Making a stand, Honeycomb from heaven, and a busy bee month

What a month !  The Florida Bee Farm needed more room to accommodate all the new arrivals (3 swarms caught) and one split so a new stand was built and squeezed into the apiary.  A large Oleander bush and one papaya tree needed to be relocated and the ground needed leveling in the area of the new stand and it turned out nice.  Not as shaded as the other hives but there is some shade.

New hive stand and 2 of the 3 new hives at the Florida Bee Farm

New brood boxes needed painting and stands needed to be finished to work correctly.  Also bought several migratory covers to experiment with instead of the covers I'm currently using which seem to host more pests and ants than I care to deal with.  But I remember a couple old time beekeepers saying that migratory covers are best in Florida and they're probably right.  I'll probably change all my hives to use migratory covers because I'm tired of finding ants, spiders, frogs and lizards under the cover.

The tomatoes have really been getting most of my attention and have been producing quite a few delicious tomatoes.  Between many nice meals with them and multiple canning sessions, they are just about done for the season.  I learned a lot and picked up a few tips for next year when I plant tomatoes again.  This weekend we probably did our last canning of the season.   It's a bit of work but so very satisfying. 

Final tomato canning session of the year

My latest experiment that was started about a month ago is Hops.  I purchased a few starts from a company in Michigan and they're already 5' tall !!!  They're growing like mad.  It will be an interesting experiment and if successful they may be grown on a larger scale next year even though they're not officially a Florida plant since they may need cold to go dormant.

Honeycomb from heaven The Florida Bee Farm

More honeycomb from heaven at The Florida Bee Farm

The other day I was sitting under a tree and got up to do something.  When I came back, a 8" piece of honeycomb with some bees was sitting next to the chair.  Looking up, I couldn't see through the canopy of leaves to determine if any bees were up there.  Next day I walked by and there were two more pieces of fresh beautiful honeycomb on the ground.  Something's going on up in the tree but not sure what and why the comb keeps falling out.  Fresh made comb is quite amazing.  Very light, perfectly formed and just beautiful.

Finally, for the first time I did a split of one of the hives that was getting too large.  Stacking too many boxes on top of each other is too heavy for me to lift up high and it's also not good for the bees unless you add an upper entrance to the hive.  Because you don't want them coming in with their nectar and pollen and having to climb through a couple brood boxes and honey supers to drop off their load.  So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  Another hive I was in this week may be in trouble as the brood wasn't looking good.  Possibly needs a queen. 

There's been an abundance of fresh vegetables, herbs and fruit on our table this month.  Delicious.  And the extra has been sold at the Indian Rocks Co-Op which has been a great group to work with.  A good place to get organic veggies, plants, and all sorts of things. 

Location, location, location

So much consideration has gone into picking the perfect spot for the bees.  I need to get it right the first time because the ant proof stand will be cemented into the ground and not easily moved.  The spot has 85% sun and most important, the morning sun will greet the hive.  In the afternoon there will be a little shade which I'm sure the bees will appreciate on hot Florida days.

The stand will roughly be located over the concrete blocks in the above picture.  The concrete blocks won't be part of the stand and are only there to level and measure the area.  The hives will face the older fence in the picture.  Just over that fence is roughly 3 acres of field and a great landmark for the bees to find their way home.  It really looks nice on the other side of the fence.  The bees will love it !

View from over the fence

That newer fence was constructed this week and serves several purposes.  Besides being a nice privacy fence for the bees it also diverts them from the condos behind our property.  There are no condos directly behind us but I wanted to be a good neighbor and do what I can to keep the bees away from that area.  The other purpose of the new fence is it's now where I store much of my spare wood and miscellaneous junk.  Keeps the mini farm looking neat.

I've got hives !!!!!!!

One of the cool things about getting into beekeeping are the endless puns available in everyday conversation.  My favorite is "Honey don't stop" which is the title of someone's bee keeping blog.

I've been quite busy the last couple weeks working on building the hives.  Originally, when I decided to try beekeeping it was going to be with one or maybe two hives at the most.  As with all my compulsive exploits, I end up getting completely immersed into whatever has captured my attention.  I'd had to admit it's a mental thing but not something I would ever change about myself.  I'm more aware of this condition now and can keep it ... kind of ... in control.  But researching bees has drawn me in deeper than usual and I can see where this will eventually end.  It's a lot of fun so far.  Building things out of wood is deeply gratifying and learning how to make tight finger joints in the boxes and learning many new woodworking skills has been a blast.

The one or two hives I originally envisioned has expanded to 5-6 hives to start with.  They're about 90% complete.  The only thing I bought were  frames which I still need to assemble.  In the future fabricating my own frames is probable.  My Langston hives will feature screened bottom boards to combat mites as well as a cool landing pad for the bees on the angle that they naturally approach the entrance with the tail low.  So when a bee is coming in for a landing heavy with pollen and nectar,  it will be greeted with an excellent landing pad angled just right.  I've also designed a really nice ant proof stand for the hives that places them about 2' above the ground.  Most of the design is not something I can take credit for but a few things are.  I certainly don't want ants to overrun our hives.  I've heard from many that ants can chase bees off.

At the last Tampa Beekeepers association meeting we signed up to take a turn volunteering at the State Fair next month.  Ought to be interesting.