apiary
The Ins and Outs of Buying Bees
Every spring potential beekeepers begin to get excited about starting to keep bees. They read beekeeping books and articles, and talk to experienced beekeepers about everything from setting up their apiary to buying bees.
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Setting Honey Prices, Labeling, and Marketing Homestead Honey
When we first started keeping bees, many friends and family wanted to buy honey from us. In the beginning, we didn’t have any extra, but after a while, we had more than our family could use and we decided to sell some. But we needed to make sure we were selling the honey legally and had a competitive honey price.
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Top Bar Beehives vs Langstroth Beehives
Add to Favorites Not long after our teenage son started raising honey bees, a family friend built him a top bar beehive with an observation window using beehive plans from a homesteading …
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What You Can Learn from the Beehive Entrance
Add to Favorites One of the most anticipated jobs for the beekeeper is doing a hive inspection. This is when you get to look into the hive and be assured …
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8 Ways to Be a Courteous Backyard Beekeeper
Add to Favorites Being a good beekeeping neighbor is something all backyard beekeepers should be concerned about. Be respectful and thoughtful of our neighbors by following good beekeeping practices. Know …
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What You Need to Know About Apiary Layout
Add to Favorites The cold days of winter are a great time to plan for next spring and summer. These plans might include the garden, the orchard, livestock, or the apiary. …
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How Do I Know if My Bees Are Too Hot?
Add to Favorites One of my favorite places to be on our property is in the bee yard. I will occasionally sneak in there with camera in hand and just …
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How to Manage Ants in a Beehive
Add to Favorites There is nothing quite like the sights and sounds of bees buzzing around, gathering pollen and nectar on a warm summer day. Summer and bees just seem …
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Let’s Talk About Losing Bees
Like many beekeepers, we lost bees this winter. New packages failed to build up in a normal way last summer and were unusually slow to build comb and put away stores into fall. In September, aggressive yellow jacket predation weakened them further leaving them unable to carry themselves through the cold.
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Questions to Ask When Starting a Bee Colony
Add to Favorites Backyard beekeeping is gaining popularity as more people want to help bees and other pollinators survive. But starting a bee colony is not as easy as just …
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