FYI. During the summer months Santa is a beekeeper.
I’ve been asked a couple times why my Santa pages are on my beekeeping sight….. Plane (pun intended) and simple… Santa keeps bees in the summer. How else do you think Santa keeps such a sweet disposition????
Santa is a Beekeeper
Been spending time at the Golden Spike sight.
Click on photo for more.
USU Reporter Caroline Peterson
This photo taken from her story. (see USU under everything bees)
I’ve had a tremendously busy week working with and visiting about bees.
The Brigham City Library had scheduled me to give a lesson about bees as part of their Gardening series. So on Wed Mar 11th I presented, “So you want to be a beekeeper”. It went quite well, however the paper did not get it advertised a week ahead as was planned, by the time the paper came out on the day of the class, well the attendance was not as good as we had hoped. Two days following and after a round a bout series of phone calls, I was in contact with a reporter Caroline Peterson, from USU TV. She had seen the article in the paper and wanted to do a story on bees. Later that afternoon we were standing in the hot sun doing interviews after taking pictures inside the hive. In retrospect, probably should have done it in the reverse order… After getting into the bees there were a few Guard bees still seeking revenge during the interview process. The following Mon. and Tues, My wife and I went to the Charter school in Perry and gave two introduction to bees lessons each day. Wed brought a talent show to the High School and We were asked to bring some hive equipment. Followed by our regular scheduled bee club meeting on Thurs. By the end of the week I was called and asked to do another Bee class at the USU Brigham City Campus, followed by another teacher wanting me to do the same at her school for another two classes… If it keeps up like this I’ll have to start charging for my time.
This is a rather short video of a Queen Bee laying eggs on a frame. Most Queens get rather unnerved when you take them out of a hive. This one was rather calm and we saw her lay a few eggs, so I pulled out my cell phone and took a short video. All most all of the cells on this side of the frame all ready had eggs, young or capped larva in them so there was not many open cells to lay in.
I Pulled the Quilts off this afternoon so could get a good idea of how things were for spring…. all the hives are still really heavy but one, and it still has enough for now. I have 4 production hives, and 2 boxes that I raise queens in. Last fall I combined all the queen castle bees into one colony, in doing so I had to give them a half a honey super to keep them through the winter. So without disturbing the brood chamber, I pulled one frame from the honey super and found this. Looks like fresh nectar that the bees have been bringing in. I don’t know what they are finding, or where they are finding it, that is their job…and they do it well. They have been bringing in pollen by the truck loads on every warm day since the 4th of Feb.
Got to go put a little velcro on my bee suit. Got tired of having the little darlings find there way in past my zipper, just under where the veil attaches. For the most part, once they get in,,, they spend a lot of time trying to get out… Its still makes me a bit nervous.
