As part of preparing the ranch apiary for winter, we removed the honey supers (the third box) from each hive that had one. This will make it easier for the hives to stay warm in a smaller space. What did we do with the extra honey? The super that had the most honey was transferred
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In a perfect world, our honeybees would have all of the food and water they’d need to survive and thrive. As a practical matter, many of our planet’s bees die from starvation or thirst. We proactively take steps to ensure that doesn’t happen to our bees. For water, we have a nearby 3/4 acre pond
Bee Supplemental Feeding Read More »
Snow on the Prairie is a mixed blessing when it comes to honey bees. On the bright side, those white blooms in August signal a break from the Texas summer dearth when there are few wildflowers for the bees. So, it makes the bees happy and lets us cut back on supplemental feeding. However, on
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There comes a point during the Texas summer (typically July), where there’s a scarcity (dearth) of wildflowers for the honey bees to use as pollinators. During this period, our Hokkaido Ranch beekeepers supplemental feed the bees. With honey harvested from the supers as the dearth begins, it’s important to make sure the bees don’t go
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When the initial 16 nuc colonies of Golden Cordovan honey bees arrived at Hokkaido Ranch in April, we knew it would be a while before we could harvest honey for resale. Because you want your beehives to grow strong, it typically takes a year to build them up. However, the wet spring with lots of
Honey Harvesting 2024 Read More »
