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8.3.2005
The hives are getting heavy and the flow
seems to have gone well this season.
The sweet clover flow will lost one or
two more weeks and then it's extracting
time, a busy, back-wrenching time of the
year for beekeepers. I can't wait!
One thing I haven't seen much of this
season is the varroa mite, perhaps the
biggest threat to beekeepers right now.
V. mites are small, about the size of
pinhead, and attach themselves to the
outside of the bee, living off the bee's
blood, spreading disease and shortening
the bee's lifespan by several weeks.
This has the effect of causing the hive
to dwindle in numbers over the course of
months and requires intervention by the
beekeeper to keep things going.
Years ago, we decided to pursue the use
of hygenic bees, bred for their grooming
behavior and ability to keep hive cells
clean and disease free. In
addition we treat with one of the milder
chemicals in the spring before putting
the honey supers on the hives.
Apistan is a fluvalinate strip
that hangs in the hive and bees rub
against, causing mites to drop to the
bottom board. It's effectiveness
is diminishing as mites become
resistant, but in combination with
hygenic bees, we have been able to avoid
the use of the really nasty organo
phosphates that many beekeepers use in
their hives to kill mites.
So, while we're not organic, we avoid
the use of chemicals in the hive
when possible. Next time I'll talk
a bit about another chemical we don't
use in the hives, anitbiotics.
6.29.2005
Noticed today in our Durango beeyard
that the basswood trees are beginning to
flower. The American basswood flow
is our main flow, a beehive can put on
20lbs of nectar each day during a good
flow and the honey is extremely light
and sweet. Exceptional basswood
flows happen every three to four years,
the main factors are ground moisture and
weather. Once the orange flowers
are open, a heavy wind can knock all of
them off, ending the flow. Of
course, tonight we're expecting severe
weather, but then it's supposed to be
quiet for the next week or so.
The white sweet clover has also started
to bloom this week and with all of the
rain we've had, it should produce a lot
of nectar during the next month.
This is the great thing about
beekeeping; one is always watching the
weather, observing the blooms and paying
attention to the world around. Not
a bad skill to develop!
6.21.2005
Amazing how fast a month can go by when
the time is filled with splitting hives
and keeping the weeds out of the garden.
In the beeyards, there is a lull right
now before the major basswood flow
begins. Right now our business in
the yards is to remove the anit-mite
strips (Apistan, a fluvalinate that is
much less toxic than Coumaphos, see our
5.25.2005 hive note) and put on the
honey supers. These supers are the
extra boxes that beekeepers put on the
hive prior to honey flows in order to
fool the bees into saving more honey
than they normally would. Bees
would normally get by just fine with a
cavity the size of two large boxes (like
in the picture with Karl). A
beekeeper gets a surplus of honey by
constantly enlarging the space to
encourage the bees to continue bringing
in more and more honey. Some hives
will fill up five more of those large
supers, making more than 200lbs of honey
for the beekeeper...
and you!
5.25.2005
Spring has been a bit unpredictable here
in northeast Iowa, with a very warm
beginning that felt more like summer and
a cool and wet middle that lasted until
a week or so ago. The effect on
the bees has been to slow down their
early season and slow the dandelion flow
that usually signals the beginning of
the spring buildup.
Now were back in business and splitting
old hives and making new ones with
queens we received from Taber Queens in
California. We've been using
hygenic queens, bred for their ability
to groom themselves and keep their hives
clean. The bees have shown an
ability to pinch mites and cripple them
enough so they can't reattach; they've
also shown an ability to clean foulbrood
scale from the comb. What does
this mean for us? We don't use
antibiotics as a preventative treatment
for foulbrood (as many beekeepers do)
and we haven't had to resort to the
nasty coumaphos (an organophosphate) to
control mites. Less chemicals in
the hive=better and healthier honey.
8.16.2003
Another harvest season approaches and the reports from Iowa honey produces vary from not much at all to excellent yields. In our area
of northeast Iowa, the reports are pretty good. The basswood flows in July were very good, if a little short and the sweet clover has been blooming for more than two months. Life as a
beekeeper is wonderful when every hive in a yard is filled with white comb and pounds of honey.
What does this mean for our customers? Plenty of great-tasting Iowa honey! For our neighbors, healthy bees mean healthy crops,
and for us, maybe we can buy that new piece of equipment for the honey house!
Take care and remember,
Bee Sweet!
5.16.2002
It's been a while and the boys are growing like weeds and time, it keeps on running along. We've had a busy spring and Colesburg Apiaries and today
was about the busiest with around 65 3rd graders from Marshall Elementary School in Dubuque out for a visit. We made candles, cooked some sweet stuff
with honey and took a good look at some bees. Take a look at our slide show of this and past year's visits. It is a lot of fun!
Market time has come and we're back at it in Dubuque and Cedar Rapids on Saturdays. In Dubuque, market starts at 7am sharp and Janet is selling
honey at 6:30 at the Round House Market in Cedar Rapids. The early bird gets the worm and sells the honey.
11.09.2001
We've had a warm fall, and the balmy temps have had an impact on the hives. Beekeepers depend on a fall 'flow' of nectar from goldenrod and aster to get
the hives heavy for winter. Unfortunately, the past two seasons have seen little or no nectar flow from the fall flowering plants.
