• Tuesday-What'sUP June 5 - 11:03 pm

Stacey and Jim Flood are Beekeepers here in the Keweenaw and they're teaching their daughter Maddie, who is only 12 the ropes, too. They call her their little Junior Beekeeper and according to Stacey, this was her first time and she did a great job! The photos show her as she's inspecting the hives, which they have to do at least once a week. They check to make sure that there are larvae and also check the progress of the honeycomb making. At the same time, they remove any new queens that are forming, because if a new queen is allowed to mature, the bees will swarm and leave the hive.

The Floods have two hives, with two different varieties of bees. One type is a Carniolan and the other type are Italians. I didn't get a chance to ask Stacey, but I wonder if the different types produce a different tasting honey? Interesting, indeed, but I for one, am glad to be just watching Maddie from a distance. You go girl!

Omgosh! Better them than me, that's for sure. Very cool pictures, though! And I guess somebody has to do it, for sure!!

Sweet! Why are the outfits white?

...and are bears a problem, I wonder?

How fun! I have always thought it would be cool to keep bees. Maybe someday I'll do that. Just learned yesterday that a friend of mine and her husband just got their first two bee hives. How coincidental to come here this morning and find these pictures. Thanks for sharing!

Happy Birthday Amy - we hope you have a very nice day

Update: I sent this link to my beekeeping friend, and she responded about the color: "It is better to wear light color clothing during the inspections. The bees associate dark with a threat."

Here's some info I found about the different bees:

Carniolan bees are resistant to insect pests and very gentle. It has a rapid buildup in early spring, even before flowers bloom. It is very gentle and non aggressive. It survives well in the winter. It regulates its size better than the Italians so it is less likely to starve as the food supply declines.

The Golden Italian Honey bee has been the main bee of beekeepers for many years. It is a good beginner’s bee. Some strong points: Readily builds comb, Light color so it makes it easy to find a queen, Good at finding pollen, Doesn’t swarm as much as other bees, Relatively calm and gentle, resistant to foulbrood disease, Doesn’t make as much propolis (bee glue).

Thanks Lisa, and I thought it was just sheike :-)

I'm guessing that is an electric fence round the hives???

Bees on this page, 'birds' on the other.

Today marks what would've been the 58th anniversary for my sweet husband and me! Still miss him terribly.

Bee glue? I didn't realize they required assembly.

nice to read the latest Buzzzzzzzzz.......

Ohhhh what awesome photos. What an amazing little girl!

I forwarded this page and asked a beekeeper friend of mine about the instrument Maddie is holding and she shared these comments:

"That's a smoker. You put wood chips or other combustible material inside and it has a bellows. When you smoke the bees it calms them down.

There is no difference in the taste of honey from Italian or Carnolian bees. It's a subspecies of sorts. I have a Russian queen, supposedly she will create offspring which are more hardy in the winter. Italian bees are gentler. Or so they say...

Flavor and color of honey comes from the source of the nectar."

They look busy as bees (lol).

I read in a beekeeping book that it is best to wire your hives into a single package so if a bear bothers one it shakes the rest and it can be overwhelmed by them all attacking at once. Sort of a united we stand. Personally I'd be tempted to set up the electric fence as in the first photo. Never did take the leap into keeping bees.

Way to go Maddie! That is just cool!