Just the idea of a swarm of bees makes you think of horror movies or maybe something that gives you the chills just thinking about it. To the average person, a swarm of honey bees sounds like a nightmare, but it is actually a very unique time in the bee’s life where they are the …
Beekeepers are told to put an entrance reducer on each hive before winter starts. It is often cited that the need for an entrance reducer is to keep rodents out. It certainly does do that, but that is not why we use them. And at what point during the year are we supposed to remove them? Well, …
Assembling or building foundationless frames for bee hives is pretty easy to do and can save you about $1 per frame on cost. But this can lead to $100 in frustration if you don’t manage them well. Click here to learn more on managing foundationless frames. There are several variations of foundationless frames we have made …
Choosing the right beekeeping equipment for you is important. What works for another beekeeper, may not work for you. It’s important to understand the ins and outs of buying bees, beekeeping equipment, or educating yourself. And there are many things that are important to know, but many of those things can be changed later. For example, you can use a …
As a beginner beekeeper, there is so much to learn prior to keeping bees. Starting to keep bees requires a lot of upfront decision-making. Some decisions are easy to change later than others. Choosing to use all medium boxes or a combination of deep, medium, or shallow boxes is a decision that is harder to change later. …
So what happens to honey bees in the winter? Bees pretty much disappear from the flowers and our minds as well, not to be thought of until pollen and flowers are abundant again. The easiest way to describe what happens to bees is that they hibernate. They don’t hibernate like a grizzly bear does, but …
Honey bees bounce from flower to flower, pulling nectar and collecting pollen from each flower. Day in and day out, they forage for these ingredients, bringing loads back to the hive. Either on purpose or accidentally, pollen ends up in the stored nectar before it turns into honey. While harvesting the finished honey, beekeepers will …
Does Filtering or Straining Honey Remove Pollen From Honey? Read More »
I really don’t like to give my bees sugar syrup, but it is better than letting them die. The reasons I don’t like to give them sugar syrup are : 1) Sugar water is a poor nutritional supplement for honey and is the equivalent of giving snicker bars to kids to live on. 2) Making sugar …
Keeping bees healthy is a tough job, and it takes decades to get good at. When starting to keep bees, the learning curve is steep for those who try to learn the trade. It is daunting to grasp the knowledge expounded by those only a few years ahead of you. You can read all the beginner beekeeping …
Why Use Cypress For Beehives? Pine, cedar, poplar, and cypress are common woods used for bee hives. All woods have positives and negatives, especially when used for beekeeping equipment. In Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, cypress and pine are both popular woods for making beehives. These two options are popular in the south because both …
