Beekeeping Blog

After an early, extreme spring warm up, the past few weeks have been very cold and wet. We even covered our tomatoes last night just in case. We have worried, hoping the bees would have enough honey reserves for the extended chill. So far, all seem well enough.

In March Matt had the opportunity to take part in Gunther Hauk's beekeeping conference at the Portland Waldorf School. We provided the bees at the event in our most thriving Warre hive as seen in the picture below:

The unseasonable warmth last month had Matt out catching swarms regularly, 11 or so in total, but we haven’t seen any more or had a call in a couple weeks. We did manage to repopulate some empty hives and get swarms to the first few customers that have ordered from us. (For those who are unaware, we provide swarms to customers as we are able – this is especially helpful for those using Warre and Top Bar Hives!)

We expected that hive orders would pick up in spring, but we never expected how many we would receive! We feel very blessed by all of our customers and folks that have attended our classes and appreciated our products and offerings.  In order to fulfill all of our orders we found need to further streamline our production and have recently partnered with David Rivinus of Rivinus Violins, who has kindly offered his epic artistry and stunning craftsmanship to our hives. We continue to maintain the quality of our hives, and with an eye to the future and with David’s innovative ideas, we have new plans in store for Top Bar and Warre beekeeping.

While it's been a few months, we thought it would be appropriate to announce on the blog that we have a new more aesthetically pleasing and function leg design on our horizontal top bar hives. Check it out:

While we diligently work to get caught up on outstanding top bar and Warre orders, we want you all to be aware that we also offer hive tools, accessories and protective equipment, making us your one-stop shop for foundationless beekeeping supplies! In addition, we are now one of the first suppliers (if not the first) to offer Abbe Warre’s book “Beekeeping for All,” in print form. Please contact us if you would like to purchase it immediately, or It will be available on our website in the near future.

Next week my dear sister and brother in law will be here, visiting from Texas and we are so excited;  January through April has been non-stop busyness. We are exhausted, and ready for the bees to sort themselves out for the summer.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there, and to the dear queens of the hives!

Jill (and Matt)

Spring! Too early. At least two weeks too early as evidenced by the bustle of the bees and the grape vines at my day job. Daffodils and Crocus are long since up, and the cherries are blooming actively… in February! We have seen pollen on many bee legs for the last three weeks. It will most certainly be an interesting growing season.

Early spring has found us cleaning out dead hives, checking on thriving ones, finally finishing our honey processing, and hosting basic bee keeping classes. I can’t believe I’m going to say it but, we actually could have used an extra two weeks of winter to catch our breath before bee season. However, here we are. Our dog, Polly, is completely happy with the early spring, as it means that not only does she get more time outside, but her feet need less wiping before she comes in!

We have our first retail honey customer! Immortal Pie & Larder in Portland, Oregon placed an order for twelve, eight-ounce jars of Bee Thinking honey. The order kept me busy conceiving of initial packaging, and sourcing jars. I am very happy with how it they turned out, as I came up with something eye catching. (I know our customers will be happy when the taste the delicious honey sourced from our hives, all located on organic sites and from foundationless hives. As you can see, I’m very proud of our bees, hives and honey!)

[readon1 url="http://immortalpie.blogspot.com"]Visit Immortal Pie and Larder[/readon1]

Matt has spent a lot of time building out the store portion of our website. In addition to Top Bar and Warre hives, we are now selling smokers, jackets, hive tools and other bee keeping basics making us a one stop shop for foundationless beekeeping supplies![readon1 url="/store"]Visit the Store[/readon1]

Despite the needs and activity of spring knocking on our doors, I know Matt and I could most certainly use a long, quiet, private and very relaxing vacation…

Jill

It's the dead of winter here in the Pacific Northwest (Oak Grove, Oregon), and the bees are buckled down waiting eagerly for the arrival of spring 2010. On Tuesday there was a freak snowstorm that brought our city to a standstill, but the bees perservered in their Warre hives as well as their horizontal top bar hives. Here's a picture of our backyard with two horizontal top bar hives, two Warre hives and the natural stump hive that is currently vacant.

Today my wife and I stopped by two Warre hives at Sokol Blosser Winery that we hadn't visited for months.

The good news: The bees are alive and the hives are heavy.

The bad news: Both hives had mice take up residence in the bottom box.

Thankfully it was caught before the mice completely decimated the hives and I was able to remove the mice, their nests and the smelly mess they left. After that I added 1/4" hardware cloth to the entrance to keep the mice from returning. Hopefully both hives will overcome.

The mouse nest:

We've had 3 hive orders in the past two days: a great start for the 2010 year at Bee Thinking, and we look forward to preparing hives for the Spring Rush. Again, if you are looking to get a horizontal top bar hive or Warre hive in 2010, please get your orders in soon!

Happy New Year!