Hägertorpet biodling
Casting wax bases
For a while I have been thinking about making my own wax base. Yes, you can send old frames to the shop, the melt out the wax, clean it and make new bases which you can buy back at a reduced price. But .... where is the fun in that? And since I'm doing nearly everything myself: off we go!
So I ordered myself a sillicone mould on the internet, and a crockpot from jula. True, the pot needs quite a bit of time to warm up but once warm, the temperature is near perfect. The first three sheets went straight back into the pot but then I got the hang of it. True, the are not perfect rectangular (I did not want the mould to overflow) but like all beekeepers mistakes : the bees will correct. It's just saving them a lot of work and energy by offering them a good base.
25 May 2025
Wintertime
During wintertime there isn't much to do but keeping an eye out. Make sure ventilation is sufficient, no animals attack the hives or branches fell on them.
The bees themselves can't be disturbed. Not to avoid waking them up, the are awake. But the hive must stay warm, and also, in their hive there is no toilet. Emptying their colons in the hive would make the hive so dirty the colony will die. So they save that up till spring. Once the temperature goes above 10 °C they fly out and have a good dump. But till then, it's just a pretty picture.
4 Jan 2025
Preparing for winter
Having harvested the honey, that leaves the bees with one big issue: How to get through the winter. The solution is feeding the sugar. It will be their foord for winter. A single colony stores between 14 and 18 kilo's sugar in the hive for winter. I still don't know why I never get an odd look at the checkout when paying for 45 kilo sugar and nothing else.
To give it to them, you add 1 liter water to every 2 kilo sugar and feed them that solution. At times they can process around 4 liters of that in one day.
29 Aug 2024
Inside the hive
What does it look like inside a hive?
21 Jun 2024
Honey extractor
While reading about beekeeping I came across a honey extractor for a very attractive price. Almost too good to be true, so I started searching reviews and it's not bad at all! Given the price and the reviews I decided it's worth to go ahead with it.
I must say, it did not dissapoint me. Since all frames have different weight, the extractor tends to wobble and try to "walk". Mu solution for it: Make a stand to mount it on and use my own weight to hold it down.
18 May 2024
Beesting
It's almost unavoidable. When working with bees a lot you will be stung sooner or later. Though i'm not allergic, I do have what's called Large-Local-Reaction. So when the sting me in my finger, my hand will become double in size and the swelling is noticable up until a bit above the elbow. The sting hurts but not the reaction to it. It itches ans feels very warm. Without some treatment (products without perscription works fine) it lasts little over a week.
Still bees have no tendancy to sting, it's their last resort when feeling threathend. This simply because the will die after stinging. This because the will loose their stinger and poison bladder with the sting. It remains in the victim and will autonomus keep pumping the poison. That's why you don't pull out a bee stinger but scrape it off if hey have to.
17 Aug 2023
Selling honey
Now there is some honey to sell, I took some scrap wood left in the garage and in a few hours I got myself a nice cabinet to placeat the roadside.
8 Oct 2022
Starting off with beekeeping
Beekeeping grabbed my intrest. I have been reading over it during a weekend and when a co-worker came in on Monday stating "I have become a beekeeper" I decided to write up for a course. I first want so see what I get myself into and it it's "my" thing too
Browsing the catalog's during the course I did not see anything that made me say "Yes! i'm gonna do that". Brousing the internet did not change that at all. Until I came across build plans. I decided on a top-bar-hive but everyone advised against it. It took a few plans more, but then I found one I liked.
So here I am. Building hives, stands, frames etc. while my wife isn't surprised a bit. She'd seen it coming long before I knew myself.
20 March 2022