The bees continue to be much better than a fishbowl even now with the cold temperatures occasionally I get to see one of the bees at the greatly reduced hive opening. When the temps get into the 60s and the sky is bright blue the hive comes alive and the bees are really active. After the first cold snap, worried that my bee ranch was a bee morgue, I put my ear to the hive and then thumped the top with my Clemson ring. The tone of the hive changed and I went back inside knowing that all was well with the hive.
The Harvest: Because of my schedule I don’t have much daylight time with the hive except on weekends, which are becoming more hectic. I pulled five full frames of capped honey and am very pleased with the result. The honey is dark and from what I have gleaned from other beekeepers my honey is rich in minerals and dark from the hardwood trees in my neighborhood. I did leave my bees with many frames of capped honey but I will start feeding some syrup shortly. I want a lively colony this spring.
This weekend I cooked up another 5 gallons of mead and a gallon of what will be hard cider. I am making this stuff from some commercially grown honey purchased at Sams Club for about $8.50 for 5 pounds. I need 15 pounds of honey for about 5 gallons of mead. I did taste some that had been in the fermentor for a week. One economizing way in which I make mead and beer is to brew weekly in order to save on the purchase of specialized yeasts. Yesterday after preparing the must for the new batch of mead and the hard cider I waited until both cooled to 75 degrees and then using a ladle I infected the musts with yeast from the batch of mead I started last week. I also dipped out a cup of the fresh mead for myself. The mead of last week is wonderful and I look forward to bottling it in the spring. I might start one more batch of mead this year and flavor it with the honey I collected.
All is well in the beeranch and I will update you on my plans for next year….so that you can hold me to them!
Using directions provided by mapblast has been problematic before but it was really a mess this time. The directions sent me to a nonaddress 20 minutes farther away than the actual address. Eventually I made it it John Pluta's home and the www.georgiabees.com headquarters.
In my personal and professional life I have met hundreds of experts and many of them were fakers. I spent about an hour with John Pluta going through his hives trying to find a strong hive for me to take back to Columbia, SC. Mr. Pluta is the real deal. He speaks with more than scholarship of beekeeping. He speaks with practical ownership. I asked him 100 questions and he gave me clear answers. He marked the queen for me and packed up the hive..
On the return trip I almost had a catastrophic accident. I was cruising at 50+ MPH down Hwy 22 and a truck made a left turn right in front of me. Slamming on brakes and screeching tires only hinted of the disaster that could have been if the 40 or so thousand of my carmates had been released into the cabin. Thankfully all was well.
Once I got onto US Interstate Highway 20 the miles flew by. As I pulled into the driveway I went through my checklist of what had to be done. My wife and Daughter met me as I pulled in and I started to unload my new hive.
The hive rests on 4 concrete blocks and is in our small courtyard. Two sliding glass doors open up to the courtyard and I decided that it would be a good thing to be able to view the hive close up without having to get suited up. The hive is about 20 inches away from and facing a sliding glass door. I now have an observation hive!
I have added some pictures and will try and get some better shots of my new bees.
Since initially set up the website I have been assembling all of the things for my first hive. I have contacted John Pluta in Georgia and will be picking up an active hive from him this month. His website is http://www.georgiabees.com so far he has been really helpful and when I have the bees I will let you know how the transaction went.
Over the last few weeks I have done the following things:
I have purchased all of my woodenware unassembled new from Mann Lake and am happy with the quality of the merchandise shipped to me. I purchased the “commercial” grade woodenware and it looks good.
One of the most useful tools I have is a black and decker project stand and vice. It is a small workbench and greatly assists me in my around the house projects. I use gorilla glue when put wood stuff together. Gorilla glue is waterproof and super strong. You will be surprised with the results you get. I am becoming a clamp fiend. I have 8 or so bar clamps that are made in China and sold by harbor freight tools. I have, also from harbor freight, a air nailer that shoots 1.25 inch nails/brads. The air nailer speeds up assembly projects.
I assembled the hive bodies by first dry fitting the pieces and setting up my workbench. I then painted one side of the pieces to be joined together with water and applied gorilla glue to the mating surface. I then clamped the sides up and made sure that the box was square. Using the brad nailer I put one brad on each finger of the box joint. I let the boxes sit overnight. The next day I chiseled off all of the gorilla glue that foamed out of the joints and sanded the box. I did the above three times. The boxes were painted with three coats of Lowe's barn paint. I cleaned the boxes with a rag before painting the outside. At this time I also painted the bottom board and mistakenly I started on my inner cover. Hopefully this inner cover edge paint won't be a problem. I am debating sanding it off.
Using the workbench vise and some scrap plywood I made a jig to hold the frames. I am able to glue up 3 frames at a time. After the glue set up I cleaned the frames of expressed glue with a chisel and put 4 18 gauge brads in each frame. Having weeks to get all the frames together made for a leisurely pace. I made about 6 frames every day.
All I need now is the bees.
Home