Harmony Hollow Apiaries

Beekeeping Podcasts

I wanted to share a few of the podcasts that I listen to in regards to beekeeping. If you read this, and are aware of others that I should take a listen to – then please send me a note to let me know what the link is – and I’ll evaluate it.

Organically Managed Beekeeping
(aka: Pragmatic Beekeeping Forum)
http://somdbeekeeper.com
iTunes or RSS Feed or online from the site

The Wildlife Pro Network (BeeMaster)
http://www.BeeMaster.com
iTunes or RSS Feed or online from the site

The Barefoot Beekeeper
http://www.biobees.com
iTunes or RSS Feed

The Beekeepers Corner
http://www.bkcorner.org
iTunes or RSS Feed

KiwiMana
http://kiwimana.co.nz/
iTunes or RSS Feed

The bees say that spring is here!

Punxsutawney Phil is a punk! He says 6 more weeks… well my ladies say it’s time for spring. I’m crossing my fingers in hope that we do not have a repeat of last year’s weather patters. Last year – in Dallas we had 12″ of snow in late March! On the spring equinox!!

Here’s a few pics that I took with my iPhone late this afternoon. Click the pics for close-ups.

Lots of BIG pollen coming in today

Bee on Borage

Borage in Bloom

Borage Close-Up

Hive Check

We have had a few cool nights this week, with temperatures down into the mid 30’s (deg. F). When today’s temperature got up to about 50 deg. F, I decided to go ahead and check the hive. Going into winter, I had put in 4 lbs of dry sugar onto the inner cover, then covered it with a deep super, and then the outer cover on top of that. Last week, I also placed a boardman feeder with a mason-jar of my homebrew of Honey-Bee-Healthy” (2:1 with essential oils) into the “covering super”. Up until this week, I don’t think they had touched the sugar. The 2:1 with EO’s they were drinking slowly. I suspect it took about a week for them to go through the mason jar.

Today, when I checked the hive, the bees were REALLY on the sugar. I think they’ve eaten about 2 lbs from the looks of what’s left. I refilled the syrup, and closed it back up.

The girls are out flying today, and I observed a few bringing in some pale yellow (more white, really) pollen. I’d bet that the last 2-3 weeks of warm weather, along with lots of pollen coming in over the last month, initiated the queen to start laying eggs for spring. Now more than ever, the bees will be needing protein in the form of pollen.

If it gets warmer this week, I’ll suit up and pull a few frames to do a closer inspection and see how much brood is really there.

Small World…

Life always amazes me in some of the strangest ways. Today I has another reminder lesson of just what a small world it really is that we live in.

Folks & friends of friends converged from different walks of my life – and this evening – while studying for one of this semester’s classes with a classmate – learned that he is not only a record producer, but knows many of Shannon and my contacts in the music world that we’ve come into contact with via Earth Rhythms. He is also a band member of a band that I first remember WAAY back in the early 90’s that made it BIG on the pop charts. I promised to not reveal the band, though, until after the semester is over.

Anyway – it’s amazing the people we meet in our circles of life, and the contacts and networking that we can all do for each other on different levels of our lives.

I’m a straight shooter, so this will be the last of the vague posts about such matters…

Pollen Coming In – and Swarm Traps/Lures

1/30/2012

This last weekend was beautiful in north Texas. Friday, I saw a variety of pollen coming into the hive – including a nice bright yellow-orange color; some was a pale yellow-white in color; and other -(presumably henbit) was a blood-red. The henbit has been flowering for the last 2-3 weeks, now. Daytime temps have been averaging 65-73 Deg. F. Night-time temps are still in the high 30’s to high 40’s range (appx 38-48 deg. F).

Since the ladies were so active, I also gave them some sugar water spring stimulant. They drank 1 quart of it in 1 day. Here’s the recipe I used:
—
Homebrew Spring Stimulating Feed (compare to Honey “B” Healthy)
Recipe was given via podcast by Don K (the FatBeeMan).

1 – Gallon – of 2:1 Sugar/Water Mixture

20-25 Drops – Wintergreen Essential Oil
15 Drops – Spearmint Essential Oil
5 Drops – Lemongrass Essential Oil

Blend oils (in a blender) about 5 minutes into about 1.5 cups of Sugar Water to emulsify it, and add to 1 gallon of 2:1 mix.
—

I also placed (2) of my 15 swarm lure/traps in East Texas. The scent I used was straight lemongrass essential oil. I put 4-5 drops of the oil onto a cotton-ball, placed the cotton ball into a SMALL ziplock baggie, and closed the baggie about 90%, then set it into the swarm trap box, along with 5 empty frames. Crossing my fingers that this works!

Urban Sustainable Ecosystems Symposium

Spent all day today at the Texas Discovery Gardens ( http://www.texasdiscoverygardens.org ) – manning the Texas Honeybee Guild booth for the “Urban Sustainable Ecosystems” symposium. ( https://www.facebook.com/UrbanSustainableEcosystems )

Day two looks to be a great list of speakers scheduled as well! Amber and I will finish painting our hive woodenware before heading out to day two of the show.

Ready for Spring – but where’s the oil-based paint?

I”m ready for spring to be here! Though, I do still need to paint my hive bodies and make my screened bottom boards and top covers.

For some reason, though, I’m having a hard time finding oil-based exterior paints to use on my hive bodies. I’ve checked at Lowes (always check their “Oops” paint shelf) – and didn’t see any.. so I checked their shelf for regular oil-based paints… and couldn’t find any!! Has oil-based paint gone the way of the dinosaur? Has it become legislated off of the shelves? Maybe I need to peruse a different store.

I’ve got 10 Deeps, 15 Mediums, and 15 swarm-traps to paint.

Time-Lapse

My Borage plant was thirsty, so I watered it, and turned on the time-lapse app on my camera.

Swarm Traps Made

(Update 2/15/2013 – Over the last year – the number one search term linked to my site has been “swarm trap plans”. Thusly – I’d like to link over to Rob’s set of downloadable plans for hive products. (Sorry – Rob’s site is no longer accessible) Old Link here: http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/beekeeping/downloads/ )

( and now back to the original post – dated 1/24/2012 )

Last week, I started a quick little project that I saw plans for on http://www.beemaster.com. The Swarm Trap Plans are easy to interpret, and the project went quickly!

Another source of plans is on BeeSource.com – at: https://beesource.com/build-it-yourself/

Swarm Trap

I made 15 honeybee swarm traps. Each trap holds 5 “deep” frames. A pheromone lure will be placed in each trap, to attract a feral swarm to the box. Now – to paint them so they’ll last, and mark them with my identifying brand / label.

Back to beekeeping

December 31, 2011. It’s supposed to get up to 70+ degrees here in Richardson, so I’ll spend the beautiful day outside, building swarm traps for this upcoming spring.

The design is from Rob over at http://www.BeeMaster.com

I’ll tip up a glass in a toast for a bounty of bees this year!

Harmony Hollow Apiaries

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Beekeeping Podcasts

The bees say that spring is here!

Hive Check

Small World…

Pollen Coming In – and Swarm Traps/Lures

Urban Sustainable Ecosystems Symposium

Ready for Spring – but where’s the oil-based paint?

Time-Lapse

Swarm Traps Made

Back to beekeeping

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