Assembling Beehives

Assmbling beehives is one of my winter-time beekeeping activities. I purchase unassembled hives to save money and I build them in the basement between January and April… except all of my basement space this year is full of fermenting wine. Realizing that I need to get busy finishing the hives that I had delivered last month, it seemed to be a good idea to clear off the coffee table in the living room and assemble hive bodies. I can stack them on the front deck outside and then plan for a day or two of painting when it is warmer.

It is likely that I need to order a few more hives due to a possible miscalculation of bees that I ordered in this year of expansion. The miscalculation occurred when I placed an order with Barry in NY for four nucs of bees because his bees do very well for me and I enjoy the drive out to his farm. They are so assertive that I cannot do yard work without getting stung, but they are great honey producers and usually successful surviving the winter. I also ordered four nucs of bees from Mike in Ohio… because his bees also have been very successful for me and I enjoy visiting him. Mike’s life is *literally* all about honey bees and butterflies. It is not unusual to see bees flying around inside of his home and his yard contains hundreds of hives. He also raises butterflies on the tree branches in his yard. I also ordered two nucs of bees from Matt this weekend because the one year that I got honey bees from Matt and his father, they were black honey bees. Over the following two years, my own bee population became a mix of regular and black honey bees as new queens mated with all of the different males.

I will know for certain how many additional hives I need to order and build once I have the opportunity to perform a good inspection on all of the hives at the larger apiary.

A box containing five unassembled hives

Five assembled boxes

Beehive Inspection in Pittsburgh

I was able to conduct some hive inspections on Thursday after work; the temperature was warm enough to completely inspect one hive thoroughly while the sun was out… and two other hives just enough to get an idea of how they were doing. At the time I last checked these three hives, I had one with a queen and two that were queenless. They were actively bringing in pollen, reassuring to see after so many weeks of winter weather.

I found the first hive that I opened to be queenless, and it was the one that had a queen going into winter. Fortunately, the population seems strong enough and there is enough stored honey and pollen for it to make a comeback.

The two other hives I checked briefly on Thursday did NOT have queens going into winter… and I debated last fall whether I should just take the honey and start with fresh bees in the spring or leave them be and deal with it in the spring. I chose the latter because, frankly, I was too busy last fall to do anything else. The second hive I opened was also (still) queenless but had a strong population and good reserves of honey and pollen.

The third hive I opened on Thursday was a surprise - it was thriving with honey, pollen, a huge bee population, and eggs and larvae — they have a queen in there! It was starting to get dark and bees are notoriously cranky when the sun starts to go down, I did not want to risk getting stung and was not able to get into the lower box to see if there was a lot of brood. It was great to find the hive in excellent shape considering I wrote it off last fall.

My plan is to transfer a frame of eggs and larvae to each of the queenless hives on the next warm, sunny day and give them an opportunity to raise a queen. In the meantime, I have beehives to build in preparation for more bees from New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania in the spring.

Honey bees bringing in pollen

A frame of honey bees

Honey bee eggs, larvae, and capped brood

A frame of honey

Ringing in 2019

I made time at the beginning of 2019 to think about my interest in beekeeping and plans for the future. Each year brings new knowledge, challenges to overcome, fresh experiences, and expansion… I’ve enjoyed watching the apiary evolve over the years.

I finally enlisted help with this public-facing website. It was long overdue and the results definitely exceeded my expectations! It is a small detail in the keeping of bees, but one that facilitates communication and outreach. I am looking forward to sharing my beekeeping exeriences here while also giving you a reliable method of ordering products and services — and seeing first-hand where your honey comes from. This is where you will be able to see the story of that jar of premium honey in your hands.