bees

bees

The Farm Gets New Bees

The Farm’s friend Brian has an different way of keeping bees. He uses different equipment to house the bees horizontally instead of vertically, and espouses a hands-off, no-treatment philosophy. Basically, a do-not-disturb the bees effort. He caught a swarm, and […]

bees

Yikes, We Have a Swarm

Rats. The spring got away from us again. Greg collects it and put it in our empty hive body, though, so maybe not all is lost. Related posts: The Bees Swarm! Bees Swarm! Bee Class at Stone Barns Our Bees […]

bees

Hive Inspection

Not our first hive inspection. We did one in April, saw swarm cells, and moved the queen and some brood to a new hive. This is what we’re seeing now. Drone cells. This seems OK to me in a hive […]

bees

Queenless Hive: the Newspaper Method

Well, sigh. We opened the green hive and found it was queenless. No brood whatsoever. To fix this, we decided to combine hives, using the newspaper method. You place one sheet of newspaper on top of the hive with the queen, […]

bees

Oh, These Bees

Lots of drone cells. Lots of honey. Not lots of brood. We have another problem on our hands. I think it’s a laying worker. Caught in the act! We’ll research this and let you know. Beekeeping is so fraught with […]

bees

Bees Update

Another hive inspection. Related posts: Bad News on the Bees Bee Class at Stone Barns The Farm Gets a Second Hive of Bees Garden Update: Columbine, Peonies, Bees!

bees

Patio Bees

Time to see if our scheme worked. We will move the bees from the nuc to a hive body. Related posts: The Farm Gets a Second Hive of Bees Bad News on the Bees: We Lost the Hive The Farm […]

bees

Hudson Valley Natural Beekeepers Workshop

Trying, as I am, to be a more hands-on bee mom, I attended a workshop on splits, hosted by the Hudson Valley Natural Beekeepers at Rainbeau Ridge Farm in Bedford. I brought Megan along for fun, too! My friend Karen […]

bees

Bees Swarm!

This year we were determined not to have a swarm. We split our white hive into a nuc box, and included some brood, some honey and some nectar, trying to trick the bees into thinking they’d already swarmed. Well maybe […]

bees

Bad News on the Bees

It was warm enough to do a hive inspection. What we feared has come true: the green hive did not make it. Not enough honey. The white hive, though, is OK. Hoping there’s enough pollen now to get them off […]

bees

Opening the Bees

Just checking on the girls. No surprise, after a swarm in May, and installing a nuc in June, that the honey stores are not full. We’ll have to keep an eye on them, and start feeding soon if we need […]

bees

The Farm Gets New Bees

After the rough winter of 2014-15, we weren’t surprised to learn that we lost one of our hives. And also, while we were in Minnesota, several neighbors reported that we’d had a swarm from the remaining one. With one hive […]

bees

A Second Swarm

The bees swarm again. We invited John and Philippe to take this one. Related posts: The Bees Swarm! Another Swarm! Our Bees Swarm! Opening the Bee Hive

bees

Ron Breland and His Bees

Ron Breland is an organic beekeeper who lives in West Nyack with his wife, who is a terrific gardener. They make a fine pair! Greg was interviewing Ron for an article on honey and bees for The Valley Table magazine, […]

bees

Another Swarm!

The bees swarmed again! This time, we invited Philippe and John to come over and get them. They did. They were happy to have them. And it looks like they got a queen, so all is good. Related posts: Our […]

bees

Our Bees Swarm!

Greg has promised to write up the saga of our bee swarm. As a cliffhanger, here’s a look at what we came home to on Wednesday evening! Related posts: The Farm Gets Bees! The Farm Gets New Bees Bad News […]

bees

The Bees Swarm!

Wherein the bees swarm and congregate on the fence, Greg collects them and puts them in our empty hive. Related posts: The Farm Gets Bees! The Farm Gets a Second Hive of Bees Bad News on the Bees: We Lost […]

bees

Bee Class at Stone Barns

We took our third and final bee class at Stone Barns. We always learn a little something, even if the class is geared toward absolute new-bees. Get it? New-bees? Related posts: Bee Class at Stone Barns Drinks at Blue Hill […]

bees

The Farm Gets New Bees

Al the Bee Guy came down from Northern Westchester bearing gifts: a 3-pound package of 15,000 little helpers for Sour Cherry Farm. They arrive in this screened-in box and he pours them into the hive like water. Here are the […]

bees, garden, outings

Bee Class at Stone Barns

Stone Barns Center has started a series calleld “Beekeeping for Newbees,” and Greg and I were there to learn all about setting up the hive, the queen’s nuptial flight and other bee-related knowledge. Dan Carr, Stone Barns livestock assistant and […]

bees

Opening the Bee Hive

Here, John and Philippe demonstrate how to open a bee hive and check that the girls are doing OK. Related posts: The Farm Gets Bees! A Lawn Party at John and Philippe’s Bearding Bees

bees

Bearding Bees

We were quite frightened when we first saw the bees doing this. But once our bee friends told us it was completely normal, we quite liked watching them try to stay cool in hot weather. It’s called bearding. And it […]