Beekeepers Blog

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,...

"This past summer a good friend of mine Stan Gore and I did a lot of story swapping and experimenting with the Shook Swarm Technique and found it to be a very useful tool in the bee yard."    Why use the Shook Swarm...

I caught a little swarm in December and now an early spring swarm on January 18. It’s kind of unusual behavior, as most bees only swarm in spring or when resources are plenty. “Swarming” is how bees reproduce. A successful...

Navigating Bait Traps By: James Elam URGENT SWARM NOTICE!! NOW until Summer, 2021 12:00 PM CST Thousands or tens of thousands of bees are soon to be on the move as SPRING IS ON ITS WAY! These swarms will temporarily...

By Blake Shook 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...

By: Kim Townsend Master Beekeeper, Master Gardener - Owner and Chief Bee Wranger at Texas Swarm Troopers Though hard to imagine, would you believe that there are actually folks who have never seen a swarm of bees in “real” life? Sad,...

It's  H-E-R-E!! Experienced beekeepers are well aware of the risk of a stray swarm and have the hives to overcome the loss when it occurs. However, sideliner and hobby beekeepers might not be so accepting. Managing the space in a hive...

Video courtesy: Rusty Gomez As you become familiar with bee biology, you quickly learn duties performed by worker bees are done at particular ages. When a honey bee emerges, she stays inside the colony performing house duties such as cleaning...

By: Ronnie Smith CALLI-POWELL RANCH, Texoma, TX Folklore or Fact  Our family has been raising honeybees for three years. We have found the internet and Texas Bee Supply to be invaluable resources. In 2020 with COVID 19 causing limited interactions...

Thousands or tens of thousands of bees are soon to be on the move as SPRING IS ON ITS WAY! These swarms will temporarily land on a limb, branch, fence post or other objects, forming what appears to be a...

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...

I don’t recommend buying queens with clipped wings, nor do I recommend clipping the wings of a queen.    The theory is that it will prevent a hive from swarming, since the queen cannot fly away with the swarm. However,...

A 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...