Blog
Real or Fake honey
West Seattle Honey is sourced from hives in Seattle. Knowing where your honey is sourced is imperative, else you could end up with fake honey which is prevalent when honey is imported. Can you spot the fake honey? The "imitation honey" I bought recently (on purpose...
The Beekeeper’s Dream – Flow Hive
My inbox has been inundated with friends giving me awareness to, and asking questions about Flow Hive TM and whether this setup is for real, whether it will work, do I want to purchase one, etc. Well, here is what I think: I don't know - it seems too good to be true,...
2013 Swarm Season is HERE!
This week marked consistently warm temperatures in Seattle (close to 70 degrees) after a long bout of cool rainy weather. For bees (and beekeepers) this means swarm season! Swarming is a way for bees to propagate their species - by splitting one colony (with one...
2013 Beekeeping has begun
This past weekend, we were blessed with beautiful blue skies and sun in Seattle, so the 2013 apprentices kicked off their season with a post mortem on a "deadout" hive (a colony that didn't make it through winter). Apprentices who continued on with Seattle Bee Works...
Beautiful Bees in October
A Recent hive check at the Queen Ann apiary was simply beautiful. A sunny, blue-sky day in October with bees flying over the greenbelt of blackberries (done with their bloom), and seasoned apprentices working the hives. Pictured here is Kim, in process of conducting...
A Sticky Situation…
A sticky situation for sure... having honey all over your hands. This is a normal occurence in extracting honey, despite your best efforts otherwise. Amy Lassen, a Seattle Bee Works apprentice, perfects her technique of uncapping a honeycomb frameToday's honey...
A trip to the “bee spa”
Seattle Bee Works and apprentices traveled out to the "bee spa" (a local farm) to pickup several hives and return them to Seattle, after having the benefit of an extended foraging period beyond the blackberry flow offered in Seattle. The Seattle Bee Works apprentice...
What’s it like to have 50,000 bees living in your backyard?
Most folks look a little nervous when I tell them a full operating beehive holds around 50,000 bees. Even so, many are interested in "hive hosting" (providing space for a hive) in a back, or sideyard for Seattle Bee Works to manage. In Seattle, municpal code allows...
2012 Seattle Bee Works Beekeeping Apprentice Program is the Buzz!
2012 Beekeeping Season is in full force and is happening with a few extra hands this year to keep the bees of Seattle Bee Works healthy and happy. In early Spring 2012, twelve apprentices were selected from a stack of applications to participate...
Beekeeping in 2011
Beekeeping in 2011 was an interesting endeavor for new and experienced beekeepers alike...For starters the bees "season" was delayed due to the cool weather. New packages of bees weren't delivered until May (normally this would happen no later than Mid-April). Hives...
Hive check
A frame of honeybees
Krista examines a frame of honeybees. Thank you to Dan Cole for his beautiful photography.
Assembling hive frames
One of the endless jobs of a beekeeper is assembling hive equipment.
What can you do to help bees?
Members of PSBA educating on bees at the West Seattle Sustainability Fest, June 5, 2010.Yesterday I spent the afternoon at the West Seattle Sustainability Festival, in the Puget Sound Beekeepers booth. Our club was there selling our club's honey and educating folks on...
Hive Update June 2010
You may have noticed in my twitter feed that my latest check of my 4 hives has yielded some sad news- 2 hives dead, 1 has a laying worker. The remaining hive is well, but is the one I started fresh from a package of bees. (the Marine Drive hive). So, none of the hives...
Pics from Summer 2009
Here's some great pics by Dan Cole: Ada Cole and I visiting the Admiral Hive.View more of the pictures at Dan's site- here Pointing at the queen!My Favorite shot:
Another season under my beekeeping belt…
Not many blog entries this year, but attempted "tweeting" as a way of recording my hive activities and passing along other tidbits of info on beekeeping. (See tweet feed on right side of this screen). Feel free to follow me if you are on twitter, @seattlebeeworks.The...
New Season of bees
I again have 4 hives this year, didn't have any survive last winter...which is my #1 goal this coming year. I left plenty of honey for their winter food but I dont think there were enough bees to cluster and stay warm enough to make it through the long winter here in...
I’m a lazy beekeeper
well, not really, I am behind on my chores though. Primarily due to not having enough equipment put together to manage 4 hives.I scheduled the extractor rental for the last weekend in october. I need to go by my hives this weekend and pull off honey supers..which...