If you ask a beekeeper a question, you may get many different answers. We will provide the building blocks for your beekeeping experience. The method of beekeeping that will be used is determined by your geographic location. We will present new product instructions for you to review to increase your knowledge of beekeeping.
Painting hives is a good way to protect their wood surfaces from the elements. However, there are several important factors to consider — and dangers to avoid — when painting your bee’s home. Like almost every other aspect of beekeeping, a little research will bring up many strongly-held opinions on painting bee hives. You can find information on brands, types and …
The best food for feeding bees in the winter is, of course, the one they make for themselves: their own honey. Besides sugars, honey contains nutrients that keep the colony healthy, strong and better able to fight off parasites. With enough honey, most hives stand a good chance of surviving the winter until the spring nectar flow. However, as the fall …
In the third and final article in our series on populating new hives, we discuss purchasing fully-established hives. While novice beekeepers can greatly benefit from starting off with a colony that is already up-and-running, there are things to watch out for. Experienced beekeepers will usually buy package bees or nucleus colonies to populate their hives as the weather warms. For new …
In Part II of our series, we continue our discussion of ways to add honey bees to a new hive. Capturing feral swarms of bees is certainly an exciting and economic method, but requires the right timing and careful planning. Whatever method you use, be sure to keep your safety — and the well-being of the bees — a top priority. There’s …
There are many ways to add bees to a newly purchased hive. After choosing a good location, assembling your hive and gathering the necessary tools, it’s time to decide how you will obtain your bees. In this first of three Learning Center articles on these options, we cover the positive and negative aspects of using a nucleus, or nucs, to establish …
One of the most frequent questions we hear new beekeepers ask is how to tell supersedure cells from swarm cells. While at first it may seem difficult to tell these two types of queen cells apart, with a little help you’ll find you can identify which one is which. What is a Cell? To understand the difference between a supersedure cell and …
Varroa mites can quickly become a very serious problem for bees and bee keepers. To keep your colony safe from the effects of this parasite, be sure to perform periodic inspections. Using the EasyCheck system from Véto-pharma makes the process simple and provides an accurate assessment of the infestation in a hive. What are Varroa Mites? Varroa mites are external parasites of …
A week after installing your package bees, it’s time to perform your first hive inspection and see if the bees have accepted the queen and started to draw out the foundation. Getting Ready for the First Hive Inspection For this first inspection, we suggest wearing some level of protective clothing. Depending on your experience with beekeeping, you may be comfortable with minimal …