Left is significantly taller than you would expect at this time of year, because of two reasons. One, is we elected to not harvest all the honey out of these two hives to give them the best shot at surviving this winter. So, the one on left had almost two full supers in addition to the full box of honey.
The right ALSO was full of honey, but the queen failed (even though there was still honey in the supers 🤔 -- so not starvation). That was a domestic Italian cross x local bees. Those commercial Italians were a grand failure here this year.
There was honey in both supers (still) despite active raiding; instead of letting anyone at it, I gave the honey to the left hive. #beekeeping
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: „#Honey was a very important food, as it was the only source of sweetness for the ancient #Irish. It was taken so seriously, that it had a whole Brehon Law devoted to it, called bechbretha, meaning ‘bee judgements’. It concerned such rules as, if a hive swarmed onto another man’s land, what portion of the honey produced should be allotted to each man, and was quite detailed and complicated.“
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
@NeuKelte #Bees#BeeKeeping
That's interesting. I am new to beekeeping and hoping to catch a swarm this spring. I am already feeding wild bees on top of my hive boxes.
What I wonder is how the ancient Celts came to the conclusion that bees should be subject to human conventions of land ownership. That just seems weird. Bees have no respect for fencerows. They may even nest in them if there is room between the stones.
My wife received a lily from my daughter and I wanted to know what it looked like under an ultraviolet light. Bees see in the ultraviolet spectrum and I am looking for ways to attract bees. I have looked at two species of flowers and blossoms and the stigma is reflective in both.
Beekeeper's hazard. Had a bee come into the house riding on my shoulder or hair, unawares. Had to take them back outside when they decided my office was not where they wanted to be! #beekeeping
For my international audience (because i can't believe my #German audience could have missed this).
After the recent #antifascist#antifa demonstations there has been a popularisation of the #antifasticker meme. People from all walks of live appropriate symbols from their lived experience and combine it with the antifascist logo for something amusing. Here are some samples with alt-texts providing a translation/explanation. A thread 🧵1/10 : #WorkerRights #colorblind#nyancat#cthulhu
Beehive FLIR. The bright yellow area is warmer--where the hive is clustered. If you put your ear or a stethoscope up to the side of the hive, you can hear the colony gently beating their wings to generate heat. #beekeeping#flir#infrared
Same beehive with slightly different tones. Will be interesting to see what size this hive actually is. I am going to say 3-4 frames, in the bottom hive. #beekeeping#bees#flir#infrared#imaging#hive#beehive
Down two more hives (that I know of), hope the swarm capture season works out well again this year for some replenishment. We're 4-8 weeks from the start of swarm season, depending on seasonal warmth and bloom. #beekeeping
I had to mow the lawn and trim the hedges around the beehives, so I had to put my bee suit on in case the bees got stroppy about the tools. It's 38°C in the shade and 70+% humidity. And I poked myself in the eye with my sunnies while putting them on under my hood.
Trimming hedges with tears and sweat pouring out of me was not fun. The bees were very chill about things.
Luckily we have a pool, so I just flopped into that afterwards to recharge.
Hot honey from the other day. Honey heated and mixed with a bazillion hot peppers, then strained. There is typically a lot of hot peppers coated with honey left over... (currently out to the compost pile, but I wonder if folks would like very sticky, hot peppers in honey) #honey#beekeeping#food
NEW POST
Ancient and veteran trees include many big enough to house a colony of free-living honey bees. Here is some science and speculation on the trees, the bees and what to look for.
"There are hives all over the park where, right now, the bees would be crowding together to keep the temperature up, would be taking turns to be circled and warmed by all the other bees, would be tending to the year's future bees in their cells..."
Under the camo net there are two bee hives wrapped in plastic to protect them from the weather over the winter and keep unwanted insects out.
I don't own any land. I built one Japanese stacked pile hive box and I ordered a second Langstroth hive and assembled it.
Last spring I failed to attract a swarm. I put them out too late. This spring I will be ready when the bees swarm.
I took advantage of a clearing that resulted from trees knocked down in a storm. This is public land.
Fortunately Japanese people don't usually mess with other people's stuff. I only covered it with the net so it wouldn't be an eyesore to people walking in the forest.
I will post more pictures as the situation changes with the season.
Edit: I also plan on covering this clearing with flowers for both beatification and for the bees. I ordered foxglove, bundleflower, and passionflower. The bundleflower is mainly for the seeds. They are more nutritious than soybeans. Birds and deer love them.