Moodie Bees

05/20/2026

05/16/2026

05/11/2026

It's been a while, but lately I've been putting on the beesuit and trudging out in the fields again. Having to bee very careful since anaphylaxis from honeybees stings are still a risk for me, but I'm fully stocked with Epipens....lol.

Spring is chocked full of bee work, especially when 80% of our colonies didn't winter over.

So there's the expense of replacing bees. If we replace with packages then each package costs $240+. A package of bees contains a queen bee and 3 lbs(10 000)of worker bees, and will help to rebuild 1 hive. We have to then add this package to a 10 framed hive box. We need to place about 2 frames of capped honey from another hive, 2-3 brood frames(baby bees that at close to hatching out) a pollen frame, and about 4 frames of drawn out comb(hexagon shaped beeswax that the bees have built to store honey or spots for the queen to lay her eggs.

This is the fastest way to rebuild if you you have a big loss.

The other way to rebuild fast is to split any strong, wintered over hives and add another queen. The cost for a queen ranges for $30 to hundreds dollars for special ones. We like the calmness of the Buckfast bee which costs about $50 a queen.

We take the strong hives for pollination and then start to split off those into new colonies so they don't swarm, naturally. A pollination hive is 1-2 boxes high

Pollinating requires moving hives in and out of beeyards.....and with the price of gas lately, yikes!!

Our bees are currently out pollinating strawberries, blueberries, apples and lavender. The lavender doesn't bloom until July, but they are in the fields with the apples. When the hives get moved from the strawberries and blueberries, they will go to pollinate at a squash farm or go to Host Yards. These yards have an abundance of wildflowers which will be what our honey crop will consist of. This will also be when we start to collect bee pollen.

The flowers are just coming out on the blueberries we are pollinating. Managed to capture a bumblebee hard at work. The honeybees moved too fast for me to get a good picture.

The dandelions are in full bloom and captured a couple happy bees having lunch :)

Have a bee-utiful day!!!

03/19/2026

Mother Nature sure threw us for a loop this year. Extreme cold, and abundance of snow, tricked us with warm weather, then back to cold. Tomorrow, is the first day of Spring. Beekeepers are regrouping and ordering their bee stock to make sure there are enough bees to pollinate crops, and to be able to provide you all with the beneficial products that come from the hive.

Most people think HONEY or candles. Did you know that there is so much more a bee hive can provide?

-Bee pollen in small amounts can be consumed for desensitizing seasonal allergies.

-Sore throat? Propolis tincture

-Beeswax has so many uses from candles and lipbalm to furniture polish.

-Royal Jelly is added to skin creams

-Bee sting therapy can treat illnesses.

-The sound the hive makes is also soothing and rumor has it, Beekeepers live longer because of this resonating buzz.

Have a bee-utiful day everyone.