It’s fall. You are pouring over glossy bee catalogs about to order your first hive. Your bee club advises you start with two, but you are thinking one is best. After all, it looks expensive and you might not even like it. What to do? My advice? I have to side with the bee clubs […] Read more
Well, sort of. Susan, a beekeeper in Pennsylvania, sent these pictures of her hive after a local bear had a meal. I have seen photos of dozens—maybe hundreds—of bear damaged hives over the years, but I have never seen one where the bear was so respectful of the equipment. Usually the hive is in splinters, […] Read more
My recent post about a beekeeper with neighbor problems generated a lot of mail about beehive placement in urban and suburban areas. With few exceptions, the mail was in favor of keeping bees out of sight and out of mind. As I see it, there are two ways to handle the beehive/neighbor problem. Either you […] Read more
I was just about to shut down my computer last Thursday evening when this startling subject line appeared in my e-mail. Suddenly I was in no mood to cook dinner. In part, the message said: I came across your site when I pulled a public information request from my town after receiving a citation from […] Read more
A beekeeper living on Vancouver Island is worried about the great number of honey bee wings and legs she is seeing on the Varroa drawer. She just finished treating her hive with formic acid pads and wondered if the accumulation of bee parts was a result of the mites or the mite treatment. I too […] Read more
Beekeeping goes in and out of popularity with the times. And if you haven’t noticed, right now beekeeping is the “in” thing to do. We are seeing the first major spike in hobby beekeeping since the 1970s when twentysomethings living in Volkswagen buses decided to save the planet by growing marijuana and keeping bees. Back […] Read more
Honey bees bite. It’s a fact. In a paper published yesterday in the online journal PLOS ONE, scientists reveal that when an enemy is too small to sting, the resourceful honey bee just chomps down on the critter and gives it a good dose of 2-Heptanone. The purpose of the paper, titled “The Bite of […] Read more