Onward Christian Honeybears

We just finished preparing 50 of our mini honeybears which will be used in a friend's wedding. Here they are marching in formation.

Coping with the heat

Today, it was in the high 90's here in South Carolina, and so my girls were dealing with it.

In the first picture you can see them out on "the deck." In the second picture they are "daisy chaining." If you look closely too, you can see several bees who are "fanning" at the opening of the hive to try to reduce the temperature in the hive. Bees are very "considerate" creatures. They all help to carry out the duties of the colony. Click on images to enlarge.

The Airport

Here is a look at one of the busy "airports" in my beeyard.

If you look at the "Departure" and "Arrival" areas, you will see that the bees actually leave the hive on the one side and return on the other side. Watch closely and you'll see.

Summer in the Beeyard

Well, summer is upon us here in South Carolina, and my bees have to cope with the heat. I try to provide nice "digs" for my bees, but the truth is, they don't have A/C in their hive boxes.

So here's a few pics of how bees deal with the heat. Click on the images to enlarge - especially the last one! That's my favorite.

Here are they are hangin out on the deck.

Here they are "chillin" on the landing deck, while one comes in like a "Harrier jet" on the left, middle of the picture.

And finally, when it's just too much to bear the heat on the landing deck, sometimes they have to go to the "pool" to get a drink (otherwise known as my bird bath). Here is one of the girls licking up some water.

So there you have it. My bees can't just make honey 24/7, sometimes you have to take to time for re-creation!

Honeybee Awareness Project

OK, in an effort to raise "Honeybee Awareness," my bees and I decided to put together something contemporary for today's audiences. My bees and I had a lot of fun doing this project and I think you will like it a lot. Let me know whether you liked it - we may want to do more projects like this one. Here it is - Enjoy!!!

Why Do Bees Have Honey?

Watch this video to discover why bees have honey.

Graduation Day!

Here's a look at the bee yard for 2011. Notice that there are now (3) hives instead of (1).

The hive in the middle is from a swarm that originated from the hive on the right, when they swarmed in April. I was fortunate to be at home on a Saturday, so I could catch them. When I was a boy, I used to catch honeybees one at a time. Now I catch them 10,000-40,000's at a time.

The hive on the left is from a swarm which I caught at a friend's house this year. Today is "Graduation Day" for some of the house bees, who are graduating to become foragers. It's a big deal in the bee community to become a full fledged forager.

When they do their orientation flights, they are locking in their location with their on-board GPS systems which the Great Creator God has given them. Enjoy!