Backyard Bee Blog

Bee Hive On A Limb In The Middle of Winter (Not a swarm)

2012-01-23T08:02:00.001-06:00

My Friends Elaborate Chicken House

2011-12-31T22:26:00.000-06:00

This is a video of my friends newly completed chicken house. I think you will appreciate the thought that went into this project. Thanks

How to cook sausage and venison gumbo on a open fire pit.

2011-10-30T19:39:00.000-05:00

This is how we made our gumbo. We used our new fire pit that I built as well as all natural ingredients, The family loves this stuff. Check it out.

Pouring The Honey

2011-10-28T22:30:00.000-05:00

Video of my wife and I pouring the honey that we recently extracted.

Maximize Your Honey Production

2011-10-25T18:43:00.002-05:00

This video shows how I maximize the honey that is extracted. Simple, easy, and best of all you do not have to do anything to get these results. Check it out.

Video of Local EAA 836 Fly In.

2011-09-10T22:15:00.003-05:00

I know this has nothing to do with bees, but I thought you may enjoy this video I made of a local fly in that I attended. I flew my Challenger to the event and it was a day full of good conversation and entertainment. Who doesn't like to talk airplane anyway?

Check out this moth that has a Fleur de leis design!

2011-08-03T21:00:00.002-05:00

This is a moth found on my garage door this morning that has a fleur de leis on his back. I could not believe it. You have to see it for yourself. Thanks for watching

Just Harvested

2011-07-17T21:33:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I harvested the honey from the 4 hives that my Father has. Two of the hives were not ready to harvest in that there was largely uncapped honey. I did harvest the other 2 hives and they were full of capped honey. We received about 5 gallons of honey per hive. It was very hot in my bee garb but we made it through the 95 deree temp by harvesting early that morning. I need to figure out how to harvest these hive in the spring and fall when the temp is more tolerable. My hives are simply not ready to harvest in the spring. I just need to find out more about how this works because I know that the professional beekeepers harvest in spring ad fall around here. Any suggestions?

The Hive Now Has A Laying Queen

2011-07-06T21:21:00.002-05:00

Just to review, I have 3 hives in my backyard. The nuc hive is the hive that I posted about in the prior post now has a laying queen. I plan to transfer the frames into a larger hive later this week. The middle hive is now 100 percent full of capped honey, plan on harvesting that this weekend as well. The 3rd and final hive was occupied by wax moths. I really dislike those little creatures. Had to destroy that hive.

How to light your Smoker

2011-06-17T07:32:00.001-05:00

Quick video on how I light my smoker.

Queen Cells Galore

2011-06-16T23:02:00.002-05:00

This is a video of my first attempt to manipulate the queenless nuc hive to form their own queen cells from fertilized grafted larvae from a gueenright hive. It worked and I have 7 queen cells to show for this. Check it out.

How To Make Your Own Queen Cells

2011-05-22T20:14:00.004-05:00

This is how I make my queen cells for grafting. The mold is made from 3/8 inch hardwood dowels that are rounded on the end. Simply dip them into hot bees wax and once cool, pop them off. I add a little soap on the dowel prior to first dip to make them easier to remove. The video is self explanatory. Enjoy

Made a Cleaver Today.

2011-04-09T22:43:00.003-05:00

I checked my bees today, and they are all doing well. The bees have not filled the honey supers yet. I had a little spare time today so I decided to build a meat cleaver. I know it has nothing to do with bees but I thought I would share this video with you guys. Thanks for watching.

Dont Kill the Bees!

2011-04-08T23:21:00.003-05:00

The owner of a horse barn was going to have a bee hive exterminated. My friend and I interveined and saved the hive. This video shows how we salvaged the bees, the brood and wax were placed in a Langstroth hive. The bees were added and the last report was the bees were doing good. Watch the video. This is the bee vacuum that I made in action. See previous video of how to make the bee vacuum.

LSU Mike the Moth

2011-03-20T14:09:00.002-05:00

I saw this moth on the side of our garage today. Looked like an LSU moth, tell me what you think.
Kind of crazy eh?

How to Capture a Swarm of Bees

2011-03-20T13:49:00.002-05:00

Today is March 19 20011. This is the first swarm of the season that we have had at our apiary and I video'd how we go about capturing the bees from a swarm. These bees were placed in a nuc hive later that evening with no problems. Check out the video and enjoy.

Hive Inspection

2011-03-17T19:54:00.003-05:00

Today I added my supers and queen excluder in anticipation of this years honey. I video'd one of the brood frames. All looks ok.

Early Hive Inspection

2011-03-07T20:19:00.002-06:00

This weekend, I opened my backyard hives and did an inspection of the overall status of them. Not too bad, no hive beetles noted, no obvious diseases noted. The bees are going in and out with pollen. Overall, healthy assessment. Looking forward to honey this year, I am now out of honey from last year. Enjoy the inspection video.

Watson Brake Archeology Site

2011-02-13T07:38:00.003-06:00

I took a video of the oldest known civilization site found in the United States. It is called Watson Brake and is near my home. The local archeologist at University of Louisiana at Monroe has actually performed carbon dating on items found at the site that date older than Poverty Point Civilization. Not much known about this site but will more than likely become a national site of interest one day like Poverty Point. The video was at 1000 ft above ground level and although it is hard to tell by the video, there is a series of mounds located there. Hope you enjoy the video. The weather was beautiful that day.

Home Made Bird Feeder

2011-02-11T20:28:00.003-06:00

The little birds have been feeding around in the yard probably because food is scarce for them. I decided to make a bird feeder to help them out. I had no plans or photo of bird feeders so I just went into the shop and began building. I had some left over 1/4 inch plexiglass that I used for the sides and I have lots of cedar from when I had my sawmill. In about one hour I had a bird feeder that works well. The video shows exactly how I constructed the feeder, maybe you can build one as well, the birds will thank you by eating out of your feeder. I placed my feeder near my bedroom window so I can see them each morning when I am getting dressed for work. Just a little something to brighten your day. Thanks

Chicasaw Plum Trees are Budding

2011-02-11T20:00:00.006-06:00

Today was a beautiful day and temps up to 49. I went to check out the foliage and saw that the chicasaw plum trees are budding. The bees love this little tree, it is one of the first trees to flower and usually flowers in mid March. Check out the photos. Sorry they are blurry, but you get the idea.

