Honey Labs

Once the honey flow start, we will be bottling and distributing to our friend s and family under the "Honey Labs" label. Top management of honeyy labs, can been seen supervising the hive.

After exchanging email with John the Bee Mentor, I did reinstall the top feeder. We had taken the top feeder off a few weeks ago and were only feeding via the front feeder. As you know from previous posts, they have been eating alot lately. John mentioned due to the rain, that alot of pollen ahd been washed away and his foragers where not coming back with as much pollen. Appears to be a catch 22- bee need and want a heavy pollen season, and those who suffer from seasonal allergies want the rain to wash it away.

We had additional visitors to the hive today, our friends Tom and Gig came to take a look this afternoon. Tom suited up, while Gigi watched from a close distance.

Karen and I have been watching the guard bees with great interest. For the past 2 or 3 years a few bumble bees have lived in our yard. Bumble bees are very large and just bumble around. In recent days, "Bumble" has been making attempts to enter the hive. Every time he is met by the guard bees and bounced from the area. Howver yesterday afternoon, he must have made it in the door for a few minutes, because Karen saw an enourmous spike in noise, and activity from the hive. Then hundreds of bees started flying around the hive; it took close to an hour for the hive to calm down and activity to return to normal. What ever occured, "Bumble" wasnt harmed, and has been trying all day to enter the hive. I guess the yellow box, looks more appealing than his hole in the ground near the herb garden.

Overall the bees are looking good. They are still building out the brood frames. No activity in the Ross Rounds. Warm day (low 80's) and clear in the late morning and afternoon.

Beekeeper Kathy

Our first non family visitor to the hive. After their ride, we had Kathy wear the Homer Simpson suit and gave her a quick intro to beekeeping. A natural, if only her husband wasnt allergic to bees and wasps. But with three children, two dogs, and IM in her future she is plenty busy.

May 27th

Could not think of a clever title for today's post....Very hot day in Charlotte today. Returned home tonight from my busy week, left Charlotte at 5am on Monday and went to Raleigh and then Cinn. Ohio. While in Ohio, had the chance to have dinner with Stew Atkinson (Tom's Older brother). Nice to see him - he and Tom are amuzed at the beekeeping hobby.

Refilled the door feeder tonight and filled the bird bath and dog pool with water. On a hot day like today, the hive will consume approximately a liter of water. In addition to drinking the water, they fan water over the hive to cool themselves inside the hive (to learn more, read the post about the gift from Doug).

When I went to pull the feeder, I was amazed at all of the beesoutside the hive door (today's picture).

A light dusting of powdered sugar

Allison and I paid the hive a visit on Sunday afternoon. Since we were both in shorts, we wore the Homer Simpson suits. I will post Allison's picture later this week.

Overall the hive looks good. The lower brood super is built out nicely, only one empty frame. Frame 8, was covered in honey and the others were covered in egg and larve. At first I thought it was odd and that something was wrong, since they were storing honey in a brood frame, but Karen told me she had read this was normal and that they honey in that brood frame will be eaten by the bees in the winter. the upper brood super has decent activity in the middle frames. They are building out the comb. There is plenty of work to be done in the upper brood frame before it is ready for the queen.

We did give the hive a mite treatment, and will continue to do so on a regular basis. The mite treatment is a dusting with powdered sugar. I have read in the "Backyard Beekeeper" that dusting for mites in this manner, will eliminate 10% of the mite population - thus you do it often. Although the books say this is good for the bees; they did not like it. When we were dusting the bees you could tell they didnt like it, as the hive was a noisy as i have ever heard it. I dont claim to understand how placing powdered sugar on the bees gets ride of mites - maybe they eat the sugar and in turn eat the mites.

Since the weather has been rainy and overcast in recent days the bee's have eaten alot from the feeders. Refilled the front feeder (top feeder is put away for the summer). Weather when we opened the hive sunny and warm 80's.

This weekend we also purchased some comb honey and some whipped honey spread. I did not care for the whipped honey - had the taste and consistency of honey that had been placed in the icebox. The Comb honey is vusually interesting since the comb is in the jar.

On a none bee note - we watched a good program on Dateline NBC on the topic of Credit Card Fraud and Identity Theft. The portions on credit card fraud and IT security where interesting - this is what we do as a company- verify the security of payment networks.

A great gift from Bobcat Doug II

So excited over these that I posted one twice...

A great gift from Bobcat Doug

I came home from Ohio yesterday and went to pickup the mail...it was a rare day when someone besides me had already grabbed the mail. However I reached inside and saw this great gift- some rare envelopes dedicated to the honey bee. This was a great gift to receive - my buddy Bobcat Doug is a great guy very thoughtful of him.

The King and Queen visit the hive

We had a good weekend- horse shows, gun shows and a visit from my parents. My parents came to town last week for my daughters horse show and my dad ansd I went to the NRA convention that was in Charlotte. Everyone rode well at the show. After the horse show and gun show, I had my parent suit up and I showed them the inner workings of a bee hive. We all had a good laugh at how silly you look in a full bee suit. I am comfortable enough that I dont wear the Tyvek suit anymore, just a veil and gloves.

Good bees, Good Friends and a Allergic Reaction

Thursday night I checked on the hive. Hive is doing well. I did remove the feeder as the Bee Mentor reccomended. The brood supers are doing well. Lots of larve and new bees. Very pleased with the development of the hive. The second super has good activity on the frames and should the queen should start laying eggs in the top super soon. Although the brood supers are doing well, there is still no activity on the honey super (Ross Rounds) but that is expected. The bees are really consuming a large amount of water,as the weather has been hot.

