Hotham Family Apiary

Last week I had a short conversation with a fellow beekeeper. We talked about the usual stuff (colony strength, varroa management, honey harvest, etc.), but one point came up that I had not really given much thought to: the business of beekeeping. Up to that point, I had only thought of my apiary as a hobby with the added benefit of monetary gain. So, it of course sparked an interest, and I decided to go about viewing my apiary from a business perspective. When you start collecting up old receipts, and start writing down costs, you rapidly gain an overview at the success or failure of the business. Since starting in the summer of 2015, I have not seen a positive return on my costs, i.e. my honey sales were not covering the losses, not by a long shot. A big fat red bottom line! For me, it is clear why this is the case; beekeeping costs quite a bit of money when you are starting new. If you take into consideration what the costs are of obtaining and keeping a colony for an entire seaso...

Fortunately, things have worked out as I had hoped. I was able to acquire three colonies this week from my mentor. He was clearing out the training stand for renovation, and was happy to have someone to take some colonies of his hands. My timing turned out to be just right, as another beekeeper had been there a few days before and purchased six colonies. I met my mentor late in the evening, after dusk, and packed the hives into my car and drove the bees over to my bee house. After some minor modifications to the bench, the hives were placed inside the house, and the paper towel pieces that were used to stop up the hive openings were removed. Back in the game. The waiting and anticipation of a new season is kind of killing me. One on hand, I just want to see the apiary grow. On the other, I want to be sure not to make the same mistakes as last year. Varroa treatments will need to be done more precisely and scientifically this year; I am not willing to suffer a total loss ag...

It pains me to write that my apiary has suffered a total loss. I have no colonies. My bees have all died. That is pretty sad. Now, I have to figure out what went wrong, and what am I going to do to prevent it from happening again. I've mentioned on several occasions that the varroa infestation this year was extreme. In my case, the late summer/early fall re-invasion is probably what did my colonies in. Welp, guess I am going to have start from scratch. Bummer.

so, 2016 was an interesting year (interesting does not always mean good) for me as a beekeeper. I went into the season with two viable colonies and ended the season with four. We harvested about seventy pounds (thirty-two kg) of honey, almost all from one colony. Throughout the entire season I expressed my concerns and doubts regarding the varroa destructor situation. My colonies seemed to be plagued by them, and I wasn't ever able to really keep the numbers manageable. In the end, that cost me dearly. Since November, three of four colonies have perished as a result of varroa destructor. My cash-cow colony also succumbed to those little bastards! The fourth colony, which is actually the artificial swarm I created in July, seems to be holding steady (fingers crossed and praying), but they had less than desirable numbers heading into winter. Now, it seems, that 2017 will be a rebuilding year. This happens to everyone who is in the beekeeping game, or at least I have...

We are now well into December, with Christmas just around the corner, and already things are looking grim for my apiary for the 2017 season. Unfortunately, I have lost two of my four colonies. At first glance, it would appear that in both cases, the colonies absconded, perhaps due to the rather stressful onslaught of wasps toward the end of summer and deep into the fall. The first colony that I lost, was about four weeks ago. I was just peaking under the hive cover to see if the bees had already begun to huddle closely together. Naturally, I was shocked to discover that my strongest colony at the peak of summer was gone. There were several hundred dead bees at the bottom of the hive floor and no traces of living bees on the frames whatsoever, the first total loss. A few days later, I ran into my beek mentor. He told me that he was also observing colony losses and he wasn't sure to what strength his apiary would be come early spring. Not good to hear, at all! This past weekend, ...

Well, it has been several months since my last post. That has mainly to do with some personal issues with family,  but rest assured that in the time that has past, I have been busy helping the bees prepare for winter. Late summer and early fall are the times when the bees get ready for the long state of relative inactivity. They have to store up a lot of food to get them through,  and since the beekeeper was busy taking away those hard worked for stores from spring and summer, it is only fair that the beekeeper give something back. I fed my two colonies and the one nuc several portions of Apiinvert syrup. The syrup is a syrup mixture that also contains enzymes that help the bees to convert it to honey for storing for the winter. This syrup is also relatively odorless making it difficult for robbers (other honey bees and wasps) from detecting it. The bees can process the food rather quickly and the job of feeding them for winter is over rather quickly. For my artificial swar...

Honeybees know when to increase and decrease the amount of brood in the hive. Many factors contribute to this behavior; some natural, some man-made. The art of beekeeping often revolves around identifying and properly diagnosing problems. This past week, I was also faced with an interesting situation: a brood free colony. Now, as a beginner, it is sometimes difficult for me to understand what is really happening with the bees I tend after. Often times, during an inspection , I will see something and just say, "hmmm, that's interesting" without giving much of a second thought. Well, as I noticed that one of the colonies was free of brood, I mean completely barren of any signs of brood, I started thinking, "hmmm, this isnt so good" and I began to worry. A colony without brood cant survive very long. After all, the bees need to have a steady flow of new bees to keep up with the attrition. So now I was faced with a situation I hadn't observed before and I need...