tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-257514892024-03-07T16:14:19.125-07:00Becky's Bees & BloomsBeeGoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02756539381427342740noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-68450432491540835742012-10-01T20:16:00.000-06:002012-10-01T20:16:23.124-06:00End of an Era<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBNhKNYuRZxDdAvhrosNpFzbpkn-fq21QqPuBUuUMSUJOQIVRkPkVSu2s54CjWDcKQxi7wccfR-sXHnMmTTSrf-JGsAt1Zvhh3w4U5oX-UV7F7zJamKqwLLpf9qZLV-7gFHf27/s1600/2012-09-29+11.16.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBNhKNYuRZxDdAvhrosNpFzbpkn-fq21QqPuBUuUMSUJOQIVRkPkVSu2s54CjWDcKQxi7wccfR-sXHnMmTTSrf-JGsAt1Zvhh3w4U5oX-UV7F7zJamKqwLLpf9qZLV-7gFHf27/s400/2012-09-29+11.16.47.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
We did not replace our bees this season and with the uncertainty over CCD, we decided to burn the brood boxes that they occupied last winter. We sold off the remaining equipment and are officially retired from beekeeping. 2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-18926132124147427962012-03-10T16:33:00.004-07:002012-03-10T16:49:25.838-07:00100% Loss to Colony CollapseWhere have all the honeybees gone? We had a gorgeous spring day and went to add some more honey frames to our beehives, but the bees were all gone! There was still quite a bit of honey available in the top boxes, but no bees, no brood, no cluster, no dead bees, no signs of disease, just gone! It was the same for both colonies. These are classic signs of the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6970772619/" title="IMG_2013 by D.Broberg, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7179/6970772619_e805a7a298.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_2013"></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6824647590/" title="IMG_2012 by D.Broberg, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7045/6824647590_23fa5e2ed6.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_2012"></a><br /><br />I guess we've lost our status as bee "keepers". It was a sad day at the bee farm today.2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-40773527467674081002011-11-06T13:17:00.004-07:002011-11-06T13:22:59.832-07:00November snow in the beeyard<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJTj9OhTMG6TyyRUBwAfuI1pVpG3YUA3T_G7vjJ4Jbs6iOLOmUop2CaWSSS9nBG-MqdslxpZKM9N37p48L4djcktH7WoAWX792TB7aJSbfQSaWlJ_97gm3o8ATA7I4VDVNFP2B/s1600/DKB_4995.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJTj9OhTMG6TyyRUBwAfuI1pVpG3YUA3T_G7vjJ4Jbs6iOLOmUop2CaWSSS9nBG-MqdslxpZKM9N37p48L4djcktH7WoAWX792TB7aJSbfQSaWlJ_97gm3o8ATA7I4VDVNFP2B/s400/DKB_4995.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671980245463669650" border="0" /></a>Late October and early November snow came before the leaves fell from the trees this year. Good thing the bees were all tucked in for the winter.2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-1054797935064778502011-10-16T12:20:00.005-06:002011-10-16T12:20:43.774-06:00Final Flowers of Fall 2011<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6250797178/" title="Final Flowers of Fall 2011"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6050/6250797178_cc7c41c76f.jpg" alt="Final Flowers of Fall 2011 by D.Broberg" /></a><br/><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6250797178/">Final Flowers of Fall 2011</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/">D.Broberg</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p>Red Dahlia</p>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-83362266979592256602011-10-16T12:20:00.003-06:002011-10-16T12:20:25.489-06:00Final Flowers of Fall 2011<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6250268221/" title="Final Flowers of Fall 2011"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6229/6250268221_d05278ebfc.jpg" alt="Final Flowers of Fall 2011 by D.Broberg" /></a><br/><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6250268221/">Final Flowers of Fall 2011</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/">D.Broberg</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p>Pink Hollyhocks</p>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-14246759304602253962011-10-16T12:20:00.001-06:002011-10-16T12:20:02.573-06:00Final Flowers of Fall 2011<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6250265647/" title="Final Flowers of Fall 2011"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6042/6250265647_695f547786.jpg" alt="Final Flowers of Fall 2011 by D.Broberg" /></a><br/><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6250265647/">Final Flowers of Fall 2011</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/">D.Broberg</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p>Yellow/Red Dahlia</p>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-25125549764881103782011-10-16T12:19:00.001-06:002011-10-16T12:19:19.193-06:00A perfect fall day in the garden<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6250263981/" title="A perfect fall day in the garden"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6224/6250263981_9920efef6a.jpg" alt="A perfect fall day in the garden by D.Broberg" /></a><br/><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6250263981/">A perfect fall day in the garden</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/">D.Broberg</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p></p>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-10928099291260524252011-10-15T18:05:00.002-06:002011-10-15T18:08:04.692-06:00Fall Inspection 2011<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6247640179/" title="HoneyBees"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6091/6247640179_6d72eb709b.jpg" alt="HoneyBees by D.Broberg" /></a><br /><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6247640179/">HoneyBees</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/">D.Broberg</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p>A warm October day is ideal for a fall inspection. This image shows our new colony of Minnesota Hygienic bees. They are usually quite aggressive and today was no exception. They were crawling all over themselves on this frame, but we didn't see the queen. <br /><br />They had a number of empty frames, so we ended up replacing them with five frames mostly filled with honey that we held back from our harvest. Their winter stores should be in good shape otherwise. We did see some brood and pollen, but not a lot. <br /><br />The survivor colony was far more mellow today, not too bothered by our inspection. They had good stores with the top box almost 100% filled and capped with honey. Below had some honey along with the brood and pollen. We didn't need to add anything to that hive. Let's hope they survive another winter.</p>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-72352428426380026822011-09-10T16:13:00.004-06:002011-09-10T16:35:44.823-06:00Honey Harvest 2011<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-EcNJD35kq3GKcPPL-frBvjMvUHv2Jn10CIqIxxQguAihItI-kEMvcQNsbityNhR_ebolDX3l4qK1Tk1Zx-fYIYR2F5qFHQUAa_lke6B4Q6T9XWYq3Qq-ILRuoVkZzKQUXeJe/s1600/IMAG0094.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 366px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-EcNJD35kq3GKcPPL-frBvjMvUHv2Jn10CIqIxxQguAihItI-kEMvcQNsbityNhR_ebolDX3l4qK1Tk1Zx-fYIYR2F5qFHQUAa_lke6B4Q6T9XWYq3Qq-ILRuoVkZzKQUXeJe/s400/IMAG0094.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5650862208985104146" border="0" /></a><br />We completed our honey harvest over the Labor-Day holiday weekend again this year. The weather cooperated and we received a moderate harvest from the two hives, one of which was a brand-new colony this year. The first video shows the decapping process where the wax caps are removed, exposing the raw honey for harvest.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='480' height='400' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyRDfnZWoVV78BJ4zvGOtrNz5-yF-6pRUuxGIQmNvc2vF9uHN8ZBXoa1_-UUlUoo0eGx-XQ1omF6SU' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><br />The next video shows the raw honey coming from the centrifugal extractor and dropping into the straining bag that removes any leftover wax or bee parts. We use a rather large screen so that all the pollen passes through to the honey. Everything is done at room temperature. This year our total harvest was 81 pounds.<br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='480' height='400' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy7eLjXiepdrtQSgkYcW4-P4AsD48AdNyEieTLCqoCme3jcfHqodeDfuZqwWu__V16JPi85mncy26Q' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-66790943895946570632011-09-08T21:17:00.003-06:002011-09-08T21:22:51.378-06:00Vegetable Harvesting<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZ1MxNtwmnudCnBW20dl0VwmKPc2Bkm7xuosQBdeC-EfVH9BSTmE9yjdu4W7DZBBgr6fIAD9PRL4Yp9hR3ROctmPEjr8sJjn1Url6FaEtijUS38C2fCRuG53T5VyR9ES0MCP7/s1600/IMAG0089.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 305px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZ1MxNtwmnudCnBW20dl0VwmKPc2Bkm7xuosQBdeC-EfVH9BSTmE9yjdu4W7DZBBgr6fIAD9PRL4Yp9hR3ROctmPEjr8sJjn1Url6FaEtijUS38C2fCRuG53T5VyR9ES0MCP7/s400/IMAG0089.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5650194574384299234" border="0" /></a>Fresh yellow pear and sungold tomatoes<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwMxTkv3Pj8fSQOazRfxm5oL6G7wV3RdgeZ2vePZn7I45JPP3RBjH5PJwPxyCBq8re61ECs0bY4STr8Jfk-YN2s38I-uWMJefCbNM8XGHlqMmeJjdMByWlsda0dQi1u3_ru1yJ/s1600/IMAG0084.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwMxTkv3Pj8fSQOazRfxm5oL6G7wV3RdgeZ2vePZn7I45JPP3RBjH5PJwPxyCBq8re61ECs0bY4STr8Jfk-YN2s38I-uWMJefCbNM8XGHlqMmeJjdMByWlsda0dQi1u3_ru1yJ/s400/IMAG0084.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5650194570373949874" border="0" /></a>Fresh and canned roma tomatoes<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6_gQfdaFg0QvrcbKUqJ6678QnevoZLwzdBvV6oe_dmPh0EzMLdFqVEsEgOWbUL6XnWa7GpecHjMHqpzXZ0S_jXAWUr4cvMk7YoFhpuWChtUDjUZxJMactp2Cycx6HnyQDl8V/s1600/IMAG0091.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 273px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6_gQfdaFg0QvrcbKUqJ6678QnevoZLwzdBvV6oe_dmPh0EzMLdFqVEsEgOWbUL6XnWa7GpecHjMHqpzXZ0S_jXAWUr4cvMk7YoFhpuWChtUDjUZxJMactp2Cycx6HnyQDl8V/s400/IMAG0091.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5650194583392779778" border="0" /></a>Fresh peppers, green beans and romas<br /></div>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-67778077936631571462011-08-20T13:32:00.001-06:002011-08-20T13:32:30.599-06:00Inspection - August 20, 2011<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6063069386/" title="Honey frame - August 20, 2011"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6068/6063069386_c533724bb9.jpg" alt="Honey frame - August 20, 2011 by D.Broberg" /></a><br/><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/6063069386/">Honey frame - August 20, 2011</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/">D.Broberg</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p>This frame is from super #2 on the new colony. That box is about 30-40% capped. Hope they can complete their work before Labor day when we come in and steal it all. <br /><br />The 2-year-old colony has 2 full supers - all capped. We put an empty frame on a few weeks ago to give them more room, but they haven't got around to even pulling the comb yet. Looks like 2 will be their limit this year.