Oct 15 2010
To Bee, Or Not To Bee
Inside the hive
Megan and I checked on the hive yesterday with our brother. There isn’t as much honey as we hoped, and Jonathan thinks that maybe the Queen isn’t very productive. It’s hard to know, since these bees just volunteered, taking over the hive after the Italian Blondes died out last winter.
This year, the bottom of the hive is sealed, so they won’t freeze like the earlier batch-o-bees. I’m looking into feeding trays for the winter, and pretty soon it will be time to start making sugar water for them again.
We talked about mite control. We don’t know if mites contributed to the earlier bees’ mortality rate. We’re reluctant to start medicating them, so we’ll probably get some special sticky paper to put in the bottom of the hive and see if any mites fall onto it. If they do, we’ll deal with it then. I wonder if these bees are mite resistant, since they are local and just turned up.
We also might get a new Queen and bees in the spring and set them up in a separate hive from the first one. Decisions, decisions!
The boys have been busy working on a solar array, which is a frame to hold solar panels. They have invented a way (out of found materials) to make the frame tilt at different angles for different seasons, to get the most out of available sunlight. My brother gets all his power from these solar panels, whose energy is stored in giant batteries. And he gets all his water from the well the boys dug last winter. I don’t think there are too many people in this country who could live as spartanly as he does.
5 Responses to “To Bee, Or Not To Bee”
I’m full of admiration for your family….you all work so hard at green living. You prove that it can be done with some know-how and elbow grease. Could do with your lads around here!!
jx
They say that it’s with hard work that people tend to do well, I agree that your family knows the meaning of hard work, I wish you well with the bees.
I hope you can manage with the bees. Wish we had a hive.
Maybe it takes a while for the hive to get into serious honey-producing? I no nothing about bees…
but still, I wish I had a hive! In the romantic sense, anyway, not in the having to ensure the hive was taken care of sense!
I know I couldn’t live as spartanly as your brother! I dream of it, but dreaming of it and actually doing it are so different. Does he spend a lot of time on the computer or watch tv? The tv is neither here nor there to me, but man, I probably use a ridiculous amount of power with this computer (and lights!)!
He’s never had a TV. Must one of the few people in America to do that.