It's Groundhog Day!

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 moving full steam ahead with Spring preparations since the New Year. They know. Spring is here.

How do I know they know? The brood nest is expanding, and drones are being born. Before Winter, the queen stops making drones, and the existing drones are killed and/or kicked out of the hive. They are useless at that time and only take up valuable resources, so they're eliminated. This is amusing to me because remember, drones are the only males in the hive. But in preparation for Spring, the queen starts making drones again.

I don't think I've ever shown you a drone before, here's one right there in the middle. They are bigger than workers, but smaller than the queen, and have much larger eyes. His only job in the world is to find a new virgin queen and mate with her. And then he is useless again, and dies. I swear I'm not a man-hater, I have a man and love him very much, but this is also amusing to me.

Bees are a distinctly girl-power driven society. They are also the most important creature on the planet. Coincidence?

The girls are also bringing in lots of pollen because it's Spring and there is lots of pollen to collect. Look at all this yummy yummy pollen.

I did feed them sugar syrup over our very short and mild winter, but have stopped over the past two weeks to gauge how they're doing. And they seem to be doing pretty well on their own. There is lots of honey, some of which is real nectar and some is sugar syrup.

Flowers will begin blooming soon, if not already, so I've taken the next step. I added the honey super. It's a smaller box of frames placed on top, intended solely for honey collection. In between the super and the brood boxes below, is a queen excluder. A gate with openings that are too small for the queen to fit through, but workers can come and go as they please. This ensures that there will not be any eggs or larvae in these frames. Just wonderful golden honey. Pollen is stored near the brood for easy access, so if there is no brood in the super, there should not be any pollen either.

Our lovely Queen Charmaine is also doing well, continuing to do all the things she should be doing. She has been with us for 3 solid months now, out lasting her predecessors 4 times over. But that does not mean she'll be with us much longer. There's a good possibility that the hive will replace her soon. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see and I'll just keep monitoring.

Overall, my hive is doing really, really well. And I am so happy about that. At this point, there is a good chance that I will be able to harvest honey this summer. But as I know, and as you know, things can change quickly, so it's really one week at a time with bees. I'm not banking on a honey business anytime soon. Nor ever really, I have no plans to actually sell honey. Not as you would think anyway.

As some of you know, I also like to make things. I've recently combined beekeeping with making things. I am just learning and experimenting, but here is one piece that I'm particularly happy with.

That is real honey completely encased in resin, and then made into a pendant. This is my first attempt which was really just an experiment to see if it's even possible to put honey in resin, and this one is mine. I'm keeping it. It's not perfect, and it is not my bee's honey. This is Tupelo honey from a local beekeeper and honey producer. I'm no where ready to put things up for sale, but it's a peek at my future plans. If I do sell honey, this is how I'll sell it. I'm also working on encasing actual bees in resin... my bees. My dead bees. I do not kill any bees I cast in resin. I find them already dead of natural causes. Bees die every day, and sometimes I find some pretty ones. I want to keep them in their beautiful state forever. Plus, I just really really like putting things in resin. 🐝