</p>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-55317915910353854092011-07-23T16:11:00.002-06:002011-07-23T16:16:22.917-06:00Inspection, July 23, 2011<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/5967773827/" title="Inspection, July 23, 2011"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6025/5967773827_b9e6ed5ce4.jpg" alt="Inspection, July 23, 2011 by D.Broberg" /></a><br /><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/5967773827/">Inspection, July 23, 2011</a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/">D.Broberg</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p>Let the nectar flow! We have honey from the new colony. Over the past two weeks they have filled this super and have it about 40% capped. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/5968331422/" title="More Honey! by D.Broberg, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6121/5968331422_510b65057f.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="More Honey! "></a><br />We added another super to give them room for August nectar. Looks like it could be another bounty year for honey.</p><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/5968333280/" title="Beekeeper's Assistant by D.Broberg, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6011/5968333280_d03ac549b8.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Beekeeper's Assistant"></a><br />There are now five honey supers on our two colonies. If the nectar flow continues in August, we could end up with more than 200 lbs of honey this year!2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-22046302161078742122011-07-04T11:53:00.003-06:002011-07-04T11:58:57.516-06:004th of July Honey<div style="margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.8em; line-height: 1.6em;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/5901336207/" title="4th of July Honey "><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6099/5901336207_10d0194f82.jpg" alt="4th of July Honey by D.Broberg" /></a><br /><span style="margin: 0;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/5901336207/">4th of July Honey </a>, a photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/">D.Broberg</a> on Flickr.</span></div><p>The "<a href="http://beesandblooms.blogspot.com/2011/05/old-habits-are-hard-to-break.html">old habits</a>" are now fully broken and the bees are content with the bottom entrances again. Based on our inspection this morning, it looks like we will have about 50 to 60 lbs of spring honey this year! We could harvest it now and it would be that wonderful light amber that won the Blue Ribbon at the Boulder County fair a few years ago, but we will wait and harvest it together with the late summer honey around Labor day.<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/5901900790/" title="4th of July Beehives by D.Broberg, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5200/5901900790_e6f4c650c3.jpg" alt="4th of July Beehives" height="375" width="500" /></a><br />There are now two supers of capped honey on our 2010 colony and they are going strong. We added a third super to the hive today to give them more room for the late summer honey.<br /><br />The new 2011 colony seems to have a strong brood chamber, but hasn't made much progress in storing the honey up top. They will do good to fill one super this year.</p>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-35194214853549590642011-05-01T14:35:00.007-06:002011-05-01T15:54:09.146-06:00Old Habits are Hard to Break<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYFD_60nM-UnZTizIXk3MFm_0x6AKoDWTlkza0JAg0fjZUztX40BysMd8si9LclXETKs_wA711n46cIwYmqwi_63iyni2BBabYT9oRpt7w9SC8rJDEywjc5uaqCjWPTcxUD0m7/s1600/DNB_4833a.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 335px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYFD_60nM-UnZTizIXk3MFm_0x6AKoDWTlkza0JAg0fjZUztX40BysMd8si9LclXETKs_wA711n46cIwYmqwi_63iyni2BBabYT9oRpt7w9SC8rJDEywjc5uaqCjWPTcxUD0m7/s400/DNB_4833a.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601866532119889762" border="0" /></a><br />"Don't worry about the bees loosing their entrance, they'll figure it out." That's what I said last week when the bees were still clustering at the top of the hive where we blocked their top-entrance for the summer. Well, they figured it out all right. They pried the duct-tape up and went underneath it this week - a break-in.<br /><br />So this weekend we added the first honey-super for them and installed the queen excluder. I also re-taped the top-entrance cover more securely. Later they are still clustering near the place of the original top entrance while the bottom entrance is wide-open! How long before these bees break their old habits?<br /><br />The picture below was captured from our web-cam today as we were installing the honey-super. The "bee-cam" provides a fresh high-resolution image every 15 minutes and can be seen directly at this link anytime:<br /><a href="http://brobergs.us/Weather/weathercam.jpg">http://brobergs.us/Weather/weathercam.jpg</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://brobergs.us/Weather/weathercam.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 360px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZc5coslMCvjxN7asqhOE4YTcjQnOKXR5-VhFYwpHQwYVDFauJu5KskJTBOFh9pTkf5dmQJx9aq_WXzIM17iNXHXgLSM3fSMlGLeDzOuuAev7qVMmY1XYlR3VO6qxlM-mcwt2q/s400/Y011345A.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601867516991919554" border="0" /></a>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-55895676284251828682011-04-24T17:18:00.004-06:002011-04-24T17:28:11.353-06:00Teaching Old Bees New TricksCan old bees learn a new entrance procedure?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_zJuRMaboYuzIvTsRbK9J7_V2Fh3_1oAfN3aNBOy3G49TMZ6YhuyrFIR5yMfthRoaAgF8k9Lq12vLr4rDClorPmgzS4fJlxkJsoysRB4AsZqjTdM8RMfD-HdJ4oibISSpvz2T/s1600/DNB_4823.