Honey Bees. At Oak Knoll farms, our Honey Bees are not a commodity…

They are not a thing. They are a living super organism…
They are our friends and they pollinate our orchard.

An 8 frame Amish Hive ready for deployment.

Of the Genus Apis, Honybees appear to have arisen after the K-T boundary, some time around 60 Million Years Ago. The girls are in charge in a honey bee hive & every member has only one goal…The good of the hive and queen. The boys are expendable...

The Girls tending the little ones...

The Honey, so valued by the omnivore clan, Bears, Us & etc…is there for protection against hard times…It is estimated that it takes 80-90 pounds of honey to get a hive through the Winter…I wonder how many hives get to keep that much honey…Ours keep all of it.

An interesting natural history note: They really don't like dark clothing, could it be that they associate it with clan Ursus?

The smoker that is used by most keepers does work & the bees respond by appearing to be getting ready to abandon the hive…They stick their little heads into the combs & its my guess that this is a forest fire response…We found something better…Bees love sugar water and we feed them during lean times…They love it…The red bottle in the last photo, is filled with sugar water & is our way of calming them during hive manipulation.

One spray of that and the bees forget the big slow moving primates and go for the sugar water every time. Stick or Carrot? I think we will stick with the sugar water!