It’s been another busy week on the homestead. This morning we’ve been busy preparing for the pekin ducks that will arrive next week! Look forward to some delicious, healthy pastured duck meat to be available around the beginning of May. Love for Whispering Willow Lip Balm I recently tested the Whispering Willow Lip Balm we […]
Archive for the ‘Beekeeping’ Category
Friday on the Farm- 2/27/15
Posted in Beekeeping, Chickens, Ducks, Friday on the Farm, Goats, Household, Layers, tagged bees, chicken, chickens, chicks, ducks, eggs, goats, hens, homestead on February 27, 2015 | Leave a Comment »
Tour of the Chicken Yard Part 2 of 2
Posted in Animals, Beekeeping, Layers, Rabbits, tagged apiary, bees, chicke coop, chicken yard, chickens, Rabbits on August 14, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Part 2 of the series showing our new chicken coop, chicken yard, rabbitry, and apiary. Enjoy!
Tour of the Chicken Yard Part 1 of 2
Posted in Animals, Beekeeping, Layers, Rabbits, tagged apiary, chicken yard, chickens, honey bees, rabbitry on August 13, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
Adrienne made this short video series showing the newly built chicken yard, rabbitry, apiary. Check back tomorrow for part 2!
The Birds and the Bees: Chickens and Honeybees Living Together
Posted in Beekeeping, Chickens, Layers, tagged bee hives, beekeeping, bees, chickens, hens on August 4, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
We have our beehives in our chicken run, and some people have asked how the bees and chickens get along. Beekeepers said the hens would eat the bees, and others worried if the bees would harass the hens. We have found that the bees and the hens don’t interact at all. Then hens go all […]
Overwintered Bees
Posted in Beekeeping, tagged bees, hive, overwinter on February 22, 2014 | Leave a Comment »
We enjoyed some warm weather this weekend. With temperatures tipping over 50 degrees the bees emerged for a break from the hive. They were flying around the hive checking on things so we took the opportunity to check on them. Since we are expecting several more days of warmth we put a third of the […]
Fall Feeding and Fall Losses
Posted in Beekeeping, tagged bees, beetles, cold, dearth, fall, hive beetles, honey, oil, summer, traps on September 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Some mixed news to report on our bees. It has been a while since we last posted and a lot has happened. This Fall we suffered a dearth of nectar in our region and the bees were not able to build up much honey reserves. Even early in the Fall the hives were both suffering. The hive that was growing the most during the Summer months and having the most problems with crooked comb was also doing the worst of the two hives. They seemed to have spent too much time building comb and not enough time gathering nectar and building up their honey reserves. Subsequently their population must have grown too large and they ran out of all their honey before it even got really cold around here.
Melting Beeswax
Posted in Beekeeping, Energy, Household, tagged bee hives, beekeeping, bees, beeswax, comb, filter, melting, solar oven, wax on July 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
We needed to melt down the beeswax in the comb so that we could use the wax for candles and other potential crafts. George did some research, and found that it was common to use solar ovens to do this. We had been wanting a solar oven for other reasons so it was a good opportunity to go ahead and build a solar oven!
Book Review: Candle Making in a Weekend by Sue Spear
Posted in Beekeeping, Household, Reviews, tagged bee hives, beekeeping, bees, beeswax, book, book review, candlemaking, candles, homestead, wax on July 11, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
As I embark on a candle making adventure, I picked up Candle Making in a Weekend by Sue Spear to pickup some pointers. This book was a good overview of candlemaking. It had instructions for a wide range of projects. The instructions were simple and easy to understand, plus there were helpful pictures. I feel […]
Book Review: Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich
Posted in Beekeeping, Chickens, Reviews, tagged bees, book, review on July 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
As we were beginning this homesteading adventure, I read Made from Scratch by Jenna Woginrich. This book was not worth reading. It was all I could do to finish it, and I would not recommend it. The biggest issue I have with this book is how the author writes about mistakes that she made, but […]
Memorial Day Weekend Update
Posted in Beekeeping, Chickens, tagged bearding, beekeeping, bees, chickens, heat, hens on May 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Our bees were spotted covering the front of the outside of their hive this weekend (called bearding) and we made a decision about our hens. So we wanted to share a quick video update on the bees and hens.
Concord Hive Catching Up
Posted in Beekeeping, tagged beehive, bees, concord, growth, inspection, wax on May 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
It looks like Concord hive is back on track so we will be leaving it alone for another week or two before doing another full inspection. Since it looks so good we did not put in the feeder like we thought we might have to last week either.
Two Hives – Different Stories
Posted in Beekeeping, tagged bees, comb, concord, feeder, lexington, wax on May 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
It had been a little over two weeks since our last full inspection of the hives. We didn’t feel we had to do a full inspection since there’s been lots of activity in both hives, but we did want to make sure they had ample space to expand comb if needed.
Hive Entrance Question
Posted in Beekeeping, tagged bees, entrance, entrance reducer, flight, orientation flights, size, video on May 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The last few days there have been a very large number of bees flying around the entrance of our Lexington hive (the strongest based on comb development and brood count during inspections). During the day the entrance is covered in bees and the air in front and above the hive is dense with bees.
The First Three Weeks
Posted in Beekeeping, tagged bees, brood, capped brood, comb, eggs, feeder, honey, inspection, larva, queen, queen cage, syrup on April 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Its now been about three weeks since we first installed our bees and I wanted to share with you how they are doing. We were a little apprehensive after first getting them installed because we went on vacation for a week three days after installing them and worried something might happen while we were gone […]
Preparing For The Bees
Posted in Beekeeping, tagged bees, beeswax, chicken, concord, coop, essential oil, feeder, hives, independence, lemongrass, lemongrass essential oil, lexington, names, package, queen, sugar, syrup, virginia bee supply, wax on April 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Being new to beekeeping, the most sure fire way to get bees for our hives was to order packages of bees from a bee supplier. Some people order them through the mail, we were fortunate to have a local beekeeping supply company near us in Northern Virginia called Virginia Bee Supply. They bring packages of […]
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