Featured Stories
My Bees Built Comb in the Swarm Trap, Now What?
By the time I got to the swarm trap, the bees had built comb from the bottom of the frames almost to the floor of the trap — about 5 inches of comb coming off each of the frames. How do I handle this extra comb when placing the swarm in the new brood boxes? Thanks.
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Why Do I Have Dead Drones in My Beehive Entrance?
Every now and then someone reports massive numbers of dead drones in spring and early summer. It doesn’t seem right but it happens. One common thread that runs through these reports is several days of rainy or cold weather just prior to finding the dead drones.
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What’s Bothering My Mason Bees?
The parasitic wasp genus Monodontomerus shows up just as the mason bee season is coming to a close. The wasps are very tiny, perhaps fruit fly size, and fly with a nervous, side-to-side pattern that makes them look guilty.
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Will a Newly Installed Nuc Swarm?
The appearance of a single swarm cell doesn’t mean much. Some colonies repeatedly build queen cups and swarm cells, only to tear them down later.
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Should I be Worried About my Walkaway Split?
There are a couple of versions of a split (or divide) that simulate this. One is by using swarm cells in the split(s). The other, which it sounds like is what you did, we call a “walkaway split.” I just did one yesterday so I’ll explain how I did it.
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Reversing Brood Boxes in the Spring — Is it Necessary?
Many beekeepers begin spring by “reversing brood boxes,” which just means switching the two so that the cluster is on the bottom. Some beekeepers do this routinely, while some never do it. It’s not necessary because, as the brood nest expands, the queen will eventually begin laying in the bottom box, especially if you use a queen excluder to keep the queen out of the honey supers. Whether you reverse the boxes is just a matter of beekeeper preference.
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What are the Pros and Cons of Using Nine Frames vs 10 Frames?
What are the pros and cons of using nine frames in the brood boxes? If one wished go from nine frames to 10 frames, how should it be done?
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The (Not) Invasion of the Asian Giant Hornet
Asian Giant Hornets are large, scary-looking, and pack a pretty bad sting. However, the odds of you coming in contact with the infamous “murder hornet,” more properly termed Vespa mandarinia, are incredibly low.
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How to Make Beeswax Food Wraps
It’s easy and inexpensive to make beeswax wraps, and they make a great addition to your homestead kitchen. If you’re a backyard beekeeper, you’re likely on the hunt for beeswax uses and you already have everything you need to get started.
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How Do I Prepare a Dead Hive for New Bees?
Unless the colony died because of a nasty disease like American Foulbrood, you can definitely re-use the equipment. AFB would present as a horrible smelling hive with rotting, brown, slimy brood. You don’t want to re-use equipment if the colony had AFB because it will pass on the new bees.
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