Extracting honey every August for twenty years has honed my honey house preparations. Kind of like painting….. the prep takes longer than the actual work. I never extract in the house as it will bring stray bees in along with the frames. I have a potting shed adjacent to my bee yard which I have […]

Beekeeping Revolution Beekeeping, especially urban beekeeping, is picking up steam and buzz! When I first attended my “Beekeeping Basics” class put on by the local beekeepers club twenty years ago, older men in coveralls dominated and the joke was that the average age of a beekeeper was “from 57 to dead”. As a younger woman […]

Bees are mesmerizing. One of my favorite things to do is sit out by our hive and watch the bees bringing back pollen. Even this small glimpse into their world…only that ledge of coming and going is fascinating.   In today’s world of sharing our lives via the internet, beekeepers feel the draw to document […]

The smoker makes the beekeeper’s relationship with honey bees much, much more civil. Without the smoker, beekeepers would suffer many more stings during a hive inspection. More stings equate to more bee deaths so all around, the smoker is a good thing.   What is a smoker?   A smoker is a tool used by beekeepers […]

As many beekeepers know, the uses of having a beehive on your farm are plentiful. Honey has numerous health benefits, in addition to being a delicious natural sweetener. The wax can be used for a countless number of things around the home, including candles and beauty products. My partner and I decided to become beekeepers […]

The more we learn about honeybees, the more fascinating they are. They live not as individuals, but as a super-organism in a perfectly ordered society and they are in every way adapted to live purposeful and productive lives without wasting time, energy or natural resources. Here are a few glimpses into their complex world.   […]

If you want to increase your chance of successfully attracting a swarm, you can add an attractant to your bait hive. Lemongrass is very similar to the queen bee’s scent. Honeybees find the mixture of lemongrass and beeswax irresistible. Yield: 3 ounces Ingredients 2 tablespoons beeswax 1/4 cup olive oil 40 drops (2 milliliters) lemongrass […]

Armed with these guiding principles, you’ll be able not only to plan your own space but also to impress friends with brief but impressively knowledgeable lectures on how to plant specifically for honeybees! QUANTITY, QUALITY AND VARIETY Plentiful supplies of varied forage are essential to help honeybees withstand the impact of disease and harmful environmental […]

When temperatures rise to miserable or dangerous levels, your bees may be at risk. Much of the country is suffering higher than normal temperatures this week, but some beekeepers are also suffering colony losses. Most of the time, bees are best able to control the temperature inside the hive themselves, but when thermostats rise above […]

That might sound like a confusing title for a beekeeping post, so let me explain.   We’ve been keeping bees for a little over 7 years. Over those 7 years, we’ve made an observation. This observation may be purely coincidental, but it’s worth noting. And I’d love to hear what you all think in the […]