Webb Acres Homestead

I have already gone through a series of ups and downs with beekeeping. As previous posts state, I was excited to begin my new venture of keeping bees after years of dreaming about it. I ordered six packages and was beyond excited when I first picked them up at the post office. We had a mentor getting us started and showing us how to place the bees into the hives. This was going to be great.

When checking out the hives periodically in May and early June, I started to notice some problems. While not exactly sure why, it looked like I lost two of my hives, two had hardly any bees, and two were thriving. Unsure of what was going on, my mentor returned and made a couple of suggestions including getting a trap for each hive for hive beetles and a queen for one that clearly lost its queen for whatever reason.

One hive had a lot of ants despite efforts to keep them from climbing into the hives. I read that ants hate cinnamon so I sprinkled lots of it on and around the weaker hives as well as Vaseline on the legs of all of the hives.

I also got and filled feeders that fit into the hives to give the weaker colonies nectar and strength. Checking the hives a week or so later, I was dismayed and frustrated. One feeder was filled with ants, another had drowned bees, and two were empty, including the hive with the new queen.

I kept asking myself, “What am I doing wrong? Why can’t I do anything right?! I am trying to save and grow bee communities and instead I am doing more damage. I should just give up beekeeping.” My dreams of eating honey from our bees and growing the bee population in our community was turning into a disaster.

My mentor was not very responsive to my texts and when she responded a week or two later, she was not very helpful. I didn’t want to invite her over to try and figuring out why my bees were absconding. I just wanted to give up.

I decided to just step back for a while. Let the two healthy hives fill their frames with cells and bees. I needed a break.

This morning, despite day three of a migraine and high humidity, I decided it was time to check on my two hives and clean up the rest. To my delight, the two strong hives continue to thrive! All of their brood frames were filled or almost filled with combs that hold the eggs for new bees. Combs were also being made for honey in the honey super though I don’t see any honey yet. One of the frames in the brood box was sticky and I need to find out if that is possible despite having a honey super box on the hive.. Yes, I still have a lot to learn. But, I have two hives that are going strong and I was so excited!

Even more thrilling for me, one of the hives that I thought was empty, actually had an empty nectar feeder and bees filling frames! Another hive was alive and working hard. I refilled the feeder with sugar water, emptied and refilled all of the hive beetle traps (which were full), and added a brood box to the productive hives.

After checking the hives, cleaning things up a bit, and sprinkling mint seeds around the hives which apparently ants hate, I came to a realization. I still love beekeeping! I may be a novice and there is so much to learn but I am gaining knowledge, slowly but surely. I did have an idea of what to look for and had a slightly better understanding of what I am looking than a month ago. I have others I can reach out to besides my mentor for knowledge and advice.

Learning is a process and homesteading can feel isolating, scary, overwhelming, sad, exciting, satisfying, joyful, and entertaining. Despite the setbacks we have had in our first year with sheep, llamas, bees, and even our indoor pets, I am still glad we are doing it!