This week we had both our bee hives swarm. We knew that this would happen because both the hives were stuffed with bees, many more than normal. The swarm above is in an apple tree. It is a huge swarm, many, many bees. We got them into a hive box after I took this pic. This swarm involved 2 ladders, and me acting like a statue with the box on my head. Pretty exciting event, however, I stayed very calm with my breathing and did not move. When bees are in a swarm, they are fairly docile and can be handled. They don't have the protective stinging action that a hive in a box does. We did not get a single sting.

This is the second swarm, two days later. This swam decided to hang on the Marion berry canes. These were so easy to capture. We just put a hive box under the swarm and dropped them into it....easy.

Checking on the Honey Bees

Today we had really nice warm day, although there is plenty of snow on the ground. I decided that the bees had been neglected and this day gave me the opportunity to see how the 4 hives were doing at this time. I have been worried about this yellow hive, because I have not seen bees at the entrance for about a month.

The bad news is that this hive and 1 other had no bees inside, and the hives still have plenty of honey in them.

Hum...bummer! I looked in the other 2 hives and found really high numbers of bees that are thriving. Good News!  There are three honey supers from the dead hives that are full of good honey. I gave each surviving hives another box of filled honey to boost their food availability for the next few months.

I am optimistic that the bees will come through this winter and will pollinate the early flowering fruit trees. Yay!!!

Bees are in the Hives

Look at the closeup of flying bees!

Update on the new Bees. They are doing very well, the Queens have been released from the tiny cages and all the bees are working hard on their new hives. We looked inside today to see how they were doing. There was a good amount of new comb cells made and the Queens are busy laying eggs.

The fruit trees are just about ready to flower, and will need pollination...it is good to have bees again. We have many wild varieties of bees also.

Checking the Bees

We had a nice, warm, 54 degree day...today. We needed to check the hives and feed them if necessary. We found three hives with no bees and all the frames still full of honey. I think that the Queen died, and then they didn't make a replacement Queen, and the workers all died. The worker bees have a three week lifespan.

The good thing...the three other hives are doing great and I think that they will survive the winter. Today, the bees were outside the hive flying around, and the hive's interior was full of very active bees. I am pleased to see those hives doing well. There are plenty of bees to keep the hives warm, and they have plenty of food for the winter.

Honey Harvest

It took several days to harvest our honey this fall, we worked on and off. It is completely done now, and we have 2 1/2 gallons, about 30 lbs of raw honey. It is packaged in small honey bears, 1/2 pint jars, 1 pint jars and large quart jars. The biggest mess, everything is sticky, I find it all over the place. My hands find it somehow, and I am washing them all the time. The frames that have had the honey removed are still full of the good stuff..........they are put into the smallest hive we have. It will help those bees enormously. They love it.

The funny thing is that when we first got the bees....we didn't think about the honey harvest. If we priced it by all the $$$ spent to get this far.....the price would be outrageous. Not to say, that for some people, bee keeping is a money making endeavour. We do indeed get a good harvest of produce and fruit!

Bee Keeping and Getting the Honey

We have been making a honey-sticky mess getting the honey processed. We are doing the raw honey method. See this link for a good idea of the process Raw Honey Extraction

The goal here at High Prairie Farmgirl's  is to complete the project tomorrow, ending with lovely jars of raw honey. This will make one more project done for the year. There will be a good quantity of bees wax left from the project. I am asking one friend if she could use it in her handmade lotions, and other projects.

Oh My, 3rd Bee Swarm This Year

from Pinterest

Well my friends...the honeybees decided to swarm again...yesterday. This action shows the good vitality of the hives. There are good healthy queens, plenty of food, and are super productive. When everything is right, they swarm...it keeps the species growing.

We have been at home, and located the swarms each time. The bees will usually only go 10' to 20' from the hive to one of our dwarf apple trees. The bee yard or apiary (the fancy name) has 5 hives in it. There is no room to squeeze any more into it. I hope that the bees are done dividing, a new set-up costs about $200, and expanding the bee yard is unwanted by us. We have spent about $500 this spring to house the new hives...If there is another swarm...maybe someone we know will want it...or consider letting us keep it at their property. I wonder if the area around our farm is able to feed all these hives, maybe the flower, nectar, and pollen availability is not abundant enough.

One good thing is that our bees are pretty happy and pleasant to work with and have around the farm. :)

Honey Bee Swarm

The excitement today is that one of our honey bee hives decided to swarm. I just had finished a full day of working on the farm. I sat down outside to rest a bit, and the bees took flight. They start flying above their hive in a circular pattern. The noise of all those bees is pretty loud and noticeable.

