Swarming Bees

We have officially been backyard beekeepers for a year now.  It has been quite interesting.  Today was an especially interesting bee day!

I heard loud buzzing and looked outside.  There were bees flying around everywhere in our backyard!  I had never seen bees swarm before, but it was immediately apparent that that was what was happening.  Beekeepers do their best to make the hive conditions such that the bees don't feel they need to swarm, but it is fairly common for that to happen in the spring.  In preparation for swarming, the bees create a new queen and then one of the queens and about half of the bees leave to make a new home for themselves.  Swarming is not a good thing, but it is an amazing and fascinating sight.  

Luckily for us, our bees chose our blackberry bush as their temporary new home.  As you can see from the pictures, the bees cluster together and there were a lot of them.  The blackberry branches are not very thick, but the bees were a solid mass with many still on the ground and flying in the air.

Swarming bees are extremely docile since they do not have young or a home to protect.  Plus they gorge before leaving so they have enough to sustain themselves until they get established in a new location.   

Todd got an empty hive and began to literally scoop the bees by the handfuls into the hive.  If you look closely at the picture, you'll notice a handful of bees falling into the hive.

Todd then shook the branch to get the remainder of the bees to fall in. 

We hoped they'd be happy in this new home we provided for them.  We planned to move this hive to a permanent location in our yard once the bees were settled. 

With the thousands and thousands of bees we got in the new hive, we most likely did not get the queen since they all quickly left.  They returned right back to their original hive, but landed on the outside for awhile before going back in. 

Since we now knew there were probably two queens in our hive, they would swarm again soon (maybe even the next day).  We also knew it was unlikely we would be lucky enough to see where the swarm landed in order to try and catch them again, so Todd split the hive.  He divided the boxes and the bees into two different hives.  Hopefully the bees will be confused enough by their new location that they won't swarm.  They also will each have more room to expand.  Best case scenario is that we got one queen in each new hive, but if not the hive missing a queen should make a new queen for themselves.  We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

As I get this ready to post, I realize this doesn't sound or look nearly as impressive as it really was.  I was glad Todd was already on his way home when it happened, but I was bummed the kids were at school and missed it all. 

We still have a lot to learn about beekeeping, but it sure is fascinating!

Time to Prune

It is time to prune!  That includes fruit trees, raspberries, blackberries and grapes.
 

As a general rule for fruit trees, you want to open up the center to get light and you also want to prevent branches from criss-crossing.  Apples and pears produce fruit on last year's growth so you'll need to leave enough new growth for next year's crop.  Fruits like peaches and almonds produce fruit on this year's growth which usually results in more to cut back.  When determining what height you'd like the branches to start, keep in mind whatever height the branch is from the ground it will never get higher.  The growth of a tree is all from the top.  When deciding how tall to let your tree grow, just determine how high you want to harvest fruit.  It is important to prune every year.  If you wait too many years and try to make up for it, it may shock your tree into not producing fruit. 

For raspberries you need to determine if you have June-bearing or ever-bearing.  For ever-bearing you get fruit off this year's growth so cut all stalks about 3 inches from the ground.  For June-bearing raspberries, fruit is produced on last year's stalks so you need to cut out any stalks that produced berries last year.  

For blackberries, cut out all stalks that produced berries last year.

Good-luck on grapes.  I have no sage advice.  I just hack ours back every year and they seem to thrive.

For me, it works well to use 3 pruning tools.  A small hand held pruner is the handiest to use for most of the pruning, especially if pruning is maintained yearly.  A two-handed lopper works well for branches up to an inch and a quarter.  A pruning saw is used for anything bigger.  

For more information, check out the pruning videos done by the USU Extension Service by clicking HERE.

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Any pruning tips or pruning frustrations to share?

Time to Order

Believe it or not, it is time to start planning spring projects.  It is specifically time to place your orders. 

Seeds can be found almost anywhere in the spring.  However, seeds for specific varieties can't always be found in local stores.  In addition, many of the seeds found in stores are left over from previous years which lowers their germination rate.  Keep in mind though, it is more expensive to buy high quality seeds.  For many of our seeds, we think the extra expense is worth it.  We do buy some seeds and even some starter plants from a local nursery.  A reputable nursery will also have quality seeds.  Here are a few online seed companies that are trustworthy-- Park Seed, Burpee and Stokes.  You can view their seeds online or request a seed catalog.  They provide good information for the different seed varieties and you can see which seeds will do well in your area by choosing seeds that do well in the zone where you live.

 

It may surprise you to know that baby chicks can be also ordered online.  The chicks are shipped the day they are hatched and come in a box via the US Post Office.  The benefit of ordering your chicks is that you can mix and match the specific breeds you want.  You can do this to an extent by buying chicks at your local farm store, but you can only buy certain breeds on certain weeks as the farm stores get different breeds at different times.  Not getting your chicks all at the same time is hard on your little flock as they reestablish a pecking order each time any chicks are added or removed from the flock.  (Pecking order starts at six weeks of age.)  Younger chicks will be picked on and most likely will always stay the bottom of the pecking order.  The big negative to ordering chicks online is that a minimum order such as 25 chicks is common.  This is necessary so they have enough body heat to ship safely.  Even though we didn't need nearly that many chickens for our backyard flock, the minimum order is not a problem for us.  We were able to sell the additional chicks.  Last year our son raised and sold enough extra baby chicks to earn the money he needed for scout camp.  We order our chicks from Murry McMurray Hatchery.  No matter where you purchase your chicks, you will pay more for chicks if you don't buy straight run chicks.  Straight run means you get both pullets (young females) and roosters.  Paying for sexed chicks isn't fool proof as you may still end up with a rooster or two, but they are pretty good at determining pullets as soon as the chicks are hatched.  Some of our favorite breeds include Red Star (or Red Sex Link), Black Star (or Black Sex Link), Delaware, Rhode Island Red, Barrred Rock and Buff Orpington.  You are sure to always get pullets with the Sex Link breeds as the pullet and rooster chicks actually have different coloring.

If you want bees this year, you must order your bees right away.  You can only start new hives in the spring and packages of bees are next to impossible to get in the spring if you haven't pre-ordered them.  Check with local beekeepers or your local bee association to find out where to order bees in your area.  We order our bees from a local beekeeper, Knight Family Honey, who get the bees from California.  This picture shows two four-pound packages of bees.  You'll want 3-4 pounds of bees for each new hive.  Research what kinds of bees do well in your area.  Popular bees in our area are Italian Hygienic, Italian, and Carniolan.  We have Italian Hygienic because they are docile, winter-hardy and mite and disease resistant while still being good honey producers.  You also want to make sure you get a genetically "good" queen with your bee package as not all queens are equal.  The success of the hive is greatly determined by the queen's egg laying abilities.  The temperament of the hive is also greatly affected by the temperament of the queen.  Remember you'll also need to order your hives and other bee keeping equipment now so that you have the proper set-up ready when your bees arrive.

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What plans are you making for the spring?  What do you order?  Any tips or questions?  Please share!