Bee Log 52: January 29, 2011

We found the marker commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Lorenzo L.Langstroth (b.Dec. 25, 1810). It is near the Delaware River in the old part of Philadelphia. Langstroth developed the modern beehive with movable frames. We were visiting relatives in the city of brotherly love.

The darkest part of the year is behind us and already there have been days warm enough for the bees to fly. We have visited all of our bee hives except one and removed the sugar feeders that got left on late last autumn. We poured granulated sugar around the top of the inner cover hoping to avoid starvation for any hives that are low on stores. We know that we lost at least 5 hives out of 19. We can't count survivors yet.

We are looking for one more location for our bees in Seattle. We have one new location in Bothell. Our host home in Bellevue is being sold so we will have to move those hives. Also, we did not want to pay the new toll on the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge that we would have faced if we kept the hives there. That was our first host home and a great location so we feel a little sad to leave. We have one new Seattle location near the University of Washington. We are looking for another north Seattle location.

One perspective host home was in the middle of a bunch of town homes. The home owners were so excited about the possibility of having bees but we realized that any bee events like a swarm or a bee war (robbing event) would probably freak out some neighbors. There was just too much people traffic. We felt bad turning them down as a host home.

I look forward to another beekeeping season. I love watching the bees. I love working the bees. I love selling the honey at the Phinney Farmers' Market. I love educating people about bees.