Apiary News at Dees Bees

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11/4/2023

The purple has sold out, but theres still plenty of the gold available. I am currently in the process of winterizing the hives. Most hives are very strong for this time of season,   but there are still a few weaker ones. Spent the evening raising the lids by putting a penny under each corner. This gives extra ventilation for unwanted moisture to escape. This season was a stellar on for honey production. The spring was mild with rain at just the right time. Typically, its over by Memorial Day, but this season, the flow went on into June.

Fingers crossed for another banner year in 2024.

7/30/2023

Purple honey did make an appearance this year. It is currently listed on the website and once the pending orders from last year are filled, ill begin filling the prepay orders for 2023 ASAP.

Its been a predictably hot season. The mild and wet spring really helped us out on the honey flow. It was a heavy flow and long lived. 

4/16/2023

The cold rainy and cloudy start to early spring had me worried.  However, yesterday, i checked into a few boxes to ensure enough space. To my surprise, many were filled and in need of an additional box.  I guess the girls had been sneaking nectar wo my realizing it. So i went home and pulled about 15 more honey supers out of storage in prep for placing them next week. The magic has begun. 

3/12/2023

Its been a minute since i made an entry. Growing the business is no small feat. Over the winter, I built about 80 some deep and meds along with about 35 deep nuc boxes.

Had about 27 nucs that needed larger accomadations, so now they have them, all but about 6 nucs yet to do.

Moved some out lying hives closer to the honey grounds as they were in a nectar desert with very little to forage on. They are a few weeks behind, but with supplemental feeding, i should be able to get them close to where they need to be before it really matters.

Should have about 45 or so producers this season. It will be interesting to see the harvest total.

Purple honey! Theres been a lot of interest in a wait list, so we have one. At about 60 prepaid orders, i dc'd it in order to maintain integrity of the process and to not over sell.

Again, no clue when the bees will produce, BUT, im waiting along with everyone else. Fingers crossed it will be 2 years in a row.

Hang in there and follow me of FB, IG or check here often in the late Jul/ Aug timeframe for purple honey updates.

6/1/2021

Honey harvest is in full swing. Got about half of the honey off the hives and about 25% extracted. The freak hailstorm a few weeks ago shut down the tulip poplar flow. Good thing the early flow was prolonged due to mild temps and abundant rain in the weeks prior. This years harvest so far has been composed of the early nectars- holly, wisteria, privette, cherry laurel, wild black cherry and others. The character is quite floral and light golden/ pale yellow in color.

There has been an unusually high demand for comb honey, so this season, ill hold back a few extra boxes.

4/11/ 2020

Been a while since an update. Been busy installing new colonies. Set up a total of 25 new colonies. The bees came in through winter and had a hearty build up. They are busting at the seams. Hives that came through winter in 2 or 3 boxes now have up to 8. Light holly and other wild flower flow noted about 3 weeks ago. The fragrance was phenomenal. Still waiting on the tulip poplar to pop. Checked the tree tops with binoculars this evening and the flower buds are there, but unopened. Cant be much liger.

11/23/2019

The past two weeks were spent assessing the bee colony strength, adding pennies underneath the innercover to promote air flow and a moisture escape route. Additionally, to each hive I added pollen and sugar blocks as supplemental food.

Colonies were strong overall, but there were a few that were on the weaker side. Nothing to do now but keep fingers crossed.

11/01/2019

www.DeesBeesApiary.com

 was born this week. I am steadily working on building and refining a website. I accidentally published it yesterday, which is why you are seeing it and it is incomplete.

Currently doing some last minute mite treatments prepping the bees for winter in order to produce the finest local honey and raw honey.

1/30/2020

After a decent number of frigid winter nights and mild to moderately cold days, here we are. We have experienced some bee cony losses due to the ineffectiveness of our mite treatments. We opted for a different approach two to three years ago and have had not so good luck with it. 2020 will be a return to a combination of treatment methods. The mites affect the bees ability to regulate their body temp and after a few cold snaps, they dont survive. 

We still have fifty percent more production hives in the works than we had last year, so definitely hoping for a bountiful spring. Stay tuned.

2/20/2020

The bees are continuing to build up for spring. Most hives are strong with only about two that are behind. Spring is coming early, so i am expecting an early and rapid build up.