Aggressive Bees in Late Summer Perhaps it is your first year as a beekeeper, or you may have a few seasons of experience under your belt. You feel that you are beginning to understand how to work your colonies. Then suddenly, those sweet girls change and become very aggressive bees. What happened? When referring to […]
Winter Deadout – Steps for Prevention
Finding a Deadout in Your Bee Yard Beekeepers work very hard to maintain healthy honey bee colonies. We go out to check our colony on a mild winter day and find our hive dead. This is called a hive “deadout”. We sometimes blame ourselves but is it our fault? Finding a dead hive is no […]
Absconding Bees- Why Bees Leave The Hive
Bees Gone? You May Have Experienced Absconding Bees When a colony leaves what seems to be a perfectly good home (other than swarming) we call it absconding. This is a sobering thing to happen to any beekeeper and it represents a significant loss. Absconding bees are an unknown issue to new beekeepers until it happens. The […]
Splitting a Hive – Why & How
What is Hive Splitting There will come a time in any beekeeper’s career that you consider splitting a hive. No, I don’t mean to literally split the hive in half with a saw! I am referring to taking 1 large beehive into 2 smaller ones. This is an activity most often approached by a 2nd […]
Winter Beekeeping – A Time of Observation & Preparation
Winter Beekeeping – A Slower Pace Beekeeping tasks vary from season to season. In most locations, Spring is a busy time. New bees are arriving, established hives are growing and beekeepers are chasing bee swarms. Summer is a time of honey production and in the Fall, we are concerned about getting bees ready for cold […]
Honey Bee Robbing, Why It Happens & How to Stop It
Honey Bee Robbing Behavior – A Serious Problem Have you ever witnessed honey bees robbing another hive? If you ever do, you will not soon forget the frenzy of bees. When we think of the hard-working honey bees, its hard to imagine them as thieves. But honey bee robbing behavior is a part of their […]
The Truth About Dead Beehives That Beekeepers Shouldn’t Ignore
Dead Beehives Are NO Fun Not much is more exciting for a beekeeper than having the opportunity to set up a new hive. And, it is very saddening to find a hive that has died. We call these dead hives – “dead outs”. And our first response (or at least second – if you are […]
Nectar Dearth – Trouble for Honey Bees
The Nectar Dearth – What it Means to Honey Bees I enjoy seeing honey bees flying through the air on warm Spring mornings looking for food. Nectar and pollen collected from the new flowers is necessary for colony growth. The bees work diligently to make honey and raise young bees. But this time of plenty […]