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Sometimes little gems of wisdom get hidden within the comments section. In this tip, Jim of Withers Mountain Honey Farm in Flint, Michigan, describes how he bolsters new bee packages with brood from strong hives that might swarm. It is a way to equalize the strength of his hives while boosting packages and reducing [...] Let’s say you have a brand new colony of bees that is guaranteed to be uninfected by Varroa mites. How does your colony become infected and how fast do the mites reproduce? Let’s take it from the top: One fine spring day one of your bees shares a flower with an infected bee from [...] Pesticide residues are known to appear frequently in wax combs. Since most pesticides are either lipophilic or dissolved in oil-based carriers, it is no surprise that we find them residing in beeswax. These chemicals can be brought into the hive by the bees themselves in the form or contaminated pollen and nectar, or they [...] Several beekeepers with foundationless frames have reported finding large number of drone cells in their hives. In some cases, the new brood is 25% to 50% drones. While colonies on foundationless frames always have more drones than those on preformed foundation, the number of drones can seem out of hand. And indeed, vast amounts [...] I’ve had a request to write about how I start queens using a two-frame mating box such as the Brushy Mountain “Queen Castle.” The Queen Castle is a standard size deep brood box that can be divided into four two-frame sections, each with its own entrance. But the following instructions could be used for [...] I’ve always stayed away from eight-frame hive equipment. A few years back you could buy eight-frame brood boxes and supers, but it was hard to get specialty pieces like Cloake boards, slatted racks, and escape boards. That has changed—especially in the last year or two—but I still don’t like the idea of buying non-standard [...] A winter cluster can be thought of as a ball of bees dissected by sheets of honeycomb. Clusters begin to form when the outside air temperature falls to about 57°F (14°C). Bees in these clusters are in no way hibernating but are actively moving, eating, and performing hive duties. The comb in the very [...] Although it is believed to be confined to the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, the Asian parasitic brood mite, Tropilaelaps clareae, is a pest that has many beekeepers on edge. It is one of the parasites specifically mentioned in the Honeybee Act of 1922 and it is considered to be more menacing than [...] “Drone trapping” is a method of reducing the number of Varroa mites in a hive that is based on the mite’s life cycle and preference for drone brood. Mites can sense the presence of drone brood—probably by smell. They prefer to lay eggs in drone brood because they can raise more mites per cell [...] In this picture you can see drone cells in the lower left, worker cells in the lower right, and both pollen and nectar everywhere else. Mixed brood comb. Flickr photo by Gord Campbell |
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