raising
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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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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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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A Slatted Rack and Robbing Screen Can Improve Your Hive Entrance
Add to Favorites One of the best things about a Langstroth beehive is its adaptability. By using optional pieces of beehive equipment like a slatted rack and robbing screen, you …
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Creating the Best Water Sources for Bees
Add to Favorites Like all animals, honey bees need a dependable source of water year round. The best water sources for bees are ones that won’t go dry in the …
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What Happens When the Queen Bee Dies?
Add to Favorites By Perry and Beverly Riley – Raising honeybees is a challenge. One day your hive looks good and a few days later you wonder if it’s going to live. …
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Raising Honey Bees with Pets and Livestock
Add to Favorites When we decided to start raising honey bees, one of the things we needed to consider was the safety of the other animals on our property. If …
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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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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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