All the bees look good

I visited all the hives over the last few days, and all the bees look good. Population is growing, and I even have a honey super on one hive, and am about to put one on another.  I just finished remaking my electric fence at Square Roots Farm just in time to find out about a bear in the area.  Hopefully the bees are safe.  New fence looks good and I expanded the beeyard so I can have up to 8 hives there.  Right now there are only 3, and I have 2 in Williamstown, and 1 in North Adams.  So 6 hives in all, two that wintered over, and 2 nucs from Mike Palmer that wintered over in VT, and 2 nucs from Anarchy Apiaries that wintered over in NY.  So all the genetics are in place for a better record for winter survival this coming year.  We will see…..

Nucs from Anarchy Apiaries Installed

On Sunday, May 29, I drove to Tivoli NY and met Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries and we drove to one of his bee yards where we made two nucs out of some Russian based hives that had overwintered there.  Then I drove back and installed them in Williamstown and Clarksburg.  It was a long trip but the bees seem happy now!

Nucs Arrived and Installed

On May 13th I got 2 Nucleus Hives from Mike Palmer in St. Albans Vermont.  These are bees that have been selected for cold tolerance, honey production, disease resistance, and lack of aggressive behavior.  They are dark bees of mixed ancestry.

It will be good to have more cold tolerant stock in the local honeybee genepool.  If these bees swarm they will have a better chance of survival and there genes will end up in a Drone Congregation Area and then into local honeybee hives.

LCC Grant for Observation Hive Received

Observation Hive

I just found out that my application for an Observation Hive was partially funded by my local cultural council.  I plan on getting an observation hive that looks like the one in this picture.  I also ordered bees for May pickup from two local (NY and VT anyway) bee producers.  I’m setting up 2 new hives in Williamstown and 1 in North Adams this year.

Special Honey from this Spring

LaLA honey’s first specialty Edition of honey was made for Greylock Arts Nature show in Spring of 2010.  It features Marianne and Matt as the Queen and Drone.

128.5 LBS of 2010 Honey

Finished harvesting and bottling 2010 honey.  128.5 pounds of honey this year.  Most of it from Longview Farm hive number 1, with the rest from Square Roots Farm hive number 1.  Going into winter with 5 hives, hoping that the bees will live and get going in Spring.  They all seem to have a deep or more of honey and pollen, so that should be enough to get them through…..

Welcome to LaLA honey!

I’m just finishing my second summer of beekeeping and wanted to share the experience and let people know about the honey.  Thanks for visiting this blog.