Laila Apiary

Shout out to Marvin from who was a savior of the day! Couldn’t have grabbed the swarm without his help. Big thank you! The swarm was a big one and now in their new home.

Personal moment for being able to set up this beautiful swarm I picked up yesterday in our backyard. The past year and a half have been really challenging, and I haven’t been able to do any beekeeping at all. It was painful to lose colonies, since I didn’t have time to take care of them. With that, the plan is to scale down and get back to the basics of working the hive…or 2.

Is it strange that I missed getting stung? This swarm was testy to capture.

We are deeply saddened by the events in Israel and pray for those who were needlessly murdered, kidnapped and those that continue to endure the violence. They are our families and friends and we can only hope they remain safe.

Honestly believe I got lucky here that I managed to split the hives just in time for them to ramp up with the start of the flow without swarming. Why? Because I did the same last year and still had swarms 🙃. But the weather made this year even more of a guess. Now comes the fun part, black locust is in full blooms, just got some rain, and beautiful weather on the way (after today). Let’s see how many supers go on!!! 🥰🍯🐝

In my happy place with my boy in 2023 and back in 2021. Still gets excited holding frames of bees and helping out his old man 🥰

Glad I got a chance to take advantage of some beautiful weather, and find that my queens are beautiful as well. Lots of brood in the two production colonies, which I moved to the splits from our yard. Back to four, and these hives are booming. With this crazy weather, we have to get ahead of swarming and moving brood and nurse bees will alleviate the congestion for now.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll be busy checking them again for swarm cells and hopefully bring some of these great genetics back to our Nuc yard.

Good times are starting!!

Sometimes you just need a break from it all, get some sand on your feet and breath in some beautiful ocean air.

Checking out the hives in both sites and found an interesting pattern. One colony booming and another quite behind. Was able to equalize the production colonies and transferred some brood and nurse bees from this beast to the one next door. It was time to get rid of the winter shim and foam but kept the entrance reducers on to help against robbing. The big colonies are also producing lots of drones but no purple eyes just yet, so we’ll have a little more time before splitting starts.

Never a dull moment at Laila Apiary. Got to spend a couple of hours with this crew on a photo shoot of purses, honey and bees. It was pretty rough with the wind, but the sun helped a little. The cold did keep the bees in the boxes otherwise it would have been much wilder of a time with food out in the open. Net net, bees and fashion totally mix!! 😄

If you don’t think mouse guards are necessary, nature will teach you a valuable lesson. I, for one, didn’t realize they build a little bird’s nest-looking home inside the colony. But this was also a lesson I would have gladly skipped.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/14/us/hurricane-ian-florida-bees.html?smid=url-share

Truly sad but highlights the importance of bees to our daily lives.

( Updated with add’l loaf and homemade butter. )

It’s cold, it’s calling for snow, so what is one to do? Bake! Brought back the sourdough starter to life from the back of the fridge and it returned beautifully (believe it’s at least 5 years old at this point).

Beautiful oven spring and crusty exterior. It’s a 24 hour process but well worth it. The grilled cheese sourdough with honey drizzle will be coming next! 😋