This winter was rough between October and Spring we lost five hives. We lost 3 early in the fall, they all moved out leaving behind a hive full of resources both honey and pollen. I assume they were not strong and maybe lost their queen and could have been sick. Next year (2023) I will monitor them better! The two other hives got too cold and died clustered together. My one remaining hive is VERY strong, and it happens to be a Hive we caught “in the wild”!
New for 2023 we will be on a mission to “save the bees”! This year Shanon and I have been working on swarm traps. They are not really traps but homes for wild bees that swarm. Bees mostly swarm in the spring when it starts getting warm outside and the queen lays eggs. The hive quickly gets too big and the queen will take half the hive and look for a new place to live. How do they know where to go you are probably asking yourself? There are bees called “Scouts”. The Scouts are foragers and when they come across a suitable location, they show other foragers and when the queen is ready to go they have some locations to visit. That’s when you see a “ball of bees” or thousands of bees in the air going in one direction or clustered in a tree.
This year we have swarm boxes built to the bee colonies preference which is 40 Liters in volume on the inside, with an opening of no more than 2 square inches. In 2022 I build six swarm traps or swarm boxes that I quickly cut and assembled and were not constructed very well. We did catch two swarms and learned a lot! Those six bee boxes are hanging in trees currently and they are “baited” with lemon grass essential oils- Bees are very much attracted to that! Here’s video of one that I check on Feb. 26th.This year I am not going to purchase bees but rather save the bees that are in the wild looking for a new home. I personally think they are stronger and “happier” with their queen. Typically when you purchase a bee hive or a ‘package of bees” the queen is introduced to say 10,000 bees and they learn to love her or not!, instead of “raising their own queen. If they raise their own queen, there is a better chance of a successful hive.
Sanding the Swarm Boxes
Burning the inside of the boxes - Bees prefer burned out tree limbs
Finished Product - ready for painting!
Shanon Painting the new Swarm Boxes!
Updated Camo design
We now have an additional 12 Swarm Traps built and ready to hang. We have several locations we plan to place them. Our friend Charles has about 70 acres and we will find some trees to hang them on. Gary and Karen Hughes, neighbors up the road, have about 30 acres that backs up to our property and there are some great trees to hang the boxes on. Finally, we will put a few boxes out at Neil and Shelley (Shelley can help) Loving’s property just north of us! Stay tuned for more updates! Here are a few pictures of building the boxes! We will keep you updated.