Today at happy hour, I learned that my buddy "Bobcat Doug" is an experienced bee keeper. He kept bees during his tenure as the cucumber king of east NC, also learned that he droped a hive and was stung over a 100 times, and was bit by a shark. In all seriousness he really knows about the honey bee, and I will draw on his knowledge. Also learned that his co-worker Joy is allergic to gardenias.

Installed the Ross Rounds

Once Laura came home from school, she and I suited up and installed the Ross Rounds. Karen and Allison are headed to Savannah to pay hommege to the founder of girl scouts.
We are at the hive, looking at frames and Laura says "Look there is the queen" and she was right. I look for weeks and she spots the queen within 20 seconds.

We saw plenty of larve and the queen was at work on frame #7. Very little activity in the second brood super. Althogh John said we should not have a feeder above the honey super; I left it one. I didnt want to pour the sugar water out and attract ants. If they have not eaten the majority of the syrup by the end of next week- I will dump it as instructed.

The Ross Round supers are on, and we are encouraging the bees to make honey comb. I still do not fully understand why you utilize a smoker. The smoke really gets the bees stirred up and they start making alot of noise (wing flappings).

Weather - sunny and hot. 90 degrees.

Ross Rounds

The Ross Rounds arrived while I was in Montreal. I will paint them and get them on the hive later today. A few people have asked why "Comb Honey"? Karen and I had not thought of comb honey until we watched the Brushy Mtn video- we dont have a good answer on why - we just thought it looked neat. A few pictures of the roos rounds are attached- very different than a regular frame.

On a non bee topic- I read the book "House of Cards" this week- a book about the collaspe of Bear Sterns. Interesting book, gets a little long at the end. Very different that Paulsons book. When I worked at Microsoft we had a Us against the world mentality, but compared to the Bear Sterns culture that was portraid in the book - MSFT was hugs and kisses with all of Silicon Valley.

Finally received a shipment notice

I finally received a notice of shipment from Brushy Mountain Bee Supply. I really dont understand why it takes forever and a day to receive a shipment from this company. Since I will pay shipping regardless of who I purchase supplies from, I am going to find a new supply firm. Two weeks to receive a shipment notice is not good.

Refilled the top feeder tonight. Didnt do anything other than fill feeders- didnt even suit up. I am either getting brave or I am just lazy and not that bright tonight. There is increased level of activity outside the hive, now that the entrance reducer has been removed.

The bee mentor told me once I place the honey supers on the stack not to have a sugar water feeder above the honey supers. He said if you have a feeder above the bees will store sugar water in the frames and not nectar.

Tommrow night should be fun. I have a short trip to Montreal- Montreal is a neat city. Very pretty architecture and since everyone speaks french you dont feel like your 120 miles north of the border. Additionally the Canidians are in the playoffs, anytime the Stanley Cup playoffs are in action Canada is excited. If you have never seen Canada in hockey season- just imagine Superbowl Sunday. Every television in the nation is tuned to a hockey game. A co-worker told me to go eat at Schwartz - apparently Montreal is know for its smoked meats. That wasnt in the tourist info when I visited Montreal last spring.

Have a good week.


very warm- 80 and sunny

A Mentor, A Queen and a small fire

John Byers (bee mentor) stopped by this afternoon. He was able to find the queen- I thought we paid to have the queen marked, but the queen is not marked. Since the queen is not marked it took a few minutes to find her. John was very helpful as he suggested we change the direction of the hive and remove the entrance reducer. We moved the hive 45 degrees and will move another 45 degrees later in the week. In addition to removing the entrance reducer, we moved some frames around. John also suggested two brood supers. When I asked about the queen excluder- he stated a queen excluder is really a matter of preference as some beekeeprs use them and some dont.





John did reign in my expectations of having honey this fall. After talking with him, I am not sure if we will have any honey this year. I hope we get at least enough for us. Although honey expectations where reigned in; he dis say everything looked good.



We did joke about how slow Brushy Mountain is to deliver orders- apparently I am not the only person who considers them slow to deliver.

The difference between the teacher and the student today was evident in our clothing. John - jeans, long sleeve shirt, and veil (no gloves) Earl- gloves, veil, full bee suit. We were both hot, but when I took my bee suit off I looked liked I had just finished a 10k - just drenched.

Now to the fire...it is windy today so I was having trouble lighting the smoker. I used the house and some schrubs as a wind break and somehow light my recycling bin on fire. I am glad that the city of Charlotte gave us a new recycle bin as one of our bins is gone.




Overall a good day. Warm and windy.

The 21st Day

Day 21 is a big day for a new beekeeper and a new hive. Day 21 is when the transformation from egg to larve to bee is complete. I did have a chance to check the hive and we do have new bees. This is a great sign. Still have not seen the queen (or at least recognized the queen), but hopefully our bee mentor can point the queen out and give us some pointers on how to find her. We hope to have our mentor stop by the house this weekend. The bees appear to prefer the front jar feeder to the top feeder - this is just my observation based upon how often the front feeder is empty.

Frame 8 does not have any activity, frame 7 has a small amount of activity. The honey frames have very little activity. I hope now that the hive is increasing in size the honey supers will have more activity.

Karen and I are looking forward to meeting our mentor as we have numerous questions to ask. I am suprised that I am enjoying beekeeping as much as I am, because when Karen first proposed keeping bees - I thought she was crazy.

Brushy Mountain is very slow in shipping the supplies that I ordered. The Ross Round Comb supers have not arrived; when I called them last week the guy stated they where 8 days behind in shipping. Not sure how you get behind on shipping when your a mail order business.


Weather clear and sunny low 80's