This year, our hive is doing wonderfully! The bees are incredible active and the brood and honey are quickly filling up all the hive space we can give them. A couple weeks ago we checked the bees. At the time our hive only consisted of two large brood boxes. These boxes are meant for the […]

Many people do not realize they should provide water sources for bees. We keep our bees in man made boxes. We are responsible for helping them survive. This includes providing water sources.

If you like the idea of getting bees for free then you’ll want to check out setting up bait hives.  Bait hives are just that – a bait or type of lure designed to attract a swarm of honey bees that are looking for a new home.  Prior to the actual swarm casting from a […]

Last night we opened the bee hive for the first inspection in three weeks. Our goal in this inspection was to do some maintenance and to see if our queen was laying brood, and if the hive seemed to be growing. We trimmed some of the overgrown grass around the hive entrance. The weeds have […]

Although honeybees can swarm from the hive at anytime, they tend to swarm most during spring. Sometimes honeybees swarm when they believe they have outgrown their hive. However, other times there is nothing that you can do to prevent swarming from happening. The bees simply have an instinctual desire to create another colony. Here are some tips […]

“How high off the ground is your hive stand going to be? We didn’t realize how this decision could make for one tall bee hive.

We’ve had our new package of bees for over a month now and they’re doing wonderful! We gave them a headstart by leaving the comb from the old hive in tact on the frames, so all they had to do was clean things up a bit and start capping honey.           […]

Capturing swarms is a very exciting way to get more bees for your apiary and it’s much easier than you may have realized.  The reason that it is generally easy is because when bees are swarming and have clustered themselves on a low branch in a tree or bush, they only have one thing on […]

Swarm Season Back when my wife and I first started keeping bees, everything was fine and dandy until swarm season came along. Since we were only keeping bees for two years, our experience with swarms was not much at all. During the first year of keeping bees, we only had two hives and never noticed if they had […]

In order to remember what was going on in each of my hives between inspections or even from season to season I find it helpful to use a beekeeping journal.

We picked up our bees last week. I always get a little rush of adrenaline holding a screened box of 10,000 buzzing bees. It’s not an angry buzz, just a gentle, busy buzz as they work to protect the queen. They surround her by “holding hands”. Each bee connects to the next until there is […]

You may be surprised by the many benefits of using a top entrance either exclusively or in addition to a bottom entrance in your hives. Check out this DIY piece including a video tutorial.

Last year our colony was doing great! So well infact that we bought another hive thinking that our robust colony might split and swarm. We had an excellent honey crop the year before, and expected things to go just as well last year. Until we did an inspection in late summer.         […]

Elevating a beehive off the ground can be helpful in several ways. 1. It stops the beehive floor from coming in contact with the damp ground. This will prolong the structural life of your hive and cut down on mold and fungi issues. 2. Elevating can also help prevent some predators from attacking your hive. […]

Each time I open the hive, I risk injuring or killing the queen. Each time I open the hive I set the hive back. The bees have to repair what I messed up! When I first started as a backyard bee keeper I loved to look in the hives. I wanted to get in there every few days to check things out. I did not realize there should be a PURPOSE for each inspection. Here I share some reasons for hive inspections.