Author Archives: AmericanHeritageApiary

Today is a big day at American Heritage Apiary….THE FIRST GRAFTS OF 2021! I put together a medium builder friday, fed them up and today they will get their first grafts. I have a new lighted magnifier to give a whirl to see if it helps w/ grafting the eggs to the cups. I’ll haveContinue reading “First Graft 2021”

Going to try something a little crazy….need some queens here in a few weeks to make some splits as some of my over-wintered hives are feeling a little swarmish. We normally won’t start our first builder until the first week of May but it always feels like we are a little behind. I couldn’t seeContinue reading “First Builder of the Season”

This hive is the descendent of the second New River Honey Bee Queen Carniolian we received so it’s really neat to see how the hive has developed and performed over time.

This was by far my weakest hive going into winter and she pulled through! I fought queen issues and poor production all year trying multiple queens from other sources before introducing one of our queens late in the year. The hive overwintered nicely and was off to a great start!

I don’t always make pollen patties in my wife’s lovely kitchen but when I do she’s at work, > 20 miles away and I have at least 6 hours to clean, clean, clean. I use 2:1 syrup with some Honey Bee Healthy and pollen substitute. Add the pollen to the mixer and dribble water inContinue reading “Pollen Patties”

In this video I go through Hive 20 for it’s first inspection. Because the hive cluster has moved all the way up to the medium super, I needed to move the boxes around. In this video I go through the hive to take the medium box and put it on the bottom, then stack moreContinue reading “Hive 20 First Inspection”

Here’s a quick video on mixing spring feed: 2 gallons Water2 gallons Sugar1/8 C of Bleach1/3 C Honey Bee Healthy2 tbs fumidil-B

Here’s a quick video of the first inspection of the year of my Harbo breeder queen from 2020. I took the time to move the cluster to the bottom box, treat for mites, get a sample for nosema, add a drone frame and a feeder, and put them on a nice supply of 1:1 syrup.

When I first heard of this concept I was a bit skeptical. Nobody I knew that was keeping bees was using this as a model so I dismissed it. Then I heard the talk embedded below late last year and it was a game changer for what my goals were for my apiary. Everything discussedContinue reading “Sustainable Apiary”