Bees appear to have noticed that the heat has let up. Production has increased. Babies look good. No sign of swarming, but signs of a possible insurrection coming. TONS of beetles on the swiffer pads. Looks to be a good fall harvest. #beekeeping #hiveblogging #BzzzFeed #HivesOfMastodon

Being an amateur #beekeeper is good spiritual practice. Because fear is an unaffordable luxury, you get exposure to loving something that can hurt you, and there's lots of practice in doing the right thing without expectation of reward.

I also got stung like six times, which is a personal record, and which is a pain level appropriate to many spiritual practices.

YOUR HOME IS FREE OF BEETLES AND MITES, YOU'RE WELCOME, ASSHOLES

#hiveblogging #BzzzFeed

Just pulled two full hive boxes for harvest and could have gotten frames from a third, but I need to get an extra box and frames to pull that off.

Regardless, those two boxes weighed roughly a Squeaky Pete each, i.e. about 50 pounds. I couldn't lift both at once. Gonna be lousy with the good stuff this weekend. Happy Father's Day to me.

#beekeeping #hiveblogging #BzzzFeed

#beekeeping Hive check just now. Could easily harvest a full box today, but we aren't spinning for two weeks. By then I could easily have 1.5-2 boxes. And since I graduated the program, I take it all home. That could be as much as a gallon of honey. Easily 2-3 quarts.

Evidence of mites, so I gave them the powdered sugar technique. If you'd told me a couple years ago that one day I'd be sprinkling powdered sugar over several thousand bees, I would have checked you for fever. #hiveblogging

Just went out to do a hive check.

The good news: there will be a sizable honey harvest next weekend. Couldn't believe how heavy the top two boxes were. Halfway capped.

The bad news: a bee stung me on the boob. RIP, boob bee.

#beekeeping #hiveblogging #BzzzFeed