Still some honey thieves are undeterred. Lately I’ve noticed many yellow jackets, ants, bumble bees and flies attracted to my hive. Some meddlers are even brave enough to crawl around the outside of the boxes until the bees chase them away. These prowlers may be looking for a way to […]
Month: July 2011
Duct Tape A Beekeeper’s Best Friend
And one who will save you in a pinch. During beekeeping class the instructors went over several important items to keep in your bee tool kit. They mentioned things like a bee brush, or a feather, to move the bees out of the way when needed; a hive tool, an […]
Inspecting The Two Queen Hive System
And the flight of the bumble bee. Inspecting the hive in a two queen system is a bit complicated. It is similar to opening two beehives at the same time and leaving them both open while you work. It takes up more space then a normal hive inspection and makes […]
Bees Are Not Claustrophobic
In some ways they are even Claustrophilics. And when that space is the coveted 5/16 of an inch they are in heaven. Honeybees are very particular about spacing inside their hive. If you give a bee a space larger than 3/8 of an inch they will fill it up with […]
I Once Saw a Bee Walking Around Without Her Body
All she had was a head, small midsection with wings and four legs. Her striped rear section was completely missing. I watched for at least 10 minutes as she just crawled along the ground going about her business in a determined sort of way. She kept on going even after […]
Processing Beeswax From Honeycomb
Cutting Comb Is A Sticky Gooey Mess, But Processing It Is Fun! After I cut the burr comb out of my hive, I was left with a sticky gooey mess. There was honey leaking from my hive (which the bees fixed the next day) and a cookie sheet full of […]