Things have been quiet on the FB front for Sweet Gum Farm but we (and the honeybees!) have definitely been busy bees! With the very short (almost non-existent) winter and the warm temps we’ve been having, the honeybees have been very active. I looked into 2 hives last week, a larger hive and a smaller one, and liked what I saw. Surprisingly, I also saw some drones (males) walking on the frames in the larger hive, as well as capped drone brood. Typically this would be incredibly early in the year to be seeing drones and drone brood but with the very warm winter, all we beekeepers can do is hang on to our hive tools and wait to see what this unusually warm winter we’ve had means for the coming year.
While we’ve been waiting to see what the weather would do before opening our hives for the year, we’ve also been busy preparing the woodenware (bee boxes, basically) for the coming year. I like to protect the wood with paint and to add a little color to the landscape by using different colors for the boxes. Mr. Sweet Gum Farm has been building new feeders for the nucs (small hive boxes) and the hives. Those tasks sound simple, don’t they? They take a lot of time, though. Proper preparation is not glamorous (hm, and those super-sexy beekeeper suits are?) but is necessary.
We here at Sweet Gum Farm also have another exciting development coming soon, but we aren’t quite ready to release it yet as I don’t want to jinx it. Hopefully this weekend we’ll be able to share a few pics and tell you our latest, not-in-the-honeybee-realm news. 🙂
