These are the notes taken during the first year of Shungite beehives.
Russian Shungite Bees - Treatment-free Beehives
Shungite Powder provided by: Cosmic Reality Shungite Inc.
9/13/17 - Our Shungite bees are still doing great, bringing back lots of pollen. We’ve made it nearly through the entire year and still have no signs of disease or pests of any kind! Before our use of Shungite, by this time last year our beehives had experienced AFB (American Foulbrood), Nosema and Varroa mites, all of which are common in our area. The other local beekeepers we’ve been touch with this year are experiencing some or all of the above stated bee afflictions. When we’re in the beehives next we’ll record video of the various frames before they go into winter, for comparison in the spring of 2018 when they start to collect pollen/nectar again.
8/27/17 - Did a quick beehive check this morning, all beehives are still producing lots of honey. We’ll probably have a long fall season this year it’s looking like, which is great for the bees, lots of time to prep for winter. Still no sign of pests/disease in any of the hives. We’ll post brood/honey frame pictures within the week.
8/22/17 - It appears sometime over the previous 24hrs another Shungite Queen bee has emerged (Queen Colleen). She will more than likely just take over the beehive she’s in, #7. There were an additional two empty queen cells that had already emerged on the same frame, which have evidently flown off with a percentage of the bees to begin a wild Shungite bee colony. This is evident from the lower number of bees found inside the hive. There appears to still be plenty of bees in the #7 hive to make it through the winter.
8/0/17 - Today we combined a weaker hive #5 with hive #8 so they would have the bee numbers to make it through the winter. Rather than let #5 requeen itself, forcing us to move the colony into a “nuc” for the winter, we moved small #5 colony into beehive #7.
8/08/17 - Yesterday I noticed beehive #4 was acting slightly agitated. This is the same beehive we placed Shungite powder on almost exactly 2 weeks ago, as a 2nd powder test. Today I went into the hive and found that they had completely filled up both of the 2 honey supers (boxes) they had. They went into overdrive and filled their honey supers extremely fast over the past two weeks. I also checked the neighboring hives without the same results. I removed one full honey box and replaced it with a new Shungite painted box. They were agitated because they had run out of room to store honey, which could cause a supersedure. If they were to supersedure they’d produce more queens and split up into another colony/swarm.
7/25/17 - Today we placed .75g of Shungite powder in a tray at beehive #4, then a 2nd tray again at the entrance of beehive #1, again .75g.
6/24/17 - I went out to the hives today to find #1 Shungite hive in the middle of a supersedure, AGAIN! This is the same hive that decided they were doing well enough to split off into additional colonies by making new Queen Bees several weeks ago. By the time I got into the hive today, at least 6 queen cells had already hatched. I did manage to secure one queen cell before she hatched. I’ll transplant her into hive #2 where the queen from a swarm capture appears to of left. My wife Maureen just pointed out that this is also the only hive that received the Shungite Powder from Cosmic Reality Shungite Inc. (I’ll upload a video of the beehive during the supersedure)
6/20/17 - Pulling a sample frame of Shungite Honey in the next couple days, I will upload pictures & opinions of the honey. From what I’ve seen so far the honeycomb is nearly pure white & looking perfect! The clover flowers are starting to bloom, this will give a nice flavor/color to the honey being made now. Since the honey frames lower in the hive are already full, we’ll now know what frames the bees are filling with the clover honey. The 3rd honey box we’ll place will be in time for the blackberry flowers that’ll be blooming here in the mountains.
6/20/17 - (1) .75g tray of Shungite placed at beehive #1 (no wind)
6/13/17 - checked inside of hives, plenty of activity happening. Lots of new Shungite Honey being produced, looks great! We used new honeycomb frames with the new beehives, so even the honeycomb will be new & Shungite treated. Will be able to do a more detailed inspection/update in a few days, it’s been raining here so we don’t open the beehives due to moisture being one of a beehives worst enemies.
6/7/17 - all (6) hives are growing well, can see bees returning with pollen daily.
