Preparing For Winter

Winter time is close and the bees are beginning to prepare to winter over (for our second winter).

New brood (or baby bees) are hatching!  Which is an amazing site to see!  Little heads chewing their way out!



We have lost a hive this season.  It looks like Colony Collapse Disorder.  The hive appeared strong, and then all of a sudden the entire hive had disappeared.  Very sad.  However, we transferred the captured swarm from the spring to the CCD hive (that was in the  nuc before).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are looking forward to the spring.  As of now, we hope to have all 4 hives winter over successfully.

We are also looking foward to the release of the documentry More Than Honey.

http://www.ciber.science.uwa.edu.au/blog/

 

Summer Honey!

A couple of weeks ago, some Mark Trail Summer Camp campers and I worked with Mr. D and his family on our second honey extraction.  We were able to extract almost 5 gallons of honey (which works out to almost 60 bottles).

The honey is delicious!







We will be selling our honey for $8 a bottle. All the money goes back into the Bee Stangs experience for our bees, hives, students and members of the community.

If you would like to purchase honey please send me an email.

More Honey Havest Photographs

More Mill Springs Bees Photographs

First Honey Extraction

Our first round of honey! A couple of days ago we were able to extract a small amount of honey from the hive that survived the winter. It is delicious!

Such a neat process.

More photos below.

Honey Flow Photos

Bee Stangs (Mill Springs) Photos

Back in Bees Nest

After a short winter hiatus the Mill Springs bee keepers are back in bees nest. Over the winter, with the help of a winter learning construction seminar, we moved and expanded the Mill Springs Apiary. The new apairy is in the new garden down on the field.



In the new space we have added 3 new hives and a nuc(like a back up hive)! We now have 4 total hives! One from last year and 3 new.

The Novus hive survied the mild winter and is full of bees. It looks to be doing great.



The new bees arrived about a week ago. A few thousand bees arrived in a wire box on the back of a truck. Mr. D and I drove to pick them up. When we arrived, the bee deliverer handed us our bees and checked off our name. We loaded 5 boxes of bees(like the one below)into the back of Mr. D's highlander and drove about an hour to show them their new home.





The bees were very happy to be in their new homes. The process is pretty easy. Open the hive, pull out the queen and put her in the new hive, gentle dump a few thousand bees into the hive and let the growing begin!





The rest of the bee delivery photos, new bee delivery.

The old bee club photos, Mill Springs Bees.