A walk away split is exactly what it sounds like. Split the hive in half and walk away. Let the bees do what bees naturally do. Honeybees are predisposed to maintain the species by swarming. A beekeeper can take advantage of this instinct and control the swarming action by creating a split. This keeps the […]

Winter is coming…   We live in Michigan and the Farmer’s Almanac says we’re in for a doozy…The signs are all there. I have a few “superstition”/“wives tale” type clues that I swear by.   The oaks are LOADED with acorns this year. We had a cool summer following a mild winter (so we’re due) […]

We all know that bees can sting. Perhaps, after making honey and pollination, stinging might be what bees are most known for. It may seem obvious that bees protect themselves by using their stinger, but in reality, the sting is a bee’s last resort.   When a bee stings, it kills the bee. The stinger […]

In my experience, most new beekeepers are worry worts. They spend a lot of energy fretting over their bees, but mostly they focus on the wrong things. Read on to find out what you can stop stressing out about! 1. Cooling the Hive  Honey bees like to keep their brood nests between 90-97F (32-25C) degrees. […]

As I write this our golden retriever is barking at a car turning around in the driveway. He’s letting me know that someone is here. I tell him “Good boy,… okay, that’s enough.” and pat his head. Still flustered and huffy, he obeys begrudgingly. He quiets down and lays in his bed, ears pricked and […]

I’ve written other posts that talk about plants you should add to your yard to attract and support bees, but never have I seen anything like this! We planted a sunflower field on our land this spring and opened a U-Pick section of our farm where people can come and cut a bouquet, visit with […]

How to “Read” a Frame from Your Hive On Sunday, we checked our hive to see if our queen had begun laying eggs in earnest yet. The honeybees had clearly been intent on demolishing the pollen patty I had made them a week and a half ago, so that was a good sign. When we […]

Moving from Beetle Blasters to Beetle Jails: Small Hive Beetle Management Small hive beetles are a pest and a terrible nuisance, but as we learned oh so painfully, they can destroy a weakened hive if they become established and do as they are wont to do:  reproduce prolifically.  I’ve never had a sadder (or more disgusting) […]

What is robbing? When I wrote this in July, my area’s (southeast Georgia) nectar flow has stopped and all that is available to the bees is some pollen. With foragers going out and returning empty handed, or finding nectar that is sub-par, I find that my hives get a little hot this time of year. When […]

  What are you doing for National Honey Bee Day this year?  It’s coming up soon. Share your own plans or events in the comments section below. August 19, 2017 is officially “National Honey Bee Day” in the USA. Every year around the country, bee clubs and bee lovers gather together for education, outreach, fun […]

When other beekeepers observe me working my hives, I often get comments about how gentle I am with my bees. I make a conscious effort not to crush any bees, but until recently, I did not realize how abnormal this was. Unfortunately, all you have to do is get on YouTube to see how most beekeepers […]

Honeybees, in a sense, reproduce on two levels. There is the actual reproduction of single bees; the mating of the queen, egg laying and rearing of young. This is one kind of reproduction. But there is also the reproduction of the hive itself. Without swarming, the first beehive in the history of time would still […]

In the debate between treatment-free and treating beekeepers, the statement and question has been posed many time before… “The bees you have are not ‘feral’, they are being kept in an unnatural state, their genetics have been affected by man for thousands of years, so why not take care of your ‘animals’ when they are […]

The fact is that beekeepers who treat their bees with chemicals are still losing colonies in a similar ratio to those of treatment-free beekeepers. What I believe is that, over time, raising bees without treatments produces hardier bees. Treating bees with chemicals helps the bees that have weaker “genetics” to continue to propagate and allows […]

Installing a Hive Top Feeder Sponsored By: Brushy Mountain Bee Farm Hive Top Feeders are a great resource to help feed your bees, even during the start of the winter months. Learn how easy it is to set up and utilize.