McCormack's Bee Farm

05/30/2026

Some nice looking nucs with overwintered queens ready to be picked up.

05/30/2026

36°f, snow mixed with rain. Hopefully we can get the tomatoes and peppers in the ground by August.

05/28/2026

05/25/2026

Here is a link to an online queen rearing calendar, which will enable a beekeeper to input their graft date and generate a spreadsheet that outlines the timeline for the process and when to expect a mated queen to be present. Additionally, it is helpful in assisting in estimating when to expect a colony that swarmed to have a laying queen again.

Queen Rearing Calendar When raising queens, it’s very useful to have a calendar to lay out the timing for the various steps in the process. For a number of years I have used the calendar available at the beeyard.org website, but, it doesn’t allow for setting dates beyond 2017, and appears to not...

05/24/2026

Starts every time

05/22/2026

Moderate to cool nights—typically in the mid-50s—combined with warm, sunny days create the optimal temperature swing for robust nectar flow.

This specific weather dynamic maximizes the pressure within the plant, allowing it to push more nectar into the flowers while preventing the nectar from drying up.

The relationship between temperature and nectar production is a delicate balance:

The Ideal Cycle: A plant stores sugars overnight. Cool nights reduce the plant's metabolic rate, meaning it consumes fewer of its own sugars. This allows the plant to build up a rich reserve of nectar to release the following day.

The Daytime Warm-Up: When the sun comes out and temperatures rise, the plant releases this accumulated nectar. Warm, sunny, and humid conditions promote active foraging by bees, who can gather the nectar before it evaporates or gets too thick.

The Extreme Heat Factor: While bees need warmth to fly, extreme heat (often above 85°f to 90°f) stops nectar flow. High heat dries out the nectaries and causes the nectar to become too viscous for bees to easily process.

05/20/2026

Virgin queen hatched out in the incubator ready for the mating nuc.

05/19/2026

Some real bangers out here at Fernwood Farm.

05/17/2026

I divided up some hives today. I’m going to introduce virgin queens to these. There’s an added step to introducing virgin queens reliably. I will put them in the hive with caps covering the candy. In five days I will come back and cut out all the emergency cells and remove the caps. At this point, the hives will be hopelessly queenless having no resources to make their own queen. This will increase the likelihood of these virgins getting accepted.