Featured Stories
Natural Bees Comb Building: Boon or Bust?
The construction of natural bee’s comb is a wonder to behold. Festooning bees clasp legs to form hanging chains, a behavior many beekeepers describe as measuring, and set to work building hexagonal cells using wax flakes they excrete from abdominal glands and shape with their jaws. Each bee appears to work independently, yet somehow cells built by many bees working on different areas of comb come together seamlessly.
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Why Do Bees Washboard?
When bees washboard, they space themselves on the surface of their hive then they plant their four rear legs in place and use their two front legs to step forward and back in a rocking motion while they lick the surface. Sometimes a colony will washboard for a day or two, but at other times it may continue for weeks.
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What’s Wrong with my Homemade Fondant?
Beekeepers add vinegar to fondant recipes under the mistaken idea that you need to invert the sucrose for the bees. This is not true. Most nectar is mainly sucrose, but the instant the bees ingest it, their saliva breaks it down into glucose and fructose.
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Can I Eliminate Hive Beetles by Moving to a Sunnier Location?
How well hive beetles do once they move in has a lot to do with the soil type. At a certain point, the larvae leave the hive and drop to the soil beneath the hive. Here, they burrow into the soil and pupate before becoming adults.
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Why Are There Flower Particles on my Bottom Board?
When we see flower parts stuck to bees, it’s usually the pollenia of either milkweeds or orchids. The pollenia are pollen-filled sacks that stick to the pollinator like glue and eventually fall off on another flower. Honey bees are most apt to engage with milkweed pollenia, and sometimes they have so many long and stringy orange sacks hanging from their legs they can barely fly.
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Is My Honey Contaminated?
I bought honey that is likely contaminated with radioactive contaminants. Not sure what to do. It was harvested within 160 miles from Chernobyl.
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Can I Check Honey Supers While Treating with Formic Pro Mite Treatment?
I’m treating my hives with Formic Pro at this time. I know you shouldn’t manipulate the hive during treatment, but what about checking honey supers and adding or taking them away?
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How Do I Get Bees to Move out of a Birdhouse?
I have honey bees that moved into a birdhouse. They are very active and seem like they will grow out of the little cottage. I bought a nice hive box for them, but they are not showing any interest in moving over. Is there any way to attract them to the new, big comfortable hive body?
Read MoreWhen Can I Safely Clean Out my Mason Bee Tubes?
In order to care for your mason bees, you need to have some idea when the tubes were filled and capped. If it was in a prior year, the bees inside are most likely dead, so you can discard the tubes and start with a fresh set next year.
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How to Light a Bee Smoker
The first goal is to get a nice flame on the shavings. That takes some time and some patience. Fan the fire to build up the flame. Be careful, you don’t want to get burned.
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