Blake Brimhall, Bee Right Back Bees
In the spring of 2021, he built eight hives, and in order to keep costs down, constructed nearly all of them from recycled shipping material.
“When we moved here all our items came in crates and they were going to throw them away,” Blake said. “I said, ‘Whoa! Lemme keep them crates!’ I broke all the crates down and kept the quarter-inch plywood. So my first year I built all my hives and frames.”
The third winter brought another loss in the form of the dreaded mite. While he’s traditionally found oxalic acid vaporization treatments to be effective, the cold weather created a barrier with its success.
The Idaho winters bring long deep freezes, copious amounts of snowfall, and with those fluctuations, humidity challenges. Each heartache brought with it a new valuable lesson: Certain hive designs work best in particular applications.
Slight adaptations like using a wool pillow for sudden temperature drops can help, he said. Using Hive Alive fondant can support colony health. And finding the effective timing for mite treatment.
Before becoming a recipient of the Fellowship Fund program Blake wasn’t sure he was going to continue beekeeping.
“I really thought I was going to quit bees, but I didn’t want to,” he said. “The bees give me a lot of happiness.”