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 335px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_zJuRMaboYuzIvTsRbK9J7_V2Fh3_1oAfN3aNBOy3G49TMZ6YhuyrFIR5yMfthRoaAgF8k9Lq12vLr4rDClorPmgzS4fJlxkJsoysRB4AsZqjTdM8RMfD-HdJ4oibISSpvz2T/s400/DNB_4823.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5599294101574981826" /></a><br /><br />We covered the top entrance to the beehives yesterday. After the problems for the last two years with spotty honey stores and pollen inside the honey supers we decided that this top entrance would be limited to the winter season only. It was fairly cool yesterday and not many bees were out, so when we covered it, not too many were confused. <br /><br />Today they all left from the bottom entrance (no reducer), but when they return they still seem to be lost and can't find their way back in. Notice the big pile near the black duct tape covering the upper entrance on the hive on the left. This hive is our survivor colony from last year. (They have never known anything but a top entrance.)<br /><br />The new colony is in the hive on the right. They were installed one week ago and have an entrance reducer. The top entrance was open for the first week, but they seem to have adjusted quickly.2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-72756096299584533032011-04-22T19:22:00.003-06:002011-04-22T19:28:15.604-06:00Installing the BeesThe video is in 3D. If you don't have 3D glasses you can view it in 2D by selecting the "3D" pop-up in the lower right corner and selecting "Other Options", then "View video with no 3D device". Once that preference is set, go back to the 3D button and select "Left Only" or "Right Only".<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aU8a_kQP4HM?rel=0&hd=1" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="540"></iframe>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-41239084409533014772011-03-30T21:30:00.001-06:002011-03-30T21:31:55.222-06:00Snow on the Beehive 3/29/2011<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/5575503885/" title="Snow on the Beehive (2D) by D.Broberg, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5029/5575503885_d940dd7fb9.jpg" alt="Snow on the Beehive (2D)" height="279" width="500" /></a>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-74977294256807840132011-02-13T16:50:00.002-07:002011-02-13T16:58:07.865-07:00January 29th Inspection<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/5399306496/" title="IMG_1117 by D.Broberg, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5133/5399306496_943e9454fb.jpg" alt="IMG_1117" height="375" width="500" /></a><br />A warm end to January was an opportunity to open up the hive and do a brief inspection. We found a large colony was in good shape and still had plenty of honey stores in the upper box.<br /><br />The lower box was quite light and mostly empty. We've saved a few full frames of honey from last fall that we are ready to give back to them if they seem to be running low, but they weren't ready for it just yet.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/5399309296/" title="IMG_1119 by D.Broberg, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5299/5399309296_5198281539.jpg" alt="IMG_1119" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /><br />Just after this inspection the weather turned very cold and we had quite a cold spell with temps dropping to -20 overnight. Today the we were back in the 60s and they were once again out flying. We'll check again in late February or early March and see if they need the extra honey.2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-18020375517144192592010-09-27T19:48:00.007-06:002010-09-27T20:12:31.080-06:00The Fable of the Bees (updated)<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/472049233/" title="Drone Bee by D.Broberg, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/185/472049233_a7571b752d.jpg"_blank width="500" height="335" alt="Drone Bee" /></a><br /><p>A hive of bees is in a field,<br />Within a climate sunny.<br />It will survive to multiply<br />If work supplies the honey.</p><p>The queen supplies a stream of eggs<br />Which soon turn into workers.<br />Except for one dependent class<br />Who live full-time as shirkers.</p><p>These are the drones, and every hive<br />Supplies them with a living.<br />They dance and sing and whoop it up,<br />Consuming, but not giving.</p><p>The drones spend days and nights enthralled<br />By pleasures of a season.<br />Convinced that life is far too short<br />To waste on prayer or reason.</p><p>They are supported by the queen,<br />The mistress of seduction.<br />She has a plan to make them wish<br />They’d labored in production.</p><p>But that comes later, this is now.<br />Each drone, content, relaxes.<br />So, worker bees work extra hard<br />And grumble at the taxes.</p><p>And so, drones while away their time<br />In games and food and squander.<br />That is her plan, because she knows<br />That drones are prone to wander.</p><p>The drones play on and on for weeks,<br />Oblivious to hunches<br />That there might come a time to pay,<br />For hives have no free lunches.</p><p>To serve the drones, some other bees<br />Supply a range of vices<br />That only queens can subsidize<br />So high are vices’ prices.</p><p>But where, you ask, does cunning queen<br />Accumulate the treasure<br />That celebrating hordes of drones<br />Can waste in weeks of pleasure?</p><p>The hive itself, without a plan,<br />Produces streams of honey.<br />The system runs on payments made<br />In liquid golden money.</p><p>The queen has passed a law of iron<br />That drones must gain a portion<br />Of honey gold, which they will spend,<br />Which workers think extortion.