After our Austin Urban Beekeeping Meetup this past weekend, I’ve reserved the meeting room at the Terrazas Library Branch on Saturday, February 12th from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm for additional time for Q&A. I’ll recap the basics for about 30-45 minutes, but I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time for questions.I’ll also hopefully have an answer from Dadant about free shipping for orders from our group as well.
Category Archives: beekeeping
Living High on the Hive
I performed a quick February inspection today to make sure the girls had plenty of honey to last them through the end of the month and into the start of the wildflower season in March. I made a batch of 1:1 sugar solution with a touch of Honey B Healthy just in case their stores were running low. When I removed 8 frames of honey on October 2nd, 2010, I was slightly worried I was taking too much, but as it turns out, my fears were unfounded. The top two supers were still full or even fuller with honey than when I last checked in December.
Here I found evidence of some newly capped honey which is in the frame perch. I’m lifting a frame of older honey as a contrast.
So as it stands now, Large Marge is living large with ample stores of sweet delicious honey. This will be great when I start the second hive in April as I will be able to loan some full frames of honey to the new hive to give them a kick start of food and drawn comb for egg laying.
Filed under beekeeping
Large Marge eats freezing temperatures and snow for breakfast.
After almost a week of record breaking cold temperatures in Austin, not to mention a few inches of snow, I was a little anxious on how Large Marge and the girls were holding up. Deep down inside, I know that bees are able to handle this quite well, and if cold weather killed bees off, no one in the northern parts of the U.S. could ever be beekeepers. Still, with the sun out today and much warmer weather, I did a quick check of the hive to make sure there was activity at the hive entrance. Sure enough, bees were coming and going.
Tomorrow, I’m going to take a quick peek into the hive to make sure they still have adequate honey stores, and they are clustering well. If supplies look low, I’ll put the feeder back on to give them the food they need to make it through February.
Filed under beekeeping
Williamson County Beekeeper Association
The Williamson County Beekeeper Association has a great deal with Avoyelles Honey Company this year for a 3 pound package with a Minnesota Hygienic Italian queen. The cost is only $55 which is pretty fantastic. Some members will be driving to pick up the bees and they will be available for pickup on April 16th. They are also doing a group order with Dadant for beekeeping supplies to save on shipping costs, and the order will be delivered at their March 22nd meeting. You do need to be an active paid member to take advantage of these opportunities, but it is only $10 per year.
I have yet to make a meeting myself as they are in Georgetown, which is a bit of a drive for me, but for anyone who lives in the north suburbs of Austin, this may be more doable for you.
Filed under beekeeping, education, equipment
Beekeeping 101 Class
The Austin Urban Beekeeping Meetup group will be presenting a Beekeeping 101 class Saturday, February 5th at 11:00am. The class will be at the Carver Branch Library. Jim Hogg will be leading the class, and I will be helping as well. We are bringing a variety of hive types as well as all the necessary equipment needed to start your first hive.
I’m expecting a rather large turnout so we’d welcome any experienced beekeepers to join us in answering questions from the group. Hope to see you there.
Filed under beekeeping, education
Hive Considerations
Now is the time to start placing orders for package bees, but I thought a recap on hive placement considerations was in order.
First check three things:
- City Code – For Austin Residents, here is the code.
- Neighbor HOA and/or Covenants
- Your neighbors
Even if your hive location satisfies all the rules and regulations, I am of the opinion that if your neighbors aren’t cool with you having bees, you should find some place else for your hive. The decision is ultimately yours, but please at least think about what your neighbors may think especially if you live in a neighborhood where the houses are very close together. No matter what you do, your hive may swarm one season, and they may end of up in next door neighbor’s yard.
Once you are sure you can put a hive in your backyard, you’ll need to find the perfect spot. Bees hate lawnmowers and will get agitated very quickly if it is an area that will be close to someone using gas or electric lawnmowers, blowers, edgers, etc. Even if you aren’t mowing your lawn, if the hive is close to a fence line, your neighbor might be. Bees also have a tendency to fly in a straight line after leaving the hive so you’ll want to make sure the location isn’t going to cause a porch or deck to be in the hive’s flight path.
When I was considering the location of my first hive, I originally wanted to have it in my own backyard, but my neighbors were not too thrilled with having a hive right next door. It was probably a blessing in disguise that they initially said no. They have since said they would be fine with it, but with the lot sizes in our neighborhood (i.e. small), and the number of folks who would be mowing around the hive, it probably would have not ended well.
Remember, it is easier to move a hive that doesn’t have bees in it yet 🙂
Filed under beekeeping, education
Winter Tasks
Although it didn’t feel like a winter day today, I spent the morning putting together my new hive. Based on last year’s experience with Large Marge, I bought six medium supers for the second hive. Considering last year was an exceptional year for weather and rainfall here in Austin, I think having six supers will be more than enough for a new hive starting out this spring.
I bought unassembled supers this year to save on cost and shipping. They are easy to put together with some wood glue and nails, but it is always important to assemble them soon after they arrive so the pieces do not warp.
Here is a picture of the finished hive with only three supers on. I still need to paint and level out the ground at the 2nd hive location, but I’ve knocked out the big task of putting it all together.
Filed under beekeeping, equipment
Cleansing Flight
After a week of cold, wet weather here in Austin, the sun came out and the temps got up into the high 60’s today. The girls took this opportunity to get out for a cleansing flight as well as to drag all the dead bees out the hive.
Filed under beekeeping
Calling All Urban Beekeepers!
A fellow blogger and super gardener Pam Penick sent me this link from Garden Rant about a London based beekeeper wanting stories from urban beekeepers in the US for a book he is writing. His name is Luke Dixon, and if you are interested, you can contact him directly at Luke@urbanbeekeeping.co.uk.
Filed under beekeeping, education
Second Hive Syndrome
All the pieces parts of my second hive arrived this week, and I’ll soon be putting it all together in preparation for the spring package. While I was adding all the necessary components into my shopping cart, my wife accused me of having “second hive syndrome” as I was initially opting for some cheaper options.
For example, for my first hive I went with a 8-Frame Garden Top:
I had planned on going with the cheaper Telescoping Top for the next hive:
In the end, I went with the exact same configuration as my first hive. Not only will they look nice side by side, but I would hate for the new queen to be jealous of Large Marge’s hive.
Filed under beekeeping, equipment
Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 