Brighton Honey
Brighton Honey
Beekeeper's Blog

The Maples are in Bloom

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The maples are in bloom and have opened up yesterday and I am congestion and sneezing.  No sign of the basswoods blooming but still a bit early for them. The wild bees are very aggressive and Amy got stung Sunday.  The Carolinian and Russians are surprisingly docile compared to the wild “American” bees.  I removed the queen excluders off a few of the hives as the bees were not going up into the supers.  I will suit up this weekend and check things and perhaps add another super to the power hives.  The weather seems like it’s going to cooperate for at least this week.

AUTHOR

Ward
Ward Graham is an engineer by training and loves a good problem to solve. He mostly spends his time working and worrying about his bees. He also enjoys art, reading old science fiction rags, and making a mess of the yard with his tractor. He also enjoys world travel and has been to over 30 countries. If you would like to reach him, please send an email.

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Hive Extraction and Equipment List with Infrared Photos

Worked another extraction this weekend for a local building management company and every time I am on one I learn to be a bit more efficient and wanted to share my list. If there is the opportunity to make a small hole first when starting and extraction this is ideal. So the trick is to annoy the aggressive bees and get them out a small hole and grab them with the vacuum right away. This time around I broke through the drywall with a small hole and kept banging on the ceiling to annoy them. I then opened a hole about 6 inches square. This really helped as the aggressive bees rushed the opening and right into the vacuum. I did get stung on the finger once but was when lifting out some comb and I pinned the bee between my finger and some comb.