Category Archives: Uncategorized

Hiked around the summit of Marys Peak today at 34 degrees, with about 1-2″ of fresh slushy snow.  First snow of fall up there, with cool showers and sun breaks in the valley.  We also found my camera that was … Continue reading →

It’s been a beautiful weekend in Oregon after last week’s record-breaking storm, and we took advantage of the weather to do a thorough pre-winter inspection of our hives.  With one possible exception, they look very good, and all have enough … Continue reading →

At the moment of the autumnal equinox, 1:44 pm yesterday, I was standing on the summit of Marys Peak in driving rain and 44 mph wind with gusts to 65.  Fifteen minutes later I leaned into the strongest gust, 76 … Continue reading →

My apologies to those who watch my blog to read about bees – it’s been too long since I posted about them.  When last I posted, they were booming and swarming, and my five overwintered colonies had become 12.  Unfortunately … Continue reading →

Update:  Albany rain total now up to 3.73″.  That may well be an all-time summer season record for them.  Still only 1.60″ here. Summer weather here can be pretty boring.  Either the wind blows off the land, in which case … Continue reading →

After losing most of my spring splits and swarms to a presumed pesticide incident (which I will write more about sometime), I found myself with a surplus of both hive boxes and drawn comb, and a need to fill those … Continue reading →

I wrote this on Facebook in response to a recent proposal to ban all GMO crops in Oregon, and thought it was worth posting here. ——————————————————— What bothers me is the powerful, irrational fear that grips some people upon any … Continue reading →

Here in our beloved America we have 2.4 million people in prison.  That’s about the population of Portland and all of its suburbs, or nearly one in 100.  Keeping someone in jail costs about $40,000 per year, which is about … Continue reading →

Just captured swarm #3 from our hives, as large as the first (basketball?).  Found a dead virgin queen that was being balled.  Hopefully that wasn’t their only queen… And then there were 12.

Yesterday morning I was back tending to the big swarm from the previous post, moving the remaining clustered bees to near the box entrance.  Just as they were all going in, I noticed an unusual number of bees in the … Continue reading →