View source for Jacob Springs honey program


[[Image:Cedarbeehive.jpg|thumb]]

[[Jacob Springs Farm]] practices [[beekeeping]] producing [[comb honey]] from about 15 [[topbar beehive]]s. Beautiful, local honey on the comb is sold for $10 per pound. Call or email us for more information. farmteam (at) Jacobsprings.com

Their hives are a combination of farm-built [[Jacob Springs topbar hives]] and [[OpenSourceBeehive project]]'s [[Colorado Topbar]] which [[Andre Houssney]] helped to design.

The farm also runs the [[Jacob Springs package bees program]] providing bees and queens to local area beekeepers annually in the spring. 


===Beehive activity May 13, 2016===
Caught a swarm from #5 and installed it in #2

Hive 5 needs to be harvested already.

===Beehive activity May 1, 2016===
New queens and 2# packages for the following colonies: #2, 4, 6, 11, 13
(a few days later I transferred colony #2 to a customer)

===Beehive activity observations January 23, 2016 (The first warm sunny day for about 2 months)===

#1 active - cluster inside very little honey reserves
#2 dirt on landing board no activity no window
#3 very light activity dead bees in entrance –  cluster inside
#4 no activity lots of pulverized comb at entrance Dead inside
#5 very active some dirt near entrance – Clusters inside 
#6 no activity dead inside
#7 1 bee at entrance alive others dead no window
#8 light activity no window
#9 light activity no window
#10 light activity good cluster inside few honey reserves
#11 light activity at entrance dirty landing board – dead inside
#12 no activity at entrance some be parts fairly healthy cluster inside no food
#13 no activity outside no bees inside
#14 good activity no window
Swarm hive by shop - died

Action taken: Fed syrup water to bees for the first time ever - looks like honey stores are largely consumed - bees fed heavily

===2017 Summery===
#by springtime, all colonies were dead.
#Installed 8 new packages from the package bee program
#Good year - most hives are strong by late august
#Harvested ~$1200 worth of honey August 23 & 24 from first 4 hives
#Harvested ~$900 ~Sept 1 from last 4 hives