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Adventures in Beekeeping
For over seven years we've had many adventures in beekeeping. One of our favorite things to do is to capture these unique moments through photography. Each experience teaches and amazes us as we learn more and more about honey bees and their connection to everything. Please enjoy these images. May your hearts and minds delight in the magical world of honey bees.
Open Air Tree Bee-hive 1
One of the most lovely open air tree bee-hives we've encountered. It is reminiscent of a rose, isn't it? Its fascinating how nature mimics nature.
Open Air Bee-hive
This open air honey bee-hive was hanging from under a plant hanger at face level. It was quite impressive.
Honey Frame
This is a beautiful frame of Spring/Summer honey. The work that goes into maintaining bee-hives makes for very proud and grateful beekeepers.
Deconstructing Bee-hives
Mark carefully deconstructs a bee-hive located under the floor of a shed. The live bee removal process can be quite intense for both the beekeeper and the bees. They, of course, don't want us to disturb them.
For safety reason, they cannot stay in that location. Much care and work is put into providing a humane bee-hive rescue and relocation
For safety reason, they cannot stay in that location. Much care and work is put into providing a humane bee-hive rescue and relocation
Bees Under the Floor
Honey bees can and will fill out an opening big enough for them to build, occupy and defend. Under a shed floor was this honey bee colony's choice of habitat.
Water Meter Bees 1
Honey bees love moving into water meters. I suspect the ground keeps them cooler in our Florida heat. With small openings in the lid, they are able to defend their hive well. Unfortunately, these locations are notorious for insecticide use. Much care must be taken on our part when removing these bee-hives as sometimes even home owners aren't aware of pest control visits. It is important to avoid or to be aware of contamination so that we may approach the hive with safety and proper use of equipment. Our goal is to provide more humane, insecticide-free live honey bee-hive removals to water meters, irrigation boxes than insecticide approaches.
Bees Under The House 1
All you need is a cavernous opening inside your structure big enough for bees to build an adequate bee-hive. We have removed bees twice from this location - once in an outdoor cabinet and 2nd under the house. Some areas have more bee activity than others so we are always sure to tell the homeowners to keep an eye out from Spring to end of Fall. See next photo for a look at the hive under the house.
Bees Under the House 2
This is a nice view of what a honey bee colony can build under a house. We adore honey bee architecture but wish they would a more natural setting.
Framing the Comb
As we deconstruct the comb, we do our best to fix it in a frame for the bees. This helps with resources and easing into their transition for relocation. Bringing their home with them saves on tons of resources that they could otherwise use for food stores and amending their new construction. We are careful not to take diseased or contaminated comb as this could be damaging to those bees, our bees back home as well as our equipment.
Honey Frame 2
The second box located on top is what we call a honey super. When there is an abundance of nectar, they will build wax comb and fill it with nectar. From flower to honey stomach to wax cell involves chemical changes and processes that result in honey. One bee's life work will have produced only 1/2 teaspoon of honey which is all the more reason to respect, value and preserve honey bees.
Kiana's 1st Live Bee-hive Removal
Kiana, currently 17 years old is who originally led us into the world of beekeeping. As homeschoolers, we signed up for 4H Beekeeping and Gardening when she was around 9 yo. Who knew the whole family would fall in love with the world of honey bees. Kiana does a fantastic job carefully handling the bees with her Dad, Mark. They say, if you get your kids into beekeeping, they won't have any time or money to get into trouble.
Open Air Tree Bee-hive 2
This is actually the front side of the 1st open air tree hive photo. Honey bee architecture is incredible!
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