Honey on the comb! Yep, that's what it looks like. You can see that most of it has been "capped," meaning covered with beeswax, but there are a few cells uncapped, and we tasted it and it's definitely honey. At this point it's made from sugar water we were feeding them when they first arrived, so it's not really tasty. We care, but the bees don't; it's food that they can store for the winter. We'll be looking for the honey they're making in the next few months, which will be from the nectar & pollen they're collecting now. It will be a richer color & flavor (we hope)!
Here's the Roommate, showing off a frame that is full of comb, with lots of busy bees working on it. Some are caring for newly hatched bees, some are making and storing honey, some are storing pollen, etc. Click on the photos to see them full-sized (and you can zoom in quite a bit, if you want details).
I'll be sure and keep you updated as our first beekeeping season progresses...
Here is a photo of the Roommate, who had just finished putting together a hive. It's a Warré hive, and we got it from BeeThinking, but they sell all 3 types of hives. Warré beekeepers will tell you that it's a better hive because it lets bees build comb & stores the way they want to, but really we chose this one because it's made of 1" thick cedar & it's pretty! Oh, and those are little windows you can see on each of 2 of the hive boxes. (So, pretty-ness & snoopy-ness won out!)
We have been trying to prepare our backyard to have plenty of blooming flowers for our new tenants. I've been using Wildflower.org (The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center) because you can search their database of native plants by state, height, bloom time, bloom color, plant type, etc. So I wanted stuff that blooms later (after July/August), because that's when bees start running out of food & unfortunately it's when bees need it most, because they are trying to make enough stores for the winter.
I also did some searching for bulbs that bees like on the open web (because I planted lots of bulbs this past year).
We have also begun construction on our insect hotel. It will be especially hospitable to Mason bees (more about them here); my big worry is having enough flowers around to keep them all fed.
If you want to know about modifying Warré hives, so they have standard size combs, check out BioBees. They also provide a link to the full-text PDF of Warré's tome on his style of beekeeping.
We have ordered our 3 lb. package of bees (about 20,000!) from Virginia Beekeeping Supply, but they won't arrive until late March. We also recommend the class we took from Jerry at VBS. However, it won't be his fault if it all comes to naught. Follow this blog to see what happens next!
Besides deciding we need honey bees in our backyard (the jury is still out, though we are
continuing to research this project), we also became interested in Mason bees, after reading DIY Del Ray's post on building a Mason bee hive. My online research led me to Bee Diverse, which has lots of choices, including this Highrise, which comes with easy-to-clean inter-locking wooden tubes. (The problem if you don't clean out the tubes is that mites take over, not good for the bees.)
Then I was asked if there would be a conflict having both types of bees in our yard. According to a publication from the Extension service at Washington State University, the answer is an emphatic "no!" Obviously if you don't have many flowers at all, there might not be enough food for all the bees. But having a bountiful yard (which we are working towards) and a regular water supply (more on that below) should be enough for both sets of pollinators.
After attending a few lectures & talking with other beekeepers, we've discovered that the months of August-November present a problem because there aren't as many flowers, so not enough food for honeybees (there are many schools of thought on what to feed them instead, but honey is best). I've been using the Wildflower.org Native Plant Database to find appropriate flowers to fill in this gap. After selecting Virginia for my state and part-shade for the area, it's also possible to select the months you want the plant to flower in! (You can even
select the color, but I don't think the bees care.) I am trying to find a source for purchasing Clematis Crispa/Swamp Leatherflower, but native plants are sometimes hard to get ahold of, even at native plant sales!
In terms of water for bees, that is a real problem in our area. We have 3 bowls which we keep filled for the squirrels & birds. But mosquitoes are such a problem that we try to empty them out (or let them go dry each week) so there's not a regular supply of standing water, which mosquitoes love. According to this webpage, if the top of the water is moving, mosquitoes won't lay eggs (a reason to have a drip system). Also, bees will drown if there's nothing floating in the water, so corks & sticks are recommended! And apparently they don't like nice, clean water--they like it a bit dirty. So, we have to work on getting more corks and figuring out a way to ensure water year-round for them.
We were lucky to be part of DIY Del Ray's first Urban Farm Tour last Saturday morning.
Though we know we probably won't get much to grow in our ever-shady yard, we were inspired by our neighbors' mini- & maxi-farms. Additionally, we have begun to check into beekeeping, after seeing two separate homes with hives on the tour.
Beekeeping starts in the spring, so we're using our time until then to do some research before we commit $500+ for the start-up costs. Also, you don't get any honey the first year (the bees need it for themselves). So if we start keeping bees in April 2015, we won't see any 'free' honey until August or September of 2016. A long-term investment, and not exactly cheap, so we've been doing some reading & thinking about it. Some of the resources we've been checking out are listed below.
A couple of books from the public library:
Keeping Honey Bees, Sanford & Bonney, 2010
Keeping Bees, Vivian, 1986
We're taking a class in January (beginning bee-keeping) in Remington, at Virginia Beekeeping Supply. That's an in-person class, but there are online classes, and classes a little closer to home listed here.
There's also a local chapter of the Beekeeper's Association for NoVa.
Finally, the best part is looking at all the lovely hive choices! A quick search will retrieve many, but here are a few that have enticed us so far.
Bee Thinking, in Portland, OR - I'm especially partial to their copper-roofed Warre hives!
Valley Bee Supply, a little closer to home in Fishersville, VA
Dadant claims to be the oldest & largest supplier in the US
Of course it's not as easy and buying a cool-looking hive & finding a good spot in your yard. If you'd like to get a sense of what else you'll need (like a nuc), check out Richmond Honey Bee, which has an unbelievable amount of information and you can easily spend hours reading through all his posts & learning.
The Fairmont, in downtown DC, has 3 hives for honey and a new "hotel" for non-honey-making (but expert pollinating) bees. Read all about it in this Post article.
We still haven't committed to this enterprise, but if we do, we'll keep you posted!
Honey on the comb! Yep, that's what it looks like. You can see that most of it has been "capped," meaning covered with beeswax, but there are a few cells uncapped, and we tasted it and it's definitely honey. At this point it's made from sugar water we were feeding them when they first arrived, so it's not really tasty. We care, but the bees don't; it's food that they can store for the winter. We'll be looking for the honey they're making in the next few months, which will be from the nectar & pollen they're collecting now. It will be a richer color & flavor (we hope)! 
