As you do your hive inspections and find that your boxes are almost completely full – inspection shows that 80% or more of the frames are filled with healthy brood and honey, you have a decision to make. You can...
Beekeeping equipment is an investment, one that you can easily protect with just a little effort. These tips will help you safeguard your investment and keep your tools safe, clean and ready for use. 1. Paint Exposed Hive Parts All...
Beekeeping is a fun and rewarding hobby. It’s quite satisfying to watch your bees move from flower to flower as they work your flowers and veggies. Your garden thrives and produces, and then — of course — you get to enjoy...
The largest-ever field study on Neonics and bees sparks controversy, with conflicting interpretations among scientists, industry, and media commentators.
Royal jelly. A majestic, sumptuous name for what is very much akin to worker bee snot.
Secreted from glands in the heads of nurse bee proles, this milky-colored, protein-rich substance is created for the sup of the newly-hatched Apis mellifera. While it is just a limited-time garnish for the ‘beebread’ (fermented pollen) and honey diet of young worker bees, the queen feeds exclusively on this luxury foodstuff.
It’s early April, and dusk is settling in. At odd moments throughout the day, you’ve found yourself pausing to admire the spring flowers, winking open their petals to the warming day, splashing the fields and gardens with purple crocus, butter-yellow calendula and cherry-pink milkweed.
What better time to check on the bees.
They’ve been cooped up all winter, doing little else than surviving. Or so you hope – last year, you opened the hive to find heartbreak: dozens of little bodies littering the comb, the brood chambers run afoul with the varroa mite, dread king of honey bee pests.
It’s been a long day though, and you’re famished. As your stomach growls a need, your eyes catch the fruit bowl on the dining table. Striding over, your hand reaches, hovers, grabs…
