Summer is Here
Which means we survived the Spring rush! Thank you to all of our customers for supporting us and enduring longer-than-desired delays as we worked to build and ship your orders!
Summer also means most beekeepers in the northern hemisphere have started their colonies for the season, and their bees are working hard to build up enough stores to overwinter. The top bar hive in the above photo was started with a package 11 weeks ago and is now close to filling up all 28 top bars with beautiful combs!
Summer Management, like much of beekeeping, varies dramatically based on your location. Here in Portland, Oregon, the blackberry nectar flow is coming to a close and our bees will enter the dearth soon (little nectar available). Much of the honey stores that our colonies overwinter on are already in the hive. We've already added the extra boxes on our Warre and Langstroth hives, and most of the top bar hives are close to fully-expanded for the year. July and August will be a time of ripening honey, with thousands of bees bearding off the entrances of their hives (like the photo below). This is common, even if it's not terribly hot out, but still be sure that they have enough space inside the hive.
Solar Wax Melters are an awesome way to melt your clean wax with minimal effort! We've worked with one of our local metalworkers to create a fantastic, compact, stainless steel wax melter that is perfect for backyard beekeepers. Made from stainless steel and unbreakable Lexan, if properly cared for it will last for years to come.
Simply attach the legs, put your clean wax inside on the metal screen, secure the lid, and watch the wax melt and flow into your container of choice! We like to use old milk cartons half-filled with water. In our tests in Portland on a 75F degree day the internal temperature exceeded 170F. Click the image to learn more.
NEW ROOF PANELS are now available for both top bar hives and Warre hives. They are made from a fantastic aluminum composite material that will last essentially forever, look awesome, and provide better insulation, heat reflection, and rain run off than other options.
Pesticides Have Killed at least 5 honey bee colonies of our customers and friends in the Portland metro area (likely far more unreported), and thousands of bumble bees in Eugene in the past week. The state was quick to respond and began investigating the culprit immediately.
If you find thousands of dead bees on the bottom of your hive, especially with their tongues sticking out, your bees have probably been poisoned with pesticides. Please report such colony deaths to your state department of agriculture so they can help identify the pesticide source and take the proper measures to ensure it doesn't happen again! Reporting is vital to build awareness and educate the public on this issue.
FINGER JOINT Langstroth boxes are now standard! The combination of finger joints and screws that come standard with our boxes make our hives incredibly strong.
As always, please stop in the shop if you are in town or swing by the website to see what's going on. We have new products and happenings all of the time. Our sister business, Mead Market, conducts complimentary mead tastings every weekend during business hours. Come on by and try some amazing mead and talk bees with us!
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Solar Wax Melter
Built from stainless steel and Lexan in Oregon. The perfect melter for your cappings, burr comb and remaining bits after crushing and straining honey!
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Ventilated Jacket
We swear by ventilated jackets, and if you've kept bees for any amount of time in the sun, you will, too! Made with two layers of ventilated fabric, they are stingproof and give you the airflow you need when working in the apiary!
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Top Bar Hive Nucleus Box
The perfect box for swarm catching, as a bait hive, or to split your strongest colonies. We overwinter many nucleus boxes each year to refill or expand our apiary the next season.
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Finger Joint Cedar Langstroth Hives
Due to numerous requests, our Langstroth boxes are now made with finger joints, still using screws for superior strength.
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