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 […]

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…

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.

Top Bar hives are so cool. One of my very first colonies was a booming top bar hive that became our first “honey cow” for the backyard. I love watching the bees work the comb down the length of the hive. If you build one, make an observation window so you can check them out […]

When people mention beekeeping, it’s the sweet golden stuff that gets all the attention. But bees also make another useful and rather remarkable product in the form of comb. What is beeswax exactly? How does it come into existence in the hive? Do bees collect it? Is it part of the pollen that they carry? […]