Author Archives: Dave Strickler

I have always heard that bees are gentle. Well, not in the same way a dog is when they are curled up in your lap, but in the way that a honey bee just doesn’t care that you’re around. Note the “honey” modifier – other kinds of bees are not so kind. Honey bees are too … Continue reading »

I removed the inner cover, exposing the frames today. The bees were not amused, and I had a few moments where I had to remind myself that I was safe in my suit. I used my hive tool and moved a few frames a bit so I could see inside them better, but didn’t remove … Continue reading »

There’s an article in the New York TImes today about the increase in swarms in NYC. Looks like they are attributing it to a warm winter that caused colony build-ups (this is a good thing – right?), and then first time beekeepers that don’t give the proper room in the hive for their bees to … Continue reading »

We’ve been having fairly sunny days (each of my posts now has local weather conditions listed at the time of the post), and the bees haven’t been taking much syrup. If this is because they don’t need it, and they are just self-regulating, this is a perfect world. I hope this is the case, as … Continue reading »

I checked the hive yesterday afternoon and early this morning, and about every 10 seconds a worker bee would return with full of orange or white pollen. Occasionally I was seeing some yellow as well. This weekend I’ll open up the hive and check to see if they have started to fill out the three … Continue reading »

I’ve only had the bees for 24hrs, and I’m already getting sloppy. Thankfully this is with my clothing, and not with the bees themselves. I went to check on the bees a few minutes ago, and donned my shoes (no socks or rubber bands around my ankles), and pulled over a jacket and veil. Once … Continue reading »

My parental instincts, or just plain curiosity took over, so I removed the feeder so I could see down the top slot and see if there were still bees, or really so that I could see there were bees that were alive, having feared I had drowned them. And of course, they are fine. From the … Continue reading »

It’s still a cloudy day, but I don’t see a single bee outside the hive a 7:30am, a few hours after dawn. It’s not raining, but it’s certainly not a bright “beach day”. I checked their feeder, and with just a rough measurement, it doesn’t look like they have been drinking it. I’m a little … Continue reading »

About 30 minutes after installing the hive, I got the feeder installed on the top board, and put an extra super around it so that the top could go back on the hive.  The feeder is just a “2 cup” Mason jar filled with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar, with a … Continue reading »

After a thankfully uneventful drive down from Boston, I quickly set up a camera and got the hive mounted on its stand near the opposite end of the property from our house. I think the slightly rainy day helped, as the bees were calm considering they had just been moved into a new house, and a … Continue reading »