There has been over the last decade a growing number of folks concerned that honey bees are having negative impacts on native bees and pollinators. This issue came very much to the fore this spring when researchers from Concordia University in Montreal published the paper “Decline in wild bee species richness associated with honey bee…
Gear Review: Gamma 2 Seal Lid
It isn’t often I shill for a product, but this one is worthy! I have a nice bit of arthritis in my thumb and wrist joints, so hand strength is not my superpower. I never did like prying off the danged lids that come with 5 gallon buckets in the first place. It was not…
And the winner is….
Folks often ask me how they can help the bees and pollinators. The answer is simple: plant flowering plants. Which ones? Well, the list is long, and there are lots of flowering plants that appeal to pollinators of all kinds, and we need them all. But it is tough to plant a selection that appeals…
The Bill Comes Due…
Here in the Pacific Northwest, we are nearing the end of the blackberry bloom, our main and often only honey flow. In a month, it will be time to dig out the berry buckets and battle gear (Carhartt overalls). The blackberries will be thick on the branches, and blackberry cobbler awaits… But I digress. The…
David LaFerney’s Beginner to Beginner Queen Rearing
Some years ago, David LaFerney, of the Henderson County Beekeepers Association worked out a method for raising really nice, big, fat and juicy queen cells. He based his method on that taught by Joseph Clemens (whom I believe was/is an Arizona beekeeper who has kept bees since 1966). David is no longer with us and…
Coffee Break
Even beekeepers get to take a break. Here is one of my fave bee giggles:
The Kraken Wakes (aka the Dreaded Drone Layer)
We have all seen frames like this: You open up a hive and find nothing but scattered drone brood. And I mean scattered: You will likely find brood in all stages in between the puffy drone cells, maybe even some worker cells if you catch this condition just as it begins in the hive. And…
Soak and Save!
Ever struggled with what to do with old plastic foundation or plastic frames? Because the cells become filled with old cocoon material, all propolised down and polished by the house bees, they are nearly impossible to clean up before re-waxing for use. So most beekeepers just trash them, and none of us feels good about…
The World Wide Web
Not one of us is an island. Not one of us can separate ourselves from the threads that bind all of us, animate and inanimate, on this planet. We are all star-children, faces turned to our source of life, our sun. The best measure of the health of our one planet is biodiversity. And biodiversity…
Inspectors General: Spring
Sakura time! And for beekeepers, that means it is time to take off the winter hive gear…and face the music. Let us skip past the dreary and often demoralizing tasks of counting deadouts, cleaning up old feed, dead bees and mouldy frames. And move along to how we can best conduct those first spring inspections….
BOGO Queen Hack
OK, so for whatever reason….swarm management, making increase, or just generating a new queen for a friend…you have dequeened a colony, hoping they will raise up a nice new queen for you. But. You are going to have to wait an entire calendar month before you see that lovely new lady. And that wait is…
Here We Bee 