While temperatures and humidity remain unbearably high, the fall nectar and pollen flows are on. We’re lucky to have a spring-fed creek running along two sides of our property as our evening and night-time temperatures are lower than the local average and we have heavy dew every morning. We’ve had a very dry week, butContinue reading “Fall Nectar Flow”
Author Archives: Lazer Creek Apiary
Sumac, not Devil’s Walking Stick
While checking our recent buckwheat and sunflower plantings, I noticed a plant that we’ve assumed was Devil’s Walking Stick covered in bees and other pollinators. Most of these shrubs/trees on our land are inaccessible, but this small one is right next to a trail. Bees were zipping from one flower to the next in aContinue reading “Sumac, not Devil’s Walking Stick”
2019 Pollen and Nectar Dearth
The Sourwood trees (nectar source) and Devil’s Walking Stick (pollen and nectar source) are on the cusp of flowering, and last week bees were not interested in pollen substitute or sugar syrup, but now they are ravenous waiting for late summer blooms to start. We’ve noticed a recent decline in resources stored in hivesContinue reading “2019 Pollen and Nectar Dearth”
50 Hives and Counting….
According to Hubby’s spreadsheet, 50 hives going into the spring nectar flow is the magic number at which the apiary will become financially viable, based on honey sales alone. We weren’t there at the start of spring this year, and probably won’t harvest any more honey this year as we’re letting our hives keepContinue reading “50 Hives and Counting….”
Strong hives, fewer small hive beetles.
Changes: We’ve made a few changes this year which have led to stronger hives. We did complete inspections on 75% of the hives at the end of last week and saw maybe 20 small hive beetles in total. Since moving here, we’ve seen that many in the lids of the hives in the worse cornerContinue reading “Strong hives, fewer small hive beetles.”
The cucumbers are abuzz!
It’s June 9, and we’ve already surpassed May’s 3.9-inch rainfall total; most of the rain has fallen in the last three days and there is more to come. My heart goes out to all of the people who were already living with floods and certainly did not need this rain, but at the same timeContinue reading “The cucumbers are abuzz!”
Our biggest harvest yet – 95 lbs of honey.
Spring was good to us with its profusion of blackberry blossoms which yielded hives full of pale and delicious honey. We put our daughter and her boyfriend, JI, in bee suits for the first time and had them smoking and brushing bees, which they greatly enjoyed. (I’m glad that I was the only one whoContinue reading “Our biggest harvest yet – 95 lbs of honey.”
Lazer Creek Apiary 