Beekeeping and Honey Blog

33 posts

brighton honey solar array

Brighton Honey Adds Solar

It was chilly overcast spring morning when we started.  I wanted to get them installed as early in spring as possible to get a full season of sunlight.  The next day the sky had cleared and the sun was shining bright on a crisp blue background.  I threw the switch on the inverter and powered up the system and the capacitors started to hum.

honeybee on callaloo watercolor

Beekeeping and a Disrupted Plant-Pollinator Relationship

Plants and insects have been evolving in unison for millions of years and have benefited from an elegant symbiotic relationship. This relationship has provided plants a willing host to convey pollen in trade for valuable high energy cocktail called nectar. Residual pollen is an added bonus protein source. A new dynamic is disrupting the alignment of this interaction. Climate change is affecting this coordinated inter species relationship by disrupting the flower blooming cycle. Plants have evolved a response to the spring warming cycle that starts the flowering process in most of the northern hemisphere.

infrared photo of exterior active hive

Hive Extraction and Equipment List with Infrared Photos

Worked another extraction this weekend for a local building management company and every time I am on one I learn to be a bit more efficient and wanted to share my list. If there is the opportunity to make a small hole first when starting and extraction this is ideal. So the trick is to annoy the aggressive bees and get them out a small hole and grab them with the vacuum right away. This time around I broke through the drywall with a small hole and kept banging on the ceiling to annoy them. I then opened a hole about 6 inches square. This really helped as the aggressive bees rushed the opening and right into the vacuum. I did get stung on the finger once but was when lifting out some comb and I pinned the bee between my finger and some comb.

alden frost graham

A New Beekeeping Season is Upon Us

Even though the north east is under the barrage of a strong winter I am looking forward to a spring gardening and challenge of what the beekeeping season will bring.  Last year many beekeepers were reminded that the weather is a relentless foe and we as beekeepers in the north […]