Follow us here on our journey
into the Beehives to Loan program. Our daily journal and
scheduled tasks will be posted here in chronological order.
Monday, March 6,
2023:
A visit to Wal-Mart first
thing to stock up on more sugar. Purchased about 500 pounds
($375.00) this time. I keep stocking up for now. I
cannot find any good wholesale sources in NM for sugar. I was
going to set up an account with Sysco, but even buying at 2500
pounds per pallet was going to be 15% more than Wal-Mart. We
have been storing 5 gallon bucks with water in them for several
years. We are emptying the buckets around our fruit trees so
that they are available sunday for syrup making. 3 years ago
we purchased a pallet of buckets out of Phoenix. I wanted the
best lid I could get. I did not realize the M4 lid was one
that you could not remove. It did have a pour spout to get the
honey out. We are going to use these since I have about 100 of
them.
In searching for pollen
substitutes I came across a very good External Scientific Report:
"Pollen Supplements and substitutes in the EU feed market: a
product/market survey for bees and other animal species" by Walter
Haefeker.
Click here to read.


Sunday, March 5,
2023:
Friday we confirmed with our
truck driver and the beekeeper in almonds in CA that we will
load bees either Tuesday or Wednesday evening March 14/15 to bring
the 408 hives back to NM. We expect them to arrive that
Wednesday. It is about a 900 mile trip.
We posted to our website the
following paper "Colony
Growth and Seasonal Management of Honey Bees" from MSU.
Back in February of this year I remembered reading about using a
ratio of 33% sugar to water for stimulative feeding of honeybees.
In the article it said at that ratio that the feeding will help to
cure and prevent certain diseases in bees in addition to Stimulative
feeding; building comb; queen cell construction; stimulate brood
rearing and foraging. Here is the link:
click here. Look at table 1 for syrup formulas. We will be
feeding the hives on March 15, 2023 with this ration when they
arrive out of almonds. Since we have 475 hives to feed we will
use 5 gallon buckets with 1/16" holes drilled in them, inverted and
elevated 16" off the ground. We estimate we will need 500 gallons of
feed per week until a nectar flow begins. Whenever bees come
off of a nectar flow such as almonds, apples and other spring
blossoms and the bees have a lack of food it will trigger swarming
and a reduction in brood rearing. We have a commercial kitchen
available to us with two 50 gallon steam kettles. We will heat
the water to 140 degrees, mix the sugar and then place it into 5
gallon buckets.
Thursday, March 2,
2023:
Changed oil and airfilter on
Super Bee Forklift. Found dead rodents in air vent leading
through air filter to engine combustion chamber. They have
been there for a long time, going back to when we purchased this
forklift out of almonds in CA last year. Explains lack of
power. After cleaning we covered air intake with 26 gauge 1/8"
hardward cloth to prevent future problems. Equipment like this
is subject to rodent problems in the field. We have left hoods
up to discourage nest building.
Wednesday, March 1,
2023:

Beehives pollinating almonds
outside Bakersfield, CA. Verifying dates to have our truck
driver load our hives and transport to Belen, NM. The semi
holds 408 double deep hives. We expect the hives to arrive in
Belen on March 15th. We may have to wait 1 week because of
delays in weather and rain for the last 6 weeks. Received copy
of COI (certificate of insurance) showing our hives are covered
against loss. Received price from trucking company ($4,500) to
haul one way load.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023:
.png)
Called Pierco to order
triple waxed deep frames. Need about 40 cases (52 frames per
case) or 2080 frames. Triple waxed is much better than waxed
or plain. Cost is about $8-10 more per super, but is well
worth it. We like black better than any other color. We
can see the white eggs and larva much easier. I prefer plastic
frames over wood bound. The wood has a tendency to pull apart
when separating supers and they are made in the USA. We are
distributors for Pierco beekeeping equipment and supples.