Pollen Patch Bee Farm

Life has been very busy as Summer came to its end and although I did spend a lot of time with the bees, I did not do a great time documenting it so I am going to summarize the highlights here and provide an update on the hives

Pine Hollow: These bees are thriving! They also happen to be my most fiery hives. I have two colonies at this location, and they enjoy taking turns trying to sting me. They are by no means overly aggressive but compared to the other colonies they are less tolerant of me invading their space and are quick to defend it. The lower hive at Pine Hollow was the only hive that produced enough honey that I felt comfortable enough to take any. I will write about that process in another post. All of my hives are in their first year and it is very typical to leave most if not all the honey they produce on the hive so they can use it during the Winter.

River Retreat: These hives are located on top of a hill on a Lavender Farm and get lots of warm sunshine all day long. They are both healthy colonies and pretty even tempered. One of these colonies did swarm during the late spring but has dramatically increased in numbers since. This location is absolutely beautiful. It offers event space and breathtaking views. You can check it out here. I am planning to add two additional colonies here next year as well as offer classes and bee related workshops.

Price Place: I shouldn’t have favorites, but this is definitely my favorite colony! I only have one hive at this location, and it is the most accessible. I can sit for hours and watch the bees come and go. These bees are so gentle! I have opened this hive without smoke or protection without a single sting. (I am not recommending that anyone do this because bees can be unpredictable, gentle one day and more aggressive the next).

This hive is where the Mother’s Day Swarm and the two queen less colonies from earlier in the year were relocated to. In September, I trapped a small swarm that was unlikely to have time to build numbers and honey stores before Winter, so I added them to this colony as well. I hope they make it through Winter, but they are not as strong in numbers as the other hives that I mentioned.

Heister Hollow: This location has one hive that contains a swarm colony trapped earlier in the summer. I believe it was a swarm from one of the River Exchange Hives. They have remained on the small side. I think it is due to the huge amounts of rain that we had this year that limited foraging time for the bees. This hive is a little out of the way from my other locations and I did not get out as much as I would have liked. When I did get to this hive I found they were building their comb from the top of the brood box frames upward completely ignoring the frames I had placed for them to build on. It was a mess! I removed the wonky comb and rubberbanded it into medium frames. I replaced the second deep box with a medium and I am hoping they are able to repair and fill it with stores by the time Winter arrives.

Jase’s Place: This is our newest Location! (Pictures Coming Soon) Jase is my nephew and is interested in learning more about beekeeping. Over the last year, I attended a monthly beekeeping class. This class was scheduled for 7 months (1 meeting per month) with the option to take a colony of bees home in October. So these bees are now on his property and we are going to continue learning together. I am as excited to spend time with him as I am about the bees we’ll be keeping. This colony is going to require some attention. The instructor of the class I mentioned overwinters bees in a single deep brood box. I am overwintering all of my other colonies in double deep brood boxes. Each method has unique pros and cons and requirements. I have spent a lot of time researching the double deep method but will have to invest more to ensure the bees in the single deep have what they need to survive Winter.