Home Made Soap Cutter

2011-02-03T08:22:00.006-06:00

This winter I have been dabbling in soap making. Using the salvaged bees wax from previous uncappings and other oils I have come up with a pretty good recipe for bath soap. I use it in the shower. I needed a soap cutter, so I designed and built one. Check out the videos.

Warmer today, Bees looking good.

2011-01-31T21:30:00.003-06:00

I checked out my bee hives today. The temp was around 64 F. They were very active. I could see them bringing some kind of pollen into the hives. I have no idea where they are finding this pollen but you can see for yourself on the video. Nice to see them finally get out and fly about. Looking forward to 2011 bee keeping.

Temps Dropping/Merry Christmas

2010-12-14T19:54:00.003-06:00

I covered the two hives that are remaining in the backyard with a tarp. Was careful not to occlude their entrance/exit. I did not harvest honey from them this fall in hopes that they will have enough honey to make it through the winter without starving. I'll keep an eye on them just in case. I hope all my followers have a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you for commenting on my postings, especially you Kat.

July Swarm Lost

2010-12-08T21:08:00.003-06:00

Well, Today is December 10, 2010 and I checked on the swarm that was caught earlier this year in July. See posting below. The hive was nearly empty of bees. No honey, no brood, only empty comb. This has happened to me every year when I catch a swarm after May. I am convinced a swam in July really is not worth a fly.

A Swarm In July Is Not Worth a Fly.

2010-07-02T22:46:00.003-05:00

Regardless of the title of this post, I have caught another swarm. Today is July 2 2010. I have never had much success with swarms caught this late in the season but I am going to give it a try. I plan to feed this hive more often. Maybe it will make it through the winter. We will see. See following video of this swarm.

Honey Harvest Report

2010-06-17T23:02:00.003-05:00

Today I harvested the honey from one of my hives in the backyard. This hive has one brood hive and 3 supers. All 3 supers were full of capped honey. Yielded 8.5 gallons of sweet light color honey. I was overwhelmed with the honey that this hive produced this year. Video to follow soon.

Bee Vacuum Project

2010-06-07T18:19:00.001-05:00

Latest Project---Automatic Composter

2010-06-03T19:22:00.003-05:00

First Harvest

2010-05-28T22:30:00.003-05:00

My Dad and I harvested the honey from two of his hives. We were careful to only obtain the capped frames, yielded 3 1/2 gallons. Not bad but certainly not great. This was a darker honey as well. Had fun doing this. I think our next harvest with his hives will be in about a month and a half.

Lately

2010-05-20T20:24:00.002-05:00

Not much happening with the bees lately other than adding supers as needed. Swarm season is pretty much over here in North East Louisiana. Here they begin swarming at the end of March and the first few weeks of April. After that, swarms are not common. Should be harvesting the first hives within a couple of weeks.

Bees in the Garden

2010-04-26T22:24:00.005-05:00

This is an overview of my garden. Lettuce, onion, potatos, tomatoes, peppers, and oregano. I am going to plant peanuts this weekend.

Blanc Dubois grapes looking great this year. They are loaded.

Just pretty

Romane lettuce. (I think that is how you spell it)

Swarm Transfer from Bucket

2010-04-26T22:13:00.003-05:00

Finished with the swarm transfer

Almost done with the transfer. The base is some styrofoam that I found on the side of the road. It makes a good platform for my bee hive.

Have you ever seen the inside of a swarm hive in a bucket?

Ok, I finally opened the bucket lid after much distress. The bees had built several sections of honey comb in the top lid.

Yep, there is a swarm in there.

Could that be a swarm in my bucket?

Another Swarm Caught

2010-04-24T21:37:00.002-05:00

Today I checked on my swarm boxes and noticed that the 5 gallon bucket (see earlier post) swarm catch now has a rather large swarm in it. I am thrilled that this worked. Now you guys can replicate what I did and feel confident that you are doing the correct thing to catch a swarm.

Blackberries and Bees

2010-04-19T20:53:00.003-05:00

I now have 5 hives on the tree farm. They are doing well. I should be getting lots of honey this year.

There is lots of blackberrys at the farm. The bees love them.
Should be good honey.

Swarm Transfer

2010-04-14T21:13:00.004-05:00

These are the hives that I have on my tree farm. The first hive (with 3 supers) is a hive that my Dad caught this year as a swarm. It is a very strong swarm. The bees are more black in color than the other hives that have a higher percentage of of italian breed queens. The second hive is a hive that I split from my hive at my residence. It is fairly slow to grow, but steadily improving. The last hive is a hive that I caught this year on the tree farm property. They are more italian breed type bee and they are growing fairly well. I built a metal hive stand that will hold 4 hives.

This is me transfering the swarm that I caught to a full size brood hive.

This little bee seems happy with his new home. Out of the nuc home and into the full size brood home.

This is a photo of the swarm in its original nuc catch hive. It is simply a nuc hive made from scrap wood. It works fine. The bees do not seem to care about the quality of wood the hive is made.

Just a Note

2010-04-08T09:15:00.002-05:00

This is basically a note for swarms. Here in Northeast Louisiana the bees began swarming at the last week of March. My Dad has caught 4 swarms in the past 4 days in the first week of April. Lots of activity with all of the pollen. The pine trees have released their pollen and every thing is now green with pollen. They strarted releasing the pollen during the last week of March. On April 8th, all trees are full with fresh green leaves. This year I will attempt to maintain 6 hives of my own and 4 hives of my fathers.

New Swarm

2010-04-06T12:56:00.003-05:00

The white nuc hive is the swarm that my Dad caught for me. It is actually a quite large hive. I plan to move them to a regular brood hive later this weekend.

Another view

This is a make shift swarm catch hive made from a discarded ice chest.

Inside view of the ice chest swarm catch. The top bars are secured with melted bees wax.

This is a discarded ice chest that I found on the side of the road. I thought this could be modified to be a top bar hive/swarm catch hive. Lets see how it works.

Ok, Today I have confirmed that I have actually caught a new swarm in one of my swarm boxes. They are moving pollen in and are very active. My Dad also brought me a new swarm that he caught yesterday. This swarm is actually larger than the one I caught.

New Swarm?

2010-03-29T20:56:00.002-05:00

Today I checked my swarm boxes and 2 of the 3 boxes had bees in them. I am still not convinced there is a swarm in them just yet though, maybe they are just interested in the pheremone. I'll keep watching in hopes to see a bee actually take some pollen into the hive. Then I will be confident there is a swarm /queen in there. I am loving these beautiful days we are having. Tomorrow after work, I am going to try to do some catfishing with my bud.

Make your own Charcoal

2010-03-22T22:16:00.006-05:00

Some charcoal made in the backyard. This is hickory charcoal.

Pretty good results with the first batch.

Just to show. The large can is the one used in the fire. The other two cans are full of charcoal from the batch that was made in the large can.

Wood gasification at work. See the large hot gas jet that is eminating from the top of the can. It sounds awesome.

In this view you can see the jet of gases coming from the top of the can.

I placed wood around the can sort of like a tee pee. Started the fire. In about 10 minutes the can was spewing hot gases that were ignited by the flames.

You need to secure the top of the container because this will be pressurized with hot gases.

The can filled with hand split hickory.

Ok, So now I have the smoker, why not make my own charcoal. That would be cool. Here is my first attempt. It was actually very successful.

Smoker Build Finished

2010-03-21T20:06:00.006-05:00

Bees that made it through the winter.

...another bee or two that made it through the winter.

This is my compost bin I made earlier this month. Simple

All you do is turn it manually when you feel like it. It has leaves, chicken manure and food scraps in it. It is suppose to make "..excellent quality compost." We shall see.

A blurry photo of my blueberry bushes. I have 4 of these. These are rabbiteye blueberrys, climax variety. I fertilized them this winter with azelia (spelling?) fertilize.

Just good to see these.

Temp rising. I usually smoke at anywhere from 225-250 degrees.

This is smoke coming from my newly constructed smoker. It only smokes when I first start the fire. Once the fire is established there is hardly any smoke when using charcoal as the fuel. I used some hickory but is is too smokey for me. I am going to try pecan as the fuel the next time I smoke.

This is the basket that holds the fuel for the smoker. This goes in the bottom of the smoker of course.

This is how I get the charcoal started. No lighter fluid need with one of these gizmos.

The fire basket sits on the bottom grate. You can see the air intake that directs regulated air to the bottom of the smoker basket.

This is the air intake valve. All made from scrap metal.

I have the capability of smoking on 4 racks. The inside diameter of the smoker is 23 1/2 inches. The door has a high heat silicone seal (red). There is no air leakage.

Side view with the doors shut. I have 2 temp gauges. One just below the top rack and one just below the bottom rack.

A good overall view of the smoker. Never mind all of my junk around it.

Another good view of the smoker. It is a 105 gallon propane tank that I made into a vertical smoker. Another project I made in my garage.

March Photo's

2010-03-18T21:37:00.002-05:00

This is a photo of some of the wild plum that grows around the rivers in our area. The Bees love them.

This is a swam catch hive that I am trying out. It is a simple 5 gallon paint bucket with a hole drilled near the bottom. Inside the bucket is some fresh honey comb with queen pheromone inside the hive as well. Last year the bees actually began swarming at the end of March. I'll be ready. I think this may work because I have seen swarms collect in some empty 5 gallon buckets at my Dad's farm. They were simply laying around the side of the field and some had poision remaining in the buckets, and the bees actually stayed for years.

This is another swarm catch hive that I placed on my timber tract.

This is the 3rd of 3 swarm catch hives that I have on my timber tract. You can see the pheremone envelope on the front of this hive.

Maybe they will yield a hive or two.

Smoker Build

2010-03-17T21:00:00.006-05:00

This is a 105 gallon propane tank that was built in 1942 in Ft Worth Texas. It was used on the farm for years.

Now being recycled to be my new vertical smoker.

Cutting

and cutting...

and cutting...

cutting...

This is a propane tank smoker that I have built this winter. Ready to try it out. I have more photo's to come of this. I know, it is not about Bees but I just had to show it off. It is kind of weird that some one would want to build a smoker but believe it or not I have had a blast building this smoker. I hope to add some photo's of me cooking on it later.

What's Going On

2010-03-17T20:43:00.003-05:00

Wild Plum

Dad with his bees

Changing the oil.

New Oil

Dad has 3 hives on his WRP land.

Well it is now March 17th 2010. Here in La the plum trees are budding and the bradford pear trees are in full bloom. We also have a wild plum tree that is in full bloom. The bees are very active now. This weekend, I went to my Dad's and we observed his bee hives. All look healthy. Today I installed 3 swarm catches with the pheremone attached to each. Maybe I will catch another swarm this year. Last year the bees began swarming toward the end of this month. I think Dad caught 4 or 5 swarms last year (he had the time to do that). I have been building a smoker cooker out of an old propane tank this winter. I finally finished it the other day. Check out the photo's. Hope you enjoy.

That was not a good idea.

2010-02-28T21:27:00.002-06:00

Today I attempted to harvest castings from my worm bin that I built. (See earlier post). I could not move the rake. The weight of the worm dirt/castings was too much to allow the rake to slide to or fro. So whatever you do, do not copy what I did.
So, I removed all the worms and dirt, removed the rake, and put a layer of fine screen on top of the grate that was already installed. I then returned the worms and dirt to the bin. I had copious amounts of worms and some castings, but not too much. I plan to use the bin as is and simply manually harvest the castings once or twice a year. O well, you live you learn. By the way, the bees were happy today, lots of sunshine, solar panels produce 29 kwH today.

