Beekeepers in Winter

Without being able to see my girls in the cold weather, I have to content myself with other ways to think about bees.

This past weekend I attended NOFA - Northeast Organic Farming Association at Worcester State University. The event has left my head buzzing with ideas. (Get it?)

About 800 people attended and just being with 800 other people who get the importance of bees is pretty cool. I spoke with farmers who grow incredible vegetables, beautiful chickens, and fuzzy sheep. The food, as you might imagine, was not only tasty but organic as well. All day long, the only thing I saw that wasn't labeled organic was the sugar in my tea. Which might have been organic, but unlabeled.

As expected, there were a couple of workshops on bees. One was on beginning beekeeping and I decided not to go to that. I am coming to the close of my 7th year beekeeping so I checked out other things during that time.

I did go to Dan Conlon's workshop on Queen rearing. He and his wife own Warm Colors Apiary. I learned a lot and this echos what I'd been thinking about. If I love a queen, I should actively keep her genes in my apiary.

So inspired by Dan, I am going to work to keep really clear records of my bee lines and learn to mark queens. I am going to select on two important characteristics: gentleness and honey production.  Right now, I am really in a record keeping phase but as we expand the operation here, which hive the queen comes from will be quite important.

Go bees!

Christmas Bees

It is unusually warm here on Christmas day so I though it would be an excellent time to visit the bees and see what they were up to. I also planned to drop off a Christmas gift. I snuck in a sugar patty in each hive. 

The bees were enjoying the sunny weather. They were very curious but not aggressive in the least. Often I find the bees in the winter a bit unpredictable. They are much easier to work when they have been outside. Bees don't pee or poop in their hive so on sunny days when the temperature gets above 50 degrees, they take elimination flights. These elimination flights allow them to relive themselves away from the hive. The warmer it is, the farther away they go.

I dropped one hive down a box but the other hive still had a couple of partial frames of honey in the attic so I left it and put their sugar patty up top just on the edge of the hole. 

The bees were not the only ones to get presents today. I got some new hive tools, a nifty all wood jar feeder, an new honey super complete with frames, and a nifty sign from from my husband (who also took pictures in the bee yard).

Honey harvesting

I am always amazed at the difference between summer and fall honey. This is all we have left of our summer honey on the right and the darker, bolder fall honey is on the left. It was a slim harvest for us. The bees in one hive just didn't produce much at all this year while the other was nicely productive.

My husband loves to help with harvest even when that means he's on cleaning duty. Here he is cleaning out a box that will go into storage this winter. 

Our productive hive really liked making wax. Normally we keep enough frames in the hives for the bees to fill with honey, but apparently I left an open spot. It wasn't empty for that long. The bees made a frame to fill the space. These bees are quite dark and that is generally true of all the bees in this hive. Some of the daughter workers have virtually no yellow on them anywhere. This is in contrast with our other hive where this fall's new bees are very golden in color.

Typically beekeepers assume that darker bees are more temperamental. In this case my experience belies that notion. These bees are lovely to work yet they also produce good amounts of honey.

99 Bulbs in the ground

It has been a busy weekend here. I planted 99 bulbs in one afternoon. Why 99 and not 100?  I planted three packages of bulbs - 50 crocuses, 25 late tulips and 24 early tulips. The folks who work on the packaging really make me crazy with their inconsistent numbers of bulbs but I am sure I won't care in the spring when there is a riot of pastel colors in the front yard. Some of the bulbs were planted in beds next to the door. This is the first time we ever planted bulbs there. Let's hope the chipmunk doesn't notice!

Crocuses provide a fair amount of pollen for being such a small flower. Tulips always give me pause in the spring. Their pollen is often black or dark gray. So my first instinct is to think the bees have moldy honey before I remember that tulips are in bloom.

We also harvested the last of the tomatoes. The tomatoes cracked me up this year. My daughter brought home two tomato plants labeled yellow pear. These beauties are Early Girl - no yellow or pear about them.

The final fall preparations are underway. The bees are still bringing in pollen although the cooler days have brought fewer and fewer bees out every day.

Animal Garden

At the beginning of fall we have our last flower of the year blooming in our animal garden. 

Turtle head grows about three feet tall and we have it growing and thriving in what seems to be entirely the wrong place in the garden!  Everything on the web says put this in shade and damp soil so we have it growing in a sunny dry location. Go figure. 

Bumble bees enjoy this flower and their bums seem to vibrate with joy as they climb into the mouths of the "turtles" and suck up the nectar. 

We have a few themed gardens. In the Animal Garden every plant in the little spot has an animal name. Summer brings the Tiger Lilies to bloom and late summer we have lambs ear. Their flowers are purple-ish with a fuzz all over just like the soft leaves. 

My friend Kathleen gave  me Hen and Chicks when we moved in 15 years ago. We have dozens of hens and chicks now all from the four tiny plans she shared from her garden. 

These are my favorite plants in the garden. They were what inspired the garden theme and were the first thing I brought into the gardens here. 

Got Honey?

Why yes we do!  We have some summer honey available from Cerulean and Astrid. If you are interested, you can contact us by leaving a comment below or PM me on FaceBook.

The honey this summer is really lovely. The goldenrod was out a bit early this year and you can taste it in the honey - it is richer than our summer honey usually is. Never fear, you fall honey lovers, there is more on the way...

Honey Tasting

Interested in learning more about honey? I am offering a honey tasting at the Millbury Public Library on Thursday, April 24 at 6:30. We will learn how honey is made, how it is harvested, and taste a variety of honeys from around the world.

Call the library to register: 508 861 1181,