Keeping Bees in the City – Baltimore Beekeeping and Bee Services
Above is a quick video of the bees in🐝 Park Heights on a warm winter day this week! This is the one surviving hives from one of the other beekeepers at the site.
The temperature was over 70 degrees that day and there is some clover on the field. It’s was a great day for getting out of the hive.
Michelle
Today, I started the honey extraction process. There are a few tools and items you want to have on hand when you are doing this process:
Here is a link to a video that explains the steps I took to do this first extraction. I only did a few frames so, I will post additional updates on the process to share the efficiencies that I have found.
Just in case you missed it! Check out the Extraction Video
Michelle
Since its the winter and my post from the hives are limited. I wanted to add some interesting bee facts that I found on the internets.
Fun facts about bees:
I thought that some of these facts may be helpful getting to know more about the ever important bee.
Michelle
An interesting seminar being held in Washington, DC.
Join our sister school, the Washington Waldorf School, for a two session workshop on Biodynamic Beekeeping with Gunther Hauk of Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary on Friday, January 19th, 6:30pm-9pm, and Saturday, January 20th from 9:30am -12:30pm. The workshops are free, and more information can be found below. RSVP’s are required and can be made here. The Facebook event can be found here.
I started playing around with a new program Adobe Spark and it is a great tool! The program creates online slideshow videos, social media posts, and other great marketing items. Over the next few weeks, I will be developing new videos and presentations for BeeMore.
Check out our About BeeMore video and pass it on to your friends so that they can learn more about BeeMore.
Thanks!
Michelle
This morning, I ventured out to check on the hives and greenhouses after the deep freeze of the past two weeks. A found a few bees working in the hive which was a good sign. The white stuff is the sugar or bee candy that I made a few weeks ago.
Most of the vegetation in the area is still frozen from the frost but, its good to see that my bees persist. Even though 40+ degree weather feels balm to us because of the persistent cold, to the bees it’s just another winter day.
Stay Warm!
Michelle
Part of the winter beekeeping work is rehabbing equipment for the next season. I wanted to share the details for those who may inherit or have to reuse their previous year’s equipment.
The purchasing of pre-owned equipment is often tricky because beekeepers are wary of stuff that they do not have knowledge of because it may have been infected by American Foulbrood or other diseases that may have caused the colony to collapse.
My thought in documenting this process was to better inform potential beekeepers of some of the steps of maintenance in the offseason. Thus, the preparing boxes for reuse is a key task because if you have bees that die of other causes you can still reuse the equipment if you take right precautions and these steps also help you to preserve your equipment investment.
These are boxes that I purchased earlier this fall from a fellow beekeeper that had some damage due to wax moth damage. In order to reuse these boxes, I had to scrape and clean them outside. Lucky, I did this work before the super cold snap (in Nov/Dec 2017), and I used some straightforward tools that I got from the $1 store (note: small and large paint scrapers). I also used the hose at high pressure to blast of the last cocoons. Once the boxes were dry, I brought them indoors and with the help of Katie S, we started the next phase.
It is recommended to burn the leftover wax and inside corners of the boxes, thus removing all of the yucky remnants. For safety, we had a fire extinguisher on hand and since I am walking accident, I left the blowtorch work to Katie. She also used a small tool to clean out the top crevices of the boxes as well.
Finally, painting the outside of the boxes with two coats of outdoor high gloss paint gave the boxes a new life. The boxes will be airing out for the winter so that there is plenty of time for any fumes to dissipate. The painted boxes will weather longer and hold up to the elements much better than untreated wood.
Note: That it is less expensive to buy unpainted equipment and do it yourself if you are purchasing a large number of boxes. There are often deals on bulk boxes and new bee equipment but, if you are buying a single hive, the price difference is slight. I suggest that you go ahead and pay the extra $5-7 for painted boxes, it is worth the money and time.
In future posts, I will share the artistic transformation of these boxes. I will also share the assembly process of the many new boxes that I purchased this summer.
Michelle
Happy New Year! I did a quick check on the bees 🐝 after a few weeks away from the garden and we have had extremely cold temperatures in Baltimore. Temperatures have fallen into the teens this past week, so I did not expect the hive to be very active.
But, I opened up the lid to find that the candy bar had not been touched yet this was not a surprise since they should have some honey.
Otherwise, it was pretty cold and I found that my some of my hoop house plants froze as well. 😔
Below is some quick video from my visit. Enjoy 😉
Stay warm! And, I will post some more updates soon.
Michelle😊
This is an update on the feeding process and my latest visit at dusk on December 13, 2017. After working on a few projects this week, I finally got a chance to check on the bees, on Wednesday evening at dusk. The forecast for that evening was for light snows and sleet and the weather was in low 30’s to high – 20’s. The wind was biting cold and my fingers despite having on gloves froze quickly so I tried to be as efficient as possible while still trying to document the visit with my SLR.
Due to the temperatures, bees tend to cluster. Definition of Clustering: The worker bees huddle around the queen bee at the center of the cluster, shivering to keep the center between 27 °C (81 °F) at the start of winter and 34 °C (93 °F) once the queen resumes laying. The worker bees rotate through the cluster from the outside to the inside so that no bee gets too cold.
Below are some key details from my visit:
Lessons Learned:
I will do another check soon. Over the last few weeks, I have been collecting equipment and beginning my winter rehab and preparations. This next few posts will be on these endeavors.
Michelle 🙂
