50 Degree Day

It got up to 50 degrees outside today, not bad at the end of Jan.  Some of the bees poked their heads out and stretched their wings.

It seems that 50 degrees is what they look for to venture outside.  Any colder and I do not see them out at all.

It has been a warm Dec & 1st 1/2 of Jan. Today we got up to 50 degrees. As the sun heats the front of the hive the bees come out. Have placed some water infront of the hive and some honey for the them to eat.

Presidential Bee's

During my friends to trip to Washington DC he was able to capture a photo of a bee hive on the White-house south lawn.

My stand for the bee hive it not that nice.  Also note they do not use any deep hive body's.  I think I am going to go that route for any new hives.

The different flower the bees visit results in different color honey.  On the right is from Summer/Fall 2010.  Middle was Spring/Summer 2011 and left is Fall 2011.  It is cool with the Honey come out as dark as used motor oil.

Honey Sale

Today Aleena decided to sell the honey. From the stand in the front yard between 11 am and 5 pm, she sold 31.5 lbs of honey and 24 lip balms. She worked really hard all day long. It sure draws a larger crowd than a lemonaid stand does.

Marked Queen

My new queen bee came in via UPS. She is marked with a blue do so it will be easier to find her. Each year they mark queen with a different color so you can identify when she was born.

Blue is the color for 2011.

Solar Oven

I created a solar oven to melt bees wax. The wax is filtered through a cloth and then into a pan of water. It floats on the water and is easy to remove.

The melting point for bees wax is around 145 degrees. On a 87 degree day we were able to get the oven upto 178 degrees. So the wax melted very well and we now have filtered wax.