Bees and Beekeeping - You best be a bee-lover

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Shoot I forgot to give y'all an update!

Both my hives have survived and are buttoned up for the winter. Despite likely having too-small queen excluders in place these troopers managed to give me 2.5 gallons of honey!
It's a light honey, not as thick as some, and very floral. A friend of mine swears it has a citrus note, but I think he's trying to be pretentious.
Makes a good tea and has worked in baking and mead making very well.

I had to break out the permethrin to keep the hordes of ants away from the sugar water feeders, but that done they shouldn't need anything more than some weekly refills till spring and then they can jump straight into building out frames.
 
Not to count my eggs before they hatch, so to speak, but my hive is looking like it'll survive the harsh winter! I've had a very warm week (40's and 50's, Fahrenheit) and I didn't put in a candy board like I wanted to before I sealed them in, so I threw in the candy board yesterday with some large sugar chunks and the winter pollen patty that I meant to use. I wanted to give them a food/nutrient boost since idk how much honey they have left and I'd like them to survive until the spring bloom. Today was just as warm, if not warmer, and the bee's were actually quite active and flying around the hive a bit.

A few weeks ago I ordered 2 more Saskatraz nuc's, so that'll bump me up to 3 hives. Pretty excited by that prospect because 1 hive simply hasn't been enough for my household consumption... and I eventually want to get into making mead and that eats up a lot of honey, lol. I hope the other Saskatraz hives are as chill as this one has been...

Just curious to other Saskatraz owners here: Have yours been super chill as well? My initial hive was Italian and they weren't "aggressive" but I still had to be somewhat careful as not to anger them and they even swarmed me once when I didn't use any smoke opening the hive one time (stupid I know, lol, I got a bit too comfortable with them). I mowed the lawn with my riding mower all last Summer around and in front of the Saskatraz hive... like as close to the entrance as I could without hitting it... and they never swarmed or even stung me. I feel comfortable standing next to the hive without any equipment on. Granted, I never tried opening the Saskatraz hive without smoke, but still. They never get as ornery as the prior Italian did getting into the hive. Just wondering if everyone else is seeing the same. NGL, if that's the norm for Saskatraz then it feels like cheating.
 
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