Bee Activity on The Farm

For the last 30 years we've had bees on the farm managed by various beekeepers. I finally decided last year to try and manage a few myself with the help of those beekeepers. Its been a gratifying experience catching swarms and giving them a home. I now have three which are a work in progress. I want to keep up with raising bees as its been good for the fruit production here on the farm and it is an interesting pursuit .
The photos above are from various stages of development over the last year

These frames were a swarm capture  that went awry with too much space in between frames and burr comb. This colony has been reworked and is doing well

The black plastic beetle traps are essential now that we have the small hive beetle here on Kauai. I just whacked back a Mango tree to give light to this colony as the beetles thrive in shady conditions

This colony is right by the house and its fun to watch the different phases of their patterns of flight and work every day at different times and in different weather

Oliver Shagnasty helping me out with some beetle traps