http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog A beekeepers journal, thoughts and random rants. Thu, 29 May 2008 04:29:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's May 28th.  Do your hives look like this in Ohio? 10 of the 14 hives in this apiary look this strong right now.   The 2nd to the top super was added to the hive just 2 weeks ago and most hives already have a significant amount of honey in it ... http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog/requeen-your-hives/170 The Maumee Valley Region will be holding it's class on June 6th and 7th.   It is a hands on class where you will learn both the theory of queen rearing and practical methods with a slant on rearing queens in Ohio.  Cost of the class is free to members of ... http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog/2008-queen-rearing-classes/169 I'm still here in spite of my absence from the blog for about a month.  Not to worry, I've suffered no tragic accident, I've simply been busy with work and bees from dawn till dusk and sometimes much later. The weather here has been cool and wet and we are still ... http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog/the-spring-rush/168 I just received notice that the Auglaize County Extension Bee School to be held April 19th has been canceled because they did not receive enough advance registrations.  They said they plan on holding an evening class in May instead, tentatively May 6.  I'll post details here as soon as I ... http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog/canceled-auglaize-county-extension-bee-school/165 The spring season has started in earnest. This past Saturday the silver maples started blooming and by Sunday enough was blooming that the bees were completely ignoring the open feed pollen substitute. Probably a good thing as real pollen is better for them and I was starting to ... http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog/the-season-begins-2/163 Researchers at the Ohio State Bee lab announced they have found a new tool to fight terrorism, the honey bee. In 2005, scientists from the University of Montana, Montana State University and The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration conducted successful tests showing that the honey bee could be trained to find ... http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog/honey-bees-fight-terrorism/123 The news reported this week (a Columbus TV station) that the winter loss of bees in Ohio this past winter was only 15% compared to a 72% loss last year.  And  a recent article from New Jersey reported that they are experiencing a 10-15% loss this year compared to 40% ... http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog/bees-are-making-a-comeback-or-are-they/159 Today was the warmest day we've had in quite some time, reaching the mid 50's.  All the hives were very active and there was more activity at the open fed pollen than I have seen so far this season.  Apparently there was too much  traffic at the bucket to satisfy ... http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog/do-bees-need-fiber/161 It's been in the mid 40's and still below the average for this time of year for several days and we even received a light dusting of snow last night.  Still the bees have been active almost every day when it's sunny and breaks 40 degrees.  I'm actually rather surprised ... http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog/maples-are-almost-blooming/157 Most beekeepers use deep boxes (9 5/8") for their brood chambers.  So it's almost universal when you see nucs offered or 'single story' hives for sale that they are using deep frames.  But the deep is not the only size useable for brood chambers.  In fact, when hobbyist and sideliners ... http://honeyrunapiaries.com/blog/why-switch-or-start-with-medium-frames/155