Warming Up A Little

2010-02-26T20:51:00.003-06:00

This past weekend I went to my dad's where I now have 2 bee hives (had 3). The two remaining hives are very healthy. I changed their bottom board oil trap oil for new oil. These hives were surprizingly clean and the wax was a healthy buttery yellow color. Lots of bees.
It will not be long before my dad will be catching swarms for us. Last year he captured a swarm at the end of March. He loves doing that and has now come quite adept at this. He also loves the honey and like me, he eats honey every am. He is a semi retired farmer and enjoys managing the bees with me. He has a 500 acre parcel of farm land that he placed in WRP program where this was planted in native hardwood. He walks around it every day and checks on the hives. There is lots of food there for the bees. I am looking forward to see what this bee season affords us. If you are looking for a project to spend time with your father with, beekeeping is certainly a good option. I plan to include photo's of us together working the bees this year.

Lost Another Hive

2010-02-15T20:09:00.002-06:00

This weekend the temp warmed and some and the bees were flying. As I check on my hives, 2 of the 3 hives were busy. Not much action at the 3rd hive. You guessed it, they starved. I have now lost 2 hives this winter. It has been unusually cold here. If I was not working all the time I could have time to actually feed the bees. It is just so inconveinent for me to do that when I usually get in after dark and leave early. O well, at least I have 2 hives for now. I will probably buy a couple of nucs this spring to replace the ones that I have lost. I really need to harvest more honey this year than last year because I have more and more people requesting the sweet honey. Although I have lost these hives, it has not broken my beekeeping spirit. I am still learning more about how to manage these little insects daily.

On a different subject, the compost worms are multiplying beyond my wildest expectations. I am going to have to come up with a larger compost bin for them this spring. I am still thinking about what I am going to do about that.

Bees Gone Crazy

2010-01-26T21:17:00.003-06:00

Ok, It finally warmed up a little with highs in the 60's for the past couple of days. The bees are flying in and out of the hives with lots of pollen (from somewhere) on their legs. I have no idea where they are getting this from, everything appears to be dormant and I can find nothing obviously blooming. Anyway, I am pleased as punch to see the hives doing well. Hopefully if the have made it this far, they will make it to spring. I am now starting to get the itch to build a couple of more hives for new colonies this spring. More and more people now know I have honey and I am asked for this more often than not now. It is nice to know that there are folks around here who appreciate good local honey and recognize the health benefits. Teach, teach, teach.

Compost Worms

2009-12-28T19:08:00.005-06:00

This is a view of the screened vents, one on each side of the lower castings harvest tray.

This is a view of inside of the worm bin. The bottom grate allows for worm castings to be raked to the collection tray by the rake that is mounted on top of the grate. The thought is that as I pull the rake, the castings will be dislodged to the collection drawer below. I insulated the inside of the worm bin with 3/4 inch rigid foam insulation to help keep a consistant temperature in the bin. The insulation also protects the worm bin from moisture.

This is a view of the rake that has been swept across the grate.

This is the handle of the rake that has been pulled to show you how this works.

The rake is now in its storage position

This is a view of the complete worm bin. It is mounted on 4 casters and has a drawer at the bottom to retrieve the worm castings. A top is not necessary. The idea is that the worms will stay in the top 4 inches of compost (where the food is). The waste will remain at the lower label where this is dislodged with the rake to be harvested. Simple in concept, I just hope it works.

A view of the lower collection bin and drawer. Ventilation holes are also seen.

A better view of the collection tray with collection drawer.

Drawer open for collection of excellent quality worm castings.

Ok, So nothing is going on with the bees other than occasional feeding as needed. The remaining hives are looking good. I started reading about composting and thought this would be a good winter project. I began reading what I could on the web and decided to build a flow-through worm composting bin. I've seen several commercial ones on the net and a few basic ones made from plastic totes. I decided to build one of my own design based on a flow-through system. These systems are easily cleaned and castings are harvested relatively easily. I purchased about 2000 worms from a local worm grower for the bedding of my new worm bin. Check out the photo's. Maybe you will be entertained some how.

Fed the Bees

2009-12-18T18:27:00.003-06:00

I removed the dead hive from the apiary today. I'll keep the wax in a sealed tote for use next year with a new hive. No sign of disease, the simply starved. So, you guessed it, I fed the other bees today. It was a beautiful day at up to 60 degrees F. The bees were active as well. I fed the bees honey, one quart each hive. Hopefully this will make a difference. I'll keep a check on them.

Hive Lost Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

2009-12-11T19:16:00.002-06:00

Ok, I have been busy installing solar on my house and I have neglected to check on my bees like I should have. You guessed it, I lost a hive. There were many dead bees at the entry, I opened the hive, there was about 4 inches of dead bees on the bottom board, that made me frustrated. The combs were empty of any honey. No obvious sign of disease, I think they starved to death. The other 3 hives are doing ok though. This was a hive that I split later this summer. It seems like anytime that I attempt to mess with a hive late in summer, something bad happens to that hive. I must have left them with too few honey stores. O well, you live, you learn. I should have been checking them more often. My fault. Come on winter solstice December 21. I do not like cold weather.

Just an update

2009-11-25T21:46:00.003-06:00

Well, Winter is near and the bees come out when it is warm but otherwize nothing exciting has been happening with them. I have not been doing much with them. I have been involved with installing a solar panel grid tie system on my house. I have been making post related to that on my other blog. If you are interested in that sort of thing you can see the blog at www.mygridtie.blogspot.com

Hedge Hog Mushrooms

2009-11-09T19:44:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I picked 2 hedge hog mushrooms from the back yard and I had a strong desire to eat them just to do it. I washed them, and cut them lengthwise. I then added the mushrooms and margarine to a pan as well as onions and then saute'ed them.
In another pan I put 2 chicken boullion cubes (I had rather have beef boullion cubes)and added sliced bell peppers and carrots. I then combined the two and simmered over low heat for a little while until slightly soft. I then served these over white rice. It was excellent. I could not get my wife or little girl to eat it though.
Anyway it was fun to prepare a dish that came from my backyard (except the rice).

New Hive doing ok.

