Blue Ridge Honey Company Trip Day 1 and 2

Every year I take a trip to work bees in a warmer state, I think of it as my spring training bee keeping trip! This year I returned for 4 days with Bob Binnie’s Blue Ridge Honey Company

I stopped and visited with my friend John Hill on the way down and got to see his church as well as his new home and property where he will be building a new house and Hillco shop in Dickson, TN. Was great to catch up and see his new home and the area. Super excited for John and his business. I arrived pretty late and got camp set up. Home for the next 4 days!

Day 2: I arrived early at the shop and caught up with John Land as he was drilling feed holes in HDO lids for the crew to assemble.

The shop dog was up early; sweet Daisy is always grateful for a few pets and let’s be real a little snack!

Bee worked started at the queen rearing yard, this was their second week of grafting and there was a lot of splits to be made so they needed 4 builders assembled for Jesse to graft into. We put them together and shook a few extra frames of nurse bees to boost the strength! One of the best parts of the trip are the brunches, Bob and every are a wealth of information and the conversations are never boring!

After we ate we hit 2 yards making them queenless, Bob was kind enough to let us ‘rescue’ any queens that were still performing well. This was a really nice gesture and provided some queens for early splits! All of the nucs and hives were left with 2 frames of brood. I’m excited to try some of these Caucasian queens!

Next 3 yards we were moving the sugar syrup they stored to the bottom box, moving brood above and adding a 3rd box. They will come back later and sort the hives all out for wildflower flow (if they have one w/ the drought).

Bob is very consistent on his approach and almost all of his hives/splits are being setup to maximize the sourwood honey flow that is in July. So 2 frames splits w/ a cell in or mated queen in April will make a good sourwood crop.

Once we were done we went back to the shop and prepped the queens we caught for banking. Right as I was leaving I helped unload 51 packages. Back at camp I made some delicious fajitas on the campfire with some pretzel crackers and brisket dip. Had a few bullseye candies for dessert!