Beekeepers Blog

1/1 (Most like Nectar for feeding larvae and drawing out honeycomb) Spring/Summer - 1 Part Sugar with 1 Part Water 4 pound bag of sugar formula: 8 cups of water per bag of sugar. Makes approximately 3 ½ quart jars...

If you have to worry about this, that's a great problem! Keep in mind, when your top box becomes 80% full of bees, brood or honey, it’s time to take action! There are 3 primary options to prevent a swarm...

Drones are a normal and healthy part of every hive. Hives will usually remove drones from the hive in the late fall and begin raising them again in early spring. From early spring through late fall, about 10% of the...

This is largely a question of preference. It doesn’t generally hurt a queen to get her marked, but it does cost extra, since beekeepers have to find a queen, pick her up, and mark her. It is far easier to...

By Chari Elam We made it! This is the last article in the series of Mastering Hive Inspections. In this final segment I’d like to focus on problem identification and subsequent solutions. Problem solving is probably one of the most...

Hive Inspections! By: Chari Elam Depending on where you are in your beekeeping adventure, you may have completely opposing views from other beekeepers concerning hive inspections. New beekeepers inspect hives to learn AND to manage the hives as they learn....

By: Chari Elam Probably one of the most intimidating aspects of beekeeping is a hive inspection! How often is it done? Do I really have to pull all of the frames? What am I looking at? We’ve ALL asked that...

Every beekeeper was once a newbee, just beginning the learning curve. The initial exposure is one of fun, excitement and fascination leading to intimidation, reluctance and finally the “Ah ha” moment of confidence. How does the new beekeeper get to...