Melissa's Honey Bees
Top Bar Beekeeping in Massachusetts
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Melissa's Honey Bees
Progress

Progress

September 24, 2015

Things have been getting better in the backyard since we put up the screen across the perennial garden. There are fewer bees flying low in the yard. I have been able to spend more time out there, which has been good for me and my garden. Now that I am feeling a little more confident, …

Plan Bee!

Plan Bee!

September 6, 2015

I am not ready to give up on beekeeping, despite the challenges that I have run into. I am really hoping to find a way to peacefully coexist with the bees in our backyard. I just need to be creative when coming up with new ideas to try out. In search of harmony, we are …

Host Hive Inspection with a Guest

Host Hive Inspection with a Guest

August 27, 2015

A member of the beekeeping club that I belong to has shown interest in top bar beekeeping. I invited him to inspect the host hive with me. We met up at eight am on August first. The weather was good and the sun was out. We looked in the observation window first. They had a …

The Beekeeper who is Afraid of Bees

The Beekeeper who is Afraid of Bees

August 15, 2015

Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. After I was stung while gardening, I began to feel more anxious when working in the garden. Any buzzing around my head made me jumpy. The last inspection that I did …

Inspection of Host Top Bar Hive

Inspection of Host Top Bar Hive

August 7, 2015

On June 16th, I inspected the hive at the host house. The weather was warm, but it was somewhat cloudy. The bees seemed grumpy today, I am assuming that they do not like me opening their hive on a cloudy day. I have spoken with the family at the host house to see if the …

Inspecting My Top Bar Hive

Inspecting My Top Bar Hive

July 19, 2015

I recruited help again for this inspection, I needed someone to take the pictures! I have been feeling comfortable enough to not use the smoker when I open the hives. Using the smoker feels like a big project to me. I still need practice lighting it and keeping it lit. Sometimes it works well for …

Full Inspection of Hive at Host House

Full Inspection of Hive at Host House

July 13, 2015

I had mentioned to my husband that I needed to do an inspection of the hive that is in the host yard. We got everything ready and went over. For some reason, my husband thought shorts were acceptable to wear when opening a bee hive! Needless to say he got stung and even though I …

Honey Bees vs. The GoPro

Honey Bees vs. The GoPro

June 26, 2015

I inspected the Top Bar  hive in my yard. I used the GoPro camera, the videos are below. I had to cut them into three videos to more easily upload them to YouTube. I decided to look through all of the bars that had comb on them. The bees have 8 bars: 3 of the …

My First Real Inspection

My First Real Inspection

June 14, 2015

It’s been a while since I have dedicated some time to writing a new post. I had an incident with a honey bee and have been in hiding. While I was gardening a very angry honey bee landed on my shirt. She stung me in the chest and I pulled my shirt away from my …

An Apology

An Apology

June 5, 2015

I need to apologize for neglecting this website. I am sorry that I have not been getting my posts out as regularly as I should!  As you will read in my upcoming post, I had a very negative interaction with a very angry honey bee. She stung me not once, but twice and I am …

Inspection of the Langstroth Hive

Inspection of the Langstroth Hive

May 18, 2015

Best Bees came out and checked on my Langstroth hive. The beekeeper came into the backyard and we talked a little about what I have seen with the bees. This hive has been very active and collecting pollen since the moment the snow melted. I have started to wonder if they will swarm this year. …

Home Sweet Home Part 2

Home Sweet Home Part 2

May 16, 2015

On April 28th the small cell, treatment free bees arrived. The post office called me right before 8am asking me to come pick them up. Their hive was ready and I had prepared 1:1 sugar water for them. When I got to the post office, they let me know that the bees were out on …

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