Category Archives: Chicago
Courting Our First Swarm
“Baby come back Any kind of fool could see There was something in everything about you Baby come back You can blame it all on me” ~ Hall and Oats, Baby Come Back As I type this, thousands upon thousands … Continue reading
Our First Ever Spring Hive Check
It’s often said that the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. This rings true for us every time we open our hive and even when we’re just sitting nearby watching with wonderment. Though we’re entering our … Continue reading
Posted in Basics, Beekeeping, Chicago
Tagged checker boarding, hive check, inside the hive, lessons learned, pollen, queen excluder, spring, supers, urban beekeeping
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A Winter Beard
Our little blog has been dormant for months, but our mighty hive is alive and kicking. Early last September we harvested over twenty pounds of honey, a 225% increase from our first-ever harvest in 2010. We were surprised by the … Continue reading
Posted in Beekeeping, Chicago, History, Uncategorized
Tagged bearding, bees died, harvest, urban beekeeping, winter
2 Comments
The Deafening Silence of Our Hive
Because my Sweet Hive friends will understand better than anyone, I wanted to share an excerpt from a piece I recently wrote for chicagoREgen.com titled The Heartbreak of an Urban Beekeeper. When the second warm day of the year arrived … Continue reading
Our Ladies Survived Snowmaggedon
It’s been a long, bitter Chicago winter. The recent Snowmaggedon, our third biggest snowstorm on record, was cruelly followed by sub-zero temperatures. Will our bees survive, we worried? I was considering poking myself in the eye with my snow shovel … Continue reading
Market Day: Blueberry Blossom Honey
A month ago when we were anxiously stalking Bob Kress for our first ever honey bees, Bob the Bee Man, as I like to call him, was busy as a – oh, I can’t say it. No, I won’t say it. … Continue reading
