Bee Update

For all of you who think my husband is cool OR crazy for keeping bees with small children around, here's an update.

The first time Justin got in the beehive to do some checking things looked like they were going great. Here are a few pics of what the bees had accomplished in two weeks.

But, the next time he opened the hive he found A LOT of dead bees. This is very unusual. Bees are very clean animals and usually take the dead bees out of the hive. Justin cleaned out the dead bees and left them alone for a couple more weeks. Checking them again, he found the same thing, TONS of dead bees.

Every beekeeper in the Salt Lake valley has a different opinion about why our bees were dying. Some think the queen had died or left or just wasn't doing her job. Others think our bees got into some major pesticide. Bottom line is, Justin pretty much lost his hive. Which means we probably won't be able to harvest honey this year. The bees will need everything they make to survive the winter.

So, if you loose your hive you can just go buy more bees and start over. Or, you can get on a swarm list at the bee keepers store. Did you know if you see a swarm of bees or have a swarm at your house you can call one of the local bee keeping stores and they will send someone from the swarm list out to get/remove them? Well, you can, and bee keepers like Justin will be very happy to come take the bees off your hands.

That is what our Monday morning consisted of this week. Justin received a call from the bee store with a swarm reporting. They gave us the address and we were off to catch a swarm to replenish our hive.

This swarm was about 15 feet up in a pine tree. Justin looked like a pro catching this swarm. Before we left to get the bees he took a few empty frames and drizzled honey on them. He put those inside a trusty Costco diaper box and there we had a very nice be transport system. He climbed up into the tree, gave the branch a really good tap on the box and most of the bees fell in the box. He then used his ever so soft bee brush to help the others in the box.

That's it really. Justin took the bees back to our place and introduced them to their new home. Hopefully things will go a little better this time around. We'll keep you updated.