my truck loaded with the japhet creek and alvin supers- at my house yesterday before we left for Joan Gundermanns  kitchen in Glen Flora, near Wharton. 

This frame is from Charlie Harper a russian bee breeder who I bought some nucs from  '06 -they have done the best at Nawara farm, but these are o.k. and growing now. Had a hard time through the move to alvin in oct 09. I had to split the colonies in two to move them because I had not had the time to extract the honey prior to the move. This is of course hard on the bees though I tried my best to be careful. During the harvest of honey at my home (alvin) I found these needed their old brood area removed, they had plenty of brood above in the 2nd story and a super of honey that I left with them. Harvested the honey from a couple of colonies of feral bees. A bit feisty they are, but tough. I got 1 and a half supers from alvin-- yeilds 1 case of 32 oz jars.         I              

Another shot of the bees at japhet creek- showing brood in upper frames of a big colony. I never use queen excluders, if trhey want to move up I give them more room and remove the old bottom comb as they do not use it after a while.

Sarah took this photo of me extracting honey in Joans kitchen.  We worked until late into the night. This is very dark honey, some is very old and some from last summer, all blended together in the japhet creek "special reserve"  3 cases available at ruggles.  1 case of 1st harvest of Alvin apiary-it is goldenrod honey and very flavorful. Some of that will be at ruggles, but mostly with me at market on sats.  if I am not moving bees. I should be back at mkt. (white oak) after next weekend, thats my last volunteer day at rodeo for hcbc, see my bees in the gazebo located in the agventure area.  

Honey from all of 09 is on these japhet creek colonies. They used up a bunch over the cold winter, had some die outs (as beekeepers call them) but only a few. Some of the big colonies had brood in the supers so I left them and in some cases removed the bottom box as they do not use the old comb after a couple of years. Those bees are poised to draw in a lot of honey this year. This is a view of an excellent laying pattern by the feral queen in the 2nd story of this big colony. Pulled 7-8 supers of honey and will extract & bottle today. Delivery to Ruggles green tomorrow. 

This was taken at the home apiary in Alvin, Crabapple tree in full bloom in my front yard= happy bees!

here are the bees in cage and their brood  put into a frame and ready to go into the beehive that night.This job was in Pearland.

This is an example of a difficult removal - 300 dollars due to height and length of time required on this job. The bees are doing fine, saw the queen when I hived them.

This is the Alvin apiary behind my house.This row of bees are all new colonies from removals done over this winter, yes I did removals all through the cold season, only working on warm days over 55.  The lymbar bees are right in the middle of this row. Some of this winters removals are already working at Gundermann farms, the next bee  move is to Nawara farm in Rosenburg. These colonies look out on a creek that runs every weekday with water pumped from a sandpit nearby. It flows into Mustang Bayou just across the street from my place. I have planted lots of wildflowers, alfalfa and vetch along the creek (well o.k. you could call it a ditch, I like creek). I have a small garden going too and I notice that the bees check these new  plants as they grow, I think they encourage them in their visits. A crabapple tree is just begining to bloom in my front yard, they love to visit its blossoms.