Any beekeepers at MDC?

[bestjob]

Hi all,

I'm wondering if there are any other beekeepers at MDC? I have four hives and I'll have six next year.

Let's make an MDC colony!

[lauradbg]

We will be soon! My husband built a top bar hive for a friend and his neighbors are freaked out about the bees who swarmed in their yard.

We're taking the hive in a month or two.

Anything we should know about the bees and winter?

[bestjob]

I can see the neighbour's point. You never know who is allergic so having some space between the people and the bees is a nice thing. My son's hair is thick and curly and he once came to my hives without a hat. Three bees got tangled in his hair. Not nice for anyone!

I live in Southern Ontario, so we wrap our hives for the winter. I have pink foam insulation that I put on the sides and tops of the hives, then I wrap everything in black plastic. I reduce the entry to about 2 inches wide.

I've just extracted the honey for this year (yum!) and it's time for the medications. I'll wrap my hives when the daytime temps dip below 10C... that will be in about 4 weeks.

[wendybird]

We are anticipating starting in the Spring. Right now we are just reading as much as we can and being excited .

[bestjob]

Wow, Oklahoma! That seems really far away to me! What are you reading?

My favourite so far is "The Beekeeper's Handbook" by Sammataro and Avitiabile.