yard inspection camarillo

I inspected one of my yard in camarillo (santa rosa road area) yesterday. From 7 hives, one was empty. Need to add more boxes though real quick. They have been busy!

bee hive removal from wall

A few days ago i got a call that a swarm had moved into a double wall at a facility where cilantro/cabbage is being distributed in Oxnard. Since i didn't have any boxes available, it took me a few days to get to them.

The wall (next to restroom entrance) where the bees are going in.

shield removed exposing the bees

closeup

Bees in the box, ladies are fanning to let the others know something is in the box.

my first wasp removal

When I went to pickup the bees from the crate cutout, I was informed that wasps/yellow jackets moved into another crate. Since i needed to put my suit one anyway, i removed the colony.

*UPDATE*

I think these are/were paper wasps

cut out: machine crate

This seems to become a regular customer of mine.

They make mechanical parts with CNC machines and ship those parts in crates.
They have a whole bunch of them stacked and the bees love them!

[CLICK ON PICTURES FOR LARGER VERSION]

honey laundering

Asian Honey, Banned in Europe, Is Flooding U.S. Grocery Shelves

A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals.
Food safety investigators from the European Union barred all shipments of honey from India because of the presence of lead and illegal animal antibiotics. Further, they found an even larger amount of honey apparently had been concocted without the help of bees, made from artificial sweeteners and then extensively filtered to remove any proof of contaminants or adulteration or indications of precisely where the honey actually originated.
Read full article about honey laundering

organic honey impossible ?

I say it is possible, but don't expect to pay cheap prices for it.

On the wholesale market about $2 per lbs is paid for conventional honey.
They even ship if from other continents for that money (which sounds nearly impossible)

The honey we sell has been tested for 171 named pesticides in parts per billion by a USDA lab.

the results for this year:
on three barrels from three different timesof the year: none detected for all 171 pesticides.

Anyhow, I don't think honey gets any better than this, and we will be sure
to inform our buyers about the test results.


Now look at this article

drabble and bees