For beginner beekeepers, choosing the best method to uncap honey frames is crucial for maximizing honey yield while minimizing waste and mess. At Dadant & Sons, we understand the dilemmas you face and offer a variety of tools to suit different preferences and requirements. In this blog, we’ll explore some popular uncapping tools, their benefits, and potential drawbacks to help …
Hive beetles are an invasive nuisance for both bees and beekeepers alike. They can vary in size, though small beetles are more common in beekeeping. They can fly, and as a result, they relocate from one hive to the next with ease. They then spread to the entire apiary and your bees suffer as a consequence. Integrating pest management to keep …
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has plagued beekeepers since 2006 when it was first reported. In the fallout from CCD, around the time it was first chronicled, adult honeybees simply started disappearing from their hives. Very few dead bees could be found in or around the hives, and high colony losses ensued. This perplexed beekeepers, as the queen and brood (immature bees), …
For beginning beekeepers, it can be easy to be confused by all of the terminology surrounding the wonderful world of beekeeping. At Dadant & Sons, we want you to be as knowledgeable as possible when it comes to taking care of your bees. We’ve organized some need-to-know terms into five different categories. Peruse these terms at your leisure, and come back whenever …
Honey bees don't just produce delicious, nutritious honey and multi-purpose beeswax – they also serve critical roles in the larger ecosystem that keep Mother Earth functioning as natural design intended. Without the bees, we'd be in a world of trouble – as environmentalists and biologists are increasingly discovering by way of the growing threats to honey bees. Here, we'll dive into the …
Many people choose to keep bees for a variety of reasons, including: to do their part for the environment by boosting and restoring bee populations for pollination purposes if they grow crops and flowering plants for honey production and hive by-products like beeswax, royal jelly, pollen, and venom Whatever your reasons for beekeeping, it's important to do your research and avoid …
A beehive is a wonderfully complex machination – although at first glance it might seem like a chaotic, unorganized mess, there's a lot more going on that might initially meet the eye. The key points we'll cover here are: What Is the Brood Nest and What Vital Function Does It Serve? What Is the Brood Nest Structure? What Is the Purpose …
You invest a ton of time and energy into building, maintaining, and harvesting honey from your beehives – so the last thing you need is for an animal to get into them and ruin all your hard work. From mice to bears to wasps, marauding animals can wreak havoc on, and even destroy, your beehives. Some of these animal vandals eat …