Beekeeper's Blog — winter prep RSS

It feels like August was just yesterday, with throngs of tourists packing the main arcade at Pike Place and bees getting ready for a long break in available forage.  And then it was all of a sudden October and I had only done two rounds, maybe three on a few locations, of 2 to 1 thick sugar syrup feed to fatten up food reserves for all our hives.  And now it's mid December, and I've let myself continue to prioritize other tasks, projects, and worries over my baby bees.   I think, though, that I tend to be really hard on myself, always driving to do everything to its fullest and to the far reaches of my best try...and I...

these are the three sizes and varieties of italian honeybees that make up a hive.  There is, and can only be, one queen.  There are thousands and thousands of her daughter worker bees, and all year long the queen will lay eggs for more workers.  Then there are the drones.  The drones are the male honeybee who get to live in the hive for about 7 months out of the year, here in western washington.  They are good for one thing, and that is to mate with a virgin queen as she first emerges.  The drones can't help defend the hive because they have no stinger, they can't help feed the hive because they don't forage.  They just laze around,...