Beekeepers Blog

By: Scott Souders Wait - This isn't my House! In all the places I have lived, it seems there is always one house somewhere nearby with way too many people living there. Neighbors probably thought the same about my house...

By: CHARI ELAM Or maybe better titled - "What in the world happened to my hive?" I first wrote a version of this article last year about this time and received very good feedback from a lot of beekeepers! Turns out,...

What is chilled brood? Like other beekeeping terms – the name describes the condition. When a beekeeper opens the hive to inspect, check the queen, or just to look, it prevents the nurse bees from clustering on the frame potentially...

The Theory Behind it All By: James Elam Theory- a set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based. The theory of reversing brood boxes comes from the belief that a colony of honey bees, when necessary,...

Topics Beekeepers Can't Agree On!      By: Lynne Jones On November 29th I posted a poll in two Facebook groups. I asked for beekeepers who have transferred bees from a removal into a hive box at least five times to indicate...

By: Blake Shook A starving hive can take on many symptoms and can occur at many points throughout the year. Thus, it is important to be able to identify the symptoms. The most common conditions which can lead to this...

Almost as challenging as finding the queen in a hive is seeing eggs and larva. They are tiny! An egg is smaller than a grain of rice, and is in the bottom of a dark cell. However, learning to see...

By: Chari Elam  May runs a close second to the busiest time of year for beekeepers – July honey extraction rightfully holding first place! Right now, we’re running around determining which hives are ready for supers and in some cases,...

By: Blake Shook In most circumstances, bees draw out comb much faster, and more cheaply, with the help of supplemental feeding. While bees can absolutely draw out wax on their own without feeding during a honey flow, remember it takes...

“Dearth” and “Drought” can be synonymous… By: Chari Elam August – For some beekeepers, death can be as intimidating as Darth Vader from Star Wars!  Dearth  Definition: A scarcity or lack of something – In a honey bee’s life, it...

By: Blake Shook This answer depends a bit on the time of year. However, here are some general rules of thumb that may be helpful: 1. The ideal time to check hives is when most of the foragers are not...

First in a multi-series 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...

By: Chari Elam I can’t tell you how many seasoned beekeepers I’ve talked to that whisper quietly so no one will hear: “I get into my hives, and it never looks like it’s supposed to, and as I look, I get confused at what...

Hive Management Software can make it easy! By Micky Cross - Past 1st Vice President Montgomery County Beekeepers Association If you’re a beekeeper like me, you know that tracking your hive inspections, the age and origin of your queens, your...

Second in a multi-series 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. Experienced...

Roughly 10% of the brood in a hive is typically drone brood. Since drones require a larger cell to develop in than workers, the bees must build special cells that are larger in diameter than worker cells. They typically do...

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...

The Bees' Miracle Mud! Have you ever wondered what that gunky stuff is that glues our bee boxes together making it “pop” when we break the seal? That's propolis! Not really high-tech stuff – basically just the “ooze” that drips...

Winter is finally here...so now what? After months of activity caring for your bees, it's finally time to take a deep breath and wait for spring. If you are like me, waiting is the hardest part! Every cold rainy night,...