Pollen Coming In

It's January 30 and the temperature is in the mid 50's. It's partly cloudy and we are expecting rain tomorrow. I got home around 4 and noticed that the bees are bringing in Pollen. Not a huge amount but many of the bees were returning with full baskets. I saw this activity from all five hives which makes me pretty happy.

The pollen must be heavy because several of the bees came in a little too low and had to come up to the entrance. One girl decided to take a little rest on my pants before she entered the colony.

                                                    I haven't gone in yet this year to check to see if the queen has started laying. I suspect she has, because we had temperatures in the 70's and 80's pretty much all this week. A cold front has come in and temps next week are going to be back to normal with highs in the 40's and 50's. If there is no wind and the sun is out, they will be able to get a lot done. I looked in the two, single deep hives and check on the sugar that I gave them about two weeks ago. They are really starting to eat that and I may
have to add some more at some point.  It won't be long before I can do a complete inspection and see what's going on in there.

Well, it's almost the end of January 2015 and I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. I really have no excuse and looking back, I really wish I had posted more. But, no sense looking back. We must look forward to bigger and better things to come! I'm not even going to say that I will try to keep this up, because it may jinx me.

Okay, an extremely quick update. Since catching a swarm of honeybees a little over a year and a half ago, I now can say I have been pretty successful in the hobby beekeeping department. I have 5 hives now and really enjoy working with them. I built a stand during the early spring of last year and expanded enough to have to create a little temporary stand for the fifth hive.


None of my bees were purchased. They were all from traps, swarms or cutouts. If it is true that time is money, then these hives are worth quite a bit. Some of the colonies that I have acquired took quite a bit of time.

In the year and a half of raising bees, I have learned so much about this cool little creature but still have a lot to go and it seems I learn something new every day that I look at them.

At this time of year, the bees don't come out much because of the cold weather, but we do have warm days where they are able to do some house cleaning and stretch their wings a little. I am really looking forward to March where they will really be expanding and building.

I really haven't decided what I want to do ultimately. With three hives, I was able to get enough honey to supply us for a year and give some to family and friends. I do know that I want to get about twice as much this next year. I would like to be able to sell a few jars.