When the bees produce a surplus to share with the beekeeper, I truly feel blessed. They were strong colonies, and I was ready with equipment, and the weather cooperated. None of those is a guarantee!
We have summer and fall honey for sale. Because the bees visit different floral sources in each season, the bouquet and tasting experience is different for each varietal.
Check out here for more about our 2019 honey.
2015: My middle daughter heard a swarm land on a pine tree by the garage. We had just seen friends hive a swarm; Blue Sky Bee Supply was open; my husband was home to help; we had all the ingredients to start our first hive!
My first year, the swarm arrived at the end of June, and I fed the dickens out of it. I kept 1:1 sugar syrup accessible for many weeks, and used 2:1 after September. By mid October, it had drawn frames in 3 deeps. I didn't know enough to worry about mites, so I went into winter hopeful. And... they made it, and were so strong they couldn't wait to swarm... 3 times. Welcome to the downs of beekeeping!
During that year, I was relying on my husband to help me get the top deep off the hive. It isn't the lifting; it's the gently setting the 60-80 lb+ box back down that is beyond my comfort level. While I wouldn't say I have more brains than most, I would say I am less brawny. But working with alternative hivestyles presents its own challenges, be warned....
In 2017, I switched to version 1.0 of the top bar hive, and then switched to version 2.0 in
2018. I have details on building and managing top bars in the Alternative Hive Styles section.
In 2018, I started a new (and hopefully last) hive type, which is the Dadant deep. C.P. Dadant was a superb beekeeper and the founder of the current Dadant beekeeping company.
In 2019, I converted the 5 remaining top bars to Dadant deeps, and started deep framed hives to overwinter nucs for sale in late April of next year. I miss the serenity of the top bars, but I find the box style hive better for getting honey and for shorter inspections.
For more information about building and managing Dadant deep hives, check out my Alternative Hive Styles link.
