#new comb

Orientation for bees & writers #beekeeping #newbees #topbarhive #orientationflight #urbanfarm

It has been a busy time here with too much work and getting the garden going and coping with health issues. And though I think about keeping both of my blogs updated, after the Amanda hive tragedy, it was hard to sit down and write about bees. It has, actually, been hard to sit and write anything. I am not one of those people who believe I have to grunt through writing even when it doesn’t feel…

I've been worried I couldn't see the difference between worker brood comb & drone.http://wp.me/p4z3lD-2L #bees #topbarhive #beekeeping

I check my hive every few days because I am curious and because I am a worry-wart.  I am terrified my bees will be unhappy and leave (though they seem quite content and have lots of room to grow) and I have been watching carefully for signs of an impending swarming.

As I learn my way around the hive, I am pretty sure I would recognize a queen cell, but have been worried that I didn’t really…

Full Inspection: Day 11. Finding the Queen and a few surprizes

Nearly two weeks since settling my bees into their new home I took the time to do an extensive inspection of the hive. This meant I picked up every bar and spent several minutes examining each looking for brood, honey and the elusive queen.

I was excited to see that there was comb on 12 of the 26 bars currently available to them and about half of those were large-ish (in my opinion).

The first…

Overcoming Fear – Day 4

Easter just passed and my parents shared dinner with us.  After showing my Dad the hive, he asked if I remembered getting stung as a baby.  My parents had taken me camping and set my backpack down next to a picnic table and stump that housed a undergoudn hive of wasps.  I was stung multiple times as were they before we were all safe. It put some perspective on both my facination and the very…

I was exhausted when I got home from – that particular kind of fibromyalgia exhaustion and pain that makes me wonder if my skin has sloughed off under my shirt.  I cried in the car just thinking about walking from the car to the house and the inevitable chore that would follow.  Bedtime was still a few hours away.

The weather had turned warm again and I could hear the chicks waiting at the…