Natural Bee Keeping
What’s natural about keeping bees? Man has been cultivating bees for thousands of years, but to the bee, it’s not natural. But then, thousands of years of keeping them one way or another, maybe it...
View ArticleHarvest day 2015
Saturday the 5th of July I opened both of the hives I had previously tried to harvest without much success and pulled off the top boxes of each. I was a little upset when I found that neither hive had...
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Treatment for Nosema
Found several bees in the yard unable to fly so decided to treat the queen castle colony for Nosema using Oxalic acid fumes. The hive has not increased in size for more than 2 months so will have to...
View ArticleQueen outside the hive
Doing my routine walk around the hives this morning I noticed a couple bees sunning themselves on the outside of the entrance. A closer look revealed that one was a queen, so I picked it up for a...
View ArticleVarroa has appeared
After all these years I have finally found mites in my drop pan. Two of the overwintered hives have them. In hive No. 3 I found one, and in hive No. 2 I found four. Both of these hives were the ones...
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Meetup
Yesterday I hosted our Staten Island Bee keeping Meetup group for a brunch meeting. Had a great time and learned a few things. Gave a tour of my gardens and apiary also. By the way, I'm hosting an...
View ArticleCombined two hives
After much thought about the pro's and cons of joining two weak hives, I decided on putting them together today. Each on its own was doomed to fail this winter so, after remembering my first hive to...
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Winterizing the yard
Today I put the final touches on insulating the hives. I kept one hive un-insulated for comparison next spring to see if it is all worth it. I removed the top box from the hive I combined (No 6) as...
View ArticleTotal loss
Just got back from our annual trip to Key West and it looks as though all my bees just up and left during the warm spell in Dec. No dead bees in 2 of the hives and no activity in the last 3, so I'll...
View ArticleFinal cleanup
Just finished cleaning out all the hives. 2 had very small clusters in the center which looked like they froze during the cold snap we had. All the others were empty of bees, less a few dead on the...
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Slovinian AZ hives
Staten Island Honey for saleAZ hive buildings for sale. Custom sheds, built to order or per-designed. Call 464-201 2461
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Showing my new A_Z hives to Staten Island Beekeepers
Saturday we held our annual spring meeting of the SIBA. We discussed winter survival and what techniques were used by those who had survivals. Almost everyone lost 1 hive, I was the clear winner with...
View ArticleFirst swarm caught this season.
I had set up my trap behind Debra's house a week ago and checked it Friday. It had a large amount of activity so I picked up my wife from the ferry and after a beer, it was dark enough to close up the...
View ArticleAre we killing our bees with kindness
Last week when it was raining, I watched for the umpteenth time, "More than Honey". The very first time I saw it I was interested in the beekeeping methods used in the mountains of Europe, but of...
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New bee house complete
Finished up the bee house on Friday and then Sat. morning began the haul north to the "farm".On the way the trailer spring broke which then blew out the tire so I had to make an exit off the thruway....
View ArticleStarting over again
Last Sat, the 21 st of April I went up to get my 3 packages and then took them to the bee farm and installed them. The next Monday I went up to check on the food supply and discovered that they may be...
View Article1st Inspection of the AZ hive.
Today I went north to feed the bees and remove the queen cell caps and check for progress. The new cells just opened on Friday so its to soon to check on them, but the No.1 hive could have had some...
View Article2nd inspection after queen cell replacement
Yesterday I checked to see if the queens were bred and found that both were and were laying nice patterns. No 1 hive seems to have no queen and is failing. Hope it can survive until I can add a frame...
View ArticlePackage DOA
Today while feeding the hives I found the first hive dead out. The queen must have gotten the Nosema and never rebounded. Only a few bees left. Thank you Hudson Valley Bee Supply for all your...
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Hive inspections and split
Today with the help of a friend, We pulled the covers on all five nucs to assess their hardiness. The first we intended to split so took off the top box and placed it on a new bottom board, than...
View ArticleHive check at the farm
Drove up to the farm to mow the lawn and see how the bees are doing since I installed the push in queen cage on Monday. When I pulled the frame I could see that they had eaten through the back of the...
View ArticleNuc monitoring
Yesterday I opened up the nuc where I had placed one of the larger swarms. I had placed a comb of bees and brood in it on Sunday and wanted to see how it was progressing. They have built quite a bit...
View ArticleMoved hives north.
Spraying for West Nile virus starts tomorrow so today I took 3 of the 5 nucs north and set them up on the property. The small swarm I caught last week seems queen-less so I installed 3 frames of...
View ArticleHive check 7/24
Looked into my nucs today, its been a week since I switched upper boxes and I wanted to see if there was any changes. The heavy box I thought I could harvest some honey but it seems there is new brood...
View ArticleWinter is coming
For winter this year all my bees will go into the bee house, including the 3 remaining nucs, except the swarm hive I caught Aug. 1st. I have added feeders and am feeding all the hives as this has not...
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