Tuesday, July 21, 2015

GIRLS MOVING ON UP

 Notice anything different about the hives?


They are taller!  
Yep, our lovely ladies are getting a luxury high rise addition...

English Garden Hives
Bees naturally move in a hive as they need more space.  If they are up and get crowded, they move down.  If they are down and need more space, they move up.  On a recent inspection, I noticed that they are moving up into the second level.  I decided to go ahead and order two more supers.  We have to make sure they have enough room to make plenty of honey stores since they had such a rainy start to the season.

Third level honey super
So, we added this third box, often called a "honey super" so that they can make more than enough honey to keep them going through Winter and hopefully give us a bit to share in as well this first season.



22 comments:

  1. That is exciting and I look forward to watching them flourish at your farm. Wish I wasn't such a fraidy cat. I'd pick up a snake, but the little bee sting scares me.

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  2. this is so exciting! i can't wait to see how much honey you get. when do you harvest it? i just bought some rare black locust honey yesterday.

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    1. Well, they are running behind because of the super rainy season...we have to leave enough for them to get through the winter. We are hoping that the third level will let them 'spread their wings' (no pun intended) and produce more. Could be september when we try a harvest.

      Black locust honey? I will have to google that!

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  3. I hope you do well your first year. Things look promising. I thought you might be interested in this article that was in our local paper.

    http://www.jdnews.com/article/20150705/LIFESTYLE/150709735

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    1. So far it's so good. WOW that article is fascinating. Thanks for that, I will do some more research on that. Very intriguing for sure.

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  4. I am still having some bee envy! Congratulations! Makes me mentally sing the theme song from The Jeffersons.

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    1. Ha, when I wrote that title I was humming the tune myself, LOL! Thanks for the kind words!!

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  5. oooooo, that sounds wonderful, what a beautiful sight!!!

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    1. Thank you, so far it's been a wonderful experience.... :-)

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  6. Looks like things are going well for your bees. I hope it continues to this way and you get lots of honey!

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    1. Hi! Always nice to see you! Thank you fingers are crossed, so far so good!!

      And everyone, go visit her blog for a great post about making your own cough drops. Can't wait to try it.

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  7. Definitely looks like your ladies are doing well. Perhaps if you get loads of honey you can swap it for something else you need. We get our honey from a neighbour and in return he studies a list of what we have to offer e.g. home grown fruit, veges, bread, preserves, homemade yoghurt, basically anything I can persuade him to take in exchange for the liquid gold.

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    1. Now THAT'S a great idea. I like the idea of bartering and hey, honey is liquid gold, right? LOL. Awesome!

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  8. Wow, your bees are doing so well - and it’s just your first year! Happy bees, happy beekeeper!

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    1. Thanks, hoping that trend continues. Thank you!

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  9. 1st Man,

    I see you're doing very for the first year of having bee hives.
    Hopefully, your bee's will produce an amazing harvest for you.
    Good luck!!!
    Hugs,
    Sandy

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    1. It's kind of cool to think of harvesting...they are like having a garden. ;-)

      Thank you!

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  10. So good to see that your bees are doing well. Congratulations.
    So well in fact that they are starting to live in a high rise accommodation. :}

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    1. Ha, great way of putting it. They are definitely moving on up...to a deluxe apartment...in the skyyyy!

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