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…