Two-Wheeled Honey Deliveries

On request, I deliver honey to people in the local area on a motorcycle (I know, it's such an old cliche). Using my motorcycle makes it feasible to deliver without an extra charge, thanks to its sky-high efficiency. This was probably my last two-wheeled delivery until next spring, though, as the weather is turning cold this week.

Bees and Water

Bees need water for number of things, like cooling the hive and thinning thick or crystallized honey for feeding. Our home yard has a flowing spring near the hives, but our outyard didn't have a good source of year-round water...until now. This week we re-built our old farm pond, which had filled over the years with silt and cattails. In addition to improving wildlife habitat and providing some good fishing, the new pond will be a short flight for bees foraging for water. (If you look closely, there are a couple hives visible behind the dam on the right side of the picture.)

Storing Used Frames

Storage is perhaps the most overlooked challenge of beekeeping. Specifically, storing comb after it's removed from a hive can be daunting, with a number of pests (wax moths, small hive beetles, mice) quick to ruin the comb. To combat this, I threw together a frame storage rack last week. I'm testing it with about 20 frames of comb, but it should hold about 100; hopefully the sunlight, air space, and (eventually) freezing temperatures keep the frames in good shape until they're ready to go back into hives next spring.

Bees Working Cosmos Flowers

As goldenrod winds down here in Missouri, the bees are working cosmos sensation wildflowers. These flowers are foraged all year by bumble bees, butterflies, and other insects; but honey bees mostly avoid them in favor of other flowers. Bees' presence on the cosmos flowers suggests their food options have dwindled with the changing season.