I hope y'all are having the best day! This is a beek geek update...stuff keeping me busy these days. I will be attempting some informative bee posts as I learn more.
#beebum
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all my photos, but I had to screenshot them all to make them load upright🙄
One of the new hive boxes. Figured I might start decorating some for fun
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We picked up 5 new hives, full brood box and 2 mediums full of capped honey on each hive! It was late August when we got them. Close to winter, but I am hoping since they had 6 weeks before frost to continue storing honey for the winter that they will survive here. In the spring I should be able to split the colonies. Fingers crossed! I will also be feeding them with candy boards and pollen patties over the winter. I'll do a post about over wintering them next week!
I am also taking a course on Beekeeping at my Algonquin college. I was super nervous at first but I am 3 classes in and loving it. There is a ton of info being thrown at us in a short period of time, but I think I am catching most of it.
Canada's capital highway is empty at this hour on Sunday's apparently. It makes the drive from the country a bit shorter
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My class is in building H!
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#beeclass
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We extracted our first honey harvest a few weeks ago as well! I think we got about 30lbs of surplus honey as we left each hive a super full for themselves for the winter. We have a simple 2 frame manual spinner that worked great. Looking forward to next year, really hoping the bees survive our crazy winter weather! I have big dreams of expanding my apiary!
Frames of capped honey waiting to be extracted. They are a thing of beauty, we try to preserve the comb as perfectly as possible so they can use it again without too much repair work
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My daughter helping my husband with decapping. The hot knife makes the job much easier
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Hive check with 2 of my beek girlfriends at the beginning of this month. Meeting some pretty cool peeps on this beekeeping journey
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So far, I am finding this beekeeping thing to be incredibly intimidating and equally empowering, if that makes any sense. I hope that I become a beekeeper that is successful in keeping happy, healthy colonies. I practice gentle techniques and treatments and above all, I will always do what is best for my bee ladies. Happy bees, happy hives is what I am striving for! I hope to document my progress this year here and will search for more beeks here on Steemit!
Thank you for reading! Take care of you and yours ❤