Category / honey bees

July 28, 2014
This past weekend a friend and I got together to harvest honey from the summer. Despite keeping bees for three years this was the first harvest that was large enough to need an extractor. Many factors come into honey production by the bees including weather, hive health, hive size, breed of bee, supply of blooms,…

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April 23, 2013
Earlier this spring,  Harvard University reached out to our local beekeeper’s association.  One of their researchers in the School of Public Health is doing research on honeybees.  His goal is to study the distribution of pesticides in pollen across the state of Massachusetts. He is particularly interested in pesticides containing neonicotinoids, as they have shown potential links in previous…

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February 3, 2013
Like all living things, even honeybees use the “bathroom”.  However, during the wintertime, they are confined to their cluster without the ability to leave.  In the cluster, their main goal is to keep the queen and any existing brood very warm.  This cluster only breaks on warmer winter days.  During the break, the bees…

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August 4, 2012
“How doth the little busy bee  Improve each shining hour,  And gather honey all the day  From every opening flower.” ~Issac Watts We are in the middle of another heat wave.  I think the bees actually like this weather the best.  The sun is shining.  There is not a cloud in the sky and the…

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July 12, 2012
My bees are mutts.  They are a blend of Carniolan, Italian, German, Russian and Australian.  The apiary where I purchased my bees believes that by diversifying their genetics, they are hardier and more resistant to disease.  Recently when my mentor opened up my hives with me, he was amazed at how the bees’ genetics expressed…

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March 3, 2012
One of the biggest questions that I had prior starting out on my honey bee keeping journey had to do with how the chickens and the bees will coexist in my yard.  I was nervous because I knew nothing about keeping bees. Yet I knew a lot about keeping chickens.  I wondered to myself?  Will…

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Sharing an inspired life from the New England seaside. Chickens, Bees, Gardens, Art and Yummy Goodness.