The swarm decided to travel about 8 feet, to the nearby apple tree...and clustered on a branch in the top photo. There is no time to waste when we need to capture the swarm...get all the needed items and go to work. Did you know that bees are very docile at this time, they have no home to protect...and just want to stay with the queen. Everyone that panics about a swarm...don't do it...located a bee keeper to take the bees away.

The bottom photo is taken about 1/2 hour later, and the bees are captured and happy to have a new home. We are happy to have captured our own bees...and have a new hive.

Beginning Bee Keeping Class

I understand that some of my readers are interested in bee keeping, but have no idea where to start. There are many books available. Every author has their personal ideas and choices to sell in their book. I recently found an online class, at your own pace....from Penn State. The price is good, only $129 for the spring class...available now. I am registered and will be taking this class. Here is the link Beekeeping 101

Bee Keeping

I took this photo yesterday, a beautiful sunny January Day. The bee hives are inside a chain link dog kennel, it works to keep most animals out, however a bear would have no problem getting into the bees. It is warm, by winter standards...about 55 F during the day, and above freezing at night. I was attempting to take a short video for a friend. I did not succeed with the video....but I will try again. The weather forecast is to snow a little next weekend.  It is very quiet here, except for a little elk hunting.

Look Who Came To Dinner!

The trail camera took these photos last night, about 2 am. A black bear visiting the deer treats. The bear decided to climb into hubbies tree stand, and that is not unusual for bears. However, the bear chewed or clawed the padded arm rests completely. I hope is that is bear does not decide to visit our 3 honey bee hives.

Bee Swarm

The bees are swarming around here. A close neighbor stopped by to see us in the morning, because he had a swarm in a large birdhouse. We discussed what to do with the swarm. He was given an old bee box and frames, complete set. He went to get the free supplies and then we would assist him in the evening. Luckily, we have recently watched a video about catching swarms. and had a basic understanding of the process. The capture went off very well.

Meanwhile, on the home front, we had a hive that decided to swarm about 12 noon. They did not go far, just to the lower branches of an apple tree, about 30 feet away. It took about 20 minutes for the bees to settle into a hanging swarm like you see in the photo. We were racing around, putting together a way to capture (our own bees) them. We managed to put together a make do hive for that purpose. And....................we did it! Yes, and now we have a third hive. Early this morning we put the bees into a real hive, and now they are located in the aviary yard. The bees are not as calm as normal, I walked about 20 feet from the hives this morning..........and got stung. Ice pack, and I am fine.

Wow, a Great Pear Crop

I decided to pick the Bartlett Pear tree because the fruit is starting to fall. We planted this tree 4 years ago, and it is still fairly small. The honeybees did their job this last spring, and the weather cooperated to provide a great crop of large pears. The tree looked like there were about 2 dozen pears, just guessing... I was totally surprised at the 50 pounds I picked. A few are ripe, so the others will ripen indoors. I am going to be canning them in a light syrup for this winter. Home canned pears are very good!

The Honey Bees are Dead

There are a few dozen worker bees out and about, but within two weeks all of them will be dead also.  My flowers have only native bees on them, mainly Bumblebees.  Hubby thinks that he wishes to try again next spring, with fresh new bees.

There is Trouble in the Bee Hive

We started our journey in Bee Keeping about 15 months ago, and all was good until sometime in late May 2014. I think that we had the hive swarm, and most of them left for another location. I have read and understand that there is a new Queen left with a variety of workers and eggs to hatch. We just know that the colony had a dramatic decline in numbers, after the fruit trees bloomed. We could not locate a Queen in the hive. There is plenty of food stored in the hive for the bees...and they stopped eating the food that we provide. We got a replacement Queen, and installed her.  If she succeeded in making her way around the hive and layed eggs...the new workers  will start hatching soon. Or if not, the bees will die and there will be an empty box. You see, the worker bees only live 3 weeks. It certainly is disappointing to have invested so much into the project...and to have this happen.

Foxglove in the Garden

I like these plants around the farmhouse because the deer do not eat them, and they self seed for continuing plants. I found that I had to saved them from hubby.  He saw something on the local news about the plants being toxic to honeybees....well, I had to check up on that story before he removed all the plants. As it turns out, the story was about the pesticides that had been sprayed on the plants prior to sale at the local nurseries. My plants have never been sprayed, and are bee friendly. I had to call off the crazed hands of you-know-who. The plants are saved!