Morning Honey Bee visit !

This morning as I was enjoying my caffeine in my hot tub I was visited by a little buzzy girl... she circled around and finally landed on my arm 🐝🐝🐝
She must have been looking for a drink because she quickly sucked up a drop of water on my arm ... moved to another drop and filled up ... and then flew away 💕
It is so interesting watching my little buzzy girls ... up close and personal !

Checking On my Girls in Prep for Winter aka Fall Hive Management

Well, Fall is finally here and we are hoping for a good rainy Winter.  After 5 years of drought here in California ... beekeeping has become a bit challenging.  What we have found is that the quantity and quality of the nectar is just not sustaining our honey bee colonies.  So many of my beekeeping friends have had to start feeding their bees early ... some as early as July.  

I just did a hive check of my 4 colonies today.  I have to admit I have been a *bad* queen bee ! My TreeTop Hive is very aggressive so I reduced them from 6 boxes down to 4 and will let them settle down.  

My Azores 1 Hive is doing great and reduced to 3 boxes.  My Azores 2 Hive is doing good and reduced to 3 boxes.  My Azores 3 Hive is 3 boxes and I will need to start feeding them a 2/1 sugar syrup with added HoneyBee Healthy.  

I have not harvested any honey this year.  In the 8+ years that I've been keeping honey bees this is the first year I haven't harvested.  I just knew it was going to be a hard year for them.

 

Swarm in Cable Box

My friend Rainbo called me about a swarm that had moved into the cable box behind her condo ... I had been here before ... 2 years ago I caught my Skwerl Hive that was *thinking* of moving into this very same cable box ... but I was able to give them a much nicer home, which I moved to my bee community in Scotts Valley on my organic 1/2 acre property ... this new swarm would be harder to capture ... they had already started making honey comb in between all the wires and connectors and pipes contained in this forest green dome that had only 2 small holes for their entry and escape ...

After taking the dome cover off I discovered a small swarm ... probably 5000 bees ... 

I worked for 3 hours ... trying to move these buzzy girls and their queen to the hive that I brought for them ... but to no avail ...

So I left the hive, touching the cable wires and hope they decide to move into their new home (:

To Be Continued !  BuzzBuzz !

Late Spring Honey Harvest

The Summer of 2011 was a hard year for my Little Girls where I live in Santa Cruz County, CA.  The days were cool and the nectar flow never really came on.  They worked so hard and when I went to harvest in mid-September they have no spare honey !  In fact, their hives were so light that I ended up feeding them over 50 lbs of sugar and added Honey Bee Healthy.  If I had not fed my Little Girls, they would have starved !  Good news is... they made it through the Winter, all 4 of my hives, and came into the Spring strong and healthy :)  I split 2 of my hives into 4, gave one of my hives to a friend because they had become a bit aggressive and ended up with 5 hives.  This seemed to be a swarming year and I caught 3 swarms from my apiary, and caught 2 others... one in the Los Gatos Community Garden and one in a friend's yard in Santa Cruz.  Not needing 10 hives, I sold the 5 swarms that I caught.

In June 2012 I harvested 140 lbs of honey, and left them a bunch of honey just in case the Summer cools down.  It looks like it is going to bee a great Summer so I'm hoping to harvest again in August or September.

Life is good in my little Miraflores Bee Yard and my girls are buzzing around !

Mauna Kea Honey Bees

I recently spent a week in my brother's home on the Big Island of Hawaii. It was absolutely beautiful and the weather was superb ! Cool, sunny, afternoon rainstorms, and very little humidity ~ plus the VOG wasn't bad at all.

I drove from Kona to Hilo and took the Saddle Road. This road connects the West side of the island to the East side of the island. I stopped to take some pictures of Mauna Kea and heard that familiar sound ~ the buzzing of little busy honey bees. Hawaii has been hit hard in the past year by varroa mites and the small hive beetle and the honey bee population is in decline.

Here's a few pictures of these ambitious little girls doing their thing with Mauna Kea in the background. Sweet !

Mesquite Dunes Buzzy Bees

I had a wonderful time in Death Valley about 2 weeks ago. My friends and I were out enjoying the Mesquite Dunes near Furnace Creek ~ I heard a very familiar sound, the buzzing of a bee in flight ! Way out in Death Valley at sunset there were these lovely little bees... bigger than European Honey Bees but smaller than a BumbleBee... I was able to find one and follow it as it collected nectar from the Creosote Bush living on the Dunes. Here she is... isn't she beautiful !!!

Hard Fall/Winter for my Little Girls

Well, this Fall/Winter was very hard for my little girls. I started out in November 2010 with 6 hives and now I'm down to 3 ~ although they are very strong and happy :) I treated all 6 hives with oxalic acid fumes in November ~ 2 times about 10 days apart. The 3 hives that perished this Winter were all older hives ~ about 3 years old. And truly believe that the queens failed in the Fall. The size of the clusters kept getting smaller and ants were a nuisance for these weaker hives.

This Spring has been a mixed bag with hot weather, cold temps and lots of rain. BUT my survivors are doing great and I'm hoping to harvest their excess honey in the next month. But only after this cold snap has passed us by :)