Worst sting ever

On April 17th I went out to check my hive and add a honey super. Little did I know what was in store for me. I had all my gear on but my gloves. I was busy carrying equipment to set it up in the bee yard. I was not even near my hive and my hand accidentally backhanded a bee. It stung me right in the middle of the back of my hand. It hurt some but not to bad. I finished adding the honey super and getting things ready for my new packages of bees. At about 9:00 that night I could feel my hand getting a little more swollen, but it did not look like the picture until the next morning. I could not move my wrist or close my hand. Monday I went to the doctors and he told me to take Pepcid and Zantec. It worked fast. By the next day I could at least close my hand. That was a relief. I felt like my had was going to explode it was so swollen. By the end of the week it was back to normal.

I was starting to look like Captain B. McCrea from Wally

On the Axiom you will survive - "I don't want to survive! I wanna live!"

(give it a second and it will play)

Year # 3

Even though I have not posted in a while, I have not forgotten about my bees. Let me get you all up to date on what I have been doing.

During these past winter months I have been keeping my bees at my house so I would not have to tromp through a field of snow to clear off the hives. As soon as the weather was getting warmer my wife wanted to be outside more and not worry about bees near her. So I moved them back to the same field they were at last year. That was on March 13th.

Before I moved the hives I checked on how they were doing and one hive was dead due to mites and starvation I think. The other hive was doing good, but I noticed that it was low on food stores. I added a feeder and syrup to the hive and then realized after the fact that I was going to move the hive in the next couple of days, oops. When I moved the hive, the syrup sloshed around and spilled everywhere all over my driveway and truck.

Here is a picture of my hive all closed up for the move. It is best to move the hives at night because bees don't fly at night so they are all in there.

One of the next few days I went back to the hive to fill it back up with the syrup and took some more pictures of the hive.

Do the Honey Bee

This makes me want to dance!

Dead Bees

This last winter I forgot to treat for mites.  I had a hive die on me :( I believe it was because they were already week from the mite infestation. Last weekend I moved my bees back to the bee yard. I hope they do as well as last year. I forgot to take picturtes of the move and the bees, but I will get some the next time I go out. My first year I had bees they did not live over the winter either, but that I believe was because they starved to death. I found this good video of what that would have looked like.

Richards Bees

I was such a good beekeeper last year that I talked my brother into becoming one too. Well at the Utah County Beekeepers Association they have a program called "Be A Beekeeper". This program allows kids who are enrolled in a public or private school to enter into an essay contest for prizes to help them get started with beekeeping. My brother Richard wrote an essay and won 1st place! He won 1 complete hive, helmet, veil, gloves, smoker, package of bees with a queen, hive tool, Utah County Beekeepers Association membership, free beginners class and free UDAF licence (all these items were donated by members, companies or payed for by the association). He has started his own blog to write about his beekeeping experiences at http://richardsbees.blogspot.com (link on the right).

Honey Tasting Contest

Last year I had my bees on a field about a mile from my house. I had a great time and learned a lot of new things about my bees and bee keeping in general. The farmer who let me place my hives on their field sent me this wonderful email and I would like to share parts of it:

Stan,

Just double checking to see if you still wanted to put your hives on our property. We would still love to have you. My two sons would also like to start beekeeping. Would it be possible for you to be their mentor? I am not going to have the other beekeepers on the property this year...

Also I wanted you to know that your honey won a tasting contest at the State Tax Commission. The instructor is a beekeeper and every year he has a tasting contest during a course that he teaches for all the county assessors. Yours won hands down!!!

WOW!!! what a great compliment! That made my day.

Honey 2009

I know this happened a long time ago but I forgot that I had not made a post about the honey extraction. Because this was so long ago I have forgotten many of the details (good thing I took some pictures).

The black thing on top of the hive is a fume board. on the inside is a felt fabric that I spray a stinky liquid called Bee Go or Honey Robber. The top is an aluminum sheet so that when the sun hits it it warms up really fast and vaporizes the liquid. The bees really hate that smell so they want to leave the hive for a few minutes. That is why you can see so many bees on the outside of the hives.

Here is my setup for extracting. Full boxes of honey on the left then the uncapping tank, next comes the extractor followed up with the bucket with a filter in it.

Here I am using my electric knife to cut off the cappings on the frames to get it ready for the extractor.

My wife was a good help.

After you spin the frames the centrifugal force pushes the honey to the outside of the extractor and it drains into this cool bucket with a filter. The filter is there just to make sure all the little wax pieces and bee parts are not in the hone when you eat it.

My family had a lot of fun helping me out.

Getting every last sweet drop out.

Here is what my hives looked like when I left them with only their brood boxes for the winter.

My hives are at my house for the winter so I don't have to trudge though the field to clear off the hives when it snows.

And in case you are wondering, I harvested 180 lbs of honey from my two hives. That is the same as 7 gallons. I cant wait till next year.