It's beeeeeeen a long summer!

This summer the bees had nice weather, beautiful Hyde Park flowers and their populations are pretty good. But the honey production this year was low! Other beekeepers report the same things this year. As always the bees generate many questions...

Last week we prepared the hives for the winter: a little house cleaning, removing the unnecessary hive bodies (the layers of the hive) and generally making things nice and cozy for the winter.

We took only four frames this year - the rest the bees will need to survive the winter. As always, the world of the bees makes for a great classroom experience. The job of extracting the honey was undertaken this year by Ms. Lambie's Home Economics and Sustainability class. Even though we didn't get much, the process was enjoyed by these helpful Middle School students. First the caps are cut from the honeycomb and then the frames are spun. The honey is then strained and bottled.

Hopefully the bees will have a quiet winter and be ready to have a good summer in 2016! Wish them luck!

Bee Poop!

Ms. Meredith's nursery class frequently spends time observing the bees and came up with a few questions regarding the bees and their, well, poop.

Question 1: Do bees poop? 

Yes they do! Any animal that eats has to rid its body of wastes. Honey bees are no exception. They eat pollen, digest out the proteins and need to get rid of the indigestible outer husk.

Question 2: How do bees poop?

Like most organisms their poop exits the body at the tip of the abdomen near the stinger.

Question 3: If they poop what does it look like?

It's not solid, but more of a mustard colored liquid. Here's a picture of it on black cardboard. 

Question 4: Do you clean it up when you look for honey?

This is the coolest part! Honey bees don't poop in the hive. They hold it until they are outside and then go while they fly. That explains the poop on the cardboard and the clean hive!

Bees receive their first visitors!

Even though the sun wasn't shining and the wind was blowing the bees had visitors today. Mr. Wilson and Ms. Corona's class walked from ESH to see how the season has begun for the bees.

The students gathered around the apiary with the hopes of seeing some bees. 

In order to catch a glimpse it was necessary to take the cover off one of the hives to see if any bees were gathered around the feeder. Success! This time of year the bees need to have access to some sugar water in order to supplement their collected nectar. The plastic object on the hive is just such a feeder. 

Since the cold bees weren't very active we looked at the beekeeper's gear and an frame full of comb.

The class asked some very thoughtful questions and were very well behaved. The bees are grateful for the attention and look forward to maybe being out and about the next time Mr. Wilson and Ms. Corona's class comes for a visit! Enjoy the honey!

Box o' Bees!!

We recently received our new supply of bees. They come by the pound in specially built containers - wood on four sides, screen on the other two. They also have a small cage inside for the queen and a can of sugar water fort the bees to eat. They buzz all the time and 15,000 bees can be quite noisy!

The top picture is the 3lb box of bees and the one below it is a closeup of the queen cage. The bees on the cage are the attendant bees that take care of the queen.

Bee Season 2015 - Preview!

Some sad news from the apiary - the two hives we helped to get ready in the fall did not make it through the winter. While we don't know exactly what happened, the reason is probably complex. It's not rare for hives to fail during the winter - several other local beekeepers also lost hives this past winter.

In order to help maintain the apiary two new colonies arrived today. 30,000 new bees! They will be installed in their new home soon. For the moment they are in the container from the supplier. It's a 3lb box of bees with about 15,000 total workers and one queen. The queen is in a small wooden cage inside the larger box. This allows us to place her directly into the hive. The workers will follow her and stick around to do their work. Happy pollinating!!