</p><p>So, in the hive two classes form<br />Which scheme like rival brothers<br />To profit from the hive’s output<br />Without the claims from others.</p><p>One class grows rich by selling goods<br />To drones, who live by spending.<br />The other class works day and night,<br />In labor never-ending.</p><p>The drones grow fat, and specialize<br />In ever-greater pleasures.<br />While worker bees begin to plan<br />A host of counter-measures.</p><p>The workers come before the queen<br />Ten thousand wings a-humming.<br />She says to bide their time instead;<br />Payday is surely coming.</p><p>They are not sure she speaks the truth,<br />But great is their devotion.<br />They give her time to prove her case,<br />Suppressing dark emotion.</p><p>The merchants of the drones grow rich.<br />For honey flows like water.<br />The hive’s economy hums on,<br />And drones foresee no slaughter.</p><p>The drones resent worker bees<br />Who grouse about the favors<br />Displayed to drones, who spend the wealth<br />Produced by others’ labors.</p><p>They set aside some honey sweet<br />To hire a solution.<br />A group of masters of the arts<br />Of specious elocution.</p><p>These hired experts write reports<br />That show that flowing honey<br />Can only be preserved intact<br />If drones are spending money.</p><p>They say that worker bees do not<br />Perceive what makes hives wealthy.<br />To stop the flow of funds to drones<br />Is fiscally unhealthy.</p><p>You see, they say, the flow of funds<br />Must without drones be severed.<br />Without our drones, the stimulus<br />Can’t save the banks, full-levered.</p><p>Without the banks, which serve the drones,<br />As well as worker legions,<br />The wealth of all will disappear<br />Into the nether regions.</p><p>So, we must save the hive without<br />The envy-driven blaming<br />Of useful drones who make us rich<br />By partying and gaming.</p><p>The worker bees do not perceive<br />How this concatenation<br />Of arguments implausible,<br />is valid explanation.</p><p>But these are experts with degrees<br />From famous institutions,<br />Which get their funding from the queen<br />And rich bees’ contributions.</p><p>Therefore, the worker bees begin<br />To doubt their own suspicions<br />That drones are liabilities<br />Not worthy of provisions.</p><p>The hired experts collect their pay<br />For having duped the masses.<br />Then chortle in contempt of those<br />Whom they regard as asses.</p><p>They take their graphs and charts and chalk<br />And go back to their places<br />Of tenured and secure success<br />With academic graces.</p><p>And so the drones indulge themselves,<br />Which they find stimulating.<br />For that’s what stimuli are for:<br />“Let’s not be hesitating!”</p><p>Whenever their accounts run low,<br />And bankers grow suspicious,<br />The queen expands the flow of funds,<br />Which bankers find delicious.</p><p>And so the lending class gets rich,<br />For drones have endless shop lists.<br />To lend to them is safe, they think,<br />The queen will never stop this.</p><p>The lending class then borrows short<br />To lend long-term to spenders,<br />Short rates are low, long rates are high:<br />The system has defenders.</p><p>The experts back on campus see<br />The many permutations.<br />They think that they may strike it rich:<br />Computerized equations!</p><p>And so the tenured quants come forth<br />To serve the lending classes.<br />Who borrow even more from fools<br />Who wear rose-colored glasses.</p><p>And so the permutations spread<br />Throughout the hive’s insiders<br />Complexity now reigns supreme,<br />With kooks the sole deriders.</p><p>And then, one summer’s day, the queen<br />Calls forth her close attendants.<br />She lays the eggs that will decide<br />The future of descendants.</p><p>Each egg is fed, at her expense,<br />To test the heirs’ survival.<br />One will emerge first and impose<br />A death sting on each rival.</p><p>Then up she flies, drones in pursuit<br />In hope of one last action.<br />A few achieve what all would like:<br />Their last full satisfaction.</p><p>“Payday has come,” the queen declares.<br />“Free lunches now have ended.”<br />The worker bees blockade the hive,<br />The golden fund defended.</p><p>The drones, now spent in every sense,<br />Beg for continued feeding,<br />But worker bees ignore their pleas:<br />The new hive needs no breeding.</p><p>Word spreads among the lending class:<br />The formulas so splendid<br />Have crashed the flow of funds outright:<br />Liquidity suspended.</p><p>And then the sellers who rode high<br />On drones’ relentless spending<br />Discover they must switch careers:<br />Their sector is descending.</p><p>The money that the drones had spent<br />Will now be spent by others.<br />The queen cuts taxes and declares:<br />“You now can have your druthers.”</p><p>The flow of funds continues on,<br />Though drones are not surviving.<br />The experts with their charts and graphs<br />Were wrong: the hive is thriving.</p><p>The lending class must now survey<br />The shape of new conditions<br />Without the hope of queen-backed funds<br />To guarantee ambitions.</p><p>The tenured experts, still employed,<br />Release a memorandum.<br />They all insist that these events<br />Were all black swans and random.</p><p>And so we see that scarcity<br />Asserts its jurisdiction.<br />There’s greater wealth for workers now,<br />Due to the drones’ eviction.</p><p>The worker bees survey the scene<br />Of greater wealth for labors.<br />There’s always more down at the store<br />When drones are not your neighbors.</p><p>One worker bee begins to think<br />About the drones’ defenders.<br />The tenured masters of the charts<br />Who justified the spenders.</p><p>“It seems to me,” declares the bee,<br />“That other drones are living<br />High on the hog, beyond the rules:<br />They’re taking without giving.”