|
|
|||||||||||
|
The conversation begins like this, “I’m a new beekeeper with a quick question. How do I keep my bees from swarming?” Then, even before the paroxysms of laughter, snorting, and choking die down, an officious, self-important beekeeper proclaims, “My bees don’t swarm because I keep them content and happy.” Wow, where do I begin? [...] The bee bee tree, Tetradium daniellii, is favored by both bees and beekeepers because of its bloom time. In mid to late summer (July and August) when nectar is scarce, the bee bee tree produces masses of flat white flower clusters reminiscent of elderberry blooms. The flowers are small, fragrant, sometimes tinged with pink [...] Before I explain how to do it, I want to repeat that checkerboarding is done above the brood nest. You do not disturb the brood nest in the process. Checkerboarding is often confused with opening the brood nest, pyramiding, or unlimited brood nest management—all of which are different, and all of which I will [...] A discussion of checkerboarding gets men all riled up. And I don’t mean “men” as a pronoun for all genders, I mean male humans. Come on, you’ve never seen a group of women all vexed and loquacious over checkerboarding. It doesn’t happen. Furthermore, checkerboarding induces these self-same men to deceive, inveigle, and obfuscate. They [...] In everyday English, to “backfill” means to refill. So if you want to plant a bush, bury a conduit, or repair a water main, you dig a hole, do what you have to do, and then put the dirt back in. Simple enough. The meaning is only slightly different in beekeeping, but different enough [...] The things I learn while writing this blog! In case you didn’t know—and I didn’t—the word “lounge” is a collective noun for a group of lizards. This is akin to a school of fish, a flock of sheep, or a pod of whales. That’s just one of the things I learned after Helen, a [...] This post is a follow-up to “Rethinking the triple deep hive” that I ran earlier in the week. One reader asked me to expand on the comment, “The triple-deep nests were more-or-less in a column rather than a sphere. Hive inspections showed the brood nests spanning all three boxes in the very center.” I [...] I will admit, somewhat sheepishly, that some folks say I’m EA. That’s short for “easily amused” and it’s hardly a compliment. But the way I see it, being EA can help you through those times when your trees are falling and your bees are dying–in spite of the enormous effort you’ve expended to prevent [...] Trophallaxis is the direct transfer of food or other fluids from one insect to another. It is especially common among the social insects such as bees, wasps, ants, and termites. In many species, including bees, trophallaxis is an important part of colony communication. While fluids such as nectar, water, or royal jelly are being [...] In spite of the HopGuard fiasco of this past winter, some of my hives pulled through. With one exception, the colonies that survived were either in triple-deep Langstroths or a top-bar hive. I get a lot of questions about the wisdom of using triples and my usual answer is that the size of the [...] |
 |
|||||||||
|
Copyright © 2012 Honey Bee Suite - All Rights Reserved
|
|||||||||||
Recent Comments