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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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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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5 Tips for Starting Beekeeping
Will you utilize the most commonly used hive style, the Langstroth beehive or do you fancy yourself a top bar or Warre beekeeper? For protective equipment, you could use a veil, a jacket with vail, or a full body bee suit – which works for you? Location of your hive can impact your bees based on sun exposure (summer v. winter), wind exposure, accessibility, proximity to neighbors, and so on.
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How to Talk to Vegans About Honey & Bees
I have yet to meet a beekeeper—commercial or hobbyist—who doesn’t adore his or her bees. There is a beauty and a romance to beekeeping that begins with the sun, and, if you are lucky, ends in a bonanza of the best tasting honey you have ever known.
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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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How to Decrystallize Honey
Add to Favorites 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 …
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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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What To Know As Spring Unfolds Into Summer
If April is the beekeeping equivalent of planting time, then May is when our efforts start to germinate.
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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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It’s Harvest Time
Extracting, or the honey harvest, is going to befall almost every beekeeper if their efforts are successful and the site of those activities can vary from a garage or the family kitchen to large facilities specifically designed and built for handling the harvest. Many of the new hobbyists may quickly find that harvesting honey in the kitchen can be a test of spousal relations.
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