We are sorry. Woodrow's Apiary currently does not sell
honey to the public.
Check out or Links Page!!! Local Honey
Honey for Health
Cool Books
Good Food
On Your Table and in Your School
How to Support Pollinators
Beekeeping Supplies
Beekeeping Information
Inspecting A Hive
The hives are inspected on a regular basis. Things can go wrong in the hive - ants or mites could attack the colony, for example. If we see the problem, we can help the bees keep the colony strong.
"The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it."
Jacques Yves Cousteau
First we gather together all the tools we will need.
Smoker: smoke calms the bees
White pine needles: used in the smoker/white pine burns cool
Tool box: contains supplies for building a hive, marker to mark queen, lighter, and more
Bee brush: a soft brush to brush bees away without causing injury
Hive tools: can be used as scraper, pry bar, and hook for puling up frames
Nitrile gloves: lightweight gloves that offer protection from bee stings
Sugar syrup: food for the bees
We also have a supply of test kits, treatments, and extra jars.
Next, we pull on our bee suits. We also pull on some high boots. Kevin had a bee climb up his pant leg one day. Yikes! The boots help keep the bees on the outside of our pants!
Now we head down to the hives.
Kevin opens the top of a hive.
Thief! A yellow jacket has made her way into the hive and is enjoying some sugar syrup.
We keep jars of sugar syrup at the top of the hive as an extra source of food for the bees.
Now he pulls the box around the sugar syrup off. The jars are empty! The bees drank all the syrup from two mason jars in just one week. We will give them more today.
Kevin moves the old jars and gently begins to lift the lid of the next box. He used the smoker to calm the bees underneath.
The lid is off and the frames are exposed. A little more smoke.
He then uses a hive tool to help lift up the frames and check for problems.
This frame shows some capped brood. Brood is bee larve or bee eggs. The queen lays the eggs in the cells. Other bees then add a little food to the cells and cap the cell with wax.
You can actually see the Queen on this frame. She has a red mark painted on her back. The mark helps us to find her in the hive. The color of the mark also tells us she was born in 2013. A new color is designated each year. Here's a bigger picture. See if you can see her.
This frame has honey!
Another thief takes advantage of the new jars of sugar syrup we brought out.
After checking the frames, Kevin puts it all back together. He sets some new jars of syrup on top and covers the hive. He will repeat the entire procedure with all the hives.
