About three years ago Pam found advertised in the local Whidbey weekly an ad for beekeeping supplies. We have dreamed on raising honeybees for years but with all our other jobs have not taken it on. We bought everything from an old guy in Freeland except bees, thinking we would clean up his boxes and order some bees from a person in Port Angeles that raised bees resistant to mites. That was one of our summers that wasn’t and he had no bees for sale so we just left our hive boxes stacked near the pump house.
This spring we noticed lots of honeybees at our place - was there a hive somewhere close? Later this summer a swarm of honeybees moved in. My problem was that the boxes were not set up correctly, the frames (frames are what the bees put their honey and eggs on) were not in, and the boxes were in deep shade (honeybees won’t come out until it warms up and in the deep shade that can be late morning).
A couple of weeks ago I finally purchased the frames I needed and a bee protection suit and finally went into the hive on a warm October afternoon. I moved the hive boxes to a sunny spot on the south side of the pump house under a large eve on an old pallet. I smoked the bees but my fuel didn’t work well, but the bees were gentle and I didn’t get stung even once! There isn’t much honey stored so I am now feeding them sugar syrup, currently about a quart per day. To make a quart of syrup I bring to boil two cups of water and add four cups of sugar mix it up and put it in a feeder slot.
I purchased a top feeder that will hold three gallons of syrup and once I paint it I’ll start using that, which will allow the hive a more consistent supply of syrup as my schedule doesn’t lend itself to keeping the one quart always full.
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| The setup |
Next spring we need to think of planting fall blooming flowers that the bees will like and maybe we’ll start to have our own honey supply, FUN.
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