Category Archives: Uncategorized

I think we finally have the right number of beehives – enough that we can manage them as a self-sustaining unit, keeping extra queens in reserve in nucs and using bees and brood from nucs to build up weak colonies. … Continue reading →

The Demaree method is working at least in terms of swarm prevention.  The bees do end up making a few queen cells up top, and in two hives also a couple of queen cells in the lower box with the … Continue reading →

I feel like I have graduated from beginner to intermediate beekeeper, after spending nearly three hours completely disassembling, reshuffling, and reassembling four booming hives to implement the Demaree method.  I found all four unmarked queens without having to examine any … Continue reading →

This is the time of year in Oregon when, after a few 70-degree teasers, the weather is still mostly cool and rainy.  It is easy to spend too much time indoors and miss the rainbows.  On Tuesday night, right at … Continue reading →

Spring is teasing us this year.  The bees and flowers are ahead of schedule, and today felt like May at 70 degrees.  But we are heading into a week of cold rain, reminding us that March is not yet over.  … Continue reading →

We moved two of our hives out to Goosefoot Farm two weeks ago, and today we headed out there for the first inspection of spring. Both colonies look very good – perhaps too good given that it is still March … Continue reading →

For the second year in a row all five of our hives successfully overwintered.  There is some degree of luck involved, as queen loss or disease can affect any hive at any time.  Even so, we are beating the odds … Continue reading →

Spring has come early to Oregon this year, after a record-breaking February snow and ice storm.  It has a been a strange winter in many ways, with the most snow in Corvallis in at least 20 years but very little … Continue reading →

Gunshots in the distance.  The air is perfectly still, a soft rain falling at 32 degrees.  More gunshots, closer this time, followed by a crash and a swishing sound, and then more silence.  These trees have seen ice before, but … Continue reading →

It’s a warm (49 degrees) November night with a waxing moon and not a hint of wind.  Fog has settled in beautiful shallow patterns over dewey lawns and meadows, creating a glow beneath the streetlights and a halo around the … Continue reading →