Every now and then I read an article related to beekeeping that truly upsets me. Today, the source of my angst was a conversation about ways to promote honey to potential buyers. Most of the ideas are fine. Beekeepers make statements about their honey that are proven to attract buyers, and in most cases these […] Read more
In the past, I have cooked for my winter bees. I have made fondant, slurry, semi-hard sugar cakes, hard as rock sugar cakes, candy boards, and pollen-laced patties. I have stood over a witches’ cauldron of bubbling, boiling syrup, stirring and measuring and timing. I have used thermometers and cool water tests. I have added […] Read more
This question, often followed by “What did I do wrong?” lands in my in-box nearly every day. No matter what you call it—sugaring, granulation, crystallization—it is an annoying and disappointing outcome, especially if it happens before you extract. To understand why it happens, you need to know something about sugars. Most often, we use the […] Read more
Yesterday a reader wrote to say that all her bees were in the top brood box and she didn’t recall this happening last year. She wanted to know if this was normal. The fact is that winter bees kept in a vertical hive will move up as they consume their stores. Remember that the bees […] Read more