Susan Chernak McElroy

Once again, I find myself gloriously behind the times. In this particular case, a few thousand years behind the times. I built and maintain a wall beehive — a colony housed in the wall of my bedroom. I have been calling it my Observation Hive because it has a plexiglas cover on the inside wall, […]

There is conventional beekeeping in Langstroth hives. And then, there is beekeeping a wholly “other way.”

Moving colonies successfully and gently from one hive to another takes planning and good bee math.

This is my first summer keeping bees in straw hives called “skeps.” Come follow my journey!

On a very frigid winter day a couple of months ago, I bundled up in my down parka and went to the bee yard to do my daily “Clear Away.” Two of my Top Bar hives came with bottom entrances—those long slits that run across the bottom of the hive face. Taking a thin stick […]

You really don’t need to know a lot to bring home your first bees. Just take care of some important basics, and learn as you go.

The interior of a hive is a wet, warm, stifling environment. Should we put our opposable thumbs to use and take over temperature control?

We finish up our discussion of the last few tenets of bee-centered beekeeping. And then reflect on how to apply them to our own location, our own style.

It has been five months since I brought my bright and beautiful, straw-woven Sun Hive home, and just three months since I escorted a small cast swarm up a wooden ramp and into its dark and enfolding interior…

Swarming is a good thing—really! And naturally-mated queens will give you the best chance for a thriving, surviving hive.

For the past hundred years, we’ve been keeping bees according to what works best for beekeepers. What would it look like if we began putting the bees’ desires and needs first? It looks something like this…

Late summer is yellow jacket season. Learn how to keep these hungry wasps from bothering—or demolishing—your hives.

Mostly everything you need to know about your bees, you can learn without ever going into the hive. Sharpen your observations skills at the entry board, first.

I teach a series of beginning beekeeper classes called Bee-Centered Beekeeping: Putting Bees’ Needs First. My approach is non-treatment and minimal intervention, trusting the bees to take care of most things themselves. My guiding principle—“What do bees like?”—informs how I work with my hives.