July 2022- Snoqualmie Valley Blackberry

 We're into the second week of July, and the blackberry, though finishing up, is still producing. This is way past normal, at least in my experience.  

Last weekend I went down to my friend's farm to check out the two remaining hives I had there. They happen to be in the middle of probably the densest, hugest, far reaching patch of blackberry I've every seen- there are miles of it. Below is picture looking west- the Snoqualmie River is hidden and sunken down in the mid distance.

I have two hives here- and though buried in 5 feet of grass and blackberries, I was able to go through them. They aren't huge- nor stacked with supers as one would like at the end of a flow, but they are packed with brood, and increase, and if I can carry out a good mite killing plan in the next few weeks, they have promise for next year I think. I don't think I'll be extracting much, maybe a few supers, from any of my hives this year- they just weren't up to strength to produce, and the wet weather was a detriment.

This hive I am Demareeing- placing the queen on some brood in a box entirely devoid of brood or anything else. I am pretty sure that this is a great method- though lately have had some drone laying queen issues, that I think, lacking any other explanation, might be related.  There are cautions in the old books about using the method when it is too early and too cold- and I may have done that. Not too early, but its been cold. I don't know what happens- but I think the queen and the brood don't do well in that situation, when they'd naturally want to be as high as they could be and in the warmth. But why would good queens turn to laying drone only? At another apiary this week, I opened what looked like a powerful hive, packed with bees, and full supers, but also packed in almost every hive fill frames of drones. Edge to edge in some places. I've never seen that.

And finally- at 62 and having done this since I was 30 (wish I started sooner, but it never occurred to me then), a self portrait in this very excellent blackberry country.  I'm giving it all another year, but just with the bees I have left, and I'll see how far that takes me. One thing is for sure, its a heck of a lot less work working only 10 hives, and that's pretty nice.

Matthew Waddington/Duvall WA