Honey bees

[riptides]

Following closely. Good luck to you all and please keep us posted on your progress and work.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Put a swarm trap up yesterday… No less than 8 scout bees flying in and out this evening.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Bees are in the box again today. Seems awful early this year, but the boxes are full of drones, so they are ready to make queens.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Lots of bees just guarding the entrance today. No swarm in the box, but a lot of interest.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Hoping to get out to till up an acre on our property to prepare it for a buckwheat stand to offer more forage for the growing apiary

 

[Hoot Owl]

Bush hogged about 1/4 acre today for a new queen mating yard. I will set up 3 - 12' stands tomorrow.
I have 14 virgin queens I am picking up on the 24 on my way home from Va. The queens are from Cory Stevens stock.
I am also going to start adding suppers to my hive since I will be goon just over a week.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

2 traps now have activity.

Time to get some buckwheat planted!

 

[wmfamily]

2 traps now have activity.

Time to get some buckwheat planted!View attachment 795183

Do you plant the buckwheat for the honey or primarily food for the bees? I know that when it starts its nectar flow the bees go crazy on it but I never cared for the flavor of the honey. Obviously the bees aren't as picky.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

It’s for bees and honey. Keep in mind the bees forage for miles, so this 1 acre patch will only be a small portion of the nectar they collect. It will likely simply darken the honey a bi… it will it be buckwheat honey per say.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Well, I think I’ve realized I need to stop expanding the apiary. Each apiary has an area they can forage… that area can only produce so much nectar. The more mouths you need to feed, the less excess honey there is available. If I add buckwheat, to the tune of 100 pounds of available honey, but add one more colony, that is a wash… as the new colony will consume that 100 pounds. I’d rather the existing colonies store up that resource.

Unless these colonies fill their boxes, there is no point in adding colonies.