2009-10-23T21:59:00.002-05:00

I know its late to start the hive but but I kind of had to. This was a hive that had declined to almost nothing, so I added more bees from my other hives, added fresh honey and added a new queen. I opened the hive last week and I have fresh brood, and the bees are steadily working in the pollen. I have the opening reduced to about 2 inches. Hopefully they will make it. We shall see. The goldenrod are still in bloom but I think there are more fall daisies now.

New Queen Arrived

2009-09-30T20:49:00.002-05:00

Today, my new queen arrived from Alabama (Rossman Apiarys). I placed her in the nuc hive accordingly and moved the hive about 5 miles away to another location. The nuc has 3 frames with lots of honey and I placed a honey feeder in the place of the 4th frame. I filled the frame feeder with about 1 pint of honey for the bees to enjoy while all of the change is going on. Hopefully they will prosper. I used the stand that I built in the demonstration video in the blog below.

Fall Harvest

2009-09-27T21:04:00.003-05:00

Today I extracted the honey from my 4 hives today. Actually only 3 of the hives had enough to extract but I ended up with 3.5 gallons. I made sure to leave the hives with plenty of honey for the winter as well. We are having a major blooming of flowers here in La and the bees are working like crazy. I think they still have time to replenish what I took. The honey was somewhat darker than the spring honey and I thought it would not be as sweet, but I was wrong, this darker honey is actually smoother tasting and sweeter for some reason. So far this is the best honey I have ever tasted from my hives. I also took 2 frames of brood/honey/and bees from my best hive and added it to my new nuc hive, the queen will arrive this week and I will introduce her to her new nuc. I hope I am able to keep it through the winter. I have plenty of honey to feed the nuc. This weekend I mounted my John Deere and plowed several acres of my tree farm land and I planted a white clover for the bees next spring. I do not know much about the clover but it is suppose to have a large white flowering head. The type of clover is called Ladino.

Hive Recovery

2009-09-25T10:15:00.002-05:00

I gave my father in law a hive earlier this year and it did not prosper. In fact, it lost the majority of the bees. He is not a bee keeper but he wanted a hive for his garden. I inspected the hive the other day and there was only about 2-300 bees in the hive but the queen was still present. No eggs, no brood. I took the frames that had the bees and queen and placed them in a nuc hive. I ordered a new queen and she is to arrive next week. I also added a couple of frames from my good hives to the nuc hive to strenghten the numbers. I am hoping that with the addition of a new queen (after I kill the old queen) will at least allow the hive to survive until next spring. I plan to feed the hive often through out the winter and hopefully will have a nice healthy start on a new hive for next year. We have wildflowers in full bloom this time of year especially the golden rod.

How I build my hive stands

2009-09-13T13:59:00.002-05:00

Hive stands are often overlooked to new beekeepers. I feel as though a simple and effective hive stand is of utmost importance especially here in the south where crawling insects can totally destroy a hive. I have included a video on how I build my simple but strong hive stands. I hope this helps.

Photo's of the garden

2009-09-12T19:54:00.002-05:00

Ahh, Louisiana Jalapeno

Tomatos

Tommytoes

2009-09-12T19:42:00.002-05:00

These are great with a salad.
We eat these bell peppers on home made pizza and home made spaghetti omong other food.

They are as good as they look.

O yea, the watermellon is nearly ready to harvest. See the earlier post to see how much it has grown.

Golden Rod Now Blooming

2009-09-10T21:54:00.002-05:00

I just noticed that the golden rod wild flowers are now blooming around here. I just checked my hive this weekend and they have not grown very much. Hot, dry, not much to feed on. Hopefully they will now grow with the fall flowers beginning to bloom. I planted 2 rows of english peas last week and they are up and looking good. I also planted 9 broccoli plants but 2 were cut down by cut worms. Still harvesting bell peppers, cucumbers, squash, and jalapeno peppers.

Not so smooth landing I made this weekend.

2009-08-23T23:13:00.003-05:00

My wife and I went flying this weekend. She recorded the landing and once we reviewed the video at home, it looked like we were in a NASCAR crash. At any rate the landing was not all that bad. I am sure the bees do better than this though.

2009-08-19T21:30:00.002-05:00

Yes that is a trash can. I built my 4 frame extractor using a new food safe trash can for the body of the device. I have an earlier post on the project if interested. It works great.

I really like the old cast iron honey gate (another antique). Works fine.

This is my set up that I have prior to going to my apiary to rob the hives. I have a 16 ft trailer attached to my tractor that I do all of the dirty work, I do not care if I get some honey on the trailer.

Honey Sells

2009-08-15T21:43:00.003-05:00

We processed our cucumbers into dill pickles. Awesome!

I know it is unorthodox but it works fine for me.

This frame was only 50% capped, I did not extract this but thought it would give a good photo of the difference of capped and uncapped honey. The uncapped honey (in the lower half of the frame) contains too much moisture to extract and may spoil. You really need to extract only honey that is capped (unless you are a comercial operation and have a way to monitor and control moisture.

Zucchini (I think that is how you spell it)

Ok, this water mellon decided to grow on the fence, so I built a sling for it so it would not fall. My wife thought this was funny.

The word is now out that I have bees and honey and most folks really enjoy the fact that this is a local product and is good for their seasonal allergies. The garden has done well this year, in fact I just ate watermellon. (Delicious). Check out the photos of the garden.

August Honey

2009-08-03T22:39:00.002-05:00

This past week (July 29) I extracted honey from two of my fathers hives (7 gallons) and from 2 of my hives (4.5 gallons). This honey is a little darker from the spring honey earlier this year. At any rate, the honey has a good taste.

Irresistable Photo's

2009-06-13T22:06:00.002-05:00

Ok, I intended to take a photo of the honey but, I had to get this shot.

Fresh Honey and Fresh Veggies.

Is it just me or is this just adorable?

Ok, here is the photo of a representative sample of the honey that I just extracted yesterday. This is a lighter honey this year and I prefer this to darker honey. I still have another hive to extract soon.

Honey Harvest Today

2009-06-12T21:24:00.003-05:00

Updated Garden Photo.

Blanc Dubois Grape Vines. They are pierce disease resistant.

Perfectly capped honey. All of the frames were capped like this.

Another capped frame.

