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 your […]

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 […]

It’s the end of November in Michigan, we’ve already had several snow falls, the temperature today is 29 degrees outside, and I just killed a mosquito in our bathroom. It always amazes me how resilient insects are. In the winter, I often look across our field covered in white drifts of snow, sometimes several feet […]

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…

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.

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.

Learn about the amazing mating ritual of the queen bee and her drones.

An overactive hive is producing plenty of honey, but it wasn’t too active outside of the hive. Is this a case of a missing queen?

The crux of a honeybee colony’s operation, learn more about the queen’s role and caring for your “royalty”.

What does it look like when bees prepare for a new queen?