A walk away split is exactly what it sounds like. Split the hive in half and walk away. Let the bees do what bees naturally do. Honeybees are predisposed to maintain the species by swarming. A beekeeper can take advantage of this instinct and control the swarming action by creating a split. This keeps the […]

In my experience, most new beekeepers are worry worts. They spend a lot of energy fretting over their bees, but mostly they focus on the wrong things. Read on to find out what you can stop stressing out about! 1. Cooling the Hive  Honey bees like to keep their brood nests between 90-97F (32-25C) degrees. […]

As I write this our golden retriever is barking at a car turning around in the driveway. He’s letting me know that someone is here. I tell him “Good boy,… okay, that’s enough.” and pat his head. Still flustered and huffy, he obeys begrudgingly. He quiets down and lays in his bed, ears pricked and […]

How to “Read” a Frame from Your Hive On Sunday, we checked our hive to see if our queen had begun laying eggs in earnest yet. The honeybees had clearly been intent on demolishing the pollen patty I had made them a week and a half ago, so that was a good sign. When we […]

What is robbing? When I wrote this in July, my area’s (southeast Georgia) nectar flow has stopped and all that is available to the bees is some pollen. With foragers going out and returning empty handed, or finding nectar that is sub-par, I find that my hives get a little hot this time of year. When […]

When other beekeepers observe me working my hives, I often get comments about how gentle I am with my bees. I make a conscious effort not to crush any bees, but until recently, I did not realize how abnormal this was. Unfortunately, all you have to do is get on YouTube to see how most beekeepers […]

Installing a Hive Top Feeder Sponsored By: Brushy Mountain Bee Farm Hive Top Feeders are a great resource to help feed your bees, even during the start of the winter months. Learn how easy it is to set up and utilize.

To a new beekeeper differentiating a drone from the queen can be a little confusing. I remember the first time we did a hive inspection with our first colony. It was after we not-so-gracefully dumped our package bees in the new, empty hive and sealed it up for two weeks hoping we did everything right. […]

Story and photos by Jennifer Sartell An adult bee’s diet is primarily made up of three types of food. Honey, Nectar and Pollen. In this post, we will discover how each of these food groups provide essential nutrient to a bee. Nectar Where does nectar come from? Nectar actually begins in the leaves of plants. […]

Last year I wrote an article on the ten most common mistakes I see new beekeepers make. The continued popularity of this article and the high volume of mistakes I see beekeepers make has prompted me to write a sequel! So, here are five more beekeeping mistakes I hope to help you avoid. 1. Poor Record Keeping Not […]

A honey bee is approximately a half of an inch long. Though tiny, it is made up of many complicated and interesting parts. The honey bee is one of the most streamline designs of any creature. Each part is tailored to a specific purpose, and does that purpose well.     The body of a […]

This is my first summer keeping bees in straw hives called “skeps.” Come follow my journey!

When you open your hive and look at the busy moving mass of tiny golden bodies, it is but a mere snapshot of the working hive. The bee colony is constantly regenerating itself. In fact, every 6 weeks or so you essentially have a new hive. Any bees that were born two months ago have […]

As beekeepers, the ability to monitor our hives comes in short bursts of activity usually  in the form of regular hive inspections. For the most part, unless you have an observation hive, this time spent deep in the nitty gritty of the bee’s daily life is only for a few short moments. As we remove […]

Join beekeepers Becky Tipton, Dawn Combs, Robert Riley, and Steve Tipton as they discuss their different beekeeping methods and what they can suggest to a beginning beekeeper. To hear more podcasts from MOTHER EARTH NEWS and Friends, click here.