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!

Robber bee gets a little "street justice."

This is a video that I shot yesterday (5/27/11) of a bumblebee trying to do a "home invasion" on my honeybee's hive. He found out that "crime doesn't pay," as you will see in this video caught on one of my bees security cameras (not really, but it sounds sophisticated...). Enjoy this action packed video!

May 9th Swarm Catch

Here's a video of a recent swarm I caught. Notice how the volume of the "buzz" gets louder as my videographer (my wife) gets closer to the hive box.

We successfully relocated the bees to our bee yard, and they are building comb very quickly. It should become a healthy and strong hive.

I caught my own swarm!!!

My bees swarmed today going up about 40' in a pine tree, which was about 25' from their hive. They stayed up in the tree for about (2) hours. I couldn't do anything, since they were too high for me to safely retrieve them. So I refreshed the lemongrass oil in my swarm trap and hoped they might send out some scouts to find it. And find it they did! This was an amazing day for me. Here's a video that gives you an idea of what it's like catching a swarm of honeybees. Enjoy!

Click on images to enlarge

 Here they are about 40' up in my pine tree.

 

 And here they are as they take up residence in my swarm trap which was "lured" with lemongrass essential oil. They sent out scouts when they were balled up in the pine tree and several of them were checking out my swarm trap. Looks like they liked what they saw!!! They are now safely moved into their new home. Yea!!!

A Good Honey Year!

It's March and we are harvesting lots of honey already. Below are some pictures of my overcrowded hive. I tried to make some room for them today by removing (6) completely capped frames of honey. In a couple of days, I'll have even more to harvest because several frames were just about completed. I'll leave them in there for them to finish up, then we'll remove those and give them some empty ones to fill up.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

" My hive runneth over..."

 Do you think there are some bees in there?

 Lots of bees means lots of honey :)

 Pattie posing with "the girls."

They were especially lively today as I removed some of the fruit of their labor. They don't mind too much though, since they just keep bringing more back to their home.

A new season ahead!

It is mid February, and it appears that my bees have made it through the winter pretty well.

Today Pattie and I finished a hive inspection that we started yesterday. To our surprise, our bees had already started to gather nectar and produce honey. We harvested (3) frames today and added new frames for them to fill back up.

We also discovered some queen cells which can be seen in the first photo. That means that our present queen is getting up there in age or has been injured and the colony is preparing for a new one to take her place.

I will be setting a swarm trap to catch my own bees, if they decide to split the hive and look for a new home. 

So, it looks to be another exciting year of managing some of God's amazing creatures.

In photo #1, you will notice the large cells protruding from the bottom of the frame. These are the queen cells. They are larger than the worker or drone cells. Queen cells are very special, because you only find them when a new queen is being prepared. We have never seen them in our hive until today. We may soon have a new healthy queen who lays thousands of eggs a day. A healthy queen means a healthy colony - which means LOTS OF HONEY - which we love!

The second photo shows some brand new comb which our bees produced this year. They build this comb very fast when there are good resources available to them for it's production.

Click on images to enlarge

Now, isn't that some pretty comb? Send my bees a text message to encourage their continued good performance in their hive! Even bees need a little encouraging word from time to time. ;^D

Special thanks to my faithful assistant and photographer (Pattie)!