So we have to feed and feed and feed. Now the warm temps have curtailed the bees clustering and encouraged some to actually raise new brood. This is
a good thing in the spring, but in the late fall it means much greater demands on the limited food supplies, resulting in lighter hives and possibly more starvation in February.
Of course this is what makes beekeeping fun!
We keep adding and moving and changing the site; have a look around and send me an email, if you like, with your favorite recipe or, if you're a
beekeeper, some news about the bees on your end.
Back to the hives. Remember,
Bee Sweet!
10.08.2001
Autumn is here, the leaves are falling, the honey is harvested and all that remains is the preparations for winter. We're checking our hives each week
to be sure they have enough feed for winter.
As you may know, bees only make honey for storage purposes; they actually prefer nectar. However, nectar is too wet to store and the bees dry it down
and create honey. Kind of like hardtack... but much tastier!
As you can see, we're in the process of remodelling our website. On deck in the future is an enhanced market area and on demand videos of our operation and beekeeping in general.
7.01.2001
The nectar flow is actually here! A few weeks late but welcome just the same. The hives are all supered and we just put the comb honey supers on
yesterday, waiting for a full nectar flow to be really strong is important for good comb honey production.
For newcomers to the world of the honey bee, bees use the nectar from flowers to make honey. Most of the flowers that our European honey bees
can use are not native to the US, so we're dependent on good nectar production from sweet clover, basswood and dutch clover during the summer
months. All of the wild parsnip blooming in the ditches doesn't help us at all.
Once the nectar is brought to the hive, the bees work to dry it from 90% moisture to about 17%. That's a lot of drying and they need a lot of room to
store all of that watery nectar, hence the need for large numbers of extra boxes to put on top of the hive during the flow. These boxes go over the
brood boxes to make a superstructure, but we beekeepers have shortened that to 'supers'.
6.01.2001
Splitting and feeding are done and we're getting geared up for putting the honey supers on for the nectar flow. Things are still a bit delayed; the
dandelions just finished and there are just a few signs of red clover bloom. Spring is probably still 3 weeks behind the normal schedule.
We met some wonderful folks at last weekend's Spring Festival in McGregor. The woman selling artwork next to us was Kenyan and we spent many hours
talking about Africa and our experiences there in the Peace Corps.
We've also moved to Saturdays at the Roundhouse market in Cedar Rapids. This will help us concentrate our market selling to one day and leave the rest
of the week for beekeeping and bottling (and canoeing and gardening, too!).
4.17.2001
We've been busy feeding bees this spring, but with only 40 out of 80 hives surviving a tough winter and cool spring, it's been much too easy of a job. We
should be receiving our new queens from California today and start the splitting process this weekend. When all is said and done, we'll have about 80
hives with new queens and a few nucleus hives for pollination work.
Market time is also fast approaching! This year we'll be selling at the Cedar Rapids Roundhouse market in addition to our old stomping grounds at the
Dubuque Farmer's Market. See our schedule below. Looks like a busy spring is in store for us and our bees!
3.19.2001
Most farmers in the area say that everything is just delayed about three weeks. No pollen yet and there is usually some willow and maple pollen
coming in by now. When the dandelions do bloom, they'll bloom big!
We've updated some of the site's pages with new products and new pictures. Add a basket to your order on our gift page and we'll create a custom gift
pack with other items you order.
We're also proud of our new art gallery made with artwork from our visiting students from Marshall Elementary School.
Bee Sweet!
2.9.2001
It's been a long and cold winter here in Colesburg. This has been a good winter for the bees, lots of snow for insulation and reasonable cold to help
lower their metabolism. Snowshoeing out to the hives last week with bags of sugar for emergency feed, I got a close look and things are looking good for the spring.
We have some new products on our redesigned Market Pages. The antique
Muth jars have been popular at markets this past year as have the wood gift packs. All of our online orders are taken on a secure server and we ship UPS to your door.
Have a good Winter and keep your fingers crossed for a good crop of maple and willow pollen.
12.3.2000
We've changed the look around our cyber home a bit. Take another gander at our market place for lower prices and some exciting new products!
As for the heart of our operation, the bees are ready for winter. We had a heavy fall nectar flow and the hives are packed with honey. We treated with a
new mite treatment this year, Apicure, and are hoping it's approved as an organic treatment by the government. Since we stopped using antibiotics last
year, our mite treatment is currently the only chemical we have to add to the hive.
9.1.2000
Hard to believe that fall is right around the corner. Extracting is upon us and it has been a terrific year for honey production! Last Saturday we extracted
about 1000 pound from one of our yards and we probably have about 7000 more pounds to do. The source of all of this honey seems to be the basswood
trees that bloomed in early July. Another area beekeeper noticed that his hives were gaining 20lbs a day with the basswood nectar the bees were bringing home.
On the marketing front, stay tuned for several new antique jars we're carrying. They've been popular at the local farmer's marketes and they'll
make terrific gifts. Stay tuned and I'll squeeze some time between loads to upload the pictures.
On another note, Janet and I celebrated our tenth anniversary August 5th with BeeStock 2000 at our farm. Live bluegrass music, plenty of Sprecher
root beer and amber beer, fireworks and about 150 friends and family helped us celebrate some great years together.
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