Our Hives are Hoppin’!

 

Psalms from the Hive

by Jeannie Saum

How many hives can the  honey bees make

If the bees make it through the winter?

Five hives?   Ten hives?  Fifteen? Twenty?

We’re up to twenty-one!

Swarms caught, splits made, nuc boxes full

And five boxes of honey to pull!

 

Clover, Bee, and Revery

It’s been quite a spring with our bees, and we feel like we are finally  getting the hang of things after 5 years of beginning beekeeping and many conferences and beekeeper meetings  where we get tons of helpful information.

 

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At the Dotson Apiary, they had four  hives make it through the winter and these were thriving and multiplying in early spring.  In the Saum Apiary, we had three make it, but they started the spring out kind of small and weak.  We were happy with the survival rate, compared to last year.

 

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At the Saum Apiary, we had  a small disaster in the last snow and wind storm in February.  Our tarp wind break broke loose at one end and whipped around in the wind, knocking off the covers of three hives.  We didn’t find this out for several hours, so those bees probably succumbed to the cold and lack of protection.

 

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We’ve been out in our hives every two weeks, installed four new nuc (5 frame starter hives from an experienced beekeeper with overwintered bees and queens), caught a swarm from one of our hives, captured a swarm after a call from a neighbor, and made five hive splits from the Dotson’s booming hives and started 3 nucs with queen cells we found.

 

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We’ve also been building massive amounts of  extra equipment – boxes and frames – so we have extra boxes to put on our hives as they grow and make honey during the summer and fall.  Our daughter said our dining room looks like a bee supply company threw up in it!

 

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And next week, we will have five boxes of spring honey to harvest!  We’ll keep you posted as to when that is ready!

 

 

And remember, BEEpothecary is back open for business, with a 15% off coupon code  reopen15.  Get to our online market with the tab at the top of the page “Our Products”

Jeremiah 31

10“Hear the word of the Lord, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’
¹¹ For the Lord will deliver Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.
¹² They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord—
the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more.
¹³ Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
¹⁴ I will satisfy the priests with abundance, and my people will be filled with my bounty,” declares the Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honey and Propolis on bee stings

The Land of Milk and Honey

Cooking with Honey

by Laurie Dotson

What a weekend! Pete and I picked up four Honeybee Nucs, from our friends John George and Terry Eddy, in Plain City, OH. You ask, what are Nucs? I’ll tell you what they are. Nucs are small honey bee colonies created from larger colonies. The term refers both to the smaller size box and the colony of honeybees within it. The name is derived from the fact that a nuc hive is centered around a queen – the nucleus of the honey bee colony. Pete installed our two in our bee yard, while I assisted. It went great so, we decide this is the way to go instead of buying 3 lbs packages of bees. Before we finished in the Bee yard, we feed the new family members sugar and water. Now we let them do what they do best. BEE stuff!

Nucs with five frames full of bees and a queen

Then we took the other two Nucs to Steve and Jeannie Saum’s bee yard, to install them into empty hives. Pete gets started on the first hive and I start on the second one. Pete’s hive was calm, gentle and easy to install. I opened my box of bees. You would have thought a volcano erupted, with an over flowing of bee lava. All of a sudden, I have bee stinging me through my gloves and clothes. The worst thing that can happen, happens.

My worst nightmares come to life. Two or three bees find their way up into my veil. I can feel one crawling on my neck and   then   comes the  “bleeping” sting.  Holy, moly! it hurts and the burning begins. It’s at that point, I need to get my veil off, while remaining calm. I had no idea how many bees were on me.  I’m telling you it felt thousands of buzzing, angry honeybees ramming into me, diving at me and into my hair, swarming around my head and body!  I started to leave the bee yard to free myself of my veil…I try to  stay calm …walking …STAYING calm… walking faster…then I panic and break into a “run for my life” kind of a run.  I’m running down the Saum’s neighbor’s driveway, heading towards their house.  I’m screaming and whacking at every buzzing noise I hear. Whacks to my face, head, body, arms and legs. That’s when I start ripping my clothes off to rid myself of the bees clinging to my jacket and clothes. I had bees stuck in my hair, crawling up my shirt, and down my under clothes. I ran for the carport to redress and to figure out what the heck,  just happened.  I still had a ton of bee following me.  uugh!

Pete is still watching me and looking at the eruption that just happened. Those bees wouldn’t even let Him install them.  So we left those HOT honeybees for the night and decided to come back the next morning.

ALL in all, I was only stung five times.  One on my neck, two on my wrist, one on my armpit and one on top of my head.   At home, I get out the BEEpothecary Propolis Oil to help with pain and inflammation.  I felt so much better, but few hours later my wrist was swollen, very hot and in painful. At this point, I put on the BEEpothecary Wound Salve, because I know it has soothing and healing herbal oil, in addition to,  propolis. Within a few minutes I feel better and now I can sleep.

The next day, we returned to the angry bees and opened up the box. First thing, Peter gets stung.  We decide to leave them again, only this time with the lid off the box, to let them cool down… A few hours later, with a smoker that was heavily smoking. We were able to install the bees, feed them sugar and leave without a bite.

Whew!  That is done!  I would do it again, because our bees are vanishing and without bees we won’t have food!

We Thank God for the honeybees and all the opportunities we have been given because of them.

Thank you, to each of person who have bought our products, listened to us talk about Bees and BEEpothecary!  We appreciate you and your feed back!  We have been given this moment, to help and promote health through the honeybees.

Your Health…Powered by BEES!

Blessings from Laurie and Pete –

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Psalms 40: 4-5

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.  Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.