Bernier's Bees

08/11/2021

I have not posted a bunch recently as my hives are in treatment mode for two weeks. Every year, I have to treat my colonies for the Verroa Mite. These tiny insects cause disease and shorten the life span of the bees. The mite is the number one killer of honey bees. They weaken the colony and eventually cause them to die during the winter months when they are the most susceptible and they are at their smallest size. This time of year is peak season for the mite population. I use an all natural product (actully found in honey) that does not affect the bees or honey. During treatment, I cannot disturb the colonies for at least two weeks.

07/16/2021

My honey will be sold, by the pound, at Bee’s Snack Bar in Winslow and Shelby’s Deli in Oakland. It should be available by next week!! Go pick yours up, it won’t last long!

07/16/2021

That time of year, time to harvest! Just finished extracting the honey. My two hives made roughly 10 gallons of honey that I could harvest, or 130ish pounds worth. More to come later this fall.

07/15/2021

Watch this!

Every honeybee has a job to do. Some are nurses who take care of the brood; some are janitors who clean the hive; others are foragers who gather pollen to ma...

07/10/2021

Another busy day of bringing in pollen and nectar. I just keep stacking the supers (honey boxes). Another couple weeks and the honey flow will dwindle.

07/05/2021

Honey flow is strong right now!

06/27/2021

In coming flights!

06/27/2021

Did you know: A honey bee must gather roughly 11 lbs of nectar to produce only 1 lb of wax.

06/06/2021

Bearding. Super hot for them today. Only way to keep cool.

06/02/2021

Did you know: when temperatures drop below 50 degrees, honey bees cluster. This is when they get together in a tight ball to keep warm. They shake in order to produce heat. The queen bee is often times in the very center as is the brood (new bees). The bees rotate out to keep each other warm. In the middle of winter, the center of the cluster often times maintains around 90 degrees! The colder it is, the more energy they use, thus the more honey they consume.

05/26/2021

Swarm season is upon us in the beekeeping world. What is a swarm? A swarm is when half of a strong colony, including its queen, fly away and find a new home. The existing colony then has to raise a new queen and continue its thing. This is a natural way honeybees reproduce more colonies. This can be devastating for the beekeeper if not prevented because they will loose have of the bees and the queen. To help prevent this, there are several things a beekeeper can do. One of which, is performing a Walk-away-split. Pictured below are two new colonies that I have created using the existing colonies. There are several ways to perform a split, however. I chose this method: I found the existing queen in the existing colony of roughly 50,000 bees, placed her in the split with other frames of bees, honey, pollen, and eggs. Then I walked away to place it in a separate location. Now the existing one will raise its own queen, thinking that it has swarmed—this takes about 15 days. This is a way to “trick” the hive into thinking it swarmed plus I have one additional hive. I made two splits, one from each overwintered colony.