Saturday offered a ton of work. We had bushes to plant, fences to move, potatoes to mound, weeds to pull, and branches to prune. The day was overcast, unseasonably humid, and we kept noticing bees all over the place, many more than usual. I got stung just for peeking in the mating nuc. Late in […] Read more
Here is a photo that perfectly illustrates the concept of backfilling. You can see that the frame once contained brood in the center with an arc of nectar above and to the sides. But now, most of the brood has emerged and the empty brood cells, which are slightly darker, are being filled with nectar […] Read more
Part way up the ladder I stopped. The cardboard box I carried kept catching in the branches. The box was too big—I knew that—but I liked it because it was deep. I was hoping it would restrain the swarm longer than a shallow box. Standing on the ladder was not the best place to try […] Read more
It was a Sunday morning, exactly nine days after I split my top-bar hive with a Taranov board. I finished answering e-mails before I walked outside and headlong into a frenzy of darting, diving, dipping insects that were coalescing in a tall Leyland cypress. I wandered into the midst of the chaos, curious why Leylands […] Read more
The Olympia beekeeper who submitted the photos of splitting a Langstroth with a Taranov board, Dave Hurd, sent in some details based on reader questions. He did a nice job explaining his method, so I’m presenting it as today’s post. Once again thanks, Dave, for all your input and your great photos. Rusty HoneyBeeSuite I […] Read more
A beekeeper here in Olympia, Dave Hurd, sent me the following photos of splitting a hive with a Taranov board. His design for the ramp is slightly different than my own but the principle is the same. Because he split a Langstroth rather than a top-bar hive, I thought you might enjoy seeing his photos. […] Read more
I recognized the cacophony coming from my top-bar hive. The insistent roar told me those bees were ready to swarm. They were milling about, climbing up the sides of the hive, flying but not foraging. I had just returned from a week on the road and didn’t feel like messing with bees, but they were […] Read more