SHOOK MITE COUNTS FROM DRONE BROOD

The photo shows the pattern of varroa mites shaken from a frozen frame of drone brood.  The frame was about 35% filled with capped brood.  Given that there are about 3,500 cells on each side of the frame, there were roughly 1,000 drones in the sample.  There are about 300 mites in this photo.  The photo represents about 1/3 of the sample results.  NOTE: DRONE BROOD HAS A CREAMY, NUTTY FLAVOR. I know, an acquired taste!

Nearly every drone cell had at least one mite.
 

GOLDENROD FLOW

 The Goldenrod flow has started.  Sometimes it is just pollen flow, but the possibility of nectar keeps the beekeeper hopeful with room for honey above the nest.

"RAW FILTERED HONEY" - IN PROCESS

 

DRONE COMB IN THE PRODUCTION HIVE FOR MITE CONTROL

 On a recent trip to the Le Seuer MN mating yard I got the chance to show some young people how we use drone comb to attract and remove mites (Varroa destructor) from the hives during the production season.  It is also a great time to teach the kids about the stingless male bee.  Note the red mite on the larva in the young mans hand, along with the emerged drone adult.

Photo credit to his Grandma!

ROTATIONAL GRAZING OF SHEEP HELPS WITH HONEY PRODUCTION

There is a special feeling one has when one good thing leads to another good thing, and then another...

Four of our hives are located on a small farmstead just SE of Northfield MN.  The nice folks who live on this beautiful place have a large family and raise a whole lot of their own food.  About 6 years ago I was fortunate to become their beekeeper. They also have a passion for sharing their way of living with others, holding large gatherings of like-minded families several times each year.  Attendance at these gatherings is increasing.  They are really on to something.

It has been a true joy to be a part of what they are doing, and we have been fortunate to produce quite a bit of surplus for sharing and for sale to others. 

The oldest son has responsibility for the care of the family flock of sheep.  And he is really good at it! In recent times he has started an 'old school' rotational grazing program which has resulted in clover and fresh pasture being available to the sheep and the bees all season.  Hey!  More forage helps make more honey!  This is a throwback to earlier times in the 20th century when bees could find pasture all thru the growing season and honey crops were much larger, on average, than they are today.  The young man is thinking about adding chickens to the pasture rotation to add more fertility and productivity to the equation. It is more work, but it adds to the operation and requires less equipment and fuel.

A real family farm may be the finest example of what humans and nature can do when they truly work together.

It turns out that one good thing often does lead to another, and another, and another.
 

BEE BALM HIVES

 Bee Balm, Wild Bergamot, Horsemint, Monarda fistulosa is a true American and Minnesota native!  It is adaptable and a hardy competitor in prairie environments.  The photo below shows a couple of thriving hives in an apiary near my home.  The Monarda was planted on disturbed ground following the installation of a neighbor's septic mound system.  Some of the honey supers are coincidentally painted in Bee Balm colors.

PERFECT!

SWEET CLOVER FLOW

The White Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba) accounts for the last significant honey flow in SE Minnesota.  While considered "invasive" along with its slightly earlier blooming cousin, Yellow Sweet Clover (Melilotus officinalis), these tall clover plants were introduced to North America by Europeans about the time honey bees were introduced (1600's).  Today, with the loss of natural habitat they are key to a successful honey crop for beekeepers.  

 

MATING YARD

The idea is to create an isolated mating yard to propagate queens purchased from the Russian Honey Bee Breeders Association (https://www.russianhoneybeebreeders.org/) for use by me and other local beekeepers. This is the first grouping of colonies. 

BASSWOOD BLOOM

 

This is what it is all about late June, early July.  The American Linden, or Basswood (Tilia americana) is a major source of nectar.  Because the trees are common along the river valleys and the forests of SE Minnesota they bloom over a fairly long period of time.  The ones in towns and cities seem to bloom first and the ones in cooler, shaded areas bloom later.