</p><p>Considering consumption by<br />Those bees in tenured splendor,<br />The other bees begin to doubt<br />Their claims to legal tender.</p><p>Why should these experts with their charts<br />And graphs and dense equations<br />Be paid by all to generate<br />Post-crisis explanations?</p><p>What is the use of expertise<br />When experts tell you little<br />Of what will happen next, and why?<br />They’re always noncommittal.</p><p>And so a wave of terror spreads<br />In tenured education.<br />To meet a market on your own:<br />A frightening innovation.</p><p>They live secure from having to<br />Explain their public errors.<br />Without the queen’s own guarantees,<br />The world is filled with terrors.</p><p>And so they send a delegate,<br />A master of compliance,<br />To once again persuade the queen<br />Against their self-reliance.</p><p>She welcomes him into her court,<br />And smiles at his submission.<br />She loves to see her experts squirm<br />When facing competition.</p><p>“My queen,” he says, “you must beware<br />Of worker bees’ complaining.<br />You still get value for your grant<br />Of pay for all our training.”</p><p>“We serve the court, and serve it well,<br />Delaying that dark day.<br />When worker bees at last decide<br />It’s time to disobey.”</p><p>“I see your point, and see it clear,”<br />She says to feckless minion.<br />“You serve me as the shapers of<br />The climate of opinion.”</p><p>“And so I’ll still extend your pay,<br />To guarantee the ridding<br />Of competition’s terrors,<br />But you all will do my bidding.”</p><p>“We’ve always understood the deal,”<br />Is his firm declaration.<br />“When it comes time to praise the court,<br />Expect no hesitation.”</p><p>And so the minion brings the news<br />For academe’s elation.<br />Between the market and the school:<br />A wall of separation.</p><p>So now I end my poem short<br />Of hival operations,<br />Of politics and pay and deals,<br />And queenly expectations.</p><p>But this one fact I hope prevails<br />From concepts you’ve now seen.<br />There’s always value rendered sure<br />For benefits from the queen.</p><p style="font-style: italic;">Author: Dr. Gary North<br /></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Gary North received his Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Riverside in 1972. Gary is the author of over 42 books including "The War on Mel Gibson: The Media versus The Passion," "Unconditional Surrender," "Conspiracy: A Biblical View," and "Crossed Fingers: How Liberals Captured the Presbyterian Church." Gary is one of the most insightful and thought-provoking historians and economists in modern times.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.garynorth.com/">http://www.garynorth.com/</a><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-62739167168680989292010-09-05T16:28:00.003-06:002010-09-05T17:03:14.126-06:00Upside-down Beehive!It was harvest day and we went about our business of harvesting the two honey-supers we were hoping had been filled by our new colony. We were using<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkYlWWBTaHc"> our usual procedure</a> that makes use of a leaf-blower to clear the bees from the frames as we move them to a closed container near the hive. As we were moving the frames from the edges toward the center, I noticed there was <span style="font-weight: bold;">brood</span> in the honey super! (This is bad, since we were using a queen excluder, designed to keep the queen out of the honey boxes.)<br /><br />We had already blown a lot of bees off these frames and they were quite mad at this point. We stopped in our tracks and pondered what to do. If there was brood upstairs, it could only mean the queen was up there. There was a good chance we had already blown her off the frames.<br /><br />We put the brood frames back into this box and proceeded to carefully blow off the rest of the edge frames that were capped honey for harvest. We went to the next super and only took the edge frames, leaving the brood frames in the center alone. We combined these two partial brood frames to place them back on the hive. But we wondered what was going on downstairs?<br /><br />Had the original queen simply migrated to the upper boxes through the top entrance? Or had they requeened in the upper boxes? There was no immediate signs of queen cells, so we began to inspect the lower boxes to see what was going on below. We found more honey down there than was above, but we also found empty brood chambers with no sign of brood. We pulled a few more of the honey frames from below and replaced them with some of the partial honey/nectar cells from above.<br /><br />After all this mess, the bees were quite mad since we were doing this inspection without any smoke and they were already agitated by our honey raid. I even got stung through my clothing! We put it all back together without the queen excluder and headed for safety.<br /><br />The harvest turned out to be a total of 36 lbs, which is not really a bad year for a first-year colony (we've done worse.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQvcl9XXZ8KfyPEQFqTMdGWTFKHpYSm3SgxneVWZT0hh4UzjQ2-T_8oMatJH_CLEOEzTBwmkmdeNII38jgoyRzX_WpqReTFVN65iZ-gN_RZYRBSDzk1Hzk153Hqg8zKFGJ_k2/s1600/DKB_4707a.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 334px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQvcl9XXZ8KfyPEQFqTMdGWTFKHpYSm3SgxneVWZT0hh4UzjQ2-T_8oMatJH_CLEOEzTBwmkmdeNII38jgoyRzX_WpqReTFVN65iZ-gN_RZYRBSDzk1Hzk153Hqg8zKFGJ_k2/s400/DKB_4707a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513560806516386930" border="0" /></a><br />But the excitement wasn't over. We took the empty frames from our harvest and put them back into the hive to be "cleaned" by the bees. Need I say they were not at all glad to see us return? After that they formed a huge beard/ball on the front of the hive near the top entrance. We couldn't really tell what was going on and why they wouldn't go inside.