foxthebeekeeper

[foxthebeekeeper]

these things are so fucking cute i cant believe it

[foxthebeekeeper]

Oh God. I keep bees as well and the little carpenter bee getting hit, along with your video with just a queen and maybe 10 of her workers with, is absolutely heartbreaking. My sincerest condolences for your loss- they're bees and maybe they can't love you back, but I know you put love and dedication and loads of time into caring for them, and it's still tragic when something like this happens entirely outside your control.

I hope it improves soon. May your remaining colonies recover and flourish.

As a beekeeper, can I ask- how do you recover from this? Will you catch the queen and try to make a split from an existing colony to save her, or is that just a wash at this point? How many colonies did you start with, and how many survived?

Started with I think 9 total including some smaller nucs, and down to the one Super Hive in the back. There’s not much recovering, besides doing a deep deep clean on all affected equipment (and leaving it out in the elements for a while) and hoping that there are some nice swarms in the spring. I’m hoping for a busy next year as far as bees go, and the super hive in the back yard has been flourishing even after they had their population cut by this event. I’m hoping maybe they have some kind of resistance to it and their swarming will populate the area with pesticide resistant bees!

[foxthebeekeeper]

I need to research beekeeping for a book I'm plotting/writing

Do you have anything to recommend like reading or watching? Obviously it's a bit different cause I don't need to know how to d o it just try understand how to do it but I thought I'd ask

YouTube is your #1 resource for sure!

Check out channels like JeffHorchoff or 628DirtRooster or even TheBushBeeMan and you’ll get a great idea of what it’s like and all the different facets of the Beekeeping hobby and profession. Best of luck!!!

[foxthebeekeeper]

The super hive is still going strong. The rest of the hives are still empty… this spring I’m making a comeback though!!!

[foxthebeekeeper]

Awake by the morning light

[foxthebeekeeper]

Striped Nomia sweat bee, Nomia strigata, Halictidae

Photographed in Singapore by budak

[foxthebeekeeper]

[foxthebeekeeper]

You already know who it is!!!

[foxthebeekeeper]

Bees get!

2nd swarm catch of the season. Seems much slower than usual. Guess there are lots of great beeks out there catching swarms!

[foxthebeekeeper]

I love baseball

[foxthebeekeeper]

And like clockwork, another Easter comes, and another swarm lands!

It’s a small one, but it’s my first one since the poisoning so I’ll take it.

[foxthebeekeeper]

I guess it’s swarm season again!

[foxthebeekeeper]

Practicing for April~

[foxthebeekeeper]

Still here!

[foxthebeekeeper]

HONEY & BEES (ya' like jazz?)

[foxthebeekeeper]

Bees update!

Back down to just the super hive after the late swarm absconded. The super hive is doing very well and has filled out the rest of their frames. No sign of disease or further poisoning in the absconded hive, so I guess they just wanted to chill somewhere else. (They were already pretty unusual when I caught them, hanging outside the hive and all.)

I guess one hive is better than none. Going to be fun scraping the moth-covered wax out of the old hives and starting over in the spring. I might leave a few frames of nasty comb just to use as alignment for any swarms I catch next year, though if it gets too nasty I’ll have no choice but to burn it with the rest.

This year definitely hasn’t been great as far as bees go, but I’m not giving up yet! When it gets further in to winter I’m going to do a full clean-out of the old hives and give them a good scrubbing to make sure there’s no more of that nasty mosquito poison in them. I left them out long enough that I doubt there is, but you can never be too sure. Going to hit them with some bleach too just in case.

If any other beeks out there have experienced similar losses and have a good way to clean up, let me know!

[foxthebeekeeper]

Shiny green sweat bee on some chamomile