This came from 2 of my hives.

Today I finally had time to harvest the honey. I opened the first hive and I was surprized to see that every single frame was full of capped honey, pristine white. I ended up with about 8 gallons of honey from two of the hives. I could not harvest the third hive because I ran out of containers, so I'll harvest it later. I have never harvested such a bountiful honey crop. Check out the photo's. I also included updated photo's of the garden above.

The Smoker is Now Painted

2009-05-23T21:10:00.003-05:00

The smoker is now painted. I am planning to cook chicken tomorrow for the family and in -laws for Memorial Day.

Updated Photo of Garden

2009-05-17T21:00:00.004-05:00

Looking good, looking good.
The snap beans are nearly ready to harvest. Some squash will soon be ready also. I am usually picking a handful of strawberries every other day. My blanc dubois cuttings are also healthy.

This is a smoker/cooker that I built from an old used water well bladder tank. It holds the desiered temperature well and will cook for 5 or 6 hours on only 40 charcoal briquets. This was a fun project. I have yet to paint it. I wanted to make sure all items were fine tuned before painting. Its's ugly but it works great.

This is the catfish trap that I built today. I will try to document the catfish harvest. Maybe someone will find this pretty neat. Like I have said before, you can never till what sort of strange project I have going on. I lost my other trap in the river.

This is a photo of my grapes that I am growing. This is the second year for the vines and I have allowed a few of them to produce grapes. The variety is blanc dubois. They are suppose to be pierce disease resistant.

Recent Photo's of Bees & Honey

2009-05-02T22:38:00.005-05:00

This year I have started a garden from some very good soil. I have burned my wood flitches and scrap wood here for about 10 years. The soil is dark and grows very large weeds so I thought I would make a garden out of the spot. The bee hives are within 50 feet of the garden. Hopefully I will have some fresh veggies this year. I have planted corn, strawberries, peppers, squash, tomatoes, potato's, bush snap beans, and my grape vine cuttings were rooted in 1/2 of of one row. The bees should enjoy this.

This is another view of the garden that I have started this year. I put an 8 foot cyclone fence around it to be sure I have no deer in there. It is small (23' x 23') but I have 7 rows of veggies in an area that I can reasonably manage and water. (I ran a 3/4" water line to the garden underground and have it set up nicely for irrigation purposes.)

It is hard to see but the extractor had honey almost to the extractor cage.

It was about 3 1/2 gallons in there that we extracted from 2 hives.

I am now emptying the extractor with a screen filter.

Ahhhhhhh the sweet rewards of backyard bees.

This is a fun little video of the bees in action.

This is a photo of my 3 hives that I keep in my backyard. The middle hive is the new split hive.

Update on the Swarm Catch

2009-04-30T21:15:00.003-05:00

I have been checking on the swarm that I caught using the bee pheromone and the hive is growing nicely. I added three more frames of foundation to the nuc hive the other day and all looks ok. I am going to leave the nuc hive at its original location until the hive is stronger and I will then transfer to a full size Langstroth. I opened my other hives today and for some reason the bees are not moving above the queen excluder below the new supers that I placed this year. I have heard others have had this problem also so I removed the queen excluders. The bees appear to be increasing in numbers. My Dad called me today and he has caught another swarm for me. I think I will place this hive in my father-in-law's garden. The hive beetles are definitly under control with the traps. Excellent move installing the beetle traps.

Swarm Catch

2009-04-24T23:00:00.002-05:00

The other day I placed a nuc hive on a tree with new swarm pheromone attached to the front. I did this to two nuc's. I just checked the boxes and I actually have a swarm in one of the boxes. That pheromone really works. Today I filled the swarm catch box with frames (I only originally placed 2 frames with wax because I was doubtful that I would actually catch a swarm.) At any rate I have a new hive to manage now and it was essentially free and required only a small effort to attach the nuc hive to the tree. Not bad for a few minutes work. The other 3 hives are growing quickly. I am anticipating harvesting honey from them in about 2 months. My Father also caught a swarm for me the other day, I just need to have the time to go get it, that will give me 5 hives. I have been giving honey away to all friends and work cohorts. It is a pleasure to share the honey with others.

Added Honey Supers

2009-03-27T22:42:00.002-05:00

The hives are doing great, I now have 3 hives since the split. I think they have actually increased in size and vigor more rapidly than if I had not split the hive. I feel that the hives should be challenged to prevent swarming. I have very little hive beetles since I installed the hive beetle traps in my hives. I am now only seeing 2-3 hive beetles with each inspection. I placed a queen excluder below each honey super. Hopefully we will be extracting honey soon.

Split a Hive

2009-03-21T21:47:00.003-05:00

On March 17 2009 I formed a new hive from two hives. The procedure I used is as follows:
First I smoked the donor hives and opened them to the brood hive. I took 2 frames of brood, and 2 frames of honey from one hive and 3 frames of brood (opened and closed) from the other donor hive. I did not shake the nurse bees. I added some empty fundation to make a total of 10 deep frames to start the new hive. I was careful not to take the queens from the two donor hives. I also switched the new hives location and orientation to the same location of one of the donor hives. I turned one of the donor hives a different direction. This was done so that returning field bees would go to the new hive and not the donor hive. On March 21 2009 I introduced a purchased queen to the new hive. I could have allowed the new hive to start their own queen but I did not feel like waiting 3 or 4 weeks for her to start laying. At any rate I now have a new hive that is growing quickly. I feel that you must challenge your hives to prevent swarming. This allows healthy multiplication of your hives. Oh and by the way, the small hive beetle traps are excellent. I did not observe any SHB's during the above process.

Hive Beetle Trap

2009-02-16T20:11:00.001-06:00

This gives you an idea of how the oil trap is accessed from the rear.
There were 7 small hive beetles in the oil after about 20 hours. Some pollen in there also.

This is how I access the hive trap from the rear of the beetle trap.

This is a photo of the beetle trap installed on my bee hives.

This shows a good overall view of the trap.

The cookie sheet slides out for easy access.

The door fits snugly into the opening and the latch is closed to secure the door.

