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Spring 2007 I started into beekeeping with a 'nuc' which is a nucleus colony that included three combs of mostly capped brood (halfway grown babies), the attending worker bees, one comb of honey as well as a queen. The girls are Carniolan stock originally from the Balkans, but have been successfully raised for many generations very close to me at the BeeRanch in Kinistino Saskatchewan by Corey Bacon. This collective is designated Hive 1 and is located three miles south-west of Prince Albert.
Later, from an advertisement I ran in the Shopper a homeowner who had a honeybee colony living in a unused chimney peacefully for a few years contacted me. With a new neighbor moving in who is reactive to bee venom he asked if I would try to remove the colony without killing it. I was successful in trapping most of the workers and transferred them to a backyard hive only three blocks away. I re-queened with a Carniolan HRH from Corey's bloodlines. This collective became Hive 2.
Carniolan Bees are particularly suited to both my climate and myself. Their traits are - very gentle and not at all aggressive, very much smaller winter workforce required, capable of explosive growth in the spring when nectar becomes available and excellent house keepers with very good resistance to most common pests and diseases.
My hives, which are a horizontal or Top Bar style are my own design and execution. These are different from what usually comes to mind when people think of bee hives. Unlike the square, usually white boxes piled one atop another, this style of hive more mimics a bees natural home. It is a single cavity where there is space and guides (Top Bars) for thirty combs of the bees own construction.
There is no need for man-made foundation, smokers, protective suits or expensive extractors using this method. The ladies build what they want where they want, arranging their home as they naturally like it. As harvesting honey entails cutting the entire full honey comb off the Bar there is no carry over of comb that may harbor a build up of toxins compounded year after year. I believe that it isn't necessary for a hobby bee-keep to engage in chemical warfare to maximize production. If I depended on my hives for a living I might have a different opinion on some, but not all modern management protocals.
Enjoy your visit.
Hive 1
Hive 1 is located immediately outside of the city in an area that was at one time cultivated farmland that has been taken out of production except for some few cattle pastured. The cultivated sections were seeded to hay several years ago and now are mostly either leased to Ducks Unlimited for wildlife habitat or converted to one acreage per quarter section, inhabited by non-farming families. As you can see on the above map where the drawn circle represents the normal bee-range, the girls almost exclusively feast on nectar from mostly wild flowers with some residual, now feral, clover and alfalfa. The extent of the wild roses in this area is excellent in every clump of bushes or trees. I would have to say it will be pretty close to wild flower honey with no agricultural crops or use of agricultural chemicals anywhere in their normal range.
Hive 2
Hive 2 - being they were city bees originally, they moved only three blocks away to my back yard. Just thinking of all the semi loads of bedding plants bought and planted every spring, as well as fruit and ornamental flowering trees and shrubs from around the globe, what a diverse bee menu. The fact is here in Saskatchewan we are blessed with hardly any pests that are sprayed for, and that I have never heard of anyone spraying flowers with chemicals, one can only imagine the exotic variety of honey collected. With species from many places on earth the honey must be similar to a combination of several different native honeys from several different countries all in one mix. As you can see on the above map where the drawn circle represents the normal bee-range, the girls have access to the entire city.