With Chad and Angela’s hives suspended for the season, a friend sent us a link to Birdchick.com, where they’re obviously enthusiastic about the birds and the bees — so much so, their bees just got a blue ribbon at their local county fair. See all the winged action (and fantastic photos) here.

It’s been a while since we’ve given you an update on the bees. When last we checked in, we sadly discovered that one hive had starved to death. Now, as things have finally started thawing out in our little hamlet near the Hudson River, our worst fears of been realized. None of our hives survived the winter! The remaining two hives had plenty of honey, but they obviously couldn’t get to it. They most likely were huddled together for warmth, unable to dig into their reserve stock in the layer above. It’s so sad, especially now as the first bulbs we planted are starting to sprout. One theory on our failure is that we had tried to start our hives with Italian bees (the American honeybee no longer exists — all honeybees here are now bred from foreign lines). We have heard they are not very hearty for cold climates. Perhaps next year we’ll try Russian bees? — Angela M.

It’s been a while since we’ve written about the bees. When we last updated you, we had taken just a tiny bit of honey from one of the hives. At that time we were a little worried that one of the three seemed to have no honey at all. It was as if those bees had gotten really lazy and just stopped working. We had to remove its the upper layer because it was empty, and hoped they would just hunker down and survive the winter. Well, sadly, they didn’t even make it through Thanksgiving. We found a bunch of dead bees near the door to the hive, and sure enough, a peek inside confirmed our fears. The bees were all dead, starved. In this picture, you can see their sad fate. Their dove in deep, trying to get the last bit of honey they had made, and all their little butts are sticking out. We have a theory on why this hive didn’t survive and the others seem to be okay. It has to do with the way the hive was constructed — this one was more “free form” while the others are ready-made to go. You’d think the bees would be prefer the au natural hive route, but apparently not.

We probably won’t have another update until spring, as the other two hives will be left one alone to do their thing. Fingers crossed, they’ll survive a few cold months! Wish us luck! — Angela M.

It’s been a while since we’ve given you an update on our bee hives: We’ve been patiently letting them set up their homes and gear up for the coming winter. You see, fall honey production is dedicated to building up a stockpile to survive the cold months, and since our hives are just a few months old, we have to be mindful not to leave the cupboards bare. But when one produced several full sheets of capped honey in one week, we knew it would be okay to quench our curiosity and have a little taste. We took one sheet and scraped off all of the comb, including the honey, and mashed it through a fine filter. The honey we gathered is a rich a dark brown, the result of a fall harvest from lots of oak and chestnut trees near our home. The taste is unbelievable! It has a depth and flavor you just don’t get from mass produced honey. We got three precious bottles: One of our neighbor (whose flowers keep our bees happy), one for the vault and one to eat now! I’m hoping it will help fend off my seasonal allergies, which have been bad lately. Let the good times flow. — Angela M.

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When last we wrote about our three little bee hives, we were excitedly anticipating the honey we thought we’d have in just a couple of weeks. Well, here we are, and alas, are sadly reporting we have no honey to share. All three hives seem to be thriving, but none have moved on up to into the honey “super” on the third level. This is not a cause for concern… yet. In fact, some say that you can’t expect new hives to produce any honey at all during their first season. Still, we’re are somewhat deflated. Oh well… at least this gives us more time to debate our future honey’s name and shop for cool jars. — Angela M.

Big news from the bee corner! As you can see, our hives are growing — and getting more colorful. We have added a second “hive super” to all three hives — a “super” is a layer in the hive. Once one layer is nearly full, the beekeeper adds another level to encourage more bee and honey production. After two levels are full, a third is added — this is a honey super. The honey super has a screen barricade that prevents the queen from entering, which means she can’t lay eggs there. Since the baby bee production is limited to the bottom levels, the top floor becomes filled with pure honey comb. That’s where we can take the honey from. As you can see from the photo, our first hive (on the right) already has grown to three levels. We could have honey from that hive in just a couple of weeks! As for the colors, well, we thought the bees needed a little decorating. Our next big task: coming up with a name for our little honey production. Any suggestions? — Angela M.

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When last we left you, my amateur-beekeeper husband Chad was gleefully exclaiming, “I see larvae!” after peeking in on his hive. Well, that success may have gone to his head, or perhaps he was bitten by some bizarre beekeeping bug, because now we have THREE hives. No, the bees didn’t just multiply like mad. Rather, Chad decided he needed more bees. At first he told me was ordering ONE more hive, but he “mistakenly” messed up the order and we got two. Hmpf. There is some rationale to this: the plan is to make slight variations in each hive, so we can learn which techniques work best. Each one has a different type of “foundation” which allows the bees to build and construct the honeycomb. So now we have three hives and about eighteen thousand bees (and counting!). Hopefully, by the end of fall, we’ll have about a hundred pounds of honey. Stay tuned! — Angela M.

Yippee! The queen is in the house! After a week of wondering if our bees were in danger without royalty to guide them, we are pleased to report that our hive’s queen is indeed in residence. Chad darted up to the cottage the other day to check things out. When he pulled the files out of the hive, not only did he find that our little winged pals had been super busy producing honeycomb, but they’re making more bees. That’s right, he saw some baby bees! I swear the pride in Chad’s voice when he called with the news was comparable to our first Isadora-ultrasound. It is very exciting. In the photo above, you can see the honeycomb they are building — isn’t its shape amazing? And if you click here you can see the latest video of the fun on YouTube. More buzzzzzzzz soon! — Angela M.

Here it is, one week after installing the bees into our new hive. The time had come for us to check on their progress. We needed to see that they were getting to work, building honeycomb, collecting pollen and nectar. Also, we wanted to confirm that queen was still in there, getting lots of attention and laying eggs (sometimes in a new hive, the queen may leave). I must admit it is a little scary approaching a thriving hive in the middle of a sunny day. I stood back a few feet while Chad got up close and personal with the hive. He carefully pulled out each “file” and inspected it. We couldn’t believe how much honeycomb these little guys had produced after just a few days! It’s so amazing. But, unfortunately, we could not spot the queen and don’t think we saw any evidence of eggs. It’s really hard to tell though, with hundreds of bees buzzing around on each file — as the above image shows. If you click here you can see a mega-sized image. Perhaps you can spot the queen? We couldn’t! We’re trying not to panic though. Chad’s going to check again this week, and hopefully he’ll spot her or evidence of eggs. If not, we may have to order another queen — pronto — and hope our hive survives! — Angela M.

We have four thousand new buddies at our River Cottage today. That’s right, the bees have finally arrived, after being delayed a couple of weeks due to weather. These are Italian bees that were shipped from Georgia to Betterbee, where Chad picked them on Saturday morning. The box they came in was about the size of a toaster oven. Because it was cold outside, and they had been traveling for days, the honeybees were really mellow, all huddled together and softly buzzing. Needless to say, I’ve never seen so many bees in one place. And, I never thought I’d say this, but honey bees are damn cute! Nothing like those pesky yellow jackets or chunky bumblebees. Approximately four thousand bees were in that box, along with the queen in her own special container. To get the bees in the hive, you pull out the queen’s box, place it in the hive, and shake all the other bees in. They are dying to be near the queen — whose box has a door made out of candy that bees eat to free her — and follow her immediately. Amazing, huh? Chad got stung only once. Sadly, some bees did die in the transfer. We think the cold temp may have been too much for them. But the next day, the sun came out and we could see the busy workers coming and going from the hive’s entrance. We’ll check on them in a few days to make sure the queen has made her way successfully out of the box. Wanna see more? Click here to watch Chad’s the installation of the bees on YouTube — Angela M.