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The goldenrod started here in August and all my supers added at that time have a beautiful gold color, my favorite honey of all - the beeks here say it's goldenrod and aster. For the first time...

I wondered about the bamboo, there's a lot of that here in this area now. However, after talking to a beekeeper friend, we decided it was definitely buckwheat. I'm starting on some supers now that...

We started extracting this week - best year so far in 5 years! We have 7 hives - 4 overwintered and 3 new hives started from scratch this summer. Still got about 20 supers full - mix of shallows...

Went out yesterday to check two nucs I made 3 weeks ago during a warm spell, but had low hopes for them since we've had two weeks of temps in the 20s (once in the teens), and also had 14" snow last...

I have tried both olive oil and canola oil, besides the expensive oils. So far, everyone's hands down favorite is the following recipe:
1 part beeswax (by weight)
4 parts canola oil (by liquid...

It's common in the fall for the bees NOT to cap honey. They are reluctant to produce wax for the cappings as the season winds down. I used to extract all the uncapped honey separately and keep it...

Our hives have thrown a couple of late swarms this last month. We caught one Sunday night and put it in a nuc (a VERY tight fit) because I need to save the queen. We lost a couple hives last fall...

I would inquire further. I did a search and found the National Honey Board is more of a publicity and public awareness organization promoting honey products. Something smells "not quite right." As...

Thank you so much! I want some nucs this year and my hubby was dragging his feet with the "I don't have the right tools" song. Even he could make these in a jiffy with his tools!

Getting one or two stings is not likely to be a problem if you're not especially sensitive. However, I usually work with a full suit and veil and gloves if I really want to take my time doing...

I had put concrete blocks on the hives after that experience, but think you're right about tieing everything together. With temps below zero through the winter, the ground heaves enough in March to...

Thought I would do a followup on the poor hive described at the top. Went out to check all the hives since the temps were in the 40s for the first time since mid-December and check on honey stores. ...

My husband started making all my deeps and supers with a biscuit joiner out of cheap scrap pine from industrial pallets. We had tried the rabbit joints, but they did warp badly when made from this...

For bottling purposes, I get about 2.75 lbs per quart, so I usually tell folks that a gallon has 11+ lbs of honey in it. I also sell in half-pint jelly jars, which hold 10 oz. honey.

I have had seven hives on the same side of our two acre lot as the chickens for the last couple years. The chickens have a moveable fence that was only 20 feet away from the hives this year. My...

I had been pretty proud of the fact that I had never lost a hive in the last couple years. But reality has caught up, since I had a hive swarm this fall and didn't successfully make themselves a...

I tried to go without an excluder on 3 of my hives this summer (I only have 7) and kind of regretted it. I knew that they would draw new comb better without an excluder, and I needed more drawn comb...

Mystery solved - warm enough to open the hive this morning, found no queen, no brood, and only a small cluster of bees. Dismantled everything to store until spring. There were some swarm cells that...

Went and checked my seven hives to get ready for winter, and tried to lift each one to estimate stores for wintering. All great (can't possibly lift them) except one hive that only weighs about 40...

You may have the same bottom boards as the my last two - unlike all the others I installed before, they had absolutely no rear opening whatever. I raised the rear of the hive just enough to shove a...

The bees will stop taking feed before it's REALLY cold, so I remove the feeder and put the inner cover on with notch side down for an upper entrance. I put foam board between that and the outer...

I'll put the Apiguard above the hive bodies and set an empty (no frames) shallow around them. I'm doing it today, as the heat, then rain delayed me. Will be 60s and 70s the next few days.

I'm supposed to apply the second tray of Apiguard (thymol) today, but some of the hives I treated two weeks ago look like this - bees hanging out all over the front, and down to the ground! Since...

I didn't think of it masking her scent! I checked this morning, the odor is much less strong and all the bees are acting normal again. I'll be double checking for eggs also. Thanks!

Applied Apiguard to four hives late last week - temps are in the 60s and low 70s during the day here. One of the hives has been acting strange since then - piles of bees on the bottom entrance,...