Bees On Campus

My mom and I went to Gonzaga with the garden club for a tour of their hydroponic greenhouse.

 

 

The greenhouse tour was great but what caught my eye were the rooftop beehives.

 

 

 

This one had a window in the bottom deep! A cool idea but I don't think there's much to see from this angle.

It's pretty cool that they're trying to promote honeybee awareness. They are working to make the campus pollinator friendly too. Our bees can always use more friends.

2017!

A new beekeeping year is starting!

 

 

The poor bees were in a deep freeze all winter. Tons of snow and cold but it's finally melting. 

 

Say hi to Lucky! Our new all natural mouse control system. I had mice living in the shed and getting into the stored frames. Yuck.

 

 

Not much blooming yet but a few spring bulbs are up. Two of my three hives are flying and even bringing in some pollen but the third is a dead out. I'm not that surprised since it went queenless in the fall and had to be combined with the nuc. It was definitely the weakest of the three.

 So what's on tap for 2107??

I'm going to be working on my journeyman certification this year so I'm going to try some new things and learn as much as I can. I'm going to raise Italian bees for the first time when I get a package in April. I'll be learning about queen rearing this spring and summer which will be really cool. And as always I'm hoping for a good honey crop! I'm hoping all of the snow and rain leads to a good nectar flow this spring when the plants start blooming.

Let's go!!