So, while I was waiting for some of the later arriving CSA customers, I pulled the full frames off of the hives.

I then proceeded (with Sam & Aric’s help) to extract the honey.
I just finished bottling 16 – 1 pound containers and a quart jar full (for us) and still have over 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket.

I should be able to pull the rest off next weekend. Now, if the other hives (or even if these same 3 hives) up another super full of honey, I’ll be in fine shape…

Carbon dating of grains that were spilled from a broken vessel next to these bee hives indicated that the hives were there over 3000 years ago.

Read the article here:

First beehives from Biblical Israel discovered – Science- msnbc.com.

Now, it seems that the Chinese are using  company “fronts” or “back doors” from other countries to get around the decade-old sanctions. China does this to avoid paying the trade taxes.

They are flooding the US with their honey, since the US consumes over twice the honey that can be consumed by its honey bees.

Read the article here:

AFP: China accused of ‘honey laundering’ by US senator.

But, in order to do this, we need to take a different approach. We need to raise our bees as close to the methods used by the ferral bees – using top bar designs, less intrusion in the hive, less use of pesticides and herbicides in the fields where we place our bees, and no use of GMO crops.

We need to grow bee-friendly trees, flowers and plants – not for our benefit, but for theirs. In the end, it will pay off – we can get our honey,  pollinate our crops and save the bees.

I think that the quote below (from the article listed in the link) says it all:

“We have been losing bees and beekeepers in this country for 60 years and now we are at the point where almost half the colonies in the country are needed to pollinate almonds in California,” van Engelsdorp said. “We are close to the margin” of a viable ratio of pollinators to crops, he said. “It’s amazing to see how close we are to that line.”

via gulfnews : Buzz of a problem.

According to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), there is no single factor causing CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder), or the massive sudden die offs of honey bees worldwide.

They [finally] agree that it is man’s mis-management of the honey bees, and nature in general.

Now, I’m not a member of greenpeace, or wanting to reduce the human population to save the planet and I don’t really believe in climate change [global warming].  (I do believe that Al Gore is a pollutant, though).

I do believe, however, that where money is to be made, and where fear and comfort take precedence over cognitive reason, there will be those that turn a blind eye to the devastation that their greed, control and exploitation can do.

And I truly think that this is at the root of the honey bee die-offs.

Check the city ordinance where you live – are you allowed to keep bees in the city limits? What is the procedure followed when a swarm is found and called into the authorities?

What types of plants are you allowed to grow in your neighborhood?

In many communities, it is illegal to raise honey bees. IN most parks, mall parking lots and neighborhoods, there are no bee-friendly plants. No bee-friendly plants, no food for bees.

The OIE is blaming climate change, pesticides, viral and bacterial infections, parasites and the impact of “human activities” [translated to:  migratory | pollinator beekeeper "practices" | pollution | building shopping centers |industry and suburbs where bee fodder once was] on the environment.

For once, I’m afraid I agree with most of what they are saying…

–Pat

I installed 6 packages of bees Sunday afternoon.
I’m getting pretty fast at it -It took all of about 5 minutes for the first one, and around 2 – 3 minutes for the other 5.
I fed them pollen patties yesterday. I have 2 1-gallon “community” feeders set up with sugar-water, to help them pull wax, and to stimulate laying in the queen. They were installed in hives that had pulled comb on the foundation for all or, at least for 7 of the 10 frames, so they have a head start there.

I intend to pull honey off of these hives, so I will be installing individual feeders on each hive this week, along with queen excluders and supers with empty frames (foundation only – no “pulled comb) so the bees can pull comb. If they can get that done by May 1st – 10th, I should be in business, and will pull the feeders off and add additional supers that have pulled comb. That way, then will have plenty of room for putting up honey. This helps me in 2 ways:
1. The bees will be less likely to swarm, since they have the entire brood box for brood, and 2 supers for storing honey.
2. They will have supers with comb – so all they have to do is put the nectar in the cells and start making honey out of it.

We are planting lots and lots of Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum). It is said that 1 acre of anise hyssop can supply 100 beehives with enough nectar to put up 100 pounds of surplus honey per hive. With my 7 bee hives, we should do well.

We are also planting a bee-friendly flower garden, and have some clover in. All of these plants should boost the “nectar economy” and, hopefully will provide enough stores for my bees to overwinter well. Since most of the farms are no longer here, it has been a struggle to support more than 4 hives here with the amount of bloom that has been available.

Add to that the 125 blueberry plants we have, (which will bloom in July) the several hundred strawberries, 40 plus fruit trees, and we could have a good year.
And if the black locust blooms this May, we’ll have a bumper crop of honey!!!

Here’s to a successful beekeeping year!

–Pat

Here in Verona, KY there once were lots of big farms – mostly tobacco, but there were gardens, etc.,.
Now we are slowly turning into suburbia, and those that have large lots, or acreage, only have manicured lawns. Some do hay with their huge parcels of grass, but there really isn’t much for my bees to forage on.

As a result, we are planting about 1/2 acre of white sweet, yellow sweet and dutch clover this year. We are also going to plant lots of Anise Hyssop along one side of the driveway.
From what we have read, the sweet lover is a great nectar source for the bees, but even better is…
The Anise Hyssop!
According to what I have read, 1 acre of hyssop will support 100 beehives, each producing about 100 pounds of surplus honey. I could use that shot in the arm!

We also intend to grow a lot of bee-friendly flowers by the hives, plant some bee-friendly trees (tulip poplar, sourwood) and we planted black locust trees over the past couple of years.

We really got a surplus of honey 2 years ago, when the black locust bloomed. But we can’t rely on a strong yearly bloom and honey yield from the black locust.
So we’re betting the bees on the Hyssop.

Hope it turns out well…

The facts that substantiate the capabilities of this hive,  peaked my  desire to study it further. The facts I refer to  are in the articles linked to below my post.

Interesting facts about standard (The langstroth and British WTB hives – using frames) – they cme into being, and shortly after, the diseases and pests that we know today started killing off bees. There was not such devastation when old style top bar hives and skeps were used.
here is an excerpt from www.biobees.com (included below)

“During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, honeybee colonies began to suffer on an unprecedented scale from a range of diseases and parasites that had previously been rare, localized or relatively mild in their effects. By 1920, the native British black bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) had been virtually wiped out by so-called ‘Isle of Wight disease’⁸, to which it had no natural resistance. Replacement black bees were brought in from France, Germany and Holland, along with yellow-striped bees from Italy to re-stock the empty hives, but crosses between the black and yellow races were (and still are) overly defensive and difficult to manage. While they were much less susceptible to ‘Isle of Wight’ disease, the mild-mannered Italians, along with the other immigrants, were vulnerable to both American and European Foul Brood (AFB and EFB), the two most serious bee diseases. And they were (and still are) incurable robbers of other bee colonies. ⁹“

Links:

http://www.biobees.com/british_beekeeping/british_beekeeping.html

This one is about the Warre hive and you can find plans for this top bar hive on the site:

Beekeeping with the Warré hive — Home.

To your Bees Health -

–Pat