honeybees
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In the bee’s midwinter
In the bee’s midwinter frosty winds made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone. Snow was falling, snow on snow, snow on snow In the bee’s midwinter not so long ago. Ok, so I changed a couple of words. Winter has hit hard with the New Year. Six inches of fresh snow blanket Continue reading
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First frost and fingers crossed: winterizing the hive
The temperature has dipped low enough to zap the basil, which I did not snatch in time. So much for making pesto. A more pressing issue is getting the bees ready for winter. Saturday was a delightful day with crisp sunny weather and crunchy leaves underfoot, but it was still warm enough for the bees to Continue reading
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BSI: Bee Scene Investigator
(Note and disclaimer: The following post might actually contain factual information relevant to beekeepers.) All the bees are dead and I want to know why. I want to autopsy the bees. Technically, since they are not human beings, I want to dissect the bees. But Mr. Beekeeper husband is feeling really sad about these bees. He feels Continue reading
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Honey Harvest 2012
If there’s anything more satisfying to a beekeeper than seeing buckets of harvested honey, it is seeing that golden sweetness in jars. It’s a little bit arrogant on our part to take pride in a good harvest since the bees make the honey, but there’s enough work on the part of the beekeeper to justify it. Continue reading
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Preparing for the honey harvest
Today was an exciting day as we got the hives ready for harvest. Today’s tasks: to put bee escapes on the honey boxes and put entrance reducers on the front entrance to the hives. The goals: (1) to get the bees to exit the honey box without getting back in, and (2) to try to prevent robbing Continue reading
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Adding more honey boxes…how sweet it is!
Eying a near-empty honey jar in our kitchen the other day, someone asked, “Do you still do honey?” Good question, since we did not harvest any last year. A rough winter in 2011 did in all of our bees, and a harsh summer did off two of the four replacement hives we bought. (Digression: The ESL Continue reading
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The Scent of Maywood: This Week It’s Wild Roses
A fragrance cannot be posted in a blog. Picture and video can provide sight and sound, but to really experience Maywood in spring, you have to smell it. On a walk down to the field to inspect the blueberries, the sweet smell of grass perfumes the air. Not the smell of a fresh mowed lawn, Continue reading
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The back forty
Here at Maywood, there’s the back yard and then there’s what’s beyond the back yard. That is John’s territory–down the hill and into the woods. It is not visible from the house. This is very important. If I can’t see it, then I can’t yell about what it looks like. Periodically I get invited back to see projects in Continue reading
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Convalescence, The Invalid Wife, and Emerging Bees
I’m convalescing these days. Convalescence is a great word, although we hardly use it anymore. It conjures up images of sickly people bundled up in thick blankets and wheeled outside for a bit of sun. Or rich sickly people doing the same thing on deck chairs of a cruise ship circa 1923. To my stressed-out co-workers it means I’m taking the winter off. Continue reading
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Troubling Bee-havior
We’re having a rough year with the bees. First off, we lost all four hives over the winter. Then, after ordering replacements, three of the queens did not take and John had to order three new queens. Things were off to a slow start this spring. Last week we went on vacation. Before we left, Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 