Triple B Ranch

03/01/2020

TRIPLE BEE PROFILE

Meet Eric, who joined the Triple Bee Ranch team to advise on best practices and help the TBR bee colonies thrive! Eric will be a regular visitor to the ranch, and we’re excited about the next steps as spring approaches.

Eric completed his degree in biology at the University of Puget Sound while managing the colonies of bees and hives there.

Originally from St. Louis, Eric resides in the Washington D.C area. One project includes maintenance of the curated bee specimens at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. You can read about the collection of nearly 1 Million bees here: https://www.si.edu/object/yt_8UvjHYd31kY

Eric splits his time studying and managing bee colonies and their hives at the University of Maryland. UMD https://www.vanengelsdorpbeelab.com/

BEE FACT: Ever heard of the bee “Waggle Dance” to share the location of nectar? Watch this fascinating video from the Smithsonian channel here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/science/whats-the-waggle-dance-and-why-do-honeybees-do-it/

02/26/2020

BUILDING THE BEE HOMES
The second and third enclosures to protect the bee hives are coming along nicely.

All posts are in and hive enclosure #3 is now welded together.

Day by day we are getting ready for the TBR 🐝 Queens and their progeny.

02/25/2020

PREPARING BEE QUARTERS

Preparing another area for more bee colonies with hive enclosure #3. The idea is a sheltered area which is enclosed on 3 sides with trees to afford some protection during storms and winter weather.

Dragging out tree limbs to the burn pile with a chain.

Put more sand on the 20’x20’ base - raise ground level slightly to avoid flooding the bee compound during heavy rains.

Once the ground is prepared, 8 steel posts are rammed in then welded together. More posts to follow.

The two additional satellite enclosures can house ten or more hives each, with the main enclosure comfortably containing 30.

02/22/2020

THE ITALIANS ARE COMING TO TRIPLE BEE RANCH

Interesting article on bee types.

The Triple Bee Ranch Queen Bees we selected are an Italian/Carniolan hybrid, specially bred by the USDA to be resistant to Varroa mites (more about that in a later posts)

If you’re a new beekeeper or just learning about the world of bees, like me, it might be surprising to discover just how many kinds of honey bees there are. I had been naive and always thought that there weren’t different types of bees, but it turns out that there are more than twenty different ...