Register your Bees!
Now that you are a bee keeper you are required by law to register your bee yard. Don’t worry – it’s free, easy and it (probably) isn’t a government plot to take away your stuff. If you’ve been a bee...
View ArticleYour Tax Dollars at Work
USDA Beltsville Bee Research Laboratory This is where you send samples for (free) laboratory evaluation of honey bee diseases and parasites. There are many resources for bee keepers on the website –...
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Installing Package Honey Bees
Soon your bees will finally be here – a most joyous occasion for new bee keepers especially. No doubt you have been studying up on how to get package bees into their hive, and already have some idea...
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Varroa Mite Management Options for Honey Bees
Life Cycle of Varroa Mites - Thanks to Tony Linka for permission to use this excellent illustration. This post is intended to present the available options for varroa mite management in as factual...
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A Year in the Life of a Wild Honey Bee Colony
A honey bee super organism – or colony – has the same basic needs and drives as any other organism except that it is made up of as many as 60,000 individual bees. In late winter and spring a hive will...
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Emergency Feeding – Don’t let your Bees Starve!
Mountain Camp Sugar Feeding To ensure your bees don’t starve over the winter you can very simply pour plain sugar onto a sheet of paper towel or newspaper laid directly on the top bars of the hive....
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Really Simple Queen Introduction
Queen introduction is fraught with anxiety – A good queen honey bee is pretty expensive as bugs go and of course you don’t want to take any chances with it. I think I’ve tried most of the common tips –...
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Swarm Management for new Beekeepers
New Beekeepers who are successfully over wintering hives for the first time are likely to see their overwintered colonies build up strongly on the early spring nectar flows. Unfortunately strong...
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Splitting Honey Bee Hives for Increase
Like every other living thing our bees have the ability to make more bees. But instead of allowing our colonies to multiply many beekeepers spend hundreds of dollars to buy bees to replace the 1/3 of...
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Bee Keeping Basics – Inspections
Inspections During the bee keeping season (March to November) you need to do weekly inspections. The purpose of inspecting your hives is to keep them healthy and strong by heading off problems as...
View ArticleFeeding Honey Bees for Beginners
My first year of beekeeping I was surprised to discover how often I had to feed my new pets. I shouldn’t have been surprised – like all animals honey bees have to eat. Unfortunately I had done a lot...
View ArticleBeekeeping Phenology – Important blooms in mid TN
Maple - Rapid increase in brood production – March Dandelion - time to begin adding supers, reversing brood boxes, and other swarming counter-measures. Swarm issue begins about 3 weeks later – March...
View ArticleTime to feed!
This has been a pretty good year in my bee yard as far as nectar flows go, but when I started inspecting a few days ago to decide which hives need feeding I was surprised that there is less honey in my...
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Installing Package Honey Bees
Soon your bees will finally be here – a most joyous occasion for new bee keepers especially. No doubt you have been studying up on how to get package bees into their hive, and already have some idea...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Emergency Feeding – Don’t let your Bees Starve!
Mountain Camp Sugar Feeding This article has been previously published, but contains seasonally relevant information… To ensure your bees don’t starve over the winter you can very simply pour plain...
View ArticleCounting Mites
“If you can’t measure it, You can’t manage it…” Varroa mites are the scourge of honey bees and beekeepers – success is unlikely without some strategy to manage them. Unfortunately many beekeepers –...
View ArticleWhy honey may be the best expression of local flavor you can find, anywhere
Submitted by Ed McSweeny, Why honey may be the best expression of local flavor you can find, anywhere…
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How to Make a Simple Robber Screen
As the nectar flows taper off at this time of year robbing sets in. If you only have one hive and you know that there are no others nearby then you don’t need to worry about robbing – but the rest...
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The Honey flow is ON!
A Black Locust tree in bloom… Flow is a somewhat confusing term that beekeepers use to indicate that there is enough nectar forage available for bees to not only satisfy their immediate needs but to...
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A Year in the Life of a Wild Honey Bee Colony
A honey bee super organism – or colony – has the same basic needs and drives as any other organism except that it is made up of as many as 60,000 individual bees. In late winter and spring a hive will...
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