Posts by WebGuy

Had a black bear visit Thursday night. The dogs were howling, but I didn’t know why. The bear turned over 2 hives. One was unscathed – I just had to put it back in place. The other had 3 (out of 10) frames destroyed. Can’t see the queen. Since there’s lots of brood (unhatched bees),…

After a bit of a kerfuffle in which 4 of the queens with my 6 new packages of bees died (still figuring out why), I got 4 replacements and tucked them away into the 4 queen-less hives. I’ll check on the next beautiful day to see if they made it.

With the deep frost (including -7 degrees without windchill), to give the bees an extra helping hand, they got some extra warmth. The bees basic warmth comes from the bees clustering together and eating honey to maintain 92 degrees around them. The rest of the hive is cold … freezing. The hive is wrapped in tar paper to absorb…

Mordant board and a spacer is placed on top of the hive to absorb the moisture created by the bees maintaining 92 deg. and the hot air moving up to the cold cover. The tar paper on the brood box to absorb the sunlight, giving the hive a boost in temperature so the bees do…

It’s Fall, time for apple picking, cider and donuts        It’s Fall, time for apple picking, cider and donuts. There are some great places close to Honey Maple Grove that you can take advantage of. And when you are all picked out … there are great farm-to-table restaurants close by. Most important: On weekends…

Beekeeping sometimes makes a beekeeper feel helpless. One can only help the hives along, ultimately, the bees control their own destiny. Of our 4 hives that overwintered, only one (3) lived through it. The other 5 all died out. Had to get new packages (see white cages in front of hives). I think part of…