Minnesota Beekeeping Mama, behind the scenes part 1: hive set up

The following is part one of a three part series I wrote for The Mother Hive last summer (2016), with a few updates and links. I hope you enjoy this behind the scenes look into beekeeping. If you are looking for honey or garden products feel free to check out my page at Good Karma Honey & Apothecary.

Greetings from Minnesota! Summers here are easily a 100 degree difference than cold long winters. Due to our short season and extreme weather, beekeeping practices here are certainly slightly different than southern United States or other countries.

I am in my third year keeping bees in Minnesota. My first year hive did not make it, they were killed off by an environmental spray late fall which was really sad to me. I harvested a hundred pounds and had a hundred in the hive for them to winter with. But I was determined to try again and the second year I had three hives. They really tested me the second year but all made it. We are now into the winter of the third year, the hives are all cozy and we keep praying they will all be there come spring!

I am a wife and mother of two young kids. The kids love the bees and especially the honey. They are caretakers of the fallen. Whenever they see a bee out in the yard they instantly want to help it or save it. My husband got involved late the first summer as the lifting was more than I could handle. Now he too finds himself loving these special tiny little insects.

I would like to share a little bit about how my hives run for our season and weather. Stands for our area are recommended close to the ground, just a wooden 2x4 stand.  I keep my hives running with three deep boxes. Two deeps are for brood. The top one is mostly honey stores for winter. Some people in the area run two deep boxes but many use three. If I could have known how heavy the full deeps would have been I may have looked into eight frame boxes or more mediums. I can not lift the top deep once its full. I have to remove frames to lift it, or more easily have someone there to help.



I use a queen excluder and honey supers for a few short months. Generally honey supers are on mid-June until to the beginning of September. Our honey flow is over around labor day and generally we harvest around that time. Because I do not have that many hives I decided to skip the extractor ($$) use the crush and strain method. I will share more details on that in another post.

In late fall we wrap our hives to help them over winter. This is done in many ways. Some people purchase pre made black cardboard wraps, others use two layers of roofing paper and still others get even more creative. It is also recommended to put up a windbreak in winter to help with the cold northern winds. Our biggest problem in this area is varroa mites. Besides that some people also have some problems with bears if they are farther out or smaller critters like raccoons.

If you would like to follow me and my journey with the bees and other fun stuff you can follow me here on the blog. Click on the follow button and you will be notified when new posts are up!

Blessings!

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