For those of us in the northern part of the United States, many are in the prime of bee season. Blooms are out, day time temps are up, and bees are active. While the Pacific Northwest seemed to get off to a cool wet late start, a lot of bee populations are booming. With booming...
We recently conducted a hive inspection looking for queen cells in one of our hives. We did this for a couple of reasons. One reason was the population of this colony was quickly growing and we wanted to try and prevent the hive from swarming. Since the presence of queen cells, especially capped ones, can...
With winter fast approaching there are at least two tasks you should consider completing soon. These will help get your hives through the fall and winter, as well as helping to set them up to be strong going into spring. I would not the only consider these tasks nice to do but I would see them...
During a recent hive check I found two reasons to clean your bottom boards during the winter months. These are worth doing a couple of times during the winter if not more often. To begin with I do use screened bottom boards on almost all of my hives. From my experience the screened bottoms have seemed to...
While it is possible to have a colony die out any time of year, we are entering what I call the high risk season, especially in the northern hemisphere. As we move towards spring, this time of year can be a period of high risk for losing hives. Honey stores can be getting low to...
The blog has been silent for a long time. Despite that I have still been keeping bees, learning and trying new things with the bees. Additionally the site has undergone a redesign and should be up and running soon. Sort of Do Over. Please check back soon to see the new and improved site.