It’s countdown to Bee Day!
Ship date is May 15th,
and I’m ready! I have my supplies;
·
Crazy white outfit, with gloves and headdress
(may also wear on Halloween)
·
Top bar hive
·
Organic beeswax to coat the bars
·
Honey to feed them for the first few days
Funny story, sorry to interrupt the flow, I stopped by a
local honey supplier to pick up a small bottle of local honey. I need it to feed my bees, for a short time
while they get established. The
purveyor, an old surly man came out to help.
I asked for a small bottle of honey to feed my new bees next week. He kind of snickered at me, gave me one of
those “yeah right, you’re gonna handle bees” kind of looks, then proceeded to
stand there as I looked through his shelves.
I was interested to see all the different things he produces from his
honey, and I noticed some antique smokers and asked if he sold equipment for
backyard beekeepers. He
seemed perturbed and then he proceeded to tell me that I could get away cheaper
by giving my bees sucrose instead of honey.
I kindly told him, no, my bees
would have good old fashioned honey.
I’ve read a lot on honey bees, and have watched a fantastic
DVD from http://www.backyardhive.com/. They take a holistic approach to raising
bees. FYI, their site is chock-full of
information and well worth a visit.
Since more and more details come out about Colony Collapse Disorder and
the possible connections to the use of pesticides and unnatural practices, I
don’t want to use sugar water. Bees don’t
eat sugar water in nature, so why change the natural way of things if you don’t
have to. I’m sure other bees have done
just fine with sugar water, but we’re making an effort to go as natural as
possible with all our food sources. It’s
not always possible, but we try and make the attempt.
·
Top Bar Tool, for scrapping off comb and
propolis from the sides of the hive so we can harvest and inspect the
honeycomb.
·
Herding Tool, to move the bees off the comb and
back into the hive.
·
3lb hive with queen ordered and shipping next week
What’s missing from my list you ask besides Benedryl? A smoker.
I am going to try and not use one.
Again, it’s the holistic approach, and when using a Top Bar Hive is
rarely, if ever needed. The hive is
structured differently than a Langstroth hive, and use of smoke doesn’t
actually calm bees down. It sends them
into “recover” mode and they begin to gorge on honey. The smoke sends a trigger that they might
have to evacuate the hive, so eat as much as you can before leaving, so you
have something to live off of, until you find your new home.
I'm excited and nervous at the same time, but I think we're well on our way, wish me luck!
Pictures of the items are from the BackYardHive.com site where I purchased them from. I am not getting paid for the reference.
One of these days, when I get a better location, I'm going to have to try this.
ReplyDeleteMy FIL kept bees years ago. One year my husband borrowed his garb, and went as the beekeeper and I as a bumble bee. Come to think of it, it was probably around the time of the killer bees on Saturday Night Live.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Can't wait to see these post. I am so glad you are doing it with honey. I have always thought feeding Sucrose was a weird way to feed bees. Kind of like feeding cows corn when they are suppose to have grass. Or feeding sugar cubes to your kids because they are hungry. Not very nutritious. Have fun, take lots of pictures, and good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt, DFW and Sista for following along! The bees will likely become my new obsession, so there'll be lots of photos.
ReplyDelete