Oh no!
For the first time ever one of our hives very clearly has mites. We did a powdered sugar check just to see if mites may be an issue and sure enough we have a few of the buggers.
This is a totally new issue for us so if any of you fellow beekeepers have any suggestions for organic mite removal please do let us know!
This weekend we had Brooke and Lizzie up to the roof to take a tour of the hive. Thanks for visiting gang!
Here we see the gang getting down and dirty. Also, mad hands at the extractor wheel!
When you’re juggling many hives, you have many harvests. This last weekend we got elbow-deep in honey with Hobson and crew. They were awesome, I simply whipped up the emotional support. Great job gang! Here we see the crew suiting up and removing the frames.
Someone called it a few weeks ago when they said “I bet that windscreen is going to get torn apart.” After waiting for the bees to move on from their temporary home for a few weeks, we decided to go in and get ‘em!
Thank goodness for Chuck Rossi who had a spare hive and a few extra hours this weekend. He and his wife swooped in and grabbed the swarm. Only keeping bees for three months and they’re already pros! Thanks Chuck, happy beekeeping—I hope the swarm treats you well!
As you’ll recall, on the roof of Abbot’s Cellar we recently had a swarm on our hands. Our response has been two pronged— 1) decide what has caused the swarm 2) capture the swarm. We tackled the easy one first, check for mites and see if that might be the cause of a swarm (fingers crossed this wasn’t the case).
Our test for mites was a quick dusting of powdered sugar, let the ladies clean themselves off and see if any mites or any other baddies fall to the bottom of the hive. On our next visit we’ll check the bottom board and see if anything shakes out. Literally. And now for capturing the swarm!
While breezing through London we caught up with our favorite illustrator Suzi Kemp (at the KK Outlet) who you’ll recognize as the gal behind the pics from our beekeeping book. Fingers crossed, we may have some news to share on the distribution of our book! More to come…
The crew at Abbot’s Cellar are super pro and knocked out the harvest in no time flat. The final yield was 43 lbs and they’re working now on reconfiguring the hive to allow for more space generally, but specifically adding more room ( a third super) below the queen excluder. We have a hunch that while there was tons of room in the hive, there might not have been enough room for brood! Immediate goal: Get the bees through the rest of the summer in tact. Back to the hives! 
We’re getting some love from the Chinese blog Oulaka! Thanks for the Black Tar Honey shout Oulaka :)
Amidst the chaos of the swarm from one of our hives on Abbot’s Cellar, we made the decision to harvest one super from each hive and also add an additional empty super to each. We were clearly running out of room and we want to be sure the ladies have plenty of space to grow into at the height of the summer. Here we go!
PS. Big shout to Benjie for loaning us his honey extractor!
