Karmix Apiaries

Today we had triplets: three swarms from a single hive. They landed in a neighbour's cedar hedge, right beside each other. Very convenient.

Bee season is now in full swing and our hives are growing rapidly. We're thrilled to have expanded to 4 locations in Richmond with diverse forage for the bees and great people hosting our hives.

Sun's out! It's a busy day in the bee yard. It looks like 75% survival so far this year.

Pouring out the bees after a good vacuuming session from the hedge.

Finally the first honey extraction of the season. 20 frames of honey resulted in 27 kilos / 59 pounds! Now we need 1,350 slices of toast!

One of the best things to come from learning about bees is that I'll never pull weeds in my lawn/garden again. Give yourself permission to do the same - for the pollinators!

Trying something crazy: two half-sized colonies, each with a queen, pushed together and joining forces to fill a single honey box.

Our first swarm catch of the year. This was a small swarm with a virgin queen. Still, I got to use my bee-vac and do some pruning of the bee tree. FUN!

The "nuc army" has been fully deployed. We will have nucs with local queens ready for sale in a couple weeks.

Today's flight school class was packed with newbees. The sound was incredible!

Looks like it will be a good year for blueberries! Hooray for pollinators!

Like in chess, sometimes the queen has to be sacrificed to stay in the game. This 1 day old queen was removed to allow a new queen to be made for the good of the hive.