Welcome to our blog!
The latest buzz from our apiaries.
Cabin Fever
Winter was late in coming this year, but once it arrived you couldn't miss it! This morning I was reading the weather outlook in the Michigan Farm News (written by Jeff Andressen the meteorologist with the MSU Extension) and if they have it right, the recent upper...
It’s a Drones Life!
Winter was long in coming here in W. Michigan. We still had some very temperate sunny afternoons in November. On one of those afternoons I visited one of our apiaries to see how the bees were faring. There were a few bees flying, gathering water from a nearby low spot...
Swarm Craziness
Swarming season is in full swing here in W. Michigan. Friday morning while working in our own apiary I witnessed a couple of swarms taking off, even though our colonies have all been split. Some have been split into three, but that didn't stop those old queens from...
Beautiful Day in the Apiary!
Today we had a unseasonably warm spring day, so we headed over to our bee yards to see how they were doing. We were able to check for laying queens and making sure each colony has enough stores to get them through the next 4-5 weeks. The bees were taking advantage...
Spring 2012 MBA Conference
Once again we're down at Kellogg Conference Center on Michigan State University's Campus. We're here for the annual Michigan Beekeepers Association Spring Conference. This year the crowd seems larger than ever, and if you don't get a seat in the breakout sessions 30...
Successful winter … at least so far!
Today we had a warm though windy day, giving us the opportunity to pop some covers and see how the bees wintered. We were quite happy with what we found. So far all of our colonies are alive, though March is can be a challenging month for the bees as stores start to...
Wintering Bees in Michigan
12/20/19 Update: You might want to look at our more updated article on wintering bees in Michigan. It's that time of the year again here in Michigan! In recent days we're starting to spot a few snow flakes floating in. The past couple of weekends we were busy...
Late Summer, Early Fall Requeening
More beekeepers are beginning to advocate late Summer and early Fall requeening of colonies. The rationale for this is based on a variety of reasons. The more convincing arguments are 1) a young queen during late Summer / early Fall will lay more prolifically,...
Beekeeping in South Africa
On a recent trip to South Africa I had an opportunity to check out the beekeeping situation there. The Honeybadger Beekeeping Equipment provider in Pretoria is an outfit that keeps and sells bees, sells honey and beekeeping equipment and also provides beekeeping...
Backyard Queen Rearing
Last year we attempted to raise our own queens via grafting and didn't meet with much success. The only way we seemed to be able to raise our own queens was to simply split in the Spring and make sure the queenless side of the split had young brood to raise their own...
The Big One That Got Away…
Last weekend it was very hot and muggy here in Michigan. The thermometer in the truck indicated 93 degrees when my son and I returned after lunch to our garden. We've co-located our family vegetable garden with one of our bee yards. This was our second attempt to...
Making Splits and Queens
We've been very busy in our apiary the past week or so splitting our stronger wintered colonies. When conditions are right in the Spring, a healthy colony of bees will see its population expand very rapidly. Unless the beekeeper intervenes, the old queen will leave...
Spring Artisans
It's that time of the year. Upon exiting the worship service this past Sunday evening in Grand Rapids, we were pleasantly surprised to see a large swarm of honey bees hanging around 30 feet off the ground on a tree in the front yard. Evidently, the nearby hive of an...
Our Walter T. Kelley Factory Tour
In our home town of Hudsonville, MI there is a wonderful family owned local hardware store. While the nearby Lowes or Home Depot hardware store monstrosities likely offer better prices on the parts we need to fix our leaky toilet, or damaged window screen, we wouldn't...
2011 Michigan Beekeepers Conf.
Day 1 Last