A Year in the Life of an Organic Beekeeper
My journey as an organic beekeeper...
task by task, mistake by mistake, the ‘ah ha’ moments, and those of sheer bliss.
Thirty-two hives seemed like a good idea this spring, when the bees were so audibly happy to be freed of their winter cloaks and the post-rain forage was promising wondrous things to come.Now those wondrous things have come to pass, transformed into quantities of honey I have never seen from my smaller 8-frame hives....
Nothing makes me happier than taking time during the day to wander along the roadside and through the fields to see what my bees are foraging on. They always look so happy and focussed as they bounce gracefully from flower to flower, humming as they go. Maybe they secretly like the independence and relative quiet, so different than the collectivity of the hive. Maybe they're a little high from the nectar and sun and the pollen gathering on their fuzz....
I know better than to check for my queens' acceptance too early. Maybe it's just my eyes but it's usually two full weeks before I can see clear signs of brood and happy integration...
My most distant hive is only 100 feet from the honey house, but it's ridiculous how many trips back and forth I can take for something I forgot or didn't know I needed. So I am thrilled with this gardening trug I found from Lee Valley...
I can't stop looking at her. Well, at her and her nest, her beautiful, furry nest made from teeny twigs and tufts of Molly's soft grey undercoat. Is it a gesture from a kind universe or a random act of nature to find such beauty right outside our window when we are longing for our silly dog?...
It is not my practice to requeen on a regular basis. I know some beekeepers prefer to replace their queens annually, but I've never found that to be necessary. My queens tend to be productive for more than a year, and when they are ready, I let them supersede....
It's lilac season in The County. Which is not like lilac season in other places: The County is defined by its lilacs. Acres of them - in fields, along the roads, by the lake and streams. Huge, billowing, blooming groves of lilacs everywhere you look....
I look forward to the first inspection all winter. I think about my bees, huddled in their hives, eating honey and telling stories, and I can't wait to open them up and support their (I imagine) delirious early foraging.
The reality is somewhat different...
Judging by social media, I'm the last beekeeper in Ontario to unwrap their hives. My excuse is that our microclimate is two to three weeks later than Southwest Ontario, but the real reason is I'm not in any hurry. The weather is still pretty iffy and it's not like they can't get out and snack on the dandelions. Why remove their warm winter coat without good reason?
I like a clean honey house. Clean and orderly. So I look forward to the day when it's warm enough to take a broom and mop to the accumulation of winter tracked-in dirt and detritus and get the honey house ready for the season...
This year, for the first time in 12 years, we are opening Long Point without Molly, our silly, sassy, supremely entitled and occasionally well- behaved dog...
Last night I spoke to the wonderful Urban Toronto Beekeepers' Association about record keeping. I want to thank them for the opportunity, not just to see them again, but to work through some thoughts I've been having about the purpose and nature of managing hives. I promised that I would provide my PowerPoint presentation, so here it is, along with a brief synopsis of my talk:
Last night I had another bee dream. This may be a reflection of hunger for my bees, for the smell and sound of the beeyard. Or maybe, as I secretly believe, they’re calling to me. In any event, I woke up longing for spring and a strong desire to ‘nest’, which for me means couch-time with beekeeping catalogues. Like gardeners who obsess over seeds and garden accouterments, beekeepers, too, can drop headfirst into beekeeping supplies...
Today was one of those glorious, brilliantly sunny, unseasonably warm winter days that made it easy to talk Ross into taking the 3-hour drive with me to check the bees. As a bonus, it was warm enough to bring Molly, our nearly 16-year old Husky mix, for what might be her last visit to her favourite place on earth...
People often assume that organic means treatment-free. In fact, the Canadian organic standards allows varroa treatment with formic acid, oxalic acid, and essential oils such as thymol, all of which are considered organic. To treat or not to treat is a subject of some controversy in beekeeping and beekeepers tend to feel strongly one way or the other....