Door is in and latch closed

I recently built hive beetle traps for my hives. They are quite simple to construct. They are essentially the same outer dimensions of a Langstroth hive. I used 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 inch lumber to build the main frame, I then stapled #6 hardware cloth to the top. I have a shelf for the cookie sheet (10x15) and I have rear access to the cookie sheet that has used cooking oil in it. The results are amazing. I was told by an old bee keeper that this is all he uses for management of the hive beetles and that I would have a hard time maintaining my hives with hive beetles present. No chemicals needed. This is one of the most effective traps I have seen for small hive beetles. I took a video of my bees the other day and wanted to try this out on the blog, hope you enjoy this. Photo's of the hive beetle traps are soon to be posted.

Check out the little video of my bees.

Hive Entrance Feeder

2009-01-24T17:37:00.001-06:00

Today there was a very cold front that swept through our area and I became concerned for the Bees. I wanted to be sure that they had plenty of nutrition to maintain their temp. I needed a hive feeder that was quick and easy to make. I chose to build an entrance feeder because I did not want to open the hive in this cold weather. I saw no other plans for this on the net and so I devised my own. Not fancy but it did work. I hope the photos explain the process.

Shitake Mushrooms Anyone?

2009-01-24T17:02:00.000-06:00

Another interest I have developed is that of growing mushrooms. I have read numerous articles on the net and have read (The Mushroom Cultivator) by Paul Stamets and JS Chilton. It is a very good book for the individual whom is interested in this sort of thing. I have recently (1/19/2009) inoculated the growing substrate (oak log). I purchased my fungi from fungiperfecti.com. The process is quite simple. Simply cut some fresh oak logs, seal the ends with wax, after 2 weeks you can inoculate the logs with your fungi and seal the holes with wax. I chose to grow shitake but I also want to inoculate some portabella as well. I have published this post to serve as a reminder to me as to the date of inoculation. Some photo's of the fresh cut growing medium, melting of wax, wax on ends of growing medium, and my moisture meter showing 99%. Best to keep logs around 40% moisture content.

Nice Buck!

2009-01-24T16:56:00.000-06:00

This is a photo that was taken the other day by my wildlife camera. Not too bad. Beautiful animal.

Winter Hive Loss

2008-12-20T19:58:00.000-06:00

Today it was quite warm (70 degrees) and I opened all 3 of my hives. The two hives that I purchased early in the year (May) are doing well. Lots of honey in there. The hive that I started late (August) has essentially died. There was only a hand full of bees in there and no queen or any honey. I removed all frames and stored for next spring for a new hive. I plan on splitting my good hive with a new fresh queen. I now see why the old addage of ("A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in July is not worth a fly"). At any rate it was a learning experience. So now I am down to two hives. I think I will feed them occasionally to ensure they make it through the winter. I am also interested in growing Shitake mushrooms and have purchased a book on the propogation of mushrooms. I also have purchased shitake fungi plugs to inoculate my white oak log. I will do this in a couple of weeks and hope to photo this for you.

Sharing a recent Photo

2008-12-10T20:54:00.000-06:00

I thought I would share this photo that was taken by my automatic camera the other day. (No I am not interested in shooting this beautiful animal.)

Intrigued by the Queens

2008-12-03T17:27:00.000-06:00

I am now reading about how to breed and rear queens. I have not done much with the hives lately since it is too cold to open them, but I did place "Mite Check" in each of them to help eliminate the hive beetles that I have seen. I dislike those little critters. I do need to remove the strips in mid December. Mostly deer hunting and duck hunting now. I purchased a "Wild View" deer cam the other day and have it placed at a location of several rubs and scrapes. Hopefully I will have a photo of the big buck soon for you. I am also reading about queen rearing and breeding, I am intriqued by this process. Hopefully I will rear my own queens for next year if all goes as planned. I will update the steps that I am taking for queen rearing once I begin the process.

Solar Wax Extractor

2008-08-13T22:09:00.000-05:00

I wanted to extract the wax from a hive that we removed from an old house. I read about some solar extractors on the net and thought this was a good idea. I made mine a little differently but with the same outcome. My wax extractor is simply an old fire extinguisher cabinet that you have seen in commercial buildings. They have the rounded plexiglas cover-excellent for solar heat collection. All I did was clean the cabinet up and painted the interior of the cabinet with a black paint. I also wrapped the cabinet with duct insulation for heat gain. I placed a foil pan that I perforated with a tiny nail inside another pan that is not perforated. I placed the wax on top of cheese cloth that is streatched over the perforated pan. It worked fine. I measured the temp inside the cabinet on a sunny day and it measured 138 deg. F

A Home Made Honey Extractor

2008-08-13T21:56:00.000-05:00

My father acquired an old antique honey extractor from my grandfather. It was a basket case and the drum was rusted out but it was made of heavy cast iron gears and parts so this was salvageable. I bead blasted the entire extractor (except for the rusted out drum) until it was clean to bare metal. I then cleaned the bushings and replaced the 5/8 inch drive shaft with new. I then primed and painted the mechanism and it is now like new. I purchased a food safe plastic commercial trash and with some back yard engineering was able to make it work well for the barrel. I also was able to salvage the cast iron scissor gate and mounted it on the trash can. It works perfectly. I think the plastic trash can is an excellent barrel for the honey collection. It is easy to clean and very clean. Check out the photo. If interested in how to build this I will be glad to give you the info you need. But first, you need an old worn out extractor to start from.

Re Queen

2008-08-13T21:20:00.000-05:00

I purchased a marked clipped wing queen from a reputable bee supplier from Alabama. The weak hive was closely inspected and I found brood but only a very sloppy pattern and very few brood cells were noted. This hive is weak due to either a weak queen or an old queen. I purchased the queen and she arrived intact and healthy. I removed all the frames and located the old queen and eliminated her. I then removed a frame from the middle of the brood hive and placed the queen in this location with the candy plug up. Hopefully would be released in a few days. We shall see.

Update: 5 days later: the queen is still in there. I opened the candy plug so that I could actually see the queen in there through the plug. Will check on her in a couple of days.

