Beekeeping, not just a hobby, but an adventure!

A Minnesota Beekeeper in Winter

March 8, 2018

Just found out that the packages of bees I ordered will be here roughly April 5. That is only 27 days away! Yet, I look out of the window and see winter still has it’s grasp on us. Will Spring come before the bees? Also, I have to do an inventory of everything I need to do to be ready for the arrival of the bees.

I have to get out the Langstroth hive and get it ready to receive a new colony. Or, do I? Do I want to run 2 different hive systems this year? It would be nice to have diversity in the apiary. That way when some of the beekeepers that think that top bar hives is not really beekeeping, I can show them the regular hive. :P Also, Langs do produce more honey. But, this will be a first year hive, and I can not expect much of them. Just enough to make it through the next harsh Minnesota winter.

I have to prep Hive White for new bees. That means I have to put in the combs I took out to clean the hive, maybe some final scrapings. Also some odds and ends that always seem to pop up whenever you are beekeeping.

I have to prep Hive Stripe. As of this writing, I do not know if they have survived the winter. If they have not, then there is no need to prepare the Langstroth hive. Both packages of bees will go into the two top bar hives. But before that happens, I will have to go through the hive scrape, clean, and get it ready for the new colony. Hopefully...I will not have to do that!

The “new” top bar hive. This hive I picked up from my father. It is all dressed up for winter, so I will have to remove it’s coat, inspect it to see if it needs touch ups on its paint, etc. I already know I need to tighten the hinge on the lid. But, this is a lower priority now that I have more hives than I have colonies.

Well, I suppose a guy should sit down, prepare a “to-do” list, and then get things done.

Thanks for reading along!