I purchased new Bee's yesterday.
Two colonies with one queen each to be exact.
I ordered them from the Walter T. Kelley Company in Kentucky.
They were very reasonable in today's market, and they will be shipping them out on April 11th.
This year I ordered Italian Bees.
When I first started beekeeping my first bee's were Italians, and they were very gentle and very good producers. They kept the hives extremely clean, and I was very pleased with them. After the third year the queen got tired and they started swarming. I caught two of the swarms, but they never did as well as the original colony.
Two seasons ago Karol and I purchased new queens. These were Russian queens.
These girls started swarming immediately. It seemed like that was all that they would do. While they were pretty docile and easy to work with, they were messy and didn't fill up one honey box at a time. They would work different boxes all at the same time leaving honey here and there within the hive. Additionally, I don't think the queen was quite as busy laying eggs as her Italian predecessor, although I could be wrong as it was a little hard to tell when they were constantly swarming.
6 comments:
I am so ready for spring, just 27 days away. YIPPEEEEE
We're planting peas and onions next week. Mar 11 we'll be setting the onions out and Mar 7th the peas go in the ground. I feel like a kid at christmas. I love working the dirt. Never ceases to amaze me how a tiny seed can produce 5 to 7 lb heads of cabbage.
We're preparing a new bed for asparagus this year. I ordered Jersey Supreme Giants from Henry Fields, they'll be shipped March 2. We don't expect to harvest this year, probably not much next year but after that we should be good on asparagus for the next 15 years or so.
I hope you have great success with your bees this year.
Sorry about that, I meant to click name and hit anonymous. It's only me. :)
Oh, Asparagus is sooo wonderful!
There used to be a great patch at the end of Wisharts point.
I haven't been down in couple of years so I don't know if it's still there.
I really want to establish a patch.
There used to be a huge field of Asparagus on the corner of Walston Switch and Rt 50. Sadly they plowed it under and built a commercial park there. Not a spear to be found.
This particular variety is resistant to most things common to affect asparagus and it's all male so it will produce larger healthier spears. When they start coming in I'm sure it will be in abundance. If you are still around I am always more than happy to share.
Dang, I did it again, hit anon. Sorry about that. It's just me, again.
Bees! Oh, I miss our bees. Back in Georgia we had 3 beehives that we kept for fun.
I sure do miss them.
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