Busy like bees...

Sorry for the lack of posts! More to come this week. We have been busy with getting the honey shop back in action, checking on bees and getting new products in the shop. A proper post to come this week!

Mind your own Beeswax

Bricks of beeswax

Candles in the "friends and family bin"

Tealights...this one is also destined for friends or family ;)

Tealight cups

lots of wax

Theo has been busy. He melted down all of his wax cappings and made these beautiful bricks of wax. Then he made tealights, votives and tapers.

He will be giving the bees a pollen patty on Friday if the weather is agreeable. Have a good week...

Winter check up

Theo and his dad got out to check the bees on Friday. The temperature got up to 6-7 degrees, the sun came out for a bit and the rain held off making it a good day to take a peek and see how the bees are doing.

The bees seem to be wintering well (knocking wood, crossing fingers). There were a few hives that died out but the majority were in good shape. Some of the stronger hives are running low on stores already.

Has anyone checked their bees? Are they wintering well? Have some starved out? Let us know.

Some things to remember...

You might find dead bees littering the front of the hive. It is not a cause for alarm. Bees are very hygienic and over the winter some bees die. The bees may just be cleaning the dead bees out. If you find this, just remove them. If you find what seems to be an excessive amount of dead bees on the ground in front of the hive then it could be a sign of a problem and you will want to look into it. If you find a dead hive, it is best to remove it from the bee yard as soon as possible.

Also remember that if you find a dead hive and still have to check other hives, to switch out your bee equipment. Carry a couple of extra hive tools so that you reduce the risk of spreading disease. Remember to clean your bee equipment when you are finished to reduce the spread of disease.

From this point on we will be checking the bees about every 3 weeks. Now is a good time to order pollen patties (we order from Global Patties) and they would arrive by mid February. Some beekeepers will start a partial patty for nutrition in mid February.

Now we will be assessing our equipment and thinking about what we will need for the bee season ahead. I am thinking maybe a new bee veil?

Adventures in Maple Tapping

While the weather has been too cold to do much in the way of beekeeping, it has been great maple syrup weather.

Our first batch of the year. Perhaps we let it boil down just a bit too much. It was still delicious.

Our second batch yielded a better shade of amber...also delicious and destined for Theo's mother.

Bees 'n Glass has maple tapping equipment if you want to try it out. 

The Aforementioned Fog

That damp cold fog has just settled in...

Planning Ahead - Part 2

The weather here in Cedar has become damp, foggy and very cold. Theo has not made many checks on the hives yet. He doesn't want to stir up the bees when the weather is so damp out. As soon as the weather warms up even a bit, Theo will be out there checking. But we must continue to think ahead and plan for the upcoming bee season so here are some things to consider with respect to planning your bee equipment.

Once you have made your own assessment of your bees, and you take into consideration the best case winter survival scenarios, make an inventory list and decide how many boxes, frames, inner covers, lids etc will you need. 

You can source equipment new or used, locally and online. You can also build equipment if you are handy and motivated.

A couple of things to remember when buying used equipment:

• Ask if it has been inspected by the local bee inspector- they will look for signs of foulbrood , nosema or other diseases and sign off on the equipment.
• You can take any used boxes with comb to Iotron in Vancouver to remove diseases like foulbrood, chalkbrood and nosema.

Sources for new equipment in and around Nanaimo are:

Bees 'n Glass in Lake Cowichan

Flying Dutchman in Nanaimo

Often we buy our equipment online through the following sites*:

Mann Lake (Mann Lake actually builds the equipment themselves which can mean lower prices)

Brushy Mountain Bee Farm

Glory Bee Foods

If your bees did not survive the winter or you suspect they won't make it or you simply want to expand you can order bees through Greg McCammon, a local Nanaimo beekeeper. You can contact him directly here and place an order no later than February 1, 2013 with a down payment of $20 per package. Final payment will be needed by March 20, 2013. Packages come with 2.2lbs of Carniolan Bees. Bees will arrive between Mar 27, 2013- April 12, 2013 (usually arrive late on April 2 on Vancouver Island) and for convenience can be picked up at our farm (click here for a map and directions).

Prices vary depending on order size.

1 package = $170 Taxes included

10 Packages= $160 ea Taxes
included

Carniolan Queens also available and the minimum order size is 10. The prices will be available in the new year but are usually around $26/queen.

Let us know how your bees are faring...Happy Planning!

* anything we recommend is because we use them and is not advertising. We do not receive any form of payment in exchange for recommendations.

Cold snap

The weather has changed here in Cedar. It is downright frosty. We woke up to a temperature of minus three. So we are going to hold off  checking on the bees till this cold snap breaks and it gets a bit milder.

On a totally unrelated note I (Taylor) signed up for a beekeeping class at Vancouver Island University this spring. It is called "Beekeeping in the Warm Land" and Runs from March 18th to April 8th. Go to www.viu.ca for more information.

Planning Ahead - Part 1

Now is a great time to think about the upcoming bee season.

Theo jr will be heading to the winter bee yards to check on the bees around January 15th. What will he be looking for? What should you look for if you are overwintering your own bees?

• Population - how many bees are there, are they strong looking, are they clustered or are they randomly walking around the hive?

• Food stores - this is very important at this time of year.  Do they have honey and pollen? If you are supplementing with dry sugar how much is left? Are they eating it? 

• Signs of disease - this gets tricky as it is still a bit early but some diseases present obvious signs. For example hives affected by Nosema have brown excrement on top of the frames.  Other diseases or illness may be trickier to spot but clues to hive health lay in the bee behavior. Does the hive seem vibrant and energetic? Do they seem sluggish or in disarray? 

If the weather is very cold and rainy, make your inspections brief or better yet plan to do them on a milder day. You just want to do a quick assessment and then get them tucked back in.

If you find a dead hive you want to remove it from your yard. You can call a bee inspector if you think it was due to disease and set aside the bee equipment aside to be irradiated ( more on this in part 2).

In the next part of our series we will discuss planning ahead for your equipment requirements.

Has anyone checked on their bees yet? Let us know!

Thinking about bees...

Here are a couple of pictures from the summer...wondering how the bees are faring. We will be checking on them in the next few weeks.

A beginning

Theo's family has been in the beekeeping business since 1965. We moved back to Vancouver Island in 2009 to help them with the beekeeping business and farm and to escape big city living. It has been a bit of a rocky road learning to operate a business that is so dependent on things you cannot always control but it has also been a super rewarding and fulfilling experience. We are lucky to have such loyal and supportive customers and one thing we have learned in the last three years is that people care about our farm.

We want to use the blog as a way to share more of the day to day operations of bee farm life and to share Information on beekeeping. If that sounds like your cup of tea then stay tuned.