<br /><br />Normally as the sun goes down they will eventually all go back inside, but not that day. We went out to observer the entrance after the sun went down and they was still a very sizable ball on the outside. Was it a raiding party? Was the queen inside that ball? Maybe there was actually a second queen now and she was being attacked? We watched and saw a few bees circle and fly off to the south, but most stayed put. <br /><br />By the next morning this group sitting on the porch was still there! I took the photo below at about 8AM the next day. This is most puzzling and we're not sure what happened here or what we might have done wrong.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO__03s173rAwwe1aOFxNRWoXWNN2uwL2UQrHaN1Nwtf95FiHbi6v7LJx7x4yZzzE7b9Clw58RZuYbtRFteR-qjEXZXIwzWDmVD53kCRhcGdcb1joVrMKf0BKxWHf3SYkTa3qY/s1600/DKB_4709a.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 563px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO__03s173rAwwe1aOFxNRWoXWNN2uwL2UQrHaN1Nwtf95FiHbi6v7LJx7x4yZzzE7b9Clw58RZuYbtRFteR-qjEXZXIwzWDmVD53kCRhcGdcb1joVrMKf0BKxWHf3SYkTa3qY/s400/DKB_4709a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513560810944528498" border="0" /></a>Any speculation on the situation is welcome as comments.2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-8981083487660726582010-08-01T19:45:00.002-06:002010-08-01T19:58:08.621-06:00Bright Green Bees!I saw some of these collecting pollen from the Ecinaceas. It might be augochlorella species. <br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbroberg/4851830168/" title="Green-bee (2D) by D.Broberg, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4078/4851830168_3021545cf3.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Green-bee (2D)" /></a>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-30793452796524831092010-08-01T19:32:00.005-06:002010-08-01T20:07:51.780-06:00New "South Garden" updateThe new garden is going full bloom. Here is an updated photo:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1tJcsY3YP83ulygSjMiE30mY5HqnuLnpYiLb4fE-7Fg7dby4nWhyphenhyphenQeRa-AXLwHtXNmnmv_zvpBj3j-K5wyoAOHXRFttdBuWM-KJn6sSGofFfaD3uAyTOl3y1vcOh9qE7u4Jc/s1600/DKB_4633-resize.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 335px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1tJcsY3YP83ulygSjMiE30mY5HqnuLnpYiLb4fE-7Fg7dby4nWhyphenhyphenQeRa-AXLwHtXNmnmv_zvpBj3j-K5wyoAOHXRFttdBuWM-KJn6sSGofFfaD3uAyTOl3y1vcOh9qE7u4Jc/s400/DKB_4633-resize.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500619630240217698" /></a>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-11114694094223347322010-06-05T21:52:00.007-06:002010-06-05T22:01:28.440-06:00New "South Garden"Not because it has any southern style, but because it is on the south side of the house. Anyway here is our new garden with the white picket fence, finally completed.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDY1aJSJQQVQ1ctOV3LgWeysYASv6HFMXRq4ong8X_PA1oq56Yiy5xD7E12NgfyJoL4gxKX3UWcJOYGTe46ruX-tnUmj5X8yZWppALN5eB-I6Nq9JcFd4LGwUmw6iciCEe13nj/s1600/NewGarden-5.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDY1aJSJQQVQ1ctOV3LgWeysYASv6HFMXRq4ong8X_PA1oq56Yiy5xD7E12NgfyJoL4gxKX3UWcJOYGTe46ruX-tnUmj5X8yZWppALN5eB-I6Nq9JcFd4LGwUmw6iciCEe13nj/s400/NewGarden-5.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479504738108135042" border="0" /></a>The next picture shows just before the fence was added.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQgk-DPJHrNH5kF-N5I4fCmhYSiDJCCDzrcpC2Tj0x_AHS7TFA4nHXwqXNxCjYzTDhOe96ipQn3c2weRwTSy63vT6F5QxCLQbWGh9AwHXmPDo-rlvFVhxH0QambbZVkUMIGZ5B/s1600/NewGarden-4.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQgk-DPJHrNH5kF-N5I4fCmhYSiDJCCDzrcpC2Tj0x_AHS7TFA4nHXwqXNxCjYzTDhOe96ipQn3c2weRwTSy63vT6F5QxCLQbWGh9AwHXmPDo-rlvFVhxH0QambbZVkUMIGZ5B/s400/NewGarden-4.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479504628107612850" border="0" /></a>Pathways and beds completed and ready to plant.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVMVl9Xt19FFnrckABylqC0waCnIwU2x5mJS_26rDoeBAcTzvuhO7sK8zrwJlbWEF1U94W8AIpdHrazKlMZUKR-2mRgpuix3DG_gohfiCbBLmLjZ_menuxZw3jDSkhMbLwlZ2e/s1600/NewGarden-3.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVMVl9Xt19FFnrckABylqC0waCnIwU2x5mJS_26rDoeBAcTzvuhO7sK8zrwJlbWEF1U94W8AIpdHrazKlMZUKR-2mRgpuix3DG_gohfiCbBLmLjZ_menuxZw3jDSkhMbLwlZ2e/s400/NewGarden-3.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479504466716827794" border="0" /></a><br />The fountain installed and the pathways started:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggmlpcpNCZb8xj06D5mUrAbGGaLvRgrLs3sc-VUNgBhlA5JFyGczuOReXxAyMXwBEEyn19o08-FOzx0bkbpaU3xJuozOcGNI_vDEO_rLQAik1JFezX1kAmXOlOSTQWN1RmReTE/s1600/NewGarden-2.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggmlpcpNCZb8xj06D5mUrAbGGaLvRgrLs3sc-VUNgBhlA5JFyGczuOReXxAyMXwBEEyn19o08-FOzx0bkbpaU3xJuozOcGNI_vDEO_rLQAik1JFezX1kAmXOlOSTQWN1RmReTE/s400/NewGarden-2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479504313334781506" border="0" /></a><br />Starting to take shape:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD6gjuSm9sHOnPy9iJoQrtPpO9fuHRL_hi4qyEbQhRcK0VflAkpRTawdzLnh5nUAfpSQziygkOKgYPm1AhLGjJVWBvIBsnf-jAY2NVG_UWZT0OtBXSclRJDFmj5kD56QazQuBM/s1600/NewGarden-1.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD6gjuSm9sHOnPy9iJoQrtPpO9fuHRL_hi4qyEbQhRcK0VflAkpRTawdzLnh5nUAfpSQziygkOKgYPm1AhLGjJVWBvIBsnf-jAY2NVG_UWZT0OtBXSclRJDFmj5kD56QazQuBM/s400/NewGarden-1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479504108509202978" border="0" /></a>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-85740751455390472602010-04-17T19:51:00.009-06:002010-04-17T20:05:52.503-06:00A New Season for New BeesWe picked up a new package of Minnesota Hygienic Bees today. Here are a series of photos showing the sequence. First the pick-up - finding the best package. