So I finally got my labels printed for my honey jars. I ordered 1000 of these suckers mainly because the difference between 250 and 1000 is like 20 bucks.
Thanks again to Essi Zimm for the awesome label and t-shirt design.
Tag Archives: beekeeping
Close Encounters of the Bee Kind
We got some really nice macro shots of Ramona’s hive today. For some reason, Ramona’s hive loves pollen more than I ever found in Marge’s hive. She seriously has several frames full of the stuff. It is very colorful, and I would love to know the source of all the different colors.
Here is a nice shot of some capped brood with not one, but two “newbees” emerging!
Since I have been neglecting Marge’s hive in my recent posts, we will most likely be doing a honey harvest from her hive next weekend. Even with the drought, she is kicking ass and making honey. We now have almost 3 supers full of the stuff so we will be taking one off next week so I don’t have to get on a ladder to inspect her hive.
Filed under beekeeping
Worker Bee Honey T-Shirt
Last year, I had a bunch of t-shirts made with the artwork I had done for my honey label. I’ve since had several folks ask where they could get a t-shirt of their very own so I’ll soon be placing another order. The t-shirts are cheaper the more I have made so I thought I’d see if any of my blog readers would like one. Let me know if you are interested and once I get a final count, I’ll have a better idea on price. I think last time I got them around $15-20 a shirt. We can figure out size and such later.
Update: If we get 25 shirts made, it is a straight $10 per shirt. Since we always have folks wanting one, we are just going to go ahead and order 25. If you are interested, please let me know size and style based on these links.
Here are some photos so you can imagine how dead sexy you’ll look.
I hate hive beetles.
Large Marge’s hive (if she is still in there) has tons of hive beetles.
Luckily, I don’t see them in the actual hive. I think the girls must drive them up into the outer cover and keep them up there where they are easy to squish. I still have a bunch of Beetle Blasters so I may put a few into the top super this weekend to see what happens.
Filed under beekeeping, pests
Ramona Lives!
I was totally expecting to find a new queen in Ramona’s hive today after the discovery of the supersedure cell a few weeks ago. Not only was the supersedure cell completely gone, but Ramona was spotted and is alive and well.
Does anyone else think that Ramona’s marking looks like a Rorschach ink blot? How does that make you feel?
I guess it is still possible there is another queen that I just missed, but I looked pretty carefully. Someone is at least laying well.
I’ll check again next week but there were no more supersedure cells in the making so it looks like the hive decided they were happy with Ramona after all.
Filed under beekeeping, queens
Round Rock Honey Beekeeping Class
Today I went out to Round Rock Honey to help teach an Intro to Beekeeping Class. I took the full class back in 2009 which really gave me the hands on experience I wanted to make sure beekeeping was for me. For folks interested in keeping bees, this one day class will run down the essentials of beekeeping as well as suiting up and visiting a hive. Round Rock Honey often runs a $39 special via Groupon so I recommend keeping an eye out for this deal.
Filed under beekeeping, education
Latest Honey Pollen Analysis
I got the results back from my latest pollen analysis, and it was much different from the first batch of honey I sent last year.
The honey you submitted contains a large variety of pollen types many of which occur in very small amounts, suggesting that those floral sources were important but minor nectar contributors to the honey. The pollen concentration value of 99,250 pollen grains/10 grams of honey is high but is within the honey placed in Category II, which is the category generally attributed to most unifloral and mixed floral honey produced throughout the world.
The relative pollen count of this sample is dominated by various members of the rose family (ROSACEAE), and elm (Ulmus). Other significant nectar sources include blackberries (Rubus), and members of the buttercup family (RANUNCULACEAE) that include a number of different genera including Clematis. Some of the other minor pollen types, and by inference some of the nectar sources, include Texas persimmon, honeysuckle, crepe-myrtle, wild plum, and sunflowers. Overall, your honey is classified as a Multifloral Wildflower Honey.
| Pollen Taxa |
% |
| ASTERACEAE (ragweed-type) |
0.40% |
| ASTERACEAE (sunflower-type) |
1.30% |
| BRASSICACEAE (mustard family) |
0.40% |
| Clematis (clematis) |
9.40% |
| Diospyros texana (Texas persimmon) |
1.70% |
| Fraxinus (ash) |
3.00% |
| Lagerstroemia (crepe-myrtle) |
4.30% |
| LILIACEAE (lily family) |
0.40% |
| Liquidambar (sweetgum) |
1.30% |
| Lonicera (honeysuckle) |
0.40% |
| Melilotus (clover) |
0.40% |
| Prunus (plum, peach, cherry) |
0.90% |
| Quercus (oak) |
1.30% |
| RANUNCULACEAE (buttercups) |
8.90% |
| ROSACEAE (rose family) |
19.10% |
| Rubus (blackberry, dewberry) |
8.90% |
| Salix (willow) |
7.20% |
| Sambucus (elderberry) |
2.10% |
| Ulmus (elm) |
28.10% |
| Vitis (grape) |
0.40% |
| Unknown pollen |
0.40% |
Filed under beekeeping, pollination
Where in the World is Large Marge?
I opted not to check Ramona’s hive today. I figured if there was a newly emerged queen, disturbing the hive at this point was probably not a good idea. I just topped off the feeder and decided to take a quick peek in Large Marge’s hive.
I found a disturbingly high number of hive beetles on the underside of the telescoping top cover which was initially concerning. After going medieval on their tiny asses, I took off the screened inner cover to start my inspection. The 6th super is still only partially drawn out but still full of bees. With this current drought, it will probably remain like this for the rest of the summer, but I don’t want to remove it to avoid crowding in the hive.
The 5th super is now all honey. It looks like the girls decided to move all the honey to this super which just reinforces my decision that queen excluders are a waste of time and just disrupt the natural order of things. No sign of any beetles in this super which makes me think the girls drove them up to the top cover.
The big shock came inspecting the 4th super. It isn’t the greatest picture because we weren’t expecting to see a new queen and had to hastily get this picture.
I last saw Large Marge on March 3rd during the first inspection of this spring. At the time she was laying well and the hive was full of bees. I’m not sure what happened. I guess it is possible that Large Marge is still in the hive and in either the 1st or 2nd super, but I’m not about to tear the hive apart looking for her. I also don’t think the hive swarmed because I think I would have noticed if half the bees in the hive absconded.
I didn’t inspect the hive any further after seeing the new queen. I’ll wait a week and do a more thorough inspection next week when I open up both hives.
Filed under beekeeping, queens
Queen Ramona is about to have some competition…
After last week’s speculation on whether or not Ramona’s hive was building a supersedure cell, there is no doubt whatsoever what the picture below is.
Interestingly enough, I found Ramona on the next frame over on a good section of capped brood.
I did observe while Ramona was walking around on the frame that her front right leg appears damaged so she only has 5 functioning legs. I’m not sure if she came like this or had an accident during the installation. In either case, I’m just going to let things play out. She is still able to lay as I saw plenty of eggs on frames so we’ll see what happens.
Filed under beekeeping
BeeSweet Lemonade
A friend of mine sent me this article from the the Westlake Picayune. Mikala Ulmer, a first-grader at Trinity Episcopal School in West Lake Hills, will be selling her special, award-winning lemonade Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. at a stand on the corner of Sixth Street and Lamar Boulevard.
Mikaila will donate 20 percent of the profits from her lemonade sales that day to the Texas Beekeeper’s Association to help save the honey bees. I’m going to try my best to get downtown to buy a cup.
Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 