Yesterday was one of those amazing days when God gave me the gift of seeing a miracle first hand. James M Brown Elementary School (and most of the schools in Oconee County) participate in the @thebeecause Project. The observation hive at JMB had problems earlier in the year and all of the bees died. They also have 2 regular hives outside, so yesterday’s plan was to split one of the two outside hives in hopes of rehiving into the ob hive in a few weeks. Well, it was one of those miracle days! When we walked outside to look at the hives, we could hear the bees. (If you listen closely on this video, you will hear them). It was the sound of a swarm. We looked up in a small tree beside the hives and indeed there was a beautiful, large swarm of bees. We discussed the situation and decided to place the swarm directly into the observation hive. The photos show immediately after shaking the limb and dropping bees into the ob hive and then after the glass lid was reinstalled. I’ve seen and dealt with many swarms, but this one was the most exciting ever! Seeing those bees march into that ob hive almost made me cry. 🐝🐝🐝 #godscreatures#godscreaturesareamazing #miracles#blessed #honeybees
#beekeeping
#savethebees
#womenbeekeepers
#urbanfarming
#urbanbeekeeping
#bees
#beekeeperdonna
#visitoconeesc
#womeninbeekeeping

A Talented Friend, A Perfect Gift

My amazingly talented friend created and gifted me with these bee-themed reusable cloths. They can be snapped together and used on a roll like paper towels or stacked flat or folded. 
❤️❤️❤️ 🐝🐝🐝 
#blessed 
#friends
#honeybees
#beekeeping
#savethebees
#womenbeekeepers
#urbanfarming
#urbanbeekeeping
#bees
#beekeeperdonna
#visitoconeesc
#womeninbeekeeping

Our 2018-2019 Honey Label

Lessons learned...

When we started harvesting enough honey to sell, hubby went online and found several honey bee clip art pics. (He's the artistic one.) We selected a really cute little bee, similar to the one at the top of this post. We signed labels and printed them from www.Avery.com.  Life was good!

While on Instagram BeekeeperDonna, I saw a post for a logo contest from NASCAR. The contest would have multiple winners and each winner would have her/his logo on a race car during a race. It was a free contest and sounded like a good idea, so I submitted our logo into the contest. Believe it or not, our logo was selected! The official paperwork was sent through email and a certification for permission to use the logo was required. Again, we found the logo in clipart online, but had not paid for it. Before signing the official paperwork, I decided to check the US Patent and Trademark Office website to make sure the logo did not have a copyright or trademark. The logo didn't have ™ or ©, so I thought I was "good to go". Nope. It turns out that the artist that created the little lady bee had a copyright for her. A small ladies boutique had rights to the logo.

I called the boutique and spoke to one of the owners to ask for permission to use our adapted, colorized version of the logo and I offered to pay a fee to use the logo. Two sisters own the boutique and the sister that answered the phone said that it should be fine, but that her niece, the other owner's daughter, had drawn the logo. (You know where I'm going with this story, right?) After multiple phone calls, we were not given permission to use the logo. So, we purchased the new little bee lady in the logo above and hubby colorized and modified her. We now have permission to use her on any of our labels, business cards, etc.

And, as for the NASCAR contest, well, I never returned the paperwork and bowed out of the contest.

The moral of this story is to always check the patent and trademark office before using someone else's intellectual property.

New Chicken Coop

You may wonder what a chicken coop has to do with bees.  As this video explains, pesticides and insecticides are not bee-friendly.  After beekeeping for 3 years, fire ants, mosquitos, spiders, and the like have taken over the yard.  In an effort to fight back, we're getting chickens to patrol and destroy the unwelcome bugs.  Hopefully, the idea will work.  If not, at least we will have fresh eggs!

90 Years Ago...

This article was in our local newspaper, the Keowee Courier, this past week. It sounds like honey bees have been alive and well in Oconee County for at least 90 years.

Hive Swarm! Oh, My!