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwCj55Jogbo2ogQXIs7ZAFqS7GDxQg-g-i7QehHYcRxcyBq2kMgl9gqyWD417-ys4zMJRkWEgisEm3xrCrcQqAzbNTnaeGtGnL3j_G-DoTUVmsi2ouASfWZnPgGKTZbHTh7ga/s1600/GOPR0027.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 490px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwCj55Jogbo2ogQXIs7ZAFqS7GDxQg-g-i7QehHYcRxcyBq2kMgl9gqyWD417-ys4zMJRkWEgisEm3xrCrcQqAzbNTnaeGtGnL3j_G-DoTUVmsi2ouASfWZnPgGKTZbHTh7ga/s400/GOPR0027.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461290468618599730" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Next, bring it home. Of course you just put 10,000 bees into your trunk, right?<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHNlhWJBa7-HlM27BgtUjSxtbMc10aa8Xq0or4QFG9HldVjmeBVvkfxFQ-Q7DTuBSbMuZGyg6yd2Lnymg6OLG0ciw-SKvZV8bfJTiDQBznTDexwAlTCCT3NlQwyFCB5Ab82S6Q/s1600/GOPR0047.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 483px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHNlhWJBa7-HlM27BgtUjSxtbMc10aa8Xq0or4QFG9HldVjmeBVvkfxFQ-Q7DTuBSbMuZGyg6yd2Lnymg6OLG0ciw-SKvZV8bfJTiDQBznTDexwAlTCCT3NlQwyFCB5Ab82S6Q/s400/GOPR0047.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461290249497502514" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Suited up and ready for installation:<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOoI9tquSMnFgW-SNNBiLYo73WCXURsE1B_UmMY7_-nDDpnvdoPvZyLyD5T4G5D6gf-jIfZv1H5wspe0Ho5ER_Ipmps54Hovf_3DyV-z_XdLc2krzkyWJeFrJsfqNtGrGZnSJb/s1600/IMG_0518.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOoI9tquSMnFgW-SNNBiLYo73WCXURsE1B_UmMY7_-nDDpnvdoPvZyLyD5T4G5D6gf-jIfZv1H5wspe0Ho5ER_Ipmps54Hovf_3DyV-z_XdLc2krzkyWJeFrJsfqNtGrGZnSJb/s400/IMG_0518.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461290138016834130" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Take the feeder can out, and dump them into their new home:<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjycW9uMLQG3O67IJVaRsW8UQ_24n9ei7GkTxjkY9wLSSiFx2KUHGdDqTMPoaisjPVs6c2dawOQRqbUbKdEFkob4g6aCPkoVejgo4c1CREZxVjEASlu_s1UxA5CgCZmqW62Wj3M/s1600/MVI_0519.bmp"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjycW9uMLQG3O67IJVaRsW8UQ_24n9ei7GkTxjkY9wLSSiFx2KUHGdDqTMPoaisjPVs6c2dawOQRqbUbKdEFkob4g6aCPkoVejgo4c1CREZxVjEASlu_s1UxA5CgCZmqW62Wj3M/s400/MVI_0519.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461289960700059714" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Install the Queen cage, she's a real beauty, sure hope she is vigorous:<br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyQEhRXLYVEOKGGV6Xiz8VjGAMvJXthfwkqaoqKfFzZSKXId8tl4uu3ndDsudI36IhWupUZuO9YT2DzurUbhKTsxOyFxqlPL1IirxsUQwnai2laXOFYZiXMFzbR5Oi6gE0gtUd/s1600/MVI_05192.bmp"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyQEhRXLYVEOKGGV6Xiz8VjGAMvJXthfwkqaoqKfFzZSKXId8tl4uu3ndDsudI36IhWupUZuO9YT2DzurUbhKTsxOyFxqlPL1IirxsUQwnai2laXOFYZiXMFzbR5Oi6gE0gtUd/s400/MVI_05192.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461289752962636978" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Put the lid on and your done! <br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDh2_sKtVmPhKAXr1kAYhDWzSKoIxrxgwPOxaXwcf1dV13Wdn9KKxNW_NpQ2j1UCzSPM5fBvKwM1GJvFTNKvmQ29lK1A83D-AO5-xhRtkm6Hd90hX1tI1xs4gXtzrwIatS7jPF/s1600/MVI_05193.bmp"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDh2_sKtVmPhKAXr1kAYhDWzSKoIxrxgwPOxaXwcf1dV13Wdn9KKxNW_NpQ2j1UCzSPM5fBvKwM1GJvFTNKvmQ29lK1A83D-AO5-xhRtkm6Hd90hX1tI1xs4gXtzrwIatS7jPF/s400/MVI_05193.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461289669940899970" border="0" /></a>2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25751489.post-25248863596767698622010-03-06T17:20:00.005-07:002010-03-06T18:03:44.436-07:00R.I.P. 2009 Honeybees<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBurTAMWoJ83cvz4Syge2PInjprpOCVCimhu94H6xMjYIQZiPMoBYlGTa9iVKGtUle4EX1cYPfF8EL8c3PtSFNE3uvF4yWJ9wPP78TJAtSQtZGj1XmUHUa_4_I9YnLxLSd-kMt/s1600-h/IMG_0448a-500.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBurTAMWoJ83cvz4Syge2PInjprpOCVCimhu94H6xMjYIQZiPMoBYlGTa9iVKGtUle4EX1cYPfF8EL8c3PtSFNE3uvF4yWJ9wPP78TJAtSQtZGj1XmUHUa_4_I9YnLxLSd-kMt/s400/IMG_0448a-500.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445680384847278658" border="0" /></a>They are gone, all gone! None of our honeybees survived this long, cold winter. I guess that means we are disqualified as beekeepers since we didn't do so well keeping them.<br /><br />What happened? We did an inspection today and found they all had plenty of surplus honey stores so they didn't starve to death. We also found that they did not die in a cluster formation, which means they didn't freeze to death. The few dead ones that remained were scattered around the hives in random poses, none with their heads poking into the comb. There were no signs of any disease, mites or other pests. Perhaps it was CCD? Perhaps it was bad genetics? Perhaps it was pesticides?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghvf84z5Hyy_QxfQpkqrFWVpWb2lSzAiMJwyCxG7-Ek0zdJAJZztLg3ipbOXZ1VUxFIulmr6x-4yQBPsfx1xFXRE4q90EWer96ffSkMr-dZIUVF8KsLQqRH3mJKirrjmRni5of/s1600-h/IMG_7472a.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghvf84z5Hyy_QxfQpkqrFWVpWb2lSzAiMJwyCxG7-Ek0zdJAJZztLg3ipbOXZ1VUxFIulmr6x-4yQBPsfx1xFXRE4q90EWer96ffSkMr-dZIUVF8KsLQqRH3mJKirrjmRni5of/s400/IMG_7472a.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445690466669115058" border="0" /></a><br />We'll order more and start again. Maybe we'll go back to Italians again or try some Russians.2-Wheelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00725362252818780115noreply@blogger.com4