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A great thing about the top Bar system, no heavy lifting. I can’t stress that enough. Also routine maintenence such as supering the langstroth’s to give more room for the bees is non existent. The entire hive comes in one box, their are enough bars to prevent overcrowding. if you are a wild child like me though, you could fashion a thing I like to call “super-ing bars” where as the middle bars of the hive have knotches cut out of them to allow the bees to travel up into an additional top bar hive, thus more sweet sweet honey. Also, got me with a nice paper wasp hive. I gotta figure out what to do with it now.
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GoogleMaps is hooking it up with free publicity for one of the Beehives. Advertising it worldwide from a satellite 24/7. If anyone is interested in putting their roof on the map, (literally) let me know.
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Had a lot of free time today so we decided to dissect a female honeybee. Put her under the microscope and had a field day. Most bees, when they die, stick their probosces (tongue) out, and we were very fortunate to get some footage. Also we took out the stinger of the bee and despite the fact that I punctured the venom sack, the stinger was perfectly intact. The stinger is an awesome defense mechanism of the bee. So tiny yet it packs so much toxin and pain for the not so gentle. Remember though, bees will only use their stinger as a last resort, it kills them, and they know that so they rarely will use it on people.
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Chris bought this cool microscope for his iphone. took a close up of a bees eye. way trippy
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Interview with marla Spivak about beekeeping.
I was driving around at work today jamming out to some music when I decided to put on NPR. I like NPR some of the times, but usually most of it is pompous liberal crap that really doesn’t have any impact on my life especially with host’s who have names like Gian, Mal, or Albana. Anyways, I put on NPR and caught just the tail end of this interview about Marla spivak and her work with bees at the U of Minn. Boss Interview. finally someone is talking about something other than their honey crop failing. She is actually talking about beekeeping that can pertain to beginning beekeepers, Something we are trying to do in Chicago. Steer away from the Langstroth hive. Use a Top Bar or even a tree trunk, but stop buying into the langstroth myth. Please if you have the time, listen to this whole interview or just listen to a bit of it if you are seriously interested in Beekeeping. The audio file was too large to post on my blog but you can go directly to the site. It’s gonna blow your mind. Thank you NPR
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2nd year hive, a little weathered, but she’s gettin it done. nice worker comin in for the landing
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This is what happens after 6 weeks of beekeeping. gets a little obsessive no?
The Beebuds have a simple message: Keep Bees. Keep them on a roof, keep them in a yard, keep them inside your apartment, just keep bees.
This blog showcases what we are learning from a few chickens and a few too many bees.
We focus primarily on using the "Top-Bar" hive design. We custom built our own design after three years of trial and error, and are real excited for the future.
This Blog is for anyone interested in beekeeping, small or large scale. It is made so that novice beekeepers can come together and share our discoveries.
We are in Chicago. We design and sell "top-Bar" hives as well as consult you on where to place them on your property. We also have a bee supplier from St. Louis.
If anyone is interested in beekeeping, but doesn't have the knowledge, time, or courage to get stung, then we also offer a "Foster" system. We set up a hive on your property, we take care of all the dirty work, and you reap the rewards of tasting that sweet sweet honey.
If you have a few hours to talk, then send us an email to beebuds@gmail.com with your phone number and we would be glad to give you a call.
Lets keep them lady bees buzzin'!!
