Scenic Valley Apiary

Checked on the bees again yesterday. Both hives are doing well. I even saw the queen on one of the hives! I removed the feeders and installed a super on each hive, though it will be awhile before they are making honey. Stay tuned for more updates!

Jerry E. Keys has started a new educational page to share bee keeping methods and information about colony survival. Mainly focusing on varroa issues like how to detect varroa mites, raising your own mite resistant queens and dealing with colony management. This page will also focus on "natural" bee keeping methods. Please like this page and share.

Tropical Bee Keeping Tropical bee keeping is an ongoing project to find the most sustainable, efficient and economical method of bee keeping in the tropics.

Checked on the bees on Sunday, September 6. Hive 1 is thriving, there is honey in the first super we added back in July and we added a second super. Hive 2 is going strong as well, with a lot more bees than the last time we checked. There are still a few more frames in the brood chamber that need to be filled and then they can work on the super we added. They are definitely aggressive bees. Robert was stung about 10 times. We will be planning a bee date for October, so look for that information in the near future!

Well, the inevitable happened. I got stung. In full bee gear. First time in three years though so I think I did pretty good! I visited the bees yesterday and it was a very eventful day. Hive 1 is thriving. There were A LOT of bees and more about to hatch. Bees were everywhere. The queen hatched and appears to be laying a lot of eggs. There was only two frames that needed to be finished on the second brood chamber so we added a super. The whole time I was there checking the bees, I was being attacked by hundreds of bees. If anyone else had been there and not in full bee gear, they would have certainly been attacked. I went to the barn to get a super and they followed me there and hung outside the barn for me to emerge to attack again. So much fun! I actually didn't get stung at Hive 1. Hive 2 is doing well, but not building as quickly as Hive 1. They have about three frames built on the second chamber, so I did not add a super there. But it is where I got stung. I was wearing a tank top and the bee stung me on my shoulder so I am certain if I had a shirt covering my shoulder I wouldn't have been stung. Anyway, the bees are building the combs a little funny there, but I will keep an eye on them. I fed both of the hives as well.