Gee's Bees, LLC

Exactly what we didn’t want, so much for having a plan and sticking to it, but with B’s “good thinking, stinking” award comes the promise of organization in the GBee Yard. So the plan… In order of operations. Hive 21 (Production) Inspect, leave with 6 Frames of brood. (Donating extra).  Find queen remark and clip wing.  Bottom Box: Stores and empty comb, Queen excluder, Top Box: Store and brood. Hive 11 (Production) Inspect.  Find queen remark and clip wing.  Put extra brood from 21 in a second box. Bottom Box: Stores and empty comb, Queen Excluder, Top Box: Store and brood. Hive 25 (Production) Continue to move down into position.  Making queen (4/2). Hive 15 (Production) Move the top box (making queen from 25) to the pallet on its own (4/3).  Combine with Hive 13 choosing the best queen cell between the two.  Set extra brood aside if any, to work as resource hives if nucs not taken. Hive 13 & 23 (Resource/Nucs) Sell, If not, place in 8F boxes. Re...

The bees were grumpy and we did a couple of splits and hopefully can change queens on a few hives. They need some better straight for a better temperament. We made it through 3 of the 4 Hives. We did 25 first as we knew it would be the biggest, and sure enough, she was full of swarm cells. So we found her (no small feat) and got her set aside on the first stand with a couple of frames of brood to get a fresh start. We were able to harvest a couple of frames of cells, so Hive 25 and Hive 15 have them. Hopefully, they are successful, and her genetics will start populating. So, we got 3 of them split and we just did a precursory top box tip-up to check for queen cells. We'll finish them up on Saturday when we have a bit more time. Stand 1 Stand 2 11 13 14 15 21 24 25 Queen from 25 (Originally 23) with a few frames of brood and some shook in nurse bees. Q: Spotted Brood: New 3F's Stores: Light-Feed Temp: A Calm: A Split moving queen to 14. Left in "walk away split fashion...

Saturday's weather was pretty solid, plenty warm enough, 70° and sunny, Greensboro, NC Weather History. Still working towards (4) production hives, moving Hive 23 slowly over to replace Hive 25, which we expect problems from. That will be tomorrow's fun... We've scheduled the Mentees from this year’s Bee School to come over to help and gain some experience and saved inspections from Hive 23, 25 & the Nuc.  We will also start a new ranking system, placing aggressiveness high, and start selecting from queens that behave the way we want and are not so chippy. With a ranking system, we hope we can promote bees that are gentle, calm, have a low tendency to swarm, and are good honey producers.  Benny & Kathy (from the Bee Club) met us this afternoon to take a look at a couple of hives. As suspected Hive 25 (Old 23) was booming and shot up the rankings to Number 1... Description: Super Chill & Super Huge, just what you want. In fact, this Hive was so good, B is conside...

It was just warm enough and sunny, Greensboro Weather (2/19/22), the wind was a little much, but we made do, or at least the bees did. All the hives look great with the exception of Hive 25, this one is a little weak looking. They all have 4-6 frames of brood in all stages, placed in the bottom box. We saw queens in all the boxes, except for Hive 25 which makes it even more suspect. We currently have (6) 8F hives on main benches double deeps with new boxes on the bottom. All have new bottom boards and lids, again with the exception of Hive 25. Those are being used for the second-grade presentations. We also have (1) double 5F nuc set on the pallet to be sold. All hives received a full jar of 1:1 syrup with spirulina. Going forward: Run with (4) Production Hives. Only. Split in 2-3 weeks, using double screen board and triple deeps. Use Bob Binnie's system: Splitting Using a Double Screen Board as a reference, https://youtu.be/Z62UwOLfdMo . Incorporate the OTS & Demaree Method in...

It was in the upper 40°'s today so we ventured out back for a peek at the hives. Actually, it was more than just a peek, it was to check populations along the tops, make sure they still had some sugar cakes and put half a pound of pollen patties on them. They all looked good except for Hive 11. Their population at least at the top looked pretty anemic and we are pretty sure something is going on with that hive. We will have to wait for a break in the weather to do a proper inspection and get a diagnosis, but until then we will keep the food on and hope for the best. Hive 11: Really light on bees, and plenty of sugar brick left. Gave 1/2 lb Pollen Patty. Hive 13: Good population, light on sugar brick. Gave 1/2 Sugar Brick and 1/2 lb Pollen Patty. Hive 15: Great population, light on sugar brick. Gave 1/2 Sugar Brick and 1/2 lb Pollen Patty. Hive 21: Good population, still had plenty of sugar brick. Gave 1/2 Sugar Brick and 1/2 lb Pollen Patty. Hive 22: Great population, light on suga...

Have you ever been handed a frame of bees to hold while your spouse tries to catch a new queen for marking on it? Me neither at least until today. Being a model of coordination & steadiness I grabbed a hold of the side rails and most bees made way, one did not. Typical fury of a scorned woman, that one bee gave up her life to show me her displeasure in being manhandled. Atypical of me I had to take this assault on my left pointer finger in a stoic fashion so as not to be the target of the wraith of the real woman of the apiary, diligently trying to put a white dot on the thorax of a 2021 matriarch.  Being a beekeeper the number one question you get asked always involves stings. How many? How often? Where? and my personal favorite "Have you ever?". Non-beekeepers really don't appreciate the true amount of stings we get. I will say the more experience you gain the sting count does go down, but it's still a fairly regular occurrence. On a beautiful sunny afternoon on...