I brought bees onto my property to pollinate the fruit and vegetables in my garden and increase the production of my variety of fruit trees. It has not been easy!
As I mentioned in a previous post, one of my hives was taken over with yellow jackets and the bees in the other hive just disappeared sometime in January or February. It was extremely cold and wet this winter, but I thought I had prepared the hive for the winter.
I decided that having hives in a second home was just too much and I was going to remove the hives.
Well, sometime in May, bees returned to both hives. I don’t know if they are my bees just back from an excursion or another hive looking for a new home, but I now have bees in both my hives.
My hives are down by the creek that runs through my property, but I put some food and water close to the hives in hopes of keeping them happy.
I was lamenting to a friend about my hives and shortly thereafter the book above arrived in the mail. The Backyard Beekeeper, by Kim Flottum, available on Amazon, is a great reference. I have read about half of the book and will post an update soon.
This morning I harvested my first Persian cucumber and about a half dozen vine-ripened orange sun sugar tomatoes. Summer is here!
