On inspection day, I start out all excited and end by seriously asking myself if keeping bees is worth all this. Yes, really. I’m suited up from head to toe…
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Last time, I told you that the girls still weren’t building comb in the honey super and that I’d have to figure out what to do about that. It didn’t take much…
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My apologies for not blogging in a month, but as the saying goes, no news is good news. Aside from being distracted by the new chicken coop, it has either been…
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Four weeks ago, I combined my two hives into one. I was hasty. I did it without a whole lot of prep or knowledge. And was worried that I had made a big mistake…
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What a difference four days can make. Today while sitting on the bench by the hives, I noticed almost no activity around hive 1. Hive 2 is…
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Three weeks ago, I told you about the drama with hive #1. It had swarmed and was queenless, so I gave them a frame from hive #2 who already has a queen. That frame also had…
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It’s been almost exactly one month since I split my hive to make two. And a lot has happened since then. For the humans, the coronavirus outbreak. Social distancing…
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Ok, I couldn't just NOT tell you some of the things I learned. I HAVE TO TELL SOMEBODY. IT'S SO NEAT! And I already told my husband once if not twice and I don't think he wants to hear it all yet again…
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Over the last two days, I have been in Gainesville Florida, attending their Spring Bee College. It's an intensive two day event of all sorts of bee classes hosted by University of Florida's Institute…
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Springtime is swarm season! My colony is healthy and growing with lots of eggs, brood and drones. Charmaine is still going strong. She’s been our queen for 4 months now! While I’d love to just let the…
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Happy Groundhog Day! Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow today, predicting an early Spring. Thanks Phil, but truth be told, my bees knew this weeks ago. They have been…
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I checked the bugs last weekend, but didn't blog about it. Everything was good. Really good. When in installed our new queen Charmaine, I also started mite treatment. I treated…
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I have to admit, I've been a little hesitant to check the bugs. It's been 6 weeks since my newest queen Charmaine was introduced to the hive. My previous two queens…
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It's in the upper 70s and sunny today, and I have a quest to complete, to find her royal highness so I suited up and went to bother the bugs…
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It is a lovely day in the mid to high 70s and sunny. A perfect day to check on the bugs. Before I tell you what I saw today, let me recap…
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On Monday I picked up a new queen and dropped her in the hive as soon as I got home. It was dark, thanks to this silly time thing, it's now dark when I get home at 6pm. But I quickly…
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It's gorgeous today and the bugs were busy foraging so it's a great time to check the hive. I last checked 2 weeks ago. Everything was awesome with Freddie doing what…
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It's a gorgeous 75º Sunday here in North Florida and the bugs are busy foraging, so I of course bothered them today. Pierre sometimes tries to tell me to leave them alone…
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So I installed a sparkly brand new queen last Friday. Even though I said I wouldn't check again for two weeks, on Sunday, I did open 'er up to take out the queen cage. She was…
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After Saturday's super disappointing discovery that my girls did not successfully raise a queen, I became the busy bee and started searching for a local source to find a…
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