DRONE COMB TO AID IN MITE CONTROL

 Some beekeepers, including me, use cultural methods to help with control of the Varroa mite (Varroa destructor).  One of these methods involves putting special frames into the hive which the bees recognize as drone comb frames.  When the queen lays eggs in these cells, she makes sure they are unfertilized - resulting in drone larvae.  Drones take a much longer time to develop and they have more 'fat bodies' making them preferred by the mite mothers.  In short, once the cells are capped by the workers and the frames are removed by the beekeeper, the mites are removed from the hive.  The chickens are happy to take it from there, making a meal of the Drone grubs and the attached mites.

A closeup view is below.

NEW QUEEN LAYING PATTERN

I took this photo earlier this week.  You will note that there are some cells that have multiple eggs, or eggs placed oddly in the bottom of the cell.  This sometimes happens when a queen first starts laying following her return from her mating flight.  But, happily, she'll get the hang of her job pretty quickly.  In the meantime, her attendants will sort it all out.

There are some who believe the workers will move the eggs to a new cell, but others believe the extras are just recycled as food.

The following photo is a picture of the new queen a few days later.  You can see that she is doing marvelously!  She is marked with a white dot to let me know she is a 2026 queen.

 

 

 

 

New BLOGGER Profile Photo

 Photo credit to AD Murray II

OUR HONEY FLOWS EXPLAINED

 

AI GENERATED IMAGE FROM CHAT GPT

This image was created by Chat GPT responding to my request to make "a honey label showing a queen bee foraging in a native prairie flowers near the banks of the Cannon River in S.E. Minnesota".  

It is interesting that it picked up the oak savannah common to the area, the meandering nature, and general width of the Cannon River.  The crown was a nice touch from the program, but the bee itself is remarkably correct for a virgin queen on its maiden flight - the one time in her life that a queen would be seen by herself outside the hive.  Fun for a cold day.

 

SPRING BOOSTING WITH POLLEN SUPPLEMENT AND FONDANT

 

It is never a bad idea to make sure overwintered colonies have both carbs and protein to give them the best chance during early spring.  We get warm days and (at least here in Minnestota) a few "false spring" periods, where you think the cold weather is over.  The result is the queen starts to lay increasing quantities of brood - really stretching the resources of a hive that has been closed up for 5 months!

Providing supplemental feed gives the colony a fighting chance if they are kept from everyday foraging due to a cold snap or rainy weather.

This 6 over 6 frame double nuc (Lyson) went into winter a little light to begin with.  And the queen is starting her 3rd year.  She is a good candidate for grafting new queens late this spring ;-D

2026 WHOLESALE PRICING UPDATE

We are still selling 2025 crop honey, but expect to begin harvesting 2026 crop in July. The refill price is still $6.00 per lb. ($9 Pints and $18 Quarts). 

Text 507-291-1409 for refills.

Mason Jars are $1.00 for Pints and $1.50 for Quarts, if you do not have any to exchange.

FIRST POLLEN

 First pollen arriving in the hive today, courtesy of the Winter Bees working the Red Maple and Aspen(?) buds/Willow(?).

KENYON, MN HIVES SURVIVED FIRST WINTER!

 There are some VERY nice folks in Kenyon, MN who started 2 colonies from packages in 2025 on their farm.  I have been helping them get started in beekeeping, and it has been a lot of fun.

The big news is that they both made it thru the winter and are growing fast this spring.  So, we plan to split them in May.  Good going team!

DO HONEY BEES HIBERNATE? WELL, KIND OF... BUT NO.

 This is exactly what you want to see when you take your infra-red camera to a bee yard in January in Minnesota.  The camera shows the temperature gradient.  The "glowing" is heat from the wintering honey bees, keeping the queen very cozy inside the hive.  No, bees do not hibernate, but they do cluster tightly around their queen and keep warm as a group by "shivering" their flight muscles.  Much like Emperor Penguins, individuals take turns migrating to the outside of the cluster.