Update: 8 days later: The queen is still in the queen cage! I could not believe that she had not been released with the candy plug partially opened...so I completely opened the candy plug. I know she will be released now, all she needs to do is walk out of the cage. Will check in a week for eggs.

More photo's of the swarm capture

2008-07-19T21:30:00.001-05:00

These photo's show somewhat of the hiving process. After removing the swarm from the limb as shown in the photo's below, We placed the limb with the swarm in a plastic trash can and covered the can with a towel and secured this for transport to the hiving location. I used a towel to cover the trash can so the bees could have good air circulation for transport. Once at the hiving location, I allowed the bees to calm for an hour or so. I had to build a new brood hive because I had none on such notice. I did have 5 frames of foundation for the brood hive although 10 are needed. Will order more at first of the week. At any rate, I placed the new brood hive in a location about 75 yards from my other bees for the hiving process. I opened the swarm container and took the limb out and placed it over the new brood hive and simply shook the bees off into the new brood hive. I then turned the trash can upside down over the brood hive and thumbed the sides where most of the bees fell into the brood hive. I then placed the frames with foundation and placed the inner and top cover on. I then allowed them to calm until about 1 hour before dark and then I moved the hive to the final location near the other bee hives. So far so good. I hope they stay.

July Swarm

2008-07-19T21:20:00.000-05:00

I have read that "a swarm in July is not worth a fly." But my Dad called today and one of our good hives swarmed today and he was wanting to know if the swarm was worth capturing. Sure, why not. Upon arriving at the swarm it was noted to be quite large. I took photo's of what we did to retrieve the bees and also of what I did to hive them. I think they will be ok. I know this is a healthy queen because she grew the old hive quite rapidly. Enjoy the photo's.

Lumber for Bee Hives

2008-06-27T12:33:00.000-05:00

Our home was constructed of framing lumber that was cut on my sawmill and airdried for 5 years. The garage is currently under construction. I plan to pour a driveway after the garage is bricked.

Prior to garage construction.
I built my Langstroth hives from lumber that I cut on my hydraulic Timberking sawmill. I have had this mill since 1997 and it works perfectly. I also used this mill to cut my materials list for my house that my wife and I have recently completed. The hives were made from cypress that I cut on 50% with the landowner. The key to good lumber from the mill is having a place to stack and sticker and air dry the wood. Anyway, I thought you may like to see the mill.

Hives Looking Good! Have Brood and Honey!

2008-06-27T12:12:00.000-05:00

There must be a queen in there with all the brood. Good tight pattern.

Beautiful

Healthy growing hive

This morning I checked my hives and the hive that I thought had no queen now has lots of brood. The other hive is growing much faster and has actually filled the super with 50% of honey. No honey in the super of the weaker hive but I think it may catch up since there is now obviously a queen in there. It must have worked when I placed a frame of brood from the healthy hive to the weaker hive so that the weaker hive could form their own queen. Pretty cool. I took some good photo's of the bees. Check it out

Added Supers

2008-06-25T16:50:00.000-05:00

The hives are growing by leaps and bounds. 8 of 10 frames drawn into comb. Added supers on 6/1/08. I still see no brood in one hive but it is growing somehow. I shall check it more closely this weekend. Both have beautiful honey in most of the frames already. More pictures to come.

I see no eggs

2008-05-23T22:35:00.000-05:00

Today I opened the hives and checked on the AJ's beetle eaters that I installed last week. I had 2 beetles in one trap and 1 in the other trap in the other hive. I inspected the foundation and see that the comb is being drawn but ever so slowly. No eggs visualized. I quess there is a queen in there? The bees are steadily bringing in pollen and seem to be doing ok otherwise. Will check again later next week. Took photo of the bees in action.

New Queen Emerges

2008-05-22T16:47:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I opened the hives and noted that one of the hives had formed a queen swarm cell and it was evident that she had emerged. The original queen must have died or was killed some how. I was suspicious that there was no queen since I have not observed eggs in that hive yet. I do not think they have swarmed, there seems to be just as many bees present as before. Hopefully that queen will take over and start laying and get the hive organized. I also noted that the bees in that hive were more agressive and much more disorganized. Very little pollen was being brought in by the bees and they were quick to try to attack me. I had to use smoke to open the hive. The other hive is doing well. Those bees are organized and are working hard. I see eggs in the cells and comb is being drawn in 7 of the 10 frames. I have my super foundation ordered and will introduce probably next weekend. The black berries are blooming and should be ready to pick at the end of May.

Robbing Ferrel Hives

2008-05-05T22:58:00.000-05:00

My neighbor became interested in beekeeping through our discussions and here we are robbing a ferrel hive that he had behind his house. The older gentleman helping us in the photo has experience in beekeeping and he only used a vail. I have the jacket and vail combo. This day was quite interesting. We cut the old dead tree after we devised a way to lower it to the ground with a system of ropes and pulleys. The log was rotton in that we could split it into two halves by hand. We placed the Langstroth hive near the tree and placed the comb in it. The bees eventually marched into the Langstroth hive. We then placed the Langstroth hive on a stand the following day and the bees were actually still there. It has now been 6 weeks since this attempt and the bees are actually thriving in the hive. We took no honey. Eventually we are going to place another Langstroth on top of this hive with hopes that the bees will ascend into this hive with frames. We shall see.

Arrival of the Bees

2008-05-05T22:31:00.000-05:00

I began reading about bees this past winter of 2007. I thought this would be an interesting hobby and so I built several Langstroth hives and several Nuc hives, ordered my supplies from Dadant, and eagarly awaited my opportunity to receive my bees.

I purchased 2 nuc hives from a local professional beekeeper on April 12 2008. Both looked very healthy with lots of bees. The hives contained 5 frames nearly full of bees and capped brood. I placed the bees in my full size Langstroth hives that same afternoon. All went well. I placed the two hives facing opposite directions on a stand that is about 24 inches in height with all 4 legs in 4- 1 gallon paint pails with old motor oil in the pails for pest resistance purposes. We have a terrible problem with fire ants around here. We also have skunks that can wipe out a hive. My elevated hive stands should alleviate this problem. We shall see.