What are supers? Bees use supers to store honey, pollen and brood. Supers come in varying heights and sizes. A deep-sized super is 9-5/8” in height and can weigh 90 pounds when full. A medium-sized super is three-fourths the capacity of...
If you’re new to beekeeping, you’ve probably purchased most of your beekeeping supplies and you’re ready to sit back and enjoy your new hobby. Don’t get too comfortable. There’s always something to do. By April, in the warmer southern climes,...
The largest-ever field study on Neonics and bees sparks controversy, with conflicting interpretations among scientists, industry, and media commentators.
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…
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, native plants and grasses bedecked the American landscape in huge, rolling swathes. Pollinators of many a feather, stripe and fur would spend their days visiting each flower as it bloomed, partners in a whirling dance of ongoing life.
Humans however – especially colonial humans – have a way of interrupting that dance. The woodlands and fields don’t blush with color as they once did, and pollinator species are having a harder time than ever finding enough food to support them through the seasons.
