how-to
How to Decrystallize Honey
Every so often someone asks me how to decrystallize honey. Now, they don’t use those exact words. Usually, the conversation goes something like this. “Um, I’m not sure what happened …
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How to Manage Ants in a Beehive
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 to go together; …
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Who is the Queen Honey Bee and Who is in the Hive with Her?
The honey bee hive is a busy place where every bee has a job. The hive consists of the queen honey bee, the drones, and the workers. Part of learning …
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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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Propolis: Bee Glue that Heals
Honeybee propolis is a brown or reddish resinous substance made by bees to protect the hive against animal and bacterial invaders. The word “propolis” is a compound of the Greek words “pro” and “polis” and translates to, “Before the city.” Bees use propolis as a building material to fill gaps and crevices, varnish combs and shape entrances, sometimes creating fantastic gobs that supposedly aid ventilation in the hive.
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The Varroa Mite: Know Your Enemy
By Josh Vaisman – Honey bees currently face three difficult challenges to their survival — a lack of quality nutrition, ubiquitous pesticides in the environment, and the scourge of the …
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Questions to Ask When Starting a Bee Colony
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 putting a hive …
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How to Customize Your Hive With a Screened Inner Cover and Imirie Shim
Just as you can alter the entrance to your Langstroth beehive, you can also alter the top. Two pieces of optional equipment to consider are a screened inner cover and …
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Preparing for The Queen Honey Bee
There is a decision to be made when starting beekeeping and ordering bees: do you want the two-pound or three-pound hive? You will only get one queen, but how many worker bees do you need right off the bat? That depends on your hive in your honey bee farming project.
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Judging the Best Honey in the World
Marissa Ames – Where does the best honey in the world come from? And how is it determined “best?” That question has no definitive answer, since every honey-producing region may …
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