It’s June 10th and it’s only been six days since I checked in on the colony. I wanted to check them so soon again though to see how the queen situation is coming along. Since I didn’t see her or any evidence of her, I am concerned about them If she is no longer in …

It’s June 4th and the sun is finally shining here! With the weather being so nice, I thought I would stop by the hives again and see what they are up to. Today I started at the Orchard Hive, since they have been so wonderful to work with. I also did not need to do …

This spring has been very wet and cold. There has been so much rain and almost constant cloud cover. The benefit of this has been that we are no longer in a drought, but the downside is that inspecting beehives in this weather is a challenge. The bees really don’t like when I open up …

It’s the 20th of May and we are finally having some really nice weather. Today it is 70 degrees and sunny! I stopped at the Orchard Hive first and spent some time watching the bees coming in from foraging. These foragers were bringing in lots of pollen and there was quite a bit of traffic …

It’s only been a week since I checked in on the bees, but I am back again invading their space. This spring has had awful weather, rainy and cold. I do appreciate the rain for the sake of the plants and the soil. It’s good to be out of the drought status, but it has …

Today I started at the Orchard Hive and I got an unpleasant surprise when I got there. There were several large paper wasps starting to nest in the lid area of the hive. There is empty space between the lid and the top of the bars and they decided they wanted it to be theirs. …

Early in the morning on April 24th the Post Office called to let me know that the bees had arrived. It was a chilly day, so I waited a while for the temperature to go up. While I was waiting, I got all of my supplies ready. I had my “bee bag” already packed with …

Winter had taken it’s toll on my bees and me, but now spring is here and things are looking up. I decided last season that I needed to modify my hives. I just needed to come up with a way to do it. I want my Bee Thinking hives to have a screened bottom that …

It took me a long time to finally order my bees this year. I was so reluctant to order my packages. After last season, I am feeling a bit put off. I had the hardest time getting myself to oder the bees, I didn’t want to think about the upcoming bee season. I gave in …

The blog has been very neglected over the last four months. There have been so many things taking my time away from being able to write. The biggest of these things is the Maynard Honeybee Meadow. This spring the meadow started as a small idea to put a beehive in an empty lot behind ArtSpace …

It’s been more than a month since I have inspected the Host Hive. The last time I inspected this hive the bees were so nice and so sweet. I guess a lot can change with their temperament in a month! They were back to their usual grumpy selves this time. I was so hopeful that …

It’s August nineteenth and I am thinking more and more about winter for the bees. The main purpose for today is to make sure the bees are storing enough nectar and honey to get through the winter. Of course I will also check on the bees and see how they are doing. During this inspection …