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Critical actions & common questions for the first month home with your new bees!Read now
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Winter Inspections
Read nowWinter 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,...
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Working Bees in the Heat
Read nowKeeping Yourself Cool Keeping Your Bees Cool The Heat is On! I don’t have to tell you that, do I? You’d think a person would “acclimate” to the heat, but – me, not so much – probably has a lot to do...
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Sharing brood & fixing Hives
Read nowLearning how to fix a weak hive is a critical skill in beekeeping. Every beekeeper will, at some point, have one or many weak hives that need help! One of the most important distinctions to make before fixing a weak...
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Hive Inspections- Part 3
Read nowBy 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...
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Hive Inspections- Part 2
Read nowHive 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....
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Hive Inspections- Part 1
Read nowBy: 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...
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Top 10 Tips for Beginners
Read nowEvery 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...
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Creating Shook Swarms
Read nowA shook swarm is just that- a "swarm" you create by shaking the bees off of frames to create an artificial Swarm! Shook Swarm TBA from Honking Goose Media on Vimeo. Why use the Shook Swarm Method? Converting Deeps to Mediums If you...
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Bee Yard Shuffle- Equalizing Hives across the Bee Yard
Read nowBee Yard Shuffle - Sounds like a dance doesn’t it? In reality I guess it kind of is! I write this article today as a suggestion from a beekeeper on our January Monthly Zoom call. So often we see a...
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Spotting Eggs & Larva
Almost as challenging as finding the queen in a hive is seeing eggs and larva.They are tiny!Read now -
When is it too Cold to Check My Hive?
Many beekeepers are very concerned about the cold when it comes time to check their hives in the winter months. However, following a few simple principles, it won’t hurt your hive at all! I always encourage beekeepers to check their hives at least 1 time per month during the winter. Here are some parameters around when to inspect:Read now -
Diagnosing the Cause of Death
Read nowThis is not a very uplifting topic for sure, but one of the most important skills in beekeeping is to learn from our mistakes, of which we all make many! The average annual hive loss rate is up to 44%....
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Beginning Beekeeping Hive Tour with Blake Shook
Read nowprobably taking one of our classes with Jana row or James and Sheri along and we wanted to make this video because sometimes folks can't always make it out into the be or they don't have a time or doesn't...
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Helpful Tips to Find Your Queen
Finding a queen is probably one of the most frustrating aspects of beekeeping! You are literally trying to spot one bee amongst tens of thousands of other bees, all while they run around on a frame. While there is no easy answer, I do have a handful of tricks I use after finding thousands of queens over the past decade.Read now -