt like an astronaut wearing this ensemble. She rambled on about this being more proof the Black beekeepers exist. I corrected her and told her I’m a “soon to be beekeeper.” Of course they exist I’ve ran into a few online and who really cares what color the person is? I know I don’t… But she says she hasn’t seen any pictures of them here in the USA so she was thrilled to take my picture; silly girl!

curls and q says
May 5, 2013 at 12:20 pm (Edit)

Q – Aw, where’s the pic of you in the beekeeper outfit?
curls and q recently posted..Good Advice, Thomas Edison

See Q, I did have pictures taken of me in my beekeeping outfit. I told you I would. You’ll be seeing entirely too many pictures of me throughout my beekeeping adventures. 😉

Edited to add…

I purchased my beekeeping outfit from the Brushy Mountain Beekeeping farm. I selected the Master Beekeeping outfit. The Dome Hood with Half zipper was ordered separately from their site, but it zips perfectly onto my beekeeping outfit.

Earlier this morning, I (finally) ordered my bee suit.

I’ve seen numerous videos of beekeepers putting their honeybees into their hive without being fully covered, I’ve decided to err on the side of caution and be properly suited when I introduce my honeybees to their brand new hive.

The beekeepers aren’t included with the suit. although I admit they might come in handy since I’m a new beekeeper! So… why a bee suit? The package honeybees I’m receiving contains about 10,000 honeybees. Yeah, let that sink in for a bit… as much as I love bees.  Do you really think I want to showing a lot of bare skin if they decide that I’m the enemy? I didn’t think so…

Last Saturday, my Warre hive arrived by postal mail. The hive arrived in pieces and will stay that way until tomorrow when I finally get to assemble the hive. I’m handy with tools, so I really don’t see the project taking too long to complete.

Along with the bee suit I ordered a Hive Smoker. After reading the effects that the smoke seems to have on honeybees (causing them to retreat into their hive to protect their queen and honey stores) I’m hoping I don’t have to use it… Well I might use it to place smoke around me to make me look less appealing.

 

In other news…

I ordered a pair of Hiya Hiya size 0 steel circular knitting needles. I purchased them specifically for knitting socks You see… I joined a Hiya Hiya knit along on Ravelry, I love the Hiya Hiya Fairy Wings socks, I’ve purchased several of Qianer’s knitting patterns. She’s one the owners of Hiya Hiya knitting needles. A family business located in Shanghai, China.

 

When purchasing package honeybees it is a smart idea to feed them. Why? Think about it, the honeybees are moved into a brand new home after traveling in many cases a long distance. With package bees, they don’t have any suitable honeycomb stored.

From what I’ve been reading, it’s a good idea to assist them until they start actively going out and collecting nectar on their own.  As a beekeeper, I  will feed the new honeybees until they have plenty of honey stores for the winter months. What’s sad, is that some beekeepers get a bit greedy and take  too much honey which means their bees starve during the winter.

The past few years, our Maryland winters have been unpredictable. Some days it’s been cold and other days unseasonably warm. From what I’ve been reading, Honeybees do not travel outside their hive when it gets too cold.

Yesterday, I purchased the Hive top bar feeder. This will be my only feeder purchase next time I’ll make my own. I’ll also be making my own Honeybee feast for my honeybees.  The recipe is simple a 1:1 mix of water and raw sugar.

A few days ago, I received an email from my honeybee supplier. Towards the end of May, I’ll have my honeybees!

I was thinking that I most likely wouldn’t see them until around that time and I was correct. To be honest, I’m a bit relieved since this means that I have more time to do more things before they arrive. The good news is, that my Warre honeybee hive will be here much before that time.  Who knows by the time my honeybee arrives, I might have some chickens too.

In other news…

It’s been a busy week for my daughter (and myself) around 6:00 p.m. this evening, we finally had a chance to relax. My daughters musical was earlier today and they all did an amazing job. The children knew their lines and song beautifully. They received a standing ovation for their performance.

Instead of purchasing the popular Langstroth hive, I’ve decided on the Warre hive. The past few weeks I’ve been doing my research and I really think that I’ll like the Warre and so I purchased my first Warre hive this morning.

My Warre Bee Hive will be similar to this, but my hive will have an observation window. Abbé Émile Warré (1867-1951) created the Warre hive, he was an apiarist and resources say he studied over 350 different hive systems before he created his own, the Warre hive aka  The People’s Hive. There was a great podcast over on Pargamatic Beekeeping that talked about top bar hives yet another great resource that helped me decide to purchase a Warre hive.

I’ve known about Warre hives for several years, but I was a bit unsure about using them since there wasn’t as much information about them as the Langstroth hives. I like that the Warre hives are smaller and they’re designed so the beekeeper doesn’t have to be in them as much. Which is perfect for me, since I want to stay out of the honeybees way… letting them do their own thing with little interaction from myself. I simply don’t want to constantly be barging in on their bee space. Checking the place where I ordered my package bees, I might not receive my honeybees until later in May… and that’s fine with me. I’ve waited years to finally get around to purchasing my own hives, a few more weeks won’t hurt.

Honey is at the bottom of my list on why I want honeybees

As I’ve mentioned many times my main reason for getting honeybees isn’t for honey, I want to include them in our yard because they’re great pollinators and I’d love to see more honeybees in our area. Over the past several years,  because of the dwindling honeybee population (also called Colony Collapse Disorder) I haven’t seen as many of one of my favorite insects until last year… Last year, I started seeing more honeybees not at the same level before I noticed a decline, but it sure was nice to see more around the house.

While some people view honeybees as pests, I know without them the some of the food that we depend upon to survive wouldn’t be available.

 

I find it fascinating to view beekeeping practices throughout the world

The above video is a clip about Kenyan beekeepers.

 

Facing angry bees: Bravery makes the man…

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a reader wondering if there were any “Black beekeepers”.  Perhaps they thought to ask me since I’m obviously not “White.”  Also, I have been talking about acquiring my own bees? Well, I don’t know all the “Black folks” on the planet, but  I was able to tell my reader that my father and others in his neighborhood collected wild honey from a tree located in the nearby woods. Additionally as a child, he knew someone who kept bees, and yes they were Black.

That email brought about an interesting discussion between us, they chatted about the low representation of minorities and beekeeping here in the USA. I know there are “Black beekeepers” and other minorities out there, but I have no idea how large that group would be.

I can speculate that some of them are put off by the beekeeping literature that shows pictures of a predominately White/Caucasian community, and chose to forgo beekeeping events. Also, not everyone likes attending those sorts of things. I’m used to standing out in the crowd and don’t hesitate to attend any event that interests me regardless if I’m the only one of my race being represented. Sometimes I wonder how many others are willing to attend events where they might be in the minority?