Peace Thyme Bee Yard

Special Guest in the Beeyard

My mother-in-law is visiting for the weekend. She got to visit the apiary and participate in a hive inspection. I think she may have had some fun. Of course, having a guest in the bee yard gives me a chance to enter full-blown “teacher mode.” Look Ma, EGGS! And we do this, because this, and we do that, because blah blah blah … once I’m in “teacher-mode,” it can be hard to stop the lectures. She…

Bees Don’t Read Beekeeping Books

Beekeeping books all agree: Queenlessness is BAD. Terrible. Very very extra bad and problematic. Beekeeping books also pretty much all say that if you have a hive that goes queenless, it: will be an angry, temperamental hive. will stop bringing in pollen because there are no babies to feed. will almost certainly develop laying workers within a couple of weeks. Well, all the way back on March 26 I…

It’s Thyme Again

Back in January, after Bee School, the instructor invited a local commercial beek named Jerry to come down and talk to the students about purchasing nucs1 from him. She told us beforehand that his bees come highly recommended from all of her highly knowledgeable contacts, and that everyone she knew who had bought from Jerry in the past had been highly satisfied. She was planning to order two nucs…

Apparently, I’m Certifiable

In case you weren’t sure. The North Carolina State Beekeeper’s Association administers a comprehensive and robust Master Beekeeper Program, allowing interested beekeepers a chance to document steadily increasing levels of study, experience, and public service. The first level of this progression is the “Certified Beekeeper” level. It requires four months of beekeeping experience, passing a…

Next week, a Master Beekeeper and Bee School teacher from my local club is coming to administer my practical examination, so I can become a North Carolina Beekeepers Association Certified Beekeeper. Because of this, I had not planned on going in to the hives at all this weekend. But then I remembered – since I put in that green drone frame, I really need to be at least opening it up and looking…

Went in this afternoon to see how Rosemary is doing. Turns out, she’s doing pretty great. And the drones have started to drone around. Found some drone brood, but a LOT of hatched drones tromping about. See the big, clumsy looking one at about the 8 o’clock position?    The Queen Mother is almost dead center on this pic. See her? But just below and slightly left of Her Highness is one of her…

Early spring inspection at PeaceThyme Bees

We finished up the North Carolina State Beekeeper’s Association (NCSBA) spring meeting yesterday in New Bern. I learned more in those three days than I have any chance of ever remembering, but at least I took copious notes. Nancy Ruppert, state inspector for the Sandhills region, led a workshop on “Late Winter/Early Spring Management” that reminded me that the most likely time for a colony to…

What Happens When You Store Your Comb Improperly?

***WARNING*** – This post contains mildly – um – revolting images. If you are nauseated by maggots, I would strongly recommend that you skip this one. Because Hubs got some great pictures, and … ew. Conventional wisdom (a.k.a. most beekeeping books) warn that it is dangerous to store drawn wax comb because of wax moths. Those sources are correct. Backstory: Since the last time I posted, we lost…

Royalty and Regicide in Rosemary

It’s been a busy few weeks here at PeaceThyme. We just got back from a week in Georgia – one of our adult sons just graduated from Army basic training at Ft. Benning, so we went down to see the ceremony and to visit. Bonus points, we got to see one of the Daughters-in-Law and our ludicrously cute grandson in the bargain. Before we went, we did go in and check out the hives. I was a bit concerned…

*** Disclaimer *** I have no idea if this brilliant idea will work out as planned or not. I read various things that various beekeepers recommend on various beekeeper forums and in various bee books, and I thought to myself, “Self, I wonder if a lot of those various things couldn’t be accomplished with just one piece of gear?” To which my self replied, “Hmmmm … ” *** Disclaimer Part II *** I may…

The North Carolina State Bee inspector was just out at my little apiary. He opened up both my hives, said they look like they are doing great, I have very little varroa, and he doesn’t think that the “shiny” bees have a virus at all. He thinks they are just very old bees. He thinks I have a low-level robbing problem, and recommended I put robber screens on. Since he was there anyway, he looked at…

We did go into the hives last week – May 24 – but I didn’t post about it because the hubs took notes for me and helped me clean up a bunch of cross-comb mess instead of taking pictures. It was definitely a four-handed operation, so no media attention :)! The cross-comb in both colonies was probably caused because we waited too long to add the next boxes. Both hives were chock full of bees and…

Setting up the bee area:

Site - inside the fenced vegetable garden, safe from dogs and other critters. Property fence behind. Neighbor's tree to the West will be in full leaf by the time summer heat gets bad, so there will be afternoon shade. Materials - plastic/composite decking boards (ChoiceDek), mitered corners screwed into 4x4s. I chose "Beach House Gray" because it will match very closely once the cedar hives and raised beds weather a bit. Dimensions - 6'x12' Weed barrier - scrap cardboard