Health & Pests
Hygienic Bees Smell Disease and Do Something About It
One form of social immunity is called hygienic behavior, wherein many young workers resist the spread of pathogens and Varroa mites by detecting, uncapping, and removing unhealthy brood.
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Will Wax Moths Come up Into the Hive From the Screened Bottom Board?
Will wax moths come up into the hive from the screened bottom board? I’ve cleaned up some deadouts and would like to leave them set up, the freezing during the winter should have killed eggs or larvae in the comb. I’ve closed off the entrances with window screen.
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Raising Honey Bees with Pets and Livestock
When we decided to start raising honey bees, one of the things we needed to consider was the safety of the other animals on our property. If we had a large property where we would be able to put our hives away from our other animals it would be easy, but we don’t have a large property.
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Is Moisture Killing My Bees?
As long as they are dry, honey bees are wizards at staying warm. But a moist hive can be a death sentence because evaporation is a cooling process that steals the heat from a bee’s body. Living in a damp hive is like standing in a cold room while dripping wet from a shower.
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Emergency, Swarm, and Supercedure Cells, Oh My!
I remember seeing the queen in our first ever hive and thinking to myself, “I’ll never find supercedure cells since I’m going to do all I can to keep her alive forever.” Of course, that’s not the reality of beekeeping.
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Why Did My Bees Leave the Hive? What is NOT a Swarm!
Cartoons and movies give us an (incorrect) idea of what swarming bees look like. So when the time to ask questions came up in my first beekeeping class, I asked, “Why might my bees leave the hive?”
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Growing Your Apiary: All About Splitting a Hive
Splitting the colony is a natural part of the honeybee’s reproductive life cycle—in nature we call this action “swarming.” Why do bees swarm? With increased hours in daylight, the queen bee begins to lay her eggs and grow the hive’s population.
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Creating the Best Water Sources for Bees
Like all animals, honey bees need a dependable source of water year round. The best water sources for bees are ones that won’t go dry in the summer, won’t drown the bees, and won’t be shared with livestock or pets. Although honey bees adore a nice salt water pool, it’s a good idea to establish your water source before your bees begin chasing away the sunbathers.
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Using a Beehive Inspection Checklist
The only way to know exactly what is going on in a beehive is to actually take a peek inside. This can be intimidating, especially to a new beekeeper, but it doesn’t have to be.
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Why Are There So Many Bee Droppings on the Outside of my Hives?
I am an urban beekeeper in Cleveland. We over-wintered our bees in two deeps. The bees largely remained in the top box all winter. We have had a cold wet, snowy spring. I have been noticing bee poop pretty much all over the outside of the hive.
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