Happy 303 Day!

For #303Day, I bought a URL for my #Blogger blog: 303beekeeper.com 🐝#303beekeeper #bees #beeblogger #beesofinstagram #abejas #Beekeeping #abeilles #beekeepers #yaybees #denver #CO #milehighcity

A photo posted by BBHB (@backyardbee)

Can you believe this blog is over 10 years old? I started it to chronicle our adventure from total beginner to seasoned beekeepers. I would confess all the mistakes, illustrate what ever hurdles we encountered, and post tons of photos to make the journey easier for others just getting started with bees and top bar hives.

Becoming allergic to bee stings threw me for a loop, and some posts since that Sad Sunday are somewhat tangential, but I'm closer than ever to getting back to honey bee keeping and blogging. One day while at the allergist, waiting out the obligatory "let's see if she dies in the next 30 minutes after getting triple venom shots," I decided to polish up the blog and – ack! — I discovered that significant chunks of code were no longer functional. Sooo many photos went missing. Oh, Google, why did you sunset Picasa?!

Much like a beehive, a blog is easy to set up but can grow difficult to maintain.

I never intended on becoming and blogger per se and, even though I learned html, css and even some php, I suddenly felt like I was looking at a cross-combed hive with lots of combs (i.e., code) needing to be culled and replaced. Part of me wanted to treat it like AFB* and just burn the whole thing down. But I started this blog with a swarm in 2008 and couldn't bring myself to destroy the almost 400 posts published since. But the real reason I put in the hours and repaired all the bad code is that 303beekeeper.com is the home of Marty Hardison's instructional booklet on Top Bar Beekeeping.

An invaluable resource, "The Appropriate Beehive" is free to download. But it's not free for me to provide, so donations to continue hosting it are welcomed. Click on the button below to donate $3 and offset the cost to host it here. My favorite parts of The Appropriate Beehive: An Introduction to Topbar Beekeeping are the building plans for a top bar hive and The List (aka When to Do What for One's Bees). What about you? Leave a comment. 👇

*American Foul Brood is a highly infectious bee disease. Because of the persistence of the spores (which can survive up to 40 years), many state apiary inspectors require AFB diseased hives to be burned completely.

Honeycomb Faux-reos

Thrilled that Nordicware regrammed my cookies today!

Make sure you're sitting down as you read this. @backyardbee made homemade Oreos using our honeybee cookie stamps. Need. Now. ❤

A post shared by Nordic Ware (@nordicwareusa) on Apr 26, 2017 at 6:37am PDT

The recipe I used is Elizabeth LaBau's "Gourmet Homemade Oreos," and it works as-is at altitude. This recipe is about as perfect as it gets! @elabau is definitely my Sugar Hero!

Unseasonably warm. Consider feeding your bees.

Warmest, driest February for you, too? March is when most colonies starve to death. Now, rather than asking if your bees have enough honey in their hive, ask yourself is it where they need it? There's brood in the hive now, and when the weather turns winter-like again the bees will not risk the brood getting chilled. They will not leave to get food. If they are not in direct contact with food, then isolation starvation can happen in as little as 72 hours. Take advantage of this warm weather to rearrange things in your hive. In other words, move combs of honey from the back of your top bar hive right to the edge of the cluster.

You may also be interested in The List.

Unseasonably warm. Consider feeding your #bees. 🐝 #Honeybees are more active than they should be and little is in bloom. The nectary of #JupitersBeard is too deep for them but some pollen is offered freely.

A photo posted by My brain runs on Bees. And 🍫🍫 (@backyardbee) on Nov 10, 2016 at 10:26am PST

[Originally published on 11/10/16.] Did you leave enough honey in the hive to account for record warmth in October AND November? This week would be good timing to make and insert candy for your bees.

HoneyLove.org's 4th Annual Honey Tasting Workshop: a blind competition

What's beekeeper to do in Winter? Not much is needed in the beeyard, so I was really excited to receive HoneyLove.org's January newsletter with a honey-tasting call-for-entries. I sent a jar of triple-strained honey from the Top Bar Hive. Some of the honey I chose had too much moisture, and some had already begun to crystallize but I figured the two combined would be perfect. I warmed them just enough to pass most of it through a 200-micron filter, keeping the course stuff out of the finished product. Not disturbing the honey is key to producing an award-winning honey, a patience-testing process in the middle of Winter. The two jars in the picture are the result.

If the image doesn't load, you can see the original picture on Instagram.

Whoops...I put one of my #honey labels on "wrong." Which jar do you think I should send to @honeyloveorg for the #HoneyTasting competition? #YayBees #backyardbees #303 #beekeeping

A photo posted by BBHB (@backyardbee) on Jan 15, 2015 at 8:15am PST

There were 17 entries into the competition, including one from Top Bar hiver Sam Comfort! Here's how we did.

And our WINNERS- tied for 1ST PLACE at HoneyLove.org annual honey tasting workshop @onestronghive (Silverlake) and @backyardbee (Aurora, CO) #urbanbeekeeping #yaybees

A photo posted by Honey Love (@honeyloveorg) on Jan 25, 2015 at 3:29pm PST

To see more pictures from the competition and to learn about HoneyLove.org, be sure to visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/honeylove.org