i'm always skittish this time of year does the temperatures start warming up and uh
and the big question is did any of my v's survive winter well stay tuned
do
hey y'all welcome back to pine meadows hobby farm i'm your host jerry hansen in the apiary finally
this year first time this year i i didn't know if my bees were going to survive winter uh there was
no activity from them for months which you know bees don't really come out until at 60 degrees and
above well we got 62 degrees out right now and the bees are out so it's an indication i have at least
at least minimum three live highs viable hives so we're going to keep an eye on those and see
if there's any other bees in the other hives you can count on some losses during winter but hey
i started off the last year's beekeeping season by buying five colonies from my friend ken muellstein
at a zombie a berries and he supplied me with five hives i purchased them and we installed them and
then the colonies were so vibrant vibrant i mean they they just started swarming so i caught the
swarms i split the hives i added more hives so i doubled i went from five colonies to ten colonies
by the end of the season then it was time to go into getting them winterized so this year for the
first time ever i went ahead and winterized my hives with this styrofoam uh four foot by eight
foot sheets of insulation and just wrap the hives the best i could and i clustered them together
just took all the hives that were left and they clustered them together close so they keep warm
and that's one of the first things you want to do with your bees keep them warm and make sure
they have enough food to last them throughout the year now that i know it was successful
yeah this is the backside and top side of the insulation that i put on them i'm going to go
ahead and take my time and create more uh like little boxes that slip over the top of the hives
and uh create individual boxes to insulate them what hives i have left i'm not purchasing any more
hives i know i'm done purchasing hives i'm just going to work with the bees that i have since i
have nothing but time on my hands and try to grow them and prosper them and maybe i can sell some
hives i went down and bought a stockpile of empty boxes and i've got frames and foundation i got
bottom boards top boards inner covers i've got telescoping covers so i've got the whole setup
along with honey supers that i can colonize and then sell
towards the middle to the end of the season and hopefully uh there'll be buyers out
there for honeybees from people who want to become more self-sufficient and self-reliant
on their homestead and also benefit from nature's bounty that the bees provide especially
pollen and nectar that's gathered from the area it will help with your own personal immunities
so
i'm pleased i've got three hives that are uh buzzing with activity i'll be putting
in some sugar water out here uh in the front shortly and that way as it warms up they'll be
they'll have a really ready supply of food also they can go down right here to the creek and get
water plus they get water from the pond so there's plenty of water around and pla and
also i'm planting a lot a flowers this year a lot of flowers and flowering bushes and shrubs
to help feed the bees not even just my bees but any local pollinator
so the the bee yard looks in a little bit of disarray right now because
winter came we had wind storms it kind of blew things apart but they survived also i had to
wrap this in chicken wire because the chickens like to get in there and eat the uh styrofoam
what so i'm going to fix up something a little bit more permanent around that area to keep the
chickens out since it's located in the chicken yard and at least get the chickens distance
enough where they can't reach those things but next year i'm building or this year i'm building
the little envelopes that set down over the tops of them so the chickens won't even be able to
reach them anyway so stay tuned for the video and i also have an idea of uh being artistic you know
artsy fartsy you know me eccentric with the beehives yeah i i've been
planning this for a year now and i've got the material for it i'm going to build it
so stay tuned to that uh it's a unique it's never been done before and
it might inspire people beekeepers everywhere you know me i'm eccentric and i like my i like
my homestead to look neat and pretty i do have a little bit of honey left over from last year
that i was able to harvest honey because i got a honey uh centrifuge a separator so i'm
able to harvest my own honey oh it's delicious oh man local honey unpasteurized it's got its
own unique flavor it own unique flavor so stay tuned to more videos throughout the year on the
beekeeping i've been going through this adventure and struggling with beekeeping for some time now
um but you know a beekeeper can only cross his fingers and hope for the best
i got blessed we got surviving hives now we just got to grow them out
i'm jerry hanson your host this is pine meadows hobby farm in the apiary today
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i'm happy i'm happy i got bees that survived the winter every beekeeper
goes through what i'm going through right now they survive we'll see you guys later bye-bye
do