Inside the honey tree...

 Hey everyone!  Boy was this chickpea excited when she went to check on her honey bee tree today.  There were a couple of bees outside the hive that didn't make it (I tried to warm one of them up, but she wasn't doing too well.)  It's hard to see any of them die, but that's nature and that's life.  However, since the entrance is too high up to reach, and I can't place a ladder with so much snow, I decided to let my camera in my phone do some observing for me.  Look at what I saw in the tree!!!

 

 It is so amazing to me that such a small creature, with the help of its family, can create something so amazing and so perfect.  Honey comb is amazing in its uniformity.  Just look at it.  I can't wait until I can start a regular hive of my own and watch these amazing creatures do their work!

 

So as you can imagine, I am completely chomping at the bit for spring to get here.  It's going to be such a busy time, with our garden, building a root cellar and now keeping bees...but I am so stoked.

Oh, by the way, my hive-top feeder and tools came yesterday (another visit from the amazon fairy) so as soon as I get some pictures of all of that stuff, I'll be sure to post!

Take care everyone, and until next time!

Jamie

The Amazon Fairy!

WooHoo!  I got home from a LONG day at work yesterday to three LARGE boxes from Amazon.  Aside from a few books that I ordered, the rest was all BEE related!  I got my bee veil and smoker.  I can't wait to try them out.  I am still waiting on my hive top feeder, hive tool and brush, but I'll post pictures of those when I get them.

Hopefully dad and I will be able to start building hive bodies and supers next weekend!

Until next time!!!

Jamie

Honeybees in Winter!

Got home today and saw a sweet little worker honeybee laying in the snow.  Wasn't sure if she was alive or not, but I scooped her up and brought her in the house.  Within minutes she was walking around on my hand, and buzzing her wings like a pro!

 This little lady took off, and I tried to keep an eye on her flight path, I lost her...I had a general direction to look, so dad and I headed out into the woods to look around.

 This is just a 'handful' of the workers that I plucked out of the snow.  They all looked dead, but within minutes they were all buzzing and crawling around!

 Bees don't go to the bathroom in the hive (they keep a VERY clean home) so on a fairly nice day (like today was) they go on 'cleansing flights' and do their business, then fly back home.  Some of them don't make it back, and those are the ones that I rescued. ( I was only stung once)

 Here is one of the openings in the hollow tree that the bees use.  I think there is another opening higher up, but I couldn't see that far in.  I'm hoping that I can build a swarm trap and catch any of them that split away in the spring!  I'll keep you up to date!