I dare to say the Spring Is Here !!!

I feel its time for the Bee season to begin! I still see no Bumble Bees though ...

Snowdrops have at last awakened :)

Winter Aconite is blooming!

Stay tuned :) soon to get the bees for my newly built Top Bar Hives :))))

Large scale mono-crop agriculture and pesticides are killing our bees

Large scale mono-crop agriculture and pesticides are killing our bees all over the world.

This year marks the highest losses of honey bee populations in the U.S. Some of the country's biggest beekeepers have lost over 60%. Some say they won't be able to rebuild their numbers with such high losses and if these kinds of losses continue, the industry may only be able to sustain itself a few more years at most. WIth one in three bites of food we eat dependent on bees for pollination, will there be enough bees to pollinate the crops this year? The almond orchards in California are the first test where 85% of the world's almonds come from. Enter a fascinating world of the largest mass pollination event on earth.

Coating the Top Bar Hives with raw Linseed Oil

I will get 2 bee colonies at the beginning of May and the hives are not being coated yet. It takes a month for the raw Linseed oil to dry. The weather forecast sais sunny skies for the next couple of days with temperature around 8'Celsius. This is not that warm but I cant wait any longer so I coated 6 hives today.

 One can see the difference in color between the coated hive and the un-coated stand

Visiting my ladies in cold Varmland

I was visiting my good friend in Varmland for a few days and used this chance to see my last year bee colonies which I keep in horizontal Top Bar Hives. It felt so good to see them again ... well ... I didnt see them but hear them :) Its still too cold outside so they are keeping warm in the hive. By placing the ear on the hive wall and knocking it with a hand makes them buzz :) They are alive!!! Here is a video of my todays visit to Kretsloppshuset which is a course in self-sufficient householding I attended last year for 8 month;

Spring is in the air

New Apiary Location

I have moved the apiary behind the summer house which is exposed to South and protected by the house itself from the harsh swedish North winds.

I have used dowsing rods to find the stress lines which are believed to benefit bee colonies. I only placed the long hives on the stress lines (4 hives from right).

The old location is still under ice and snow, unlike the new location;

The old apiary location was behind a small hill facing North, hence the freezer effect ;) Most defenetly a wrong location for Sun Creatures!

Ha ha ha