1st Year Beekeeper

Becoming a beekeeper this previous spring, I have had success and failure. As with life, you must be able to take the good with the bad. Melting beeswax then pouring into a mold which in turn melted all over my kitchen required some scrambling and some cleaning on my part would be considered a failure. Granted, hilarious but still a failure. While harvesting honey and wax in our first year as beekeepers would be considered a huge a success.

 

Beekeeping is a worthy hobby with many challenges but with many more benefits. One big challenge is getting over the fear of being stung. The honey bee uses this as a natural defense to protect their hive. But getting stung by one, two, or five of your bees may make you question your choice in a hobby. As the season progressed, the fear left me and fascination has entered, now I am hooked. The benefits include pollination of crops for you and your neighbors, harvesting honey and other hive products, the chance to work with nature's best pollinator, and the list can go on and on. Beekeeping is intimidating at first but by joining a local beekeeping club, the fear is removed and replaced with fascination. By joining the Washington County Beekeepers Association, I have met many people willing to teach new beekeepers the craft. There is some much to learn about beekeeping and we are here to help!

Being a new beekeeper, I am not one to give much advice on wintering your hives.  But I have researched the topic thoroughly and have some tips on beekeeping activities during winter. This list is not all inclusive because if you read 10 books, you will get 15 answers!

1. Leave bees alone!! Pre-order packages of bees if expansion is wanted (advantages and  disadvantages are a topic for another day!!).
2. Buy, assemble, paint, and repair equipment. Make sure you are ready when the flowers and the bees are ready!
3. Keep an eye on your apiary checking for animal/weather damage and that the hive entrances are clear of debris or snow
4. Read some good books!! There is a lot to know about bees and beekeeping!! Check out our library
5. Try to make something new with your hive products. Lip balm, candles, hand lotion, etc...
6.  Keep an eye on colony stores by weight checking, especially in late January into February when the queens will begin to lay again. Many colonies will starve during this time period. Feed dry or hard candy for emergency feeding (see below)

 Hard Candy for emergency feeding

               12 pounds table sugar

               1 1/2 pounds honey

               1 1/4 quarts of water

1. Heat the water while adding the sugar and the honey. Stir continuously until the mixture is dissolved.
2. Remove the spoon, do not stir but continue to heat the mixture to 238 degrees F.
3. When the temperature reaches 238 F, remove from heat.
4. Cool the mixture to 125 degrees F, pour the mixture into a rectangular pan or candy feeder box
5.  Candy molded into a cake pan can be wrapped in wax paper and placed into the hive

 

Hot cider and honey toddy

               3/4 cup of fresh apple cider

               1 TBSP of honey

               2 oz of whiskey

               2 TSPs lemon juice

               Ground cinnamon

              

               1. Warm the cider

               2. Drizzle the honey into the cider and mix well

               3. Add whiskey, lemon juice, and a pinch of cinnamon

               4. Mix well and drink often!!

 

From David Hammond