Another season under my beekeeping belt...

Not many blog entries this year, but attempted "tweeting" as a way of recording my hive activities and passing along other tidbits of info on beekeeping. (See tweet feed on right side of this screen). Feel free to follow me if you are on twitter, @seattlebeeworks.
The Puget Sound Beekeeping Association is going strong and I've been elected to Vice President, so am looking forward to supporting the non-profit's efforts in educating the community and other fun beekeeping/honey events and mentoring of new beekeepers.

This year was a bad year for honey harvests, for most beekeepers. My mentor, with 8 hives, declared no honey harvest due to drought and weak hives. I was lucky to claim ~60 lbs from 4 hives, mostly medium to dark honey. (to compare: three yrs ago I had 100lbs from 1 hive!)
I'm currently in the process of bottling and supplying holiday orders, as well as preparing my usual supplies to Husky Deli in West Seattle. (Their holiday tasting event is Dec 4th 5-9pm)

Learnings this year:

• I suffered only one queen death this year, even before she was released in the hive- thus, I claim no fault, but learned I could get a queen "on warranty"- who wouldda thunk?
• One of my hives was pretty arnory-stinging me thru my gloves and very active/aggressive guard bees. I didn't do much to support this hive during this season, figuring they had it under control if they didn't want me visiting- so bee it. :-) (this obviously was the "lazy beekeeper" approach.) Next year, to remedy, I will likely requeen in the spring- that is, if the hives make it through the winter.
• I also learned that it isn't good to have a mixture of equipment sizes- especially when your hives aren't in the same locale. I prepared alot of shallow hive bodies, for honey supers this year... but found it frustrating to end up not having a western size when I needed, or the wrong equipment in the wrong locale, or mismatched frame sizes prepared. I may sell those shallows for westerns, to make it easier on myself.
• Honey Labels- design matters. I took a letterpress course this year to both foster a curiosity I had about this lost art, and to establish a new honey label design. My letterpress label turned out really cool, but more asian looking than I'd expected/intended. I learned west seattle buyers don't go for honey that appears is from Asia- my sales reduced as a result. (Read about china tainted honey imports to figure out why). Back to the drawing board on my labels- a good winter project.

I still love beekeeping, but I do think I am at my limit of hive count,given the lack of my own beeyard. I seem to get many offers from folks for hosting more hives in their yards...which surprises me, but am glad to see the support for bees.

If you are looking for a neat gift this year, don't forget you can always give bees!

New Season of bees

I again have 4 hives this year, didn't have any survive last winter...which is my #1 goal this coming year. I left plenty of honey for their winter food but I dont think there were enough bees to cluster and stay warm enough to make it through the long winter here in seattle.
Anyway on april 19th, I hived the 4 new packages and left the queens in their little cages so the bees could get acquainted with them, and improve acceptance. A week later it was time to release the queens. My friend who hosts the Admiral hive discovered my queen, dead in her cage :-( The other three hives were just fine, so not sure what happened there...
I got a replacement queen- under "warranty" as a result of this death, so early after receipt.
I will go back and let her out this weekend, and check the other hives to make sure the queens that did live are laying eggs.

I'm a lazy beekeeper

well, not really, I am behind on my chores though. Primarily due to not having enough equipment put together to manage 4 hives.

I scheduled the extractor rental for the last weekend in october. I need to go by my hives this weekend and pull off honey supers..which should have been done a few weeks ago.

Now, I need to recruit helpers and a place for extracting. Now that my mentor lives in the boonies, I need a place to do the extraction. I am halfway tempted to go rent one of those storage units 1) to place all my beekeeping gear in it year round, as well as 2) to perform the extraction there. hmmmm. another thing for my to do list.

my honey at husky deli in west seattle

Moving of hives

This past weekend my beekeeping mentor moved his hives to his new residence...but not without assistance, which I truly owed him due to all his help to me. However, since I was recouping from recent surgery, the only assistance I could provide was the help in recruiting two strong and willing participants.
With extra beesuits in hand we arrived at Tim's old house on Saturday morning. We proceeded to his "backyard", which consists of a deck with an awesome view of seattle...and overlooking a very steep hillside, declining from his house, and where his bees live.

Since Tim is very experienced in managing the hives in this location, he had a contraption built on his deck which he'd previously used to hoist honey up to his house. Very ingenious and made the work of moving the hives as painless as it could get. (Of course, I was only observing. The sweat drenching the backs of those moving the hives was very apparent).

Here are the pics of the adventure of getting the hives into his van for the long journey to his new home.

Cool link

http://www.vanishingbees.com/
great little film and information on ccd and the state of our bees. check it out.

lotsa bee stuff

been so busy I haven't had time to post.
The four hives are going well...the admiral hive lost its queen but then the hive created a new one. Last week's check indicated the queen is laying, so it is back on track now.
The two queen anne hives are moving along nicely, given they were started with drawn comb. I have them up to 4 boxes high now. The admiral hive and vonveyville hive are only three boxes high now.

This weekend should prove exciting. My mentor is moving his bees. I've recruited some strong backs to assist in getting the hives up his steep hill. I will be sure to take lots of pictures.