by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → So, after almost a year, we’ve arrived back where we started this column, doing the very last outdoor job of the season—melting the cappings wax on a nice day in December. It’s a good job to end the season with. There’s...
by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → When November arrives, I start packing, beginning with the 2-story honey producing colonies. If, early in the month, there appear to be a good percentage of these with PMS symptoms or non-viable clusters, I will spend a...
by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → With a good honey crop, extracting will continue for the whole month of September. This month usually begins as the end of summer, and finishes as the beginning of autumn. We like to push steadily on during this time, so...
by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → Around here the most likely time to have very hot and humid weather is during July. One of my farming friends always crosses out the word “July” on his calendar, and writes in another four-letter word. It can be just as...
by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → Around here, our honey crop—the excess honey we can sell—comes from the various clovers, birdsfoot trefoil, purple vetch, alfalfa and basswood. Because most of the open land is actively farmed or grazed, and has a heavy...
by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → Beekeeping has been present in this part of Vermont almost as long as European settlers have been here—that is, since the 1790’s. During all of that time, beekeepers made up most of their new colonies during May and...
by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → I know that summer doesn’t officially begin until June 20 or so; but around here we really need to have all of June as a summer month. Otherwise our only warm season would be too short and we would get very depressed....
by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → The last two weeks of April and the first week of May are one of the most interesting and critical times of year in this apiary, where lots of nucleus colonies are carried through the winter, and the most promising of...
by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → You often hear it said around here: “April is by far the cruelest month”. At this time of year we can spend one whole day outside in the warm sunshine, and then look out the next morning to see a blizzard in progress,...
by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → Interest is really building now for a more self-sufficient, healthy and resilient style of non-migratory beekeeping in the northern states. Unstable honey prices, mites, africanized bees, and the misguided efforts to...
by kirkwebster | Jan 1, 2007 | 2007 Writings, View All Posts
← View Previous Post View Next Post → Interest is really building now for a more self-sufficient, healthy and resilient style of non-migratory beekeeping in the northern states. Unstable honey prices, mites, africanized bees, and the misguided efforts to...
