I won’t have much to say about our adventures in beekeeping for the next couples months. What’s there to talk about? The bees are hunkered down in their hives at least until the new year. I may add a few photos to the Hives in Snow post to document the Newfoundland weather our hives have to contend with over the winter (though we usually don’t get any heavy snow until after the new year). I might write a review of a few beekeeping books if I have the time. Other than that, I don’t anticipate a great deal of beekeeping posts showing up on Mud Songs until February 2011.
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On the left: July 18th, 2010. Our first hive started from a nuc box. On the right: November 23rd, 2010. Our second hive, with two deeps full of honey, wrapped for the winter.
I’ll probably feed the bees some pollen paddies near the end of February — if the bees aren’t dead. I will very likely feed both colonies some sugar syrup sometime in March to get the queen laying for spring. I’ll stop feeding them in April. We plan to start up another two hives from nucs next year, so when the weather warms up, I’ll start pounding together the frames and the supers for those hives.
Here’s what I see at this moment.
It’s time to wrap the hives.
NOTE (Nov. 15/10): I’ve been busy with work, life and house renovations (the latter being the worst of the bunch). I still haven’t wrapped my hives, but when I do, I’ll probably follow this lesson from Long Lang Honey Bee Farms.
By the way, I highly recommend their online beekeeping lessons to anyone who wants to get into beekeeping.
By the way #2: The Mud Songs sidebar links to other online beekeeping resources that have helped me along the way. They’re all worth checking out.
More later when I have a chance to come up for air.
I’m posting this short video for my own records so I have something to compare next year’s new hives to. I started two hives from 3-frame nuc boxes (4 frames actually, but one frame was empty) on July 18th, which was 89 days ago. It’s now mid-October and the bees are still active — when the sun is shining on the hives. The sun is shining on them as I write this. The temperature is 12°C, each hive has a top hive feeder installed over the inner cover, and the bees are flying around the entrances of both hives. Looking good. Here’s what they looked like a few days ago on October 12th:
THIS VIDEO SHOULD BE VIEWED IN THE 480p SETTING. THE LOWER SETTING IS PRETTY BAD.
Here’s some video I shot yesterday while taking photos of the bees flying around Hive #2. Not the most exciting video, perhaps, but it does demonstrate the difference between Hive #2 and Hive #1, which we thought was queenless (and who knows, still could be).
THE 480p HIGHER DEFINITION SETTING MAY PROVIDE SMOOTHER PLAYBACK.
I just noticed two bees fighting it out (at the 1:16 mark) on the bottom board and then falling off the edge. September is fighting month for the honeybees.
Read on . . . »
I took some photos of the bees in Hive #1 crowding around the upper entrance today, coming in for their landings. Here’s one with our cat, Winston, in the background:
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The photos can be viewed on my Picasa page too.
UPDATE (Oct. 6/10): And there’s a video.
Read on . . . »
THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN UPDATED MORE THAN ONCE SINCE IT WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED.
This is pretty much what both of my hives look like at this moment (5:00pm, Sept. 20):
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Think I should go out and add a concrete block to each of those outer covers? (UPDATE: Bad shelter design. Not a good idea to block the normal flight path to the entrance.)
When I started up my hives 64 days ago, I made sure the bottom boards were raised a little so any rain that got inside would pour out the entrance. But I’ve noticed with some crazy wind and rain we’ve had recently that the rain has been pooling a bit too thick near the entrances. And now we’ve got a hurricane coming that’s being described like this:
“If the worst case scenario pans out [UPDATE: it's happening], and the storm tracks just east of the Avalon, winds could gust to near 150 km/h across the Bonavista and Avalon Peninsulas [where I live]. This would do significant damage and would cause widespread power outages… Rainfall amounts between 50 and 150 millimetres are expected by Tuesday evening [24 hours from now] with the highest amounts expected over the Burin and Avalon peninsulas [that's me!]. This is a warning that significant rainfall is expected in these regions.”
I can’t angle the bottom boards any more than they already are without pulling the hives apart, so as a temporary measure, I’ve placed boards over the entrances to keep the wind and rain out. You can’t tell from the photos, but the rain is already pouring down fast. The bees are hunkered down. I plan to keep the boards over the entrances until the hurricane has passed.
The next 24 hours are going to be fun.
Read on . . . »
We have two honey bee colonies in our backyard, both started from nuc boxes 35 days ago and housed in Langstroth hives. Hive #1 has been fed a water-sugar mixture just about every day (with some honey mixed in for the first three weeks). We added a second brood box a week ago because 9 of the 10 frames in the hive were partially or fully drawn out — the colony was ready to expand.
Hive #2 wasn’t fed until the second week, but for the past week has had two Boardman feeders installed. It doesn’t get as much late-afternoon sun as Hive #1, and the last time we checked a couple days ago, only seven, maybe eight frames had partially or fully drawn out comb on them. (We also pulled a huge ugly slug from the bottom of the hive the same day.)
Those are the differences between Hive #1 and Hive #2. Here’s a quick video I shot today that illustrates the differences:
THE 480p HIGHER DEFINITION SETTING MAY PROVIDE SMOOTHER PLAYBACK.
Read on . . . »
THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE IT WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED.
I found some dead baby bees outside Hive #1 today, and now I’m thinking I may have made a mistake when I added the second brood chamber over the weekend.
Sad looking, isn’t it?
The forecast called for sunshine today, but the sun did not come out.
It was cold and wet all day, not a good day for bees, especially after I split up the brood nest the day before — and that’s probably what I should not have done.
Read on . . . »
THE FOLLOWING WAS LAST UPDATED ON AUG. 11, 2011.
The Newfoundland Beekeepers Association does not exist. As of August 11th, 2010, I only know of two professional beekeeping companies on the island of Newfoundland. One is on the east coast of the province and the other is on the west coast. The total between them is something like 150 hives. But there’s not much point in having an association of two, is there? So there is no Newfoundland Beekeepers Association.
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But there is an interest in beekeeping in Newfoundland at least among backyard beekeepers like me. I know they’re out there because I’ve met a few of them, and if they’re like me, they probably wouldn’t mind talking to other local beekeepers — because there’s a lot to know about beekeeping in Newfoundland. I specify Newfoundland because, although cold-climate beekeeping isn’t anything new, beekeeping on a big cold rock in the middle of the North Atlantic likely poses some unique challenges that are best handled by talking to other beekeepers dealing with the same environment.
An informal association of beekeepers on the island would a valuable resource. Even if it’s a bunch of amateurs comparing notes over the internet — you got to start somewhere. So I’m starting here, right now.
I’ve set up a distinct page on Mud Songs called Bee Notes just for talking about beekeeping in Newfoundland, or at least beekeeping in the St. John’s area of the island — or cold climate beekeeping or beekeeping in general. Whatever works. Comments are still welcomed on regular beekeeping posts, but questions and comments about other beekeeping topics can be left on the Bee Notes page. I may also use the page for small updates about my own beekeeping adventures if the topic doesn’t warrant me writing an actual post about it.
In all likelihood, the Bee Notes page will be ignored by most people who visit this website. It could be me and one other person talking back and forth for a long time. Or just me talking to myself (which is my modus operandi for Mud Songs anyway).
But I guess it can’t hurt until something better comes along.
UPDATE (Nov. 25/10): I used a free service to create a website called Beekeeping NL. I set it up as a test to show a friend how easy it is to build their own blog using WordPress. (It took me about 10 minutes to sign in and create the site as it is now.) I was planning to remove it afterwards, but I’ve decided to leave it alone. Who knows, it might become a legitimate website some day. And I love the image I chose for the banner too much to take it down.
UPDATE (March 16/11): I read a report today about various diseases and pests found in Newfoundland honey bees. The results of the report were based on inspections of approximately 100 hives from four different beekeeping operations on the island in 2009. So there are more than two professional beekeepers on the island. Still, not exactly enough to warrant a beekeeping association. More info on beekeeping in Newfoundland can be found at the NL Dept. of Natural Resources page, Research and Development.
UPDATE (August 11/11): Check out Information For New Beekeepers in Newfoundland from the Beekeeping NL website. It’s a collection of the best I can offer from Mud Songs, information based on my experience that may be helpful to other novice beekeepers in Newfoundland.
I’ve researched everything I can about honeybees over the past five months. I could probably write a book about beekeeping (or at least a series of detailed blog entries). But until now, it would have all been from a theoretical point of view because I hadn’t had any practical experience handling honeybees. And I’m beginning to think that after all the time and effort I’ve put into this, beekeeping is not going to happen for me this year. It’s been almost two months since I’ve heard from the one beekeeper in Newfoundland who might be able to supply with me some bees. I don’t know what’s happening, and subsequently I’m imagining the worst: they’re going to tell me tough luck, no bees for me this year. My beautiful bee hive may be collecting dust until next summer. I sure hope not.
At any rate, I got a little practice in last night when Aubrey at Paradise Farms let me take a peek inside one of his honeybee hives.
Read on . . . »
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