Old & New Boxes

Inside old Russell hive, now a Gretchen hive

Here’s a look at one of the boxes that Mark will examine, clean up, sand and repaint. If they are in good enough shape, then he can fix them up and reuse them. Concerns would be if there are any holes or rotted wood.

Here’s a look at the inside of one of the newer boxes. Only the box is new, the frames are fine and he simply moved the frames from the older box into the newer one.

Inside a new box with old frames

Out with the old…

Moving frames into new boxes

And in with the new! Boxes that is. These are old hives that Mark is replacing with the newer boxes he’s been putting together and painting. Hopefully the bees will enjoy their new boxes. Mark moved the frames from the old boxes to the new.

What’s that on your legs?

We tried to post one of our videos from YouTube but have been unsuccessful. Technology is annoying when you can’t figure out why it won’t work the way it did before. Ugh. So, if you would like to see two new videos that we put on our YouTube channel, use the link on the right side of our page.

Mark’s working on a project right now so I thought I would pick up the posting torch for a bit. Here’s a shot of some of the bees at My Father’s Farm. They were really carrying in quite a bit of pollen, which surprised us but in a very pleasant way. It’s been rather cold here and things have yet to bloom so we weren’t quite sure where they were finding all the varied colored pollen. Too bad you can’t ask them. Which goes back to my idea about “bee-cams” so that we can see where they have been! Below is a pretty red pollen we kept seeing on them also. Again, I really enjoy watching as they scurried around the hives with their legs packed full of pollen. It’s amazing to see such intelligent creatures, organized and determined and set on their tasks. If only people worked as hard as the bees. Imagine where we’d be!

Red pollen and brood cells

Bees & Pollen

Here’s another shot from our vist to the bee yard at the farm last week. I like this one because of the colorful pollen the bees have collected from different plants and flowers. I wish I knew where they got all their pollen. Wouldn’t that be interesting to have a bee-cam?

Building Up

Notice the large pattern of brood underneath the cluster of bees on this frame.  A brood pattern this large in January indicates a good queen and a healthy hive that will grow rapidly in the upcoming weeks.  I met a beekeeper in Georgia who said he experiences heavy losses of hives every winter.  Happily, all of mine look strong and healthy.  Must be the agreeable Texas climate.

Strong Winter Hives

It was warm here on Saturday — a great opportunity to check the bees.  Thien took this wonderful shot of the top frames of one of the hives we brought back from Mississippi in December.  All of these hives are heavy with bees, as the photo shows, and they are already producing new brood in anticipation of the honey flow to come this spring.  The trick will be to keep them from overcrowding the hive and swarming before the honey flow arrives.

And we’re home!

Well, we made it home from our supply run to Georgia with detours to visit our daughter in Lake Charles and family members in Florida. We’re going through and loading pictures to Flickr either tonight or tomorrow but for now, we wanted to share a shot with you and give you an update on things.

What’s great about this shot is all the fine lines of the wood frames. Very cool looking. And yes, it was dark. We had a few things happen on the trip – two front tires had to be replaced at separate points during the trip (in rural areas, of course), a severe storm had us holed up in a restaurant in Pascagoula (MS) for hours last night – we’re just so glad to make it home okay and all the cargo unloaded now.

Tomorrow we will check on the bees at the farm and feed them, too. Mark’s going to start replacing the old boxes we got from Mr. Russell with the newer ones he’s been working on lately. He’ll then bring back the old boxes and do a little repair and paint on the Russell boxes. I will suit up and take pictures!

Frozen watering hole

Lately it’s been pretty chilly here in Seguin. The weather today was lovely and the temperature in the upper 50s. But prior to this week, we were in the 30s and there were several nights in the 20s! That’s not even counting wind chill which dropped it quite a few more degrees. It’s exciting! Well, it is to me since I enjoy cold weather. I know not everyone likes it.

Here’s the watering hole that we’ve shown before from our backyard (click here to view it). This is where our cat Smokey drinks from as he is an outdoor kitty and it’s also where our backyard bees like to stop by for a sip of water. Not for a couple of days recently, however. It was frozen solid when I went out one day! Poor things. I’m sure they just stayed put in their hives anyway since it was so cold. Last night we were talking with friends about the bees and I learned that the bees cluster together to stay warm and that their hive is a usually set at 90 degrees. Wow! That’s so cool they can do that. I would burn up in there but good for them. They need to stay warm. And make us more honey, please! I’m very happy our new bees are doing so well!

Winter Hive

Several people have asked if the bees would survive this recent cold snap, with teperatures in the low teens — unusual by South Texas standards.  Here is the answer.  With temperatures rebounding into the low 60s today I was able to see that every hive not only survived, but was very active and bringing in pollen.  I was amazed to see the pollen since it appears that all vegetation is in the dead of winter.  I guess the bees know better.

Old Hive

I like the way some of these old hives look that I brought here from Mississippi.  They remind me of the character you see in some of the old houses around town.  You can see where, some years ago, someone repaired the corner of the upper box.  Somehow the bees have engineered an entrance inbetween the supers, preferring it to the traditional entrance at the bottom of the hive.  Don’t let the condition of the boxes fool you — this is a strong hive, very active and carrying in pollen on a 45 degree afternoon.  I was impressed.