Isn’t this exciting! After several false-starts, dead-ends, and a couple of broken promises, we’ll be launching an online store here on the site within the next couple of weeks! Check back here for the announcement or drop us a line here and ask to be added to our email list.
Rendering wax for fools
Beeswax is amazing stuff: hard and strong, but also flexible in the warmth of the hive. Because it takes a lot of resources for the bees to produce it, they’re very frugal with it. The workers have to eat roughly 7kg of nectar and honey to produce 1kg of wax, so they build it only where it’s necessary and in …
What does a beekeeper do in January?
In the Northern latitudes, a lot of thinking and planning. Reading. The beginning of a new year is a great, symbolic, time to think of the year ahead: set goals, make plans, get ready to go, start to right some wrongs from the previous year. Our hives are all wood and while it’s generally pretty durable, things do get damaged …
Goodbye, and good riddance, 2018!
Boy, it’s great to see the back-end of 2018! It’s been quiet around here for good reason: we’ve been trying to figure out if we wanted to continue in this business or just pack it in. It’s been that kind of year. Something that we’ve always been proud of is that we’re generally able to keep our losses in the same …
Elephants Are Very Scared of Bees. That Could Save Their Lives. – The New York Times
This is very cool. Who would have thought that an animal’s innate fear of another creature could be put to good use like this? Source: Elephants Are Very Scared of Bees. That Could Save Their Lives. – The New York Times
Introducing ‘A Year in The Yard’
In 2018, we’re going to try something completely different. Each month, we’ll highlight some activity that we’re undertaking or the bees are up to that are generally specific to a particular month. For instance, December isn’t generally busy for beekeepers in our neck of the woods. The bees are safely ensconced in their hives, entrance reducers and solid bottoms in …
A Queen Is Dead, Long Live A Queen!
There was a clump of workers on the landing boards this afternoon. Inside was a dead queen, unmarked. Will have to investigate more to see what’s up inside the hive! Hope there is a laying queen in there.
Summer’s Day Part II
By supper time there is less bearding but lots and lots of foraging activity! I hope the “bee highway” of them coming and going can bee seen.
Bearding on a Hot Summer’s Day
We we’re sent a picture this morning from our host Jesse of Lemoine Point Farm, that it looked like one of our hives might be ready to swarm! Unfortunately neither Gord nor I were available to come see. So after my regular work popped over to see what’s up. The videos speak for themselves.
Beekeepers & Arthritis
If you ever do any research into apitherapy, you’ll eventually run across the claim that beekeepers don’t get arthritis and that it’s due to being stung all the time. First, let me disabuse you of this myth: it just ain’t so! I’ve been keeping bees since 2008 and have been stung more times than I care to count, including my …