6/4/17 - Shungite powder is 90% gone from both trays - was able to observe bees actively walking through powder on both departing & returning flights while collecting pollen/nectar.
6/2/17 - Placed (2) plastic trays each containing .75g of “Cosmic Reality Shungite” Shungite powder at entrance of hive #1.
6/1/17 - Beehives #1 & #2 are beginning to crowd even with 2nd deep brood box both #1 & #2 hives are split into (3) separate colonies each:All (6) beehives receive:
• (2) deep frames of brood
• (2) deep frames capped honey
• (2) empty deep frames
• Bees are appx evenly split between all (6) beehives
• (3) pieces medium Shungite
• Where needed new queen bees were added from sister hives from a few feet away.
(6) Shungite Beehives Total - (3) medium nuggets placed at right-side of entrance on each hive.
5/24/17 - 3 medium Shungite nuggets from “ Cosmic Reality Shungite “ were placed at the right-side of entrance of both #1 & #2 beehives
5/20/17 - Gold Bar, WA Apiary - Beehives #1 & #2 - each hive consists of (2) 10frame deep boxes, full bee colony inside - appx 50,000 bees including (1) queen bee
Notes: • On average (1) .75g tray of Shungite powder is emptied every (2) days by the bees walking through it.
• With amount of flowers blooming in the area of the beehives
6/7/17, bees need only travel a few miles from hives this time of year (in this area) for necessary pollen/nectar. (bees spreading Shungite powder over 2-3 mile radius from beehives most likely happening)
8/11/17 - Honey harvest on 8/10/17, was from hive #4, which was the bee swarm I caught on 6/24/17 that had swarmed from hive #1 (the only hive to receive Shungite powder at that point). So the queen bee in hive #4 is the first 100% Shungite queen bee, being bread from Shungite beehive #1.
Shungite beehive #4 was started along with hives #3 & #6, neither of which have produced enough honey to harvest at this time. All 3 hives being relatively new, are/should still gathering their winter stores. #4 had gathered more than enough to allow us to share in their bounty!
- Of note, at this point beehive #4 appears to be building its colony appx 50% faster than it’s two sister beehives, started at the same time (#3 & #6). Also beehive #4 was the only other hive to receive Shungite powder a couple weeks ago.
7/6/17 - Beehive #1, harvested 10 shallow frames of honey (appx 2.5 gallons). Replaced shallow honey box we harvested, with new empty frames, no comb. All other beehives we added additional boxes where necessary, with new empty frames, no comb again. #2 thru #6 beehives will probably be left alone (no honey harvested) until next year so they can grow to full size. (we’d much prefer healthy happy bees, that’s done by not robbing all of their honey, they did make it after all)
7/2/17 - Today the bees appear much calmer, no warnings/head-bumps. All 6 beehives appear to be busy collecting mostly nectar at this time, not much pollen showing up on their legs. Still unsure if a couple of the colonies have queens yet, I prefer to try and let them make their own queen rather than introduce one from outside my colonies. If I have a hive making queens I will move one to a hive lacking a queen, if I can catch one (or move a queen cell over before she hatches). The less interference the better. Give them a chance to do what they do on their own. We only step in if it’s absolutely necessary, or an emergency, (maybe a robbing situation).
7/1/17 - Something very unusual is happening with the bees today. When approaching the beehives I was immediately warned (they start bouncing off of your head/face) not to approach, this has never happened like this from these bees, ever. From what I could observe from the outside of the beehives appeared relatively normal. Then when nearing our flower garden we’ve created for them, I was again warned by the bees that were in the flower garden, no where near their beehive. I have never been warned by my bees quite like this before, I rarely wear a bee suit, and never get stung. I will continue to monitor them for changes.
According to http://www.suspicious0bservers.org/ website we are experiencing a weaker CME today and tomorrow, plus our local internet has had major issues today, it appears as if it is all EMF/CME/Frequency related. I just checked the radiation levels near the beehives, which are normally near zero, they are 6 times higher at the moment.