Its been a week since l split one hive, today was time to check them out.
First time ever wife joined me on the inspection. This is how she geared up
And this is my beekeeping equipment 
Hives in the background
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She looks like some of the people at Walmart
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Hahaha !!!
Kristijan, you gave me a good laugh. He-Man in action
I wore Long-Johns most days this week. You keep working on your tan
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Perhaps you shuld consider moving south plenty of wood waiting to be processed here 
The truth is l tend bees shirtless most times. I found its either that or full bee suit (wich l do not like wearing). Middle options suck, bees accidently fly under your shirt, get stressed, release the stress feromon… once you smell that distinct banana peel smell its to late, you have a swarm of angry bees in our face.
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I’m still waiting for our snowbanks to melt. We got up to 60-65F last week now it’s about 50F (10C) and tonight it’ll be down to 21F (-6C). We still have another month before we can plant vegetables outside. I can probably plant root vegetables now but too cold for tomatoes and peppers.
By the time I can go shirtless, the horseflies and mosquitoes will be out in full force.
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Ha, that’s the kind of spirit I recognize from people up north. They say there’s no need for outdoor furniture. They just take a short rest on their sleds
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My bees all survived the winter, apparently they are experts at what they were doing even if I am certainly not. I split one Australian bee package last April, despite starting from nothing they gave me over 400lbs of surplus honey. One colony is weak, I made a mistake in having the top entrance facing north. Here standard practice is to wrap 4 hives together, I put empty boxes in the corner on a pallet to compete the wrap. Spring feeding has them off to a good start, willows and aspen are flowering so there’s pollen for brood.
The weather has turned unseasonably cold. With the cold weather delaying budding, there’s a chance I may be able to collect saskatoon and chokecherry honey from the strongest hive.
I think I will buy local queens to divide off 4 or 5 more hives. Queens will be available in June for 25 dollars.
I built a shed and expanded the bee yard electric fence to keep it from the bears, sure is handy to have all the gear on site. Shed will have solar light.
My help with the bees.
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I expected nothing less 
I bet the cigarette wasn’t even lit, just to keep things interesting.
Atypically early swarming happening here for me already…this was my afternoon a few days ago
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I set out 3 swarm boxes 2 weeks ago, caught 1 so far. The boxes I built have 7 layen’s frames in them. I’ll wait about a week, so they are well established, then I can just transfer the frames to the horizontal hive.
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Use anything in particular as a lure, like lemongrass oil?
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Yes, lemongrass, I put 2 vials one on each side of entrance hole inside.
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Got the swarm in their new home, Checked the other boxes, caught swarm # 2 Will bring them home next week.
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Thats great Al! Is it a wild coliny or one of your own swarmed?
I allso installed a swarm (bought) in my Warre hive the other day. Doing great. Shuld check it one of these days, to see how they are building.
A Warre hive is a narrow 30x30cm long hive that is sayd to best resemble bees natural habitat (hollow tree). It has no fundation so there is a lot for the bees to build in the first year… hope they manage well.
Had fantastic conditions for beekeeping this year. Soon, our main flow will start. Limetree and later chestnut. Do you guys have limetree in the US?
Anyway, started with 2 hives this spring, 4 now. If all goes well l shuld have 6 till winter, l expect one to swarm and one will be split one of these days.
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Hi Kristijan, both are wild swarms. No lime trees here, don’t know down south. We had a rough spring here cold, and rainy, snow first week of May. I’ve been feeding to give them a start. Weather is good now. I put them in a Layen’s horizontal hive, has frames, no foundation, full 1 1/2’’ walls. This is where I got the plans; https://horizontalhive.com/
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I had something wery similar last 2 years. Its great to work with and its great for the bees, allmost no chance of rolling them (or possibly the queen!) While pulling out the frames. But for honey production, not so much. I am thinking how to make this system accept a super. Bees tend to like having their food over their heads rather thain on the side…
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You can take one or two frames out put in a board with a hole in it for a sealed top feeder.
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I was reffering to honey stores. Bees tend to be more productive if the hive is tall and narrower vs wide and shallow.
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Today, on the way home, I heard on the Catholic radio Ognjišče that today is Bee Day. They also said that there are 12,000 beekeepers in Slovenia who take care of 210,000 bee families and export 300,000 kg of honey a year.
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I could not understand the words but you sure have a beautiful countryside there!
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Performer: Lojze Slak Ensemble
Author of the text: Slavko Podboj
Music author: Lojze Slak
The sun went down the mountain,
darkness fell on the earth,
the song of the cricket sounds
invites everyone to an evening’s rest.
There is unrest in my heart
in the fall tonight,
I quietly step alone over the threshold,
I’m going to my old apiary.
How nicely they make noise to me,
how nice they smell to me
but in my heart a memory
they wake up on young days.
Bees, bees,
you are my friends
never forget you
that old beekeeper.
There is unrest in my heart
in the fall tonight,
the cricket sang the song,
but to me memories, time took
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