Backyard Farmgals

With all of this snow and cold temperatures I have been concerned about our bees.  This is our third year keeping bees, and we have not been successful through the winter.  Our first year, we got a swarm very late in the season, and they were not well established when winter hit.  The second year, the hive was blown over in a horrible wind storm with 103 mile-per-hour winds. This year, so far, so good.  We knocked on the side of the hive this morning and the bees buzzed back.  I am so hopeful. I wanted to share what we did to improve the chances of survival for our hive.  People say that you don't need to do anything for them in the winter, but with the luck we have had, we decided it was better to be safe than sorry.  We put three bales of straw around the hive with a gap between the bales and the hive to promote air flow.  We get so much snow at the farm (we usually have at least 3-feet before the winter is over), we thought it would be ...

This last week has been one that I have looked forward to for months, the arrival of our bees.  You may recall that our bees were wiped out in the horrific 103 mile-per-hour winds that we had last December.  I have missed seeing my little honey colored friends buzzing around the yard.  They seem to complete the farm, it feels just a bit empty without them, like we are missing one piece of the puzzle.  It's true that they make a difference.  Their buzzing from flower to flower really does increase our yields significantly, especially with the curcubits (squashes), sunflowers, and tomatoes (even self-pollinating plants like a little bee help). Twenty-six hives in the back of a suburban... funny how they are focused on one little bee on a glove when they have thousands in the back of the car! Saturday morning we drove out to Grantsville to pick up the bees.  It is so much fun to go to get them, people come from everywhere to load up their new frien...

Woodman and Ian with one of the swarms Saturday was a very eventful day for us.  We got up early, dressed and headed out the door on our way to Grantsville.  Let me tell you, that is the LONGEST drive.  Out past the Oquirrh Mountains and through Toole all to get to a little building stuffed full of bees and surrounded by fanatics awaiting their buzzing hoards.  We bought two Queens and two full swarms of bees.  The type of bees that we bought are called Italians, they are more gentle than other varieties and can easily be handled without stinging.  The guy next to us pulled up in a van and loaded eighteen swarms.  Each swarm is about 2,000 bees, give or take a few.  They come in boxes, each box has a Queen attached in a little tiny box of her own.  The large box has a can of sugar water to feed the bees until they reach their destination.  We also spritzed ours down with extra sugar water before, during, and after the drive home. ...