April 9, 2015 Swarm

http://youtu.be/164w_BRg5NQ

New Bee Family

Our friends D and A are setting up their first hive today.

Honey Bees Collecting Pollen on a Warm February Day

Our Ladies were busy collecting pollen yesterday and today.  Husband filmed this slo-mo video with our iPhone 6.  Enjoy!

The Ladies seemed almost frantic to work and gather pollen.  Could this mean a long winter?

Making Sugar Boards

We have been feeding our bees 2:1 sugar water with homemade Honey B Healthy this winter. Our hives are a deep body and medium body "married", so the medium was full of honey at the end of the summer. We have a late summer nuc that we want to nurse through the rest of the winter, so we made a sugar board this morning for the nuc. This is our first try with sugar boards and I'm interested to see if they make a difference. Our hive 14 seems to be weaker than the others, so we made one for that hive as well. It has been a good sunny winter day to work the Girls. 

Follow up:  Hive 14 didn't make it. 😔

Prayer and Writing of Joseph Hall - The Wonder of HIS Works

The longer I live, O my God, the more do I wonder at all the works of Your hands. I see such admirable skill in the very least of all Your creatures. I am more and more astonished every day in my observations.

I do not have to look so far as heaven for something marvelous, while I have but a spider in my window, or a bee in my garden, or a worm under my foot. Every one of these overcomes me with a similar amazement—yet can I see no more than their outsides. Their inward form, which gives their being and operations, I cannot pierce into. The less I can know, O Lord, the more let me wonder; and the less I can satisfy myself with marveling at Your works, the more let me adore the majesty and omnipotence of You who created them.

~ Joseph Hall

5,500-Year-Old Honey and 10 More Ancient Food Discove | The Daily Meal

This is such an interesting article...



5,500-Year-Old Honey and 10 More Ancient Food Discove | The Daily Meal

One of My Favorite Scriptures...

"How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."

Psalm 119:103-105

Thankful for our Lord's blessings this Spring.  

Grateful for the call to be a Beekeeper.

Swarm 2 from Hive 1

Another exciting day of beekeeping!  We had a swarm from Hive 1.  

This is the 2nd swarm from that particular hive within the past 2 weeks.   

The Swarm is the brown cluster near the top of the tree.

Catching a Swarm

Wow!  What an exciting day!

I was on the phone with a co-worker when I looked out the window and saw 1000s of honeybees flying around in a circle in the backyard.  It took me about 15 seconds of watching to realize that I was witnessing a bee swarm.  Within 10 minutes, the bees had found a safe location on a tree in the backyard (see photo below).  It was a true blessing to be able to see this!

A Beautiful Swarm

Beautiful Bees!

We had very nice weather this weekend with temps in the low 70's both Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday, we opened and checked our hives.  This was our first time of venturing into the hives since last Fall.

Hive 4 was set-up as deep hive body for brood box, medium hive body, and a honey super left over from Fall.  The honey super was an accident.  It was on the hive when we treated with Api Life VAR and so we could not harvest the honey.  We expected that most of the bees would have moved up to the medium super and that the bottom hive would be mostly empty.  Indeed, that is exactly what had happened.  So, we switched the bottom where the medium was and put the medium on the bottom.  We left the honey super on top and removed the insulating panel that had been on all Winter.  We also left the ventilation spacer on the hive.  The hive had brood, honey, and pollen and we saw The Queen.  We didn't see any hive beetles in this hive.

Hives 1, 2, and, 3 were set-up as deep was set-up deep with medium, insulating panel, and ventilation spacer.  When we went into Hive 3, we were able to configure it the same as Hive 4.  The hive had brood, honey, and pollen, but we did NOT see the queen.  We saw one hive beetle in this hive.

Hive 2 was a complete surprise!  When we opened the hive, the deep and medium hive bodies were completely filled with brood, honey, and pollen.  There was absolutely no room for any more brood, honey, or pollen.  We were not really prepared, so we added a honey super to give the bees a little more room.  We saw several hive beetles in this hive.

After Hive 2's surprise, we called it a day and decided to re-think our plans.

On Sunday afternoon, we implemented a new plan.  We went back to Hive 4, and added a medium hive body.  This gave us the final configuration of Medium - Deep - Deep (with 9 frames) - Honey Super (with 2 frames removed).  We placed the 2 frames on our hanging rack and we're hoping that the bees will clean out the honey.  If they do, we plan to hang the rest of the frames out for cleaning.  We would like to reuse the foundation, but the honey has to be removed.

Hive 3's configuration is now Medium - Deep - Deep (with 9 frames).

Hive 2's configuration is now Deep - Medium - Deep (with 9 frames) - Honey Super.

The photo above was taken from Hive 1.  We had not been in Hive 1 for several months.  It may have been July or earlier.  The hive was completely full, similar to Hive 2.  We set it up with Deep - Medium - Deep (with 9 frames).  There was quite a bit of drone brood.  We saw varroa mites in a few of the drone brood cells.  There were a few hive beetles.

We are trying to avoid swarming on all of our hives.  We planned to split all of our hives this Spring.  Since this is only our second season and it may be a good thing that we "don't know what we don't know".

In 2 to 3 weeks, we will check the hives again to see if our plan to prevent swarming and creating splits is working.

SC Beekeepers Association / Hive Scale Project was Recognized by NASA

The SC Beekeepers Association met in Columbia, SC on Saturday, 3/1/2014.
This letter was presented at the meeting.
Unfortunately, we were not present.

Red Maples and Ordering New Hardware for the Hives

The Red Maples (Acer Rubrum) are blooming.  As I understand it, honey bees love red maple blooms.  This photo was taken today in my front yard.  Alas, none of the ladies are on the blooms; however, they are out-and-about flying today.

We are adding 4 new bee hives this Spring, so we ordered new hive bodies today from Mann Lake.  This is our first order with them, so I hope all goes well.  They offer free shipping (over $100) and that's a good thing!

Last season, we ordered these bottom boards from GreenBeeHives.com and we have been quite pleased.  

We ordered 2 more of them today.  

This first day of March is bringing a lot of inspiration!

A Warm Winter Day

We're only 3 weeks away from Spring.  We have added boardman feeders to our hives.  The ladies are busy drinking and bringing a little pollen.

An Interesting Fact ~ Hive Weight

Interesting fact about Hive 1 (hive scale project): average weight of hive (129.3 lbs.) minus weight of identical empty hive (48.5 lbs.) equals 80.8lbs. of bees, wax, food, propolis, etc.

Oconee Hive Scale Project

As we are mid-way through our first winter as beekeepers, I am finding that the winter is somewhat boring.  So far, we have had an unusually long and cold winter with temps dropping into single digits.  We have insulated our hives, although some of the "old-timers" say that isn't necessary.  My goal is to keep these ladies alive until spring.  We are almost 1/2 of the way through winter and as of today, all of our hives are alive.

Our bees are coming out on days when the temperature gets above 55 degrees.  Today, they were out-and-about.  Husband saw one bloom on our red maple tree.  I've been told that signals the beginning of nectar flow, but the Groundhog says 6 more weeks of winter.

Our beekeeping club, Oconee County Beekeeping Association, had the opportunity to participate in a hive scale project.  Back in October, they asked for folks who would be interested in having their hives "host" the project.  There were several volunteers, so the Board of Directors from the club visited all of the sites and made a selection.  We are very pleased to announce that our hives were selected.  We live pretty much in the center of our county, have a fenced yard, and it's easy to find us, so I think that's why we were selected.

Last Saturday, 1/25/2014, the Hive Scale Project Engineer and several members of our beekeeping club came over for the installation.  It was a very cold, but exciting day.  Husband and I created a video explaining how the hive scale is set up on our Hive 1.  It is located below.  I've also added a live link to the Oconee Hive Scale Project below.

If you are interested in more details about the overall NASA project, these websites provide excellent information:

http://beeinformed.org

http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov