Thar be Bees!
By Sammy Wight
Photos from the WightHouse, and our newest addition to the household. Our First Beehive.
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- MUTT BeeHive Russian, Italian, Carniolan 004
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- MUTT BeeHive Russian, Italian, Carniolan 005
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- MUTT BeeHive Russian, Italian, Carniolan 006
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- MUTT BeeHive Russian, Italian, Carniolan, and Eydie 007
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- MUTT BeeHive Russian, Italian, Carniolan, and Eydie 008
Our Bees are a mixed breed of Carniolan, Russian, and Italian. They are very calm and have great temperament. Only the Italian Bees are a bit more calm than ours. They seem to be happy here. We have had them since last Thursday. They reside in our orchard. Our Nuc had 4 pounds of Bees in it, with one Queen. Hopefully she will be busy and lay lots of babies, and we will have an extra 200+ bees a day born. We won't harvest honey this year, but next year we should be able to extract up to 90 lbs.
We are underway with out Dandelion Wine with Champagne Yeast, Plain Mead, Sweet Mead, and still have Blackberry, and Elderberry to go yet. Eydie made herself some Lemonbalm wine that she loves. Not my cup o' tea. Eydie's brother is supposed to be posting stories and photos to our “WIGHTWAY PRESS” SITE, but i haven't seen any lately, just keep an eye out for it. More adventures to follow.
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The Adventures of Eydie and Sammy Wight 
Donna Dell said,
June 1, 2010 at 1:29 pm
200 bee babies in one day? Remarkable! How will you be able to name them all? Why no honey during the first year? Are you concerned about the bee blight that has destroyed so many hives?????
Oh, switching topics…. Mike and I learned all about mead from the movie Robin Hood. There is actually a bee keeper in the movie– Friar Tuck. I think you should be certain to watch Robin Hood.
Donna said,
July 15, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Hello!
Just thinking about your bees and wondering how they are doing.
Donna
Sammy said,
June 1, 2010 at 3:56 pm
I stand corrected. The queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day. (Sorry about the typo folks).
Eydie and I would love to have our readers send us their oldest known to date “Mead Recipes.” I understand that some go back as far as the time of CHRIST. The first one we used was very old, and posted on this site. We love the taste of our wines and the “punch” it packs with increased alcohol content. If anyone knows the best way to get the alcohol content at max, please advise us. (The first mead I sipped from a dixie cup… and after 3 sips, I was snookered. 🙂 )
Conservative Tea Party Sammy
Donna said,
January 5, 2011 at 11:09 am
I miss your blog postings. How are your bees?
sammy said,
January 5, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Since Eydie and i don’t manage the site, and, it is an endeavor that we have had little time for, the blogging is minimal. But at this time…..the bees are in winter retreat and are sealed inside their hive for now. we hope. no way of knowing if they have made it, but we should know as soon as the first warm day rolls around to check on them. Thanks for asking. we have started other projects along with the bees, and are quite pleased at the results. Eydie got a moonshine still for Christmas! A one gallon deal. Looks pretty cool. TTYL…….Sammy
Eydie said,
January 6, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Hey Donna,
Thanks for thinking of the bees! They went into the winter season in good shape. The frames were nice and heavy, full of honey, and Queen Thistle seems to be a good queen. I’ll be able to give them a quick peak if we have a warmish(50-60) day. I can supplement with fondant and pollen cakes if I need to and the winter proves long and hard. It’s been a year of learning, lots of advice from Beekeeper Dan, and lots of prayer I don’t screw things up!
All in all I made 27 gallons of seven different kinds of wine this past year, including five gallons of traditional mead, five gallons of orange mead, and one gallon of lemon balm mead. These were make from honey from Beekeeper Dan’s hives. The mead has to age at least a year so around St. Patrick’s day we’ll wear some green, invite some friends over, play some Celtic tunes on fiddle and guitar, and lift a pint or two to the bees!
I miss the blog too, but I seem to be forever caught up in house projects (finished our basement, finally!) and garden harvest, wine making, and knitting. I was to have published a children’s story last year called “The Christmas Bear” but my illustrator was even busier than I so we’re going to try for this year.
How are people ever bored in this world?
Happy New Year to you and Michael!
donnadell said,
August 14, 2011 at 8:11 am
Hey Everyone……
Wanted to find out how the bees are doing. Are you havesting honey? Are you expanding the hive? How is you wine/mead? Do you enter your products in your state fair? Hope all is well!