First honey of the season. The second established hive will probably give about 10 times as much.
This hive died, the queen didn’t make it and they were not able to rear a new one quickly enough. When I checked it today, it was totally dead, so I harvested the honey in the super and closed up the brood chamber with some apivar.
In the fall I will get this one going again. My other hive is doing amazing.
Mite counts were low on both hives, and I do preventative treatments.
I know nothing about beekeeping, so please forgive my ignorance, I just find the subject very interesting and hope to get into it as a hobby.
Do you have your hives sitting on your property where you can keep an eye on them, or are they off in a field/meadow out of sight? Also, do you have to worry about local wildlife taking an interest/damaging your hives? If so what are some precautions that you take?
Before you do: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-honey-bees/
I keep several wild.bee “hotels” on my property too.
Thank you for the link. I hadn’t considered the impact honey bees would have on native pollinators. I guess I always thought of honey bees, when people referred to bees in general. Thanks to a little additional digging I found out my state agriculture dept has an official Apiarist. I’m going to go over their website this weekend when I have more time
I have a few hives at my house. I’ve never had any wildlife mess with the hives. You do have to worry about mice getting in the hive as the weather gets colder. For that I use a metal mouse guard at the entrance.
I live on 3.5 acres of land. My hives are on my property in the back.
@wallybeavis @Spacebar I have hives in both situations. At home, I can see them, but it’s just because that’s where I have room for them. I also manage several hives at a farm, those are away from the road.
We don’t have wildlife big enough to mess with them here. Some people use ratchet straps, attaching hives to strong stands. Others will set up electric fencing as a deterrent.
@wallybeavis @Spacebar that said, in some places, people will vandalize hives that aren’t rotected or monitored. There are keepers who will set up cameras to keep an eye on hives as well.
I’m super fascinated by this as well. More info please.