Sojoerd remarked that he was disappointed to not see our bee hives in the pictures that Dooley and DR posted of their trip to our farm. Well, we can't let him be disappointed: Our three hives on the farm ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden ) We have three hives here on our little farm, but since my husband has retired, we may be placing hives on farms around us. We have had several offers of safe sites. And this is what we get: Our own honey ( photo / image / picture from marlingardener's Garden ) In 2012, we didn't get a spring flow of honey because of the 2011 draught, but last fall we got a lovely flow, and just sold the last three jars last week. Now we have our fingers crossed that we get a spring flow. So Sojoerd, here's our hives!
Hiya MG--Thank you so much for taking the trouble to send pics of your hives. They look quite neat and tidy there. It looks like there is some activity there already. I see the anti-skunk wire as well. Nicely organised. That honey looks wonderful and the label makes it all the more cool. We had no spring flow here either last year. Each year the seasons become harder and harder to predict these daYS. It is a situation where we must adapt and react rather than prepare. Anyway what is the reason that you may be moving your hives? I am so thick that I do not understand the connection between your man retiring and you guys moving the hives. I hope that you find a safe place for them. It is a very nice posting, and I am grateful to you.
Oh, I wasn't clear in my previous post. We won't be moving hives, we'll be adding hives. One of our fellow church members has bees in an outbuilding, and wants to get rid of them. We will be doing either a trap-out or a cut-out and placing those bees in a hive on someone else's farm. Neighbors down the road have an abandoned house on their farm, and bees moved in. We tried a trap-out, but there were too many openings for the bees to get back to their home, so we will be doing a cut-out and placing a hive in dapple shade where their cows won't knock over the hive. The connection between my husband retiring and the hives, is that he will now have both more time and weekdays to take care of bees. When someone called and said, "We have a swarm, do you want it?" or "Our tool shed has bees, come get them please!" we had to do it on weekends, and many folks didn't want to wait for three or four days and the swarms didn't hang around for us to appear. We will keep the three hives in our barnyard, because three hives is about all the area immediately around us will support, but with luck we will be adding hives in a 5 to 10 mile radius in areas where the bees will be safe, happy, and well-fed! Glad you liked the photos, Sjoerd!
Very nice. Your honey looks yummy. We were watching a show about skunks. They love to eat honey bee's. They tap on the ledge where the bee's go in and out. When the bee's come out to defend their hive the skunks eat them. Those little stinkers are stinkers in more ways than one. You Bee keepers have enough challenges with colony collapse and wasps attacking there bee's. Now you have to keep your hives safe from skunks as well.
Ohhhhhh....I see. You will be adding MORE! Good for you. Boy, I totally misunderstood you. I smile when I see those hives of yours. Very nice.
