When the worst happens and you lose a hive, it’s hard to know what to do with what’s left behind. Do you try to save the comb so that you can reuse it on another hive? How do you deal with a moth or beetle invasion? What kind of things are safe to use for […]

Ummmm…..that’s sooo good! I hear that phrase over and over when someone tastes my home-grown honey for the first time. Their face lights up and a look of delight transforms them when they dip their fingers into the sticky sunshine. Most people are used to the purchased plastic bear of generic clover honey (sometimes adulterated) […]

It’s amazing the way a beehive can have a personality. While the colony is made up of thousands of individual bees, it is the overall, collective demeanor of the group that makes it as if you are working with a single organism.   If you have an overly-aggressive hive you can change the behavior of […]

The governor of Michigan just declared a State of Emergency for our state due to record-breaking low temperatures. As I write this post, it’s currently -6 degrees F with a wind-chill of -30. So worrying if our hive is overheated is really not a concern right now…quite the opposite. However, coming this spring, I will […]

Sunny yellow blooms fringed with a green ruff green poking through snow is my first sign that spring has sprung. Eranthis hyamalis, in the buttercup family, is a spring ephemeral, which means that it is a short-lived plant above ground with a burst of blooms, and disappears, remaining under ground until next winter. Beaming a […]

Finding the queen bee in your hives can be challenging— even for veteran beekeepers. Some queens are plump and shine like a gold beacon on the frame, while others seem to have camouflage. Not only does your ability to find her depend on her size and color, but her behavior, too. Some queens flaunt themselves […]

Winter is the time that I make use of all my beeswax that I have collected from the hives in the summer. I have melted and cleaned it right after harvesting in August and it is ready to be made into something creative and useful. To see how I clean the raw beeswax, go to […]

When my husband first showed interest in beekeeping, one of my biggest fears is that we would accidentally end up with a “Killer Bee” colony. I had heard rumors of Killer Bee colonies coming up from states like Florida to the north. Images of bee swarms chasing us in angry pursuit and thousands of deadly […]

Any honey harvest is an exciting time, but our first is something I won’t likely forget! We’d been waiting and tending to our bees for almost 2 years…hoping, wondering and (frankly) worrying. But that first taste of golden nectar made it all worth it.   Since our first harvest quite a few years ago, we’ve […]