Harvest Your Honey On this episode of Keeping Backyard Bees podcasts,  Charlotte Brunin and Robert Riley meet with Becky and Steve Tipton to discuss all this honey including how to harvest from a Langstroth Hive.       Our Guests: Becky Tipton and her husband, Steve, own Country Creek Honey and have been producing and selling honey for […]

It’s common knowledge that honey is one of the healthy and accessible substitutes for sugar, but along the way to prove that it’s better than refined sugar several myths passed as truths in many people’s minds. Today, we are going to name all the myths regarding honey. In other words, we’ll be clearing honey’s name. […]

When people ask me how they can help bees, I used to say, “Plant a pollinator garden!” I would then rattle off a list of bee-friendly flowers and shrubs to get them started. Then I had an epiphany. A tree provides much more forage than any patch of flowers ever could. It’s so obvious, but […]

Get your keeper a gift that lets them know you get their passion and support their hobby! We’ve put together this list to help you get off to help you earn your gift giving stripes! From practical to fashionable, from high-dollar to low-cost, we have something for everyone! Bee Equipment Get your honey off to a successful […]

There is conventional beekeeping in Langstroth hives. And then, there is beekeeping a wholly “other way.”

For Northern beekeepers, it is way past the time to prepare for winter, but in the southeast, we still have 90° F days and the goldenrod is finally in full bloom! The weather this year has been a complete downer with it raining almost every day from 03 June until 09 September and then Hurricane […]

The interior of a hive is a wet, warm, stifling environment. Should we put our opposable thumbs to use and take over temperature control?

Lately, it seems like everyone I meet wants to get into backyard beekeeping. Maybe it’s the popularity of the Flow Hive that enticed this new wave of would-be beekeepers or maybe it’s the headlines about bee die-offs. If you’ve been thinking about getting bees, but haven’t taken the plunge yet, read on to find out exactly what […]

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.

When it comes to keeping bees, one of the sweetest rewards is that of a splendid honey harvest. No matter the reasons for keeping bees, often folks get most excited when the time comes to harvest the delicious and highly nutritious honey from their hives. Most beekeepers with existing hives do two harvests, one in […]

What happened To the Drones The weather has started cooling in NE Ga, and hive activity has changed with the season. One very noticeable change is the drone activity. As I walk the bee yard observing the hives and performing final inspections of the season, it is not uncommon to see lots of drones wandering […]

Well, NOW is the time to start preparing your bees for late fall and winter. I wanted to share some things that will help you get your bees ready in time so they can ride out the cold weather that will be here before you know it.

One of the most important things that you can do to ensure the success of your hives as well as your successes as a beekeeper is to ensure that you place your beehives in the proper location. This is just as important as keeping bees and should be considered prior to installing your bees in […]

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 […]

Lately there has been plenty of buzz over new types of beehives becoming available in the United States. It is no secret that many beekeepers are looking for better ways to keep bees, better ways to ensure the hive’s long-term survival, and better ways to house hives, with improvements to their ergonomic design.. I was […]