Homestead in the Hood

A little escapism over the weekend.

Took the Amtrak out to see the folks and back.
What we love about it all?

🚂 the whole “you’re not in control and you get there when you get there” mentality: you’re forced to slow down, looks around and enjoy the scenery.

🚂 hanging out, going places, reading books, chatting and playing board games with Laura McLean and meeting new travelers.

🚂 you can move around, walk, stretch, nap and cuddle all with an amazing amount of leg room. Not to mention the observation car. So many people conversing, playing games and spotting wildlife.

🚂oh the wildlife! We saw: moose, bear, deer, antelope, beaver, bald eagle, elk, osprey, big horn sheep and a few human rear-ends.

I know, it’s 100 degrees. But it’s time for winter prep.

That honey you’re waiting on to “get one more little harvest of honey” isn’t coming. And it is does, the bees need it, not you. Take off the supers.

Condense the colonies back down to the single or double brood boxes that they will go into winter with. Give them time to get things propolized, honey and pollen arranged and sorted out. Brood moved down to lower box and frames backfilled with honey in the top brood.

The bees being raised right now? Say hello to the winter girlies. These are the same bees you will see next spring. Yes, it’s true. Your winter bees are being reared right now. So pull off your pollen patties. (More on this in a later post).

Mite treatments. You should have been checking already and your loads should be low. We’ve had VarroxSan strips on since mid June. Now, it’s time for Apiguard to help keep those numbers low during robbing season. Also, your winter bees. They need to be reared free of mite pressure.

Your frames you’ve been patiently waiting to get built. Yeah. If they aren’t yet, it ain’t gonna happen. Nurse bees are your wax makers. And you need a strong flow for that. And we don’t have it. Your bee population is already on the decline after July 4th and it’s only gonna get smaller. So condense down to the smallest size possible.

Questions? Ask away. 🫶🏻

It continues to be hot, but the hives at Arnusch Farms, LLC. continue to thrive. This is our third harvest in just as many weeks! So making all that schlepping and hard work worth it.

Still two more cuttings of alfalfa to go, meaning we’ll have hives packing of weight until end of September while all the other hives in the city (that we couldn’t move out) are getting supers taken off and buttoned up for fall.

Had the privilege of being able to judge the Boulder County Fair Honey Show! It was a small sampling of all the great work out there in the beekeeping world, but of what was entered…Such great showings!

Well… that was “fun.”

Nothing like pulling up to the hives to do a quick inspections to see an entire stand of hives knocked over.

Then to unload the gear to notice you’ve forgotten your smoker.

This has been a recurring nightmare for me since getting into beekeeping. It was always snowing, raining super hard and seeing the hives are dead. Luckily, I think we got there in time.

All colonies seem ok. I did a quick inspections (girls were pretty grumpy—understandably) without said smoker and everything seemed to check out.

Winds so strong it actually spun the fence post INSIDE the cinder block and the L-brackets and screws were still attached. Those ratchet straps… I tell ya. 🤌🏼

One hive was completely packed with dirt and all entrances jammed full of dirt. But once they got righted, bees got right back to work!

Quick fix: secured straps around and under both posts, so a little bit more force will be needed. The post should not be able to spin anymore.

Later fix: originally, we only L-bracketed into the front beam so we could do the “heft test” in the winter to assess the weight of the colonies by picking up the back of the hives. Changing course. We will bracket them into the front and back beams going forward.

Next steps: wind breaks? It’s super nice to pull the truck right up to the hives…but being out in the open like that may just be asking for it to happen again.

Spent all day with the wonderful bee community and only got three pictures to prove it.

But our hearts are full!

Thanks to Brian Laudenslager Kaitlyn and Brenna’s Bee Adventures 🍯 Michaella 🐞 OG Homestead for coming out! We had a full day of doing the next months round of Harbo assays and mite testing.

Results coming soon, so stay tuned!

50 gallons of honey in just over 3 weeks, cut comb frames built out and capped that have been sitting in our city hives untouched since March, hives 5 boxes tall spilling over with bees… this is what we’ve been needing.

So incredibly happy and grateful for the move out to the alfalfa. It won’t “save the season” but it will help.

We’ve seen a 5 frame colony explode into a double deep, 20 frame colony with 20 newly built out super frames like it was nothing!

Doing what needs done for the health and well-being of the bees is tough work sometimes (who we kidding?) but so necessary.

Help us celebrate this turn of events with a jar - or 10- of the deep rich Keenesburg honey?