Archive for the ‘Animals - Bees’ Category

November 29, 2009 – Putting Bees Away for Winter

It’s time to tuck the bees in for the winter.  By the end of this week, the highs are supposed to be in the 20s.

Martin and Linda add the insulated cover to the hive.

Here, they pose after finishing the job – the black cardboard has been slipped over the hive and we wait until spring ...Read more.

March 29, 2009 – Beekeeper Martin

Martin and GJ brought their beekeeping show on the road this Sunday.  They brought some of the equipment to Martin’s Sunday School class and did a beekeeping demo.

Here the kids keep clear as they are not convinced that the beehive is truly free of bees while Martin and GJ have their suits on to open ...Read more.

March 13, 2009 – Getting Bees Ready for Spring

Another sign of spring is removing the winter protection from the bees.

Here the black cardboard box that slides over the hive is removed.  The black helps warm up the hive whenever the winter sun comes out.  It is rather amazing to think of the bees surviving through the -20 lows and long cold days in ...Read more.

August 30, 2008 – Honey Extraction

Today was honey extraction day.

Martin, GJ, and Linda donned their beekeeper’s suits and robbed the honey.  Here Martin helps smoke out the bees before GJ takes off a super.

A beautiful frame full of honey.

The newest addition to the honey extraction process is an electric uncapping knife – it worked spendidly removing the wax tops from ...Read more.

June 24, 2008 – Bee Swarm

This week we had a bee swarm on the farm. Bee swarms are fascinating. They occur when the hive is successful and needs to split or reproduce. We happened to see this one swarm on a fence on the boundary between our farm and the adjacent corn field.

The bees, all 35,000-50,000 of them, ...Read more.

April 13, 2008 – Six Pounds of Bees

It’s time to replace the evil hive that was invited to fly away on a 3 degree morning and start some new hives.

gj brought out six pounds of bees. It looks like a bee prison you might see in the “Bee Movie.”

Each box contains about 2000 bees and a queen bee. They will ...Read more.

January 19, 2008 – Behave or Grandma Will Take You Out!

Finally, some farming pictures – outdoor farming pictures are few and far between during cold January weeks. However, there is one beehive at high hopes that is very aggressive and gj is not willing to work with overly aggressive bees. 

The solution is to go out on a cold morning and remove the bees.  She wasn’t too ...Read more.

September 20, 2007 – Thingamajig Thursday #88

Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig” entry.
Also check out the last thingamajig answer.

As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Hold mouse over this sentence to pop-up answer.
one year ago…

August 15, 2007 – Building the Hives

You’re all probably as sick of the heat as me, so I won’t even go there.  Things have slowed down over the past few weeks.  But today GJ got out to build some bee frames. 

But today GJ got out to build some bee frames. 

It’s practically an assembly line with Martin to help paint!
one year ago…

April 14, 2007 – Finally a Day!

Today, we finally had a day that wasn’t cold or snowy! We were able to get a few things done outside. GJ dressed up a crowd to do some bee work.  She brought her stepson from CA and a friend visiting from Fiji.

Here is the crew and, of course, the youngest one gets to hold ...Read more.

September 2, 2006 – Honey Extraction

Today was honey extraction day. We went out in mid-afternoon to rob the honey from the hives while many of the bees were out foraging, loaded the frames in the back of the truck and parked it a distance from the house, so the bees wouldn’t find it and start stealing the honey back.
After ...Read more.

July 17, 2006 – Harvest Day

It’s amazing what grows in a week or so. Today was a big harvest day despite the sweltering heat. How hot was it you ask? When I got out of the car, my glasses fogged up at the blast of warm humid air.
But there were things to do – pulling some more ...Read more.

April 18, 2006 – Bees Finally Working

Now that spring is here and things are starting to bloom all over, the bees are out in force after waiting patiently all winter.

Here’s a bee on a plum tree. The tree was abuzz with insects, mostly on the lee side of the tree to stay out of the wind. The unbottled fragrance ...Read more.

April 10, 2006 – Unfinished Business

Today, we took care of unfinished business – got the rest of the fence up by the trees and fixed fences that had fallen around some of the chestnuts in the pasture. Finished planting the potatoes. This morning Grandma Jo and Martin administered bee medicine to the hives.

Martin operates the smoker ...Read more.