Keeping honey bee hives means you will likely encounter swarms - something people are usually terrified of! A natural reproduction process, swarming can happen to any beekeeper, so you should be prepared when it occurs. It is a sight to behold when the swarm is in full flight. The season of swarms is typically in …
Continue reading "Swarm Season"
Ummmm…..that’s sooo good! I hear that phrase over and over when someone tastes my home-grown honey for the first time. Their face lights up and a look of total delight transforms them when they dip their fingers into the sticky sunshine. Most people are used to the purchased plastic bear of generic clover honey (sometimes …
Continue reading "Wannabees Thinking About Honey Bees"
It happens every Fall - honey extraction! After babying the bees, feeding, monitoring, re-queening, splitting, and just plain worrying about them, now is the moment of truth. How much honey did they deposit in the combs for me to rob from them? I won't leave you in suspense - I extracted 160-180 pounds from two …
Continue reading "Spinning Honey"
Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic, and Aromatic Ah....The fragrance of lavender! Evoking many memories, like wandering through blooming fields of lavender on a hot summer day buzzing with bees. This is one herb that if I were on a desert island, I would want to grow! Growing lavender in my garden every year is essential and I …
Continue reading "Queen of Herbs-Lavender"
For novices and more experienced beekeepers, early spring is the time to install new bee colonies for the year. Packaged Bees For the non-beekeepers out there, bee packages are the most common way to install and start beekeeping. If you order bees through the mail, they'll almost certainly come in what's called a "package", which …
Continue reading "Bee Package Time!"
Yes!! It is that time of year - early Honey Flow- when the bees build up quickly and silently. Before you know it you are looking at a huge moving bee swarm perched on a tree branch like the one below when you come home....and you must capture them quickly before they move on to …
Continue reading "Peak Swarm Season"
Beekeeping has moved from the pastime of fusty middle-aged men to young urban couples and singles. It is trendy now to become a beekeeper! Who could have predicted that? When I worked at the bee booth at the Fairgrounds recently, I was amazed at the young (under 30!) people, both male and female who were …
Continue reading "Beekeeping For Newbees or Wannabees"
After picking out dead honeybees from a honeycomb frame recently, I pledged to use only plants that are neonic free. Neonics or neonicitonoids have been implicated in recent bee declines as well as other factors, such as loss of habitat and the game changer bee parasite- varroa mite. There are a number of studies that …
Continue reading "Updated: Neonic and Pesticide Free Nurseries"
Keeping honeybee hives means swarms. A natural reproduction process, it can happen to any beekeeper, experienced and inexperienced, so you should be prepared when it occurs, as well as excited. It is a sight to behold when the swarm is in full flight. The season of swarms is nearly always in April and May here …
Continue reading "Swarm Season"
Ummmm…..that’s sooo good! I hear that phrase over and over when someone tastes my home-grown honey for the first time. Their face lights up and a look of delight transforms them when they dip their fingers into the sticky sunshine. Most people are used to the purchased plastic bear of generic clover honey (sometimes adulterated) …
Continue reading "Wannabees Thinking About Honey Bees"
