Bee Keeping with Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply

March 12th, 2016, Murdoch's Employees Joyce, Melanie, Erin & Ray Gilbert

Hi Friends!
We had a great day out at the Holiday Inn in Montrose, Colorado with the gals from Murdoch's and guest speaker, Ray Gilbert.

Beekeeping products you can find at Murdoch's Ranch & Home Supply: LINK

Everyone started trickling in for the Seminar. The room was packed as the presentation started! It was a great turn out!

You can find all the the items in this blog at Murdoch's Ranch & Home Supply or online HERE

Needed Supplies:
Bee Hive (all components)
Duct Tape (for around shirt cuffs, pant cuffs & waist)
Pry-bar (for lifting out the trays/cells)
Large Soft Brush (Bee brush or large soft paint brush)

Murdoch's carries all the bee accessories & boxes, frames & foundations for all your beekeeping needs! LINK

Here is a great source for Bee Information: LINK

Ray Gilbert of   R&D Honey      Beekeeping 101 Class 

 This tray in Rays right hand (left in photo)  is a relatively new tray with the beginnings of the honeycomb on the frame tray. You can see that the tray in Ray's left hand (right in the photo) shows a full comb. This comb has been scraped and the honey is no longer in the comb.

Here Ray is showing where the bees had gathered during a severe fluctuation of heat & cold a few years. The bees from this hive died and Ray lost 90% of his hives. Ray and Bee Keepers around the world lost billions of bees from this strange weather pattern.

Here is that partial honey comb hive tray close up.

 This is a tray that goes into the bee box. This tray is available through Murdoch's.  And more information will be available on Murdoch's "Dirt" Blog.

Here participants take a closer look at the beekeeping hive trays.

 This close up shows the way the worker bees have built the honeycomb over the tray frame edge.

 The honey comb in this tray has become granulated crystal honey. Granulated honey can be softened with heat.

The non visible word is Congregate. The bees congregate in one spot in the Winter Season.

This shows the comb in two stages. Very interesting.

 This tray shows the hot knife removal of the honey comb to extract the honey.

Bee Hive Foundation made of plastic with a bees wax coating.

 Melanie &     from Murdoch's, Montrose, CO

Step By Step Beekeeping HERE!

Here is a closer look at the supplies on the display tables.

We did try these honey sticks. We each tried a different kind and we had our favorites, but they were all quite delicious!

 A "smoker" is what is in the picture above. The smoker is used to calm the bees to  work on the hive or to get to the honey.

The smoker, brush, smoke material and other items can be found in Murdoch's or online at Murdochs.com

You may want to replace the Queen every couple of years, however 5 years is the max. The Queen does a lot of work!

Murdoch's Italian Queen Bee

More information on the Murdoch's Website LINK.

The hive can hold up to 10 trays in the box, this one has 8 and that is good too.

It is better to start with new foundations to avoid mites & wax moths. This is the inside of a purchased bee brood box that is used when shipping. How to Buy Bees

The Beekeeping Veil is an important tool to have when keeping bees.
The veil keeps the bees away from your face and neck.

For more information on Beekeeping Protective Veil, click HERE.

"Use as protective face covering when working with bees or wanting to keep bugs out of your face while in the yard." Murdoch's LINK

More information on the Bee Feeder HERE.

Here is what the Hive Feeder looks like. Murdoch's LINK

This was really a great seminar hosted by Holiday Inn of Montrose, Colorado and put on by Murdoch's Ranch & Home Supply Company. The Holiday Inn had a nice room And snack & drinks table done up by the Holiday Inn staff and the gals from Murdoch's. The Murdoch's gals had some neat beekeeping displays. Also the information presented and the beekeeping equipment from Ray Gilbert was great! The hands on experience was something I won't forget any time soon.


I'd like to thank the Holiday Inn, Murdoch's Ranch & Home Supplies and Ray Gilbert for a really informative and well executed seminar on Beginning Beekeeping. We really enjoyed this day and hope to attend many more seminars in the future!


Here is the link to the bee info blog post on the Dirt Blog Enjoy!
CJD.Sign

Extra Links:

 The Dirt Blog:  https://blog.murdochs.com/

Taking Your Bees Home : https://blog.murdochs.com/picking-up-transporting-bees-from-murdochs-stores/

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