For the last four years we have been using the following Winter Nuc preparation method. We first heard about preparing Winter Nucs during a talk Kirk Webster made at a local beekeeping organization; our method has been slightly modified from Kirk’s. In the early Spring winter nucs which have survived are quite vibrant and ready … Read more
Charlie Toth in Somerset, NJ has been making & selling 5-pound hard sugar-candy blocks for Honeybee winter feeding. He wraps his blocks in butcher paper. The best way to add a sugar candy block to the hive is as follows: Use only on hives where the cluster is in the top super Build a 3 … Read more
The winter may be the most challenging time for honeybees in the northern climates. This winter has already thrown more at us than most years do. We try to prepare for typical weather events in advance by adding extra heavy blocks on tops, and solid bottoms below, plus feeding if necessary. But falling trees are … Read more
This past Friday and Saturday Mary sold additional Carniolan and Russian Winter Nucs. Then on Sunday we moved out some of our Winter Nucs hives to a new property, then hived a swarm and finally finished putting together additional mediums. Bringing in a Nuc box for a Winter Nuc pickup Three … Read more
Our winter nucs passed the NJ state bee inspector’s inspection, two weeks ago this coming Monday. While conducting his inspection we discussed nuc pricing with him. We know what price nucs are going for, and how most spring nucs are put together. Our winter nucs need to go at a premium price since their queens … Read more
We are coming in to our two toughest winter months, February and March, for the honeybee. Yet it was 62 degrees on Wednesday and 48 degress on Thursday – quite warm as compared to last winter. Our bees have been very active due to the warm winter we have been experiencing in New Jersey. So … Read more
In addition to preparing our winter nucs for the upcoming winter we also visit our out yard production hives to get them ready for the winter. Since we use screen bottom boards on all our production hives we add solid beeswax-dipped 3/4″ flat boards under each screen bottom for the winter months. We also add … Read more
Last week we completed our Carniolan Winter Nuc preparations. During the week we moved the Winter Nucs foot-by-foot into distinct groups of Nucs. We built, painted and branded new medium supers, which are used to house the feeders and the insulation boards. On Friday, before the arrival of Saturday’s Nor’easter, we completed the installation of … Read more
Monday morning we started off the day making deliveries of honey to a local restaurant, and brought several packages of Honey Wedding Favors to FedEx. While on the road, we got a message about a new cache listing in the immediate area where we were, in Eatontown. We zoomed over to the Park and made the … Read more
We visited all our yards and hives the last two days during our 54 degree heat wave. We have had to snowshoe out to some of our yards since our Jeep was blocked by 6 foot piles of snow. Right now our 120 hives are looking good – we have about 15 percent losses but … Read more