Pesticides

Please be careful when spraying pesticides in your garden and on your grass.  Organic is the way to go if possible - read the label on your pesticide containers and follow directions.  Don't just buy it because you think it might kill a weed - take a couple of minutes and dig the weed out of your garden/yard.  I can't stress this enough - I thank you and my bees will thank you. 

Email received from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm . . . . .

It is well established that pesticide contaminants are making their way into the beehive. Most wax samples tested had about 6 different pesticides present, and in some cases the levels were at about the thresholds set by the EPA. There is an ongoing debate between the chemical companies and many beekeepers. The companies assert that their products are safe for honeybees. By themselves, this very well could be true. However, once you get several different chemicals interacting with each other, there have been studies showing they may become lethal. Certainly having ever accumulating contaminants cannot be healthy for the bees.

Brushy Mountain Bee Farm

Airlie Gardens

467 Year Old Oak - Airlie Gardens

I was in Wrightsville Beach after Mother's Day and it was a little chilly but lots of fun!  Finally after all these years, I went to Airlie Gardens - if you've not been, go now while the weather is reasonable and not so many mosquitos. The 467 year old Airlie Oak was impressive and so was the Butterfly House. The garden dates back to 1886 with 67 acres of historical gardens, lots of fountains and water features.
http://airliegardens.org/
 

Also went to the Kids Museum in downtown Wilmington.  So much fun and so many different areas for children to play - trains, crafts, outside play area with a real school bus, doctor/dentist office and we didn't even get to all the other areas. 
www.playwilmington.org

 

 Great Mother's Day trip!

Swarm and Bee Check Up

The swarm had settled under the hive before I left Sunday but I was the fried chicken cooker so had to get to my Mom's and get to cooking (she has this old electric fry pan that cooks the best crispy chicken).
Well, we all know or can guess what happened - yep, they were long gone by the time I got back.
Hopefully some lucky person got a nice swarm of bees Sunday.
Mr. Ellis came today and we opened all the hives.  This is Nuc #3 - if I had not seen the swarm, I would have never known they swarmed on Sunday.  Lots and lots of bees so a brood box (deep) was added.

New Hive - reversed the boxes - put the deep on the bottom and super on top.
Hive #4 - saw the queen - still room in hive so no changes.  This is the least active hive even though there are plenty of bees in the hive.
Hive #6 - the busiest hive.  Added a super.  The super that was added on 4/27 was full. 

The weather has been cool and windy - so different from last year.  I'm already thinking I won't get much honey this year. I always try to leave two brood boxes and and a super on each hive for the fall and winter.  Right now I would only have two supers of honey.  Only saw 1 hive beetle and the little devil flew out before I could mash him!  All the hives looked good and thank goodness Mr. Ellis came.  It took both of us to take the brood box off Nuc #3 - it is full and heavy!

Mother's Day Swarm

Nuc #3

Nuc #3  Swarm on Front of Hive

Red Honeysuckle

Red Honeysuckle Vine

Little Kitty