Goodwood House Oregon
Honey Bees 2007
Summer and the hives are up to 6!!!
Well, I guess bee hives are like dachshunds, you can't have just one...
Now I'm up to 5 Langstroth hives and 1 top bar hive (and I'm definitely getting more of those!)
Here are my Langstroth hives. The one on the left is my original hive, the 2 in the middle are new as of June 27th, and the 2 on the right are the ones I installed this spring. The one on the far right is a BAD hive. They are meaner than snot, but boy are they productive!
This is my top bar hive also known as a Kenyan hive. I don't have any pics of inside yet, but I will soon... They were designed for 3rd world countries as they take less equipment and are easier to work than the Langstroth hives. I am really enjoying mine.
This is the front of the hive. There are little holes in the front for bee entrance and exits. The other hives have a long slit.
These girls are dancing around telling the other bees where the good flowers are. They are really neat to watch!
This is natural comb built by the bees in the Langstroth bees. I transfer it to my top bar hive as they make it. That way I was ready for my swarm when it came. This is why they are called top bar hives. They only have the top bar unlike the square frames of the Langstroth hives.
The cells are bigger than the prefab ones, and they are like little peace signs.
And here it is! I heard that there was a swarm at the Fed Ex building near Portland Meadows race track and finding that it was in a hedge at chest level, I went and tried my hand at catching it. They were delightful little girls and even now they are so gentle I can work them with my bare hands. NOT like the evil hive. It was a success and I'm ready for another swarm as soon as Mr. Mikel makes me another top bar hive.
This is Andrew Schwab making my nucs for me. He grew up with bees his whole childhood in North Dakota! He's looking for the queen in the picture on the right. I can never see them. Andrew says he's pretty good at it unless he has too. Har har!
The girls get a bit testy when I mess around with them. They get all busy on me for a while after I work the hives.
Here are the girls drinking out of a potted plant. They like to sit on the dirt and suck the water up through it. They can get trace minerals that way. You can see one in flight!
Mirror, mirror on the wall........
The old watering hole....
This is a pretty I found at Goodwill.... A new favorite thing..
My little creatures!