LSU Mike the Moth

I saw this moth on the side of our garage today. Looked like an LSU moth, tell me what you think.
Kind of crazy eh?

How to Capture a Swarm of Bees

Today is March 19 20011. This is the first swarm of the season that we have had at our apiary and I video'd how we go about capturing the bees from a swarm. These bees were placed in a nuc hive later that evening with no problems. Check out the video and enjoy.

Hive Inspection

Today I added my supers and queen excluder in anticipation of this years honey. I video'd one of the brood frames. All looks ok.

Early Hive Inspection

This weekend, I opened my backyard hives and did an inspection of the overall status of them. Not too bad, no hive beetles noted, no obvious diseases noted. The bees are going in and out with pollen. Overall, healthy assessment. Looking forward to honey this year, I am now out of honey from last year. Enjoy the inspection video.

Watson Brake Archeology Site

I took a video of the oldest known civilization site found in the United States. It is called Watson Brake and is near my home. The local archeologist at University of Louisiana at Monroe has actually performed carbon dating on items found at the site that date older than Poverty Point Civilization. Not much known about this site but will more than likely become a national site of interest one day like Poverty Point. The video was at 1000 ft above ground level and although it is hard to tell by the video, there is a series of mounds located there. Hope you enjoy the video. The weather was beautiful that day.

Home Made Bird Feeder

The little birds have been feeding around in the yard probably because food is scarce for them. I decided to make a bird feeder to help them out. I had no plans or photo of bird feeders so I just went into the shop and began building. I had some left over 1/4 inch plexiglass that I used for the sides and I have lots of cedar from when I had my sawmill. In about one hour I had a bird feeder that works well. The video shows exactly how I constructed the feeder, maybe you can build one as well, the birds will thank you by eating out of your feeder. I placed my feeder near my bedroom window so I can see them each morning when I am getting dressed for work. Just a little something to brighten your day. Thanks

Chicasaw Plum Trees are Budding

Today was a beautiful day and temps up to 49. I went to check out the foliage and saw that the chicasaw plum trees are budding. The bees love this little tree, it is one of the first trees to flower and usually flowers in mid March. Check out the photos. Sorry they are blurry, but you get the idea.

Home Made Soap Cutter

This winter I have been dabbling in soap making. Using the salvaged bees wax from previous uncappings and other oils I have come up with a pretty good recipe for bath soap. I use it in the shower. I needed a soap cutter, so I designed and built one. Check out the videos.

Warmer today, Bees looking good.

I checked out my bee hives today. The temp was around 64 F. They were very active. I could see them bringing some kind of pollen into the hives. I have no idea where they are finding this pollen but you can see for yourself on the video. Nice to see them finally get out and fly about. Looking forward to 2011 bee keeping.

Temps Dropping/Merry Christmas

I covered the two hives that are remaining in the backyard with a tarp. Was careful not to occlude their entrance/exit. I did not harvest honey from them this fall in hopes that they will have enough honey to make it through the winter without starving. I'll keep an eye on them just in case. I hope all my followers have a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you for commenting on my postings, especially you Kat.

July Swarm Lost

Well, Today is December 10, 2010 and I checked on the swarm that was caught earlier this year in July. See posting below. The hive was nearly empty of bees. No honey, no brood, only empty comb. This has happened to me every year when I catch a swarm after May. I am convinced a swam in July really is not worth a fly.

A Swarm In July Is Not Worth a Fly.

Regardless of the title of this post, I have caught another swarm. Today is July 2 2010. I have never had much success with swarms caught this late in the season but I am going to give it a try. I plan to feed this hive more often. Maybe it will make it through the winter. We will see. See following video of this swarm.

Honey Harvest Report

Today I harvested the honey from one of my hives in the backyard. This hive has one brood hive and 3 supers. All 3 supers were full of capped honey. Yielded 8.5 gallons of sweet light color honey. I was overwhelmed with the honey that this hive produced this year. Video to follow soon.

Bee Vacuum Project

Latest Project---Automatic Composter

First Harvest

My Dad and I harvested the honey from two of his hives. We were careful to only obtain the capped frames, yielded 3 1/2 gallons. Not bad but certainly not great. This was a darker honey as well. Had fun doing this. I think our next harvest with his hives will be in about a month and a half.

Lately

Not much happening with the bees lately other than adding supers as needed. Swarm season is pretty much over here in North East Louisiana. Here they begin swarming at the end of March and the first few weeks of April. After that, swarms are not common. Should be harvesting the first hives within a couple of weeks.

Bees in the Garden

This is an overview of my garden. Lettuce, onion, potatos, tomatoes, peppers, and oregano. I am going to plant peanuts this weekend.

Blanc Dubois grapes looking great this year. They are loaded.

Just pretty

Romane lettuce. (I think that is how you spell it)

Swarm Transfer from Bucket

Finished with the swarm transfer

Almost done with the transfer. The base is some styrofoam that I found on the side of the road. It makes a good platform for my bee hive.

Have you ever seen the inside of a swarm hive in a bucket?

Ok, I finally opened the bucket lid after much distress. The bees had built several sections of honey comb in the top lid.

Yep, there is a swarm in there.

Could that be a swarm in my bucket?

Another Swarm Caught

Today I checked on my swarm boxes and noticed that the 5 gallon bucket (see earlier post) swarm catch now has a rather large swarm in it. I am thrilled that this worked. Now you guys can replicate what I did and feel confident that you are doing the correct thing to catch a swarm.