Beekeeping in Columbia, Maryland
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Winter 2022
Here is a view of the apiary in Winter of 2022.
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Honey now available. July 2021
First batch of bottled honey. Nothing was harvested in 2020. I sell it exclusively to neighbors during the last 2 weeks of July.
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Building new Hive Scales
All of my hives have individual weight and temperature sensors. Here is the first base used to build my hive scales. Finished product and painted to use in my apiary.
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Watch those scales!
Here is a sample chart from my hive during the Maryland nectar flow. You can see a 4 pound increase in about 24 hours! I was viewing this while being in Arizona. I love my apiary electronics!
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Swarm caught, new hive added.
The small box in the middle contains the swarm that I caught. I decided to put a flower decal on the front to make it distinguishable from the others.
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Swarm season 2021
Shortly after installing the 2 new packages on the right, one of the older hives in the left swarms.
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Spring 2021 hive setup
Here is a view of the hives for Spring of 2021. You can see the active bees buzzing in front of the hives.
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Expanding the hive stand
For the spring of 2021 I added this extension on the south side of the hive stand. The 2 hives there contain the packages I just purchased. In our bee class, we were looking at the effects of having our hives close to each other and we decided that the best practice is to separate…
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Replacement bees for Spring 2021
Purchased these 2 packages of bees to start 2 more hives in 2021. These girls spent the night in my basement prior to being introduced into their new homes. Should you get packages or NUCs? If you have already built comb containing some pollen and nectar, you can start with a package. If you are…
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Winter 2021
As you can see in this picture, I have 2 hives strapped together and have insulated the outside with insulated boards from Home Depot. This is February 2021, inside the bees are already laying eggs and raising brood in preparation of the upcoming nectar-gathering season.
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Feeding the bees
Feeding bees is important. In Maryland the nectar source is only available April through June. In order to survive the winter, bees require a source of carbohydrates. They may not have stored up enough in the during the spring, so in order to keep our bees healthy, we supplement their carbohydrate source so they can…
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Fall 2020 winter prep.
In the fall of 2020, after learning a lot from the meetings at Howard County Beekeepers Association, I decided to try something suggested by Alan Hayes. I had split both hives and then in the fall pushed them together. Each hive was still isolated to achieve independent weight measurements, and I made new outer covers…
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