Blog - BeePeeking

Bees r Us 2025

4/4/2025

On a sunny day in January, bees were taking cleansing flights from one of our hives. I checked the other and found that the bees had absconded/swarmed leaving four deeps of honey and six frames of pollen in the top box. Down below were the empty brood frames with capped honey in the corners. I harvested two frames of cut-comb honey and gave the other two deeps of capped honey to our remaining hive. I then set up the empty box for new bees in the spring.

Cut to late February: the bees began bringing in pollen by the bucket load and we began seeing the first of many orientation flights; spring build-up was going strong! Our Japanese boxwood was abuzz.

April 4: time for a honey super already! Our bees were starting to store honey and pollen in the burr comb at the top of the second brood box. I added a queen excluder and a deep for honey.

The White & Black Squirrels of Hudson Wisconsin

11/6/2024

...and now for something completely different

june Update: Bees & Pizza!

6/4/2024

We installed a nucleus hive on May 11th and these bees have settled right in; they came with five frames of brood and honey--and as you can see went straight to work building out comb in their new digs. Checked the hives May 25th and added a second super to both. Lots of rain, but they have already put up lots of nectar with capped honey and tons of pollen coming in.

On the other side of the house: we are enjoying our upgraded fire pit and pizza oven and this marks the end of our asparagus season.

2 Bee or Not 2 Bee?

4/19/2024

We purchased bees this spring from Rainy Day Bees in Shoreline. Peter and Amy Beth are passionate about their bees and we were thrilled to meet up with them.

We hived two packages of bees Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning it appeared that they were both settling into their new homes with bees Nasanoving on both hives and taking orientation flights; but, by the end of the day, one of the hives was empty. What? Dang! Absconded.

Though we hope a neighbor will alert us to a swarm, we will be picking up a nucleus hive (5 frames of bees, brood, and a laying queen) in early May to fill our abandoned hive.

The bees are gentle Golden West Italians and so far they are loving the rosemary and bringing in loads of white pollen. We are augmenting their efforts with sugar and pollen patties as well.

Looking forward to this! Cut-comb honey from a previous year...Cheers!

Tree Pollen=allergy season begins

2/12/2024

Posting this as a marker for my first tree pollen allergies of the season.

Also thought this cold or flu chart would be handy to compare my symptoms; the main difference from allergies is the pounding headache and and general crabbiness, rather than just wanting to sleep.

Winter Solstice 2023

12/22/2023

Ahh, winter solstice in Seattle...
yes--it is raining, a lot, and that's not unusual;
we are hunkered down with eggnog, music, and knitting
enjoying being HOME and cozy

Full moon Jan 2009-from my backyard

My first two years of sweater knitting

Holly Jolly Soggy December

12/5/2023

What's happening in my neighborhood: Atmospheric River!
Seattle received 3" in 24 hours...not the 8" elsewhere in Washington;
I am happy to be living at the top of a hill today.

Cheers~

November Backyard Birding

11/18/2023

At the end of October we put up our black sunflower seed feeder along with a couple of chili suet bars and we have been enjoying Bird TV ever since. Exciting new regulars include; the Nuthatch, along with the Chestnut-backed Chickadee as they make their daily rounds with the flock of Juncos and Black-capped Chickadees. The suet brings in not only our Northern Flickers, but on the ground we had a pair of Varied Thrushes to augment our resident Towhees. The California Scrub-Jay has been teasing us for a year or so and it's finally discovered our sanctuary, flying in with a pair of noisy Steller's Jays. Welcome to everyone!

Equinox 2023

9/22/2023

...and bam! it's raining and we turned the heat on.

Arboretum Spirits

6/8/2023

Yesterday evening we were on the look-out in our favorite owl-spotting glen and had just about given up; we sat down on the bench overlooking the little creek and then, looking up, there was the owl perched quietly 10 feet above us! We sat in awe for ages watching it watch us, the butterflies, and other walkers obliviously passing underneath=Owl Blessings.

We started our afternoon saunters in late April, and over the next few weeks got to know this family of Ravens. It turns out that historically, Ravens nested in the Washington Park Arboretum, but until 2019 they had not been seen for 100 years. This year there were three hatchlings, and boy-oh-boy were they ever raucous! I caught them all doing their own saunter; usually we'd see them up in the trees or perched on the back of our favorite hidden bench.

Douglas squirrels: The Douglas Squirrel lives in the coniferous forests of North America's west coast. It wanders playfully throughout all parts of the forest and treetops, but prefers lingering close to the forest grounds (WA Nature Mapping). We not only have been seeing this chipmunk-sized boisterous squirrel in several locations throughout the Arboretum, but on a hot steamy evening we watched TWO of these little darlings chasing each other around and around and around an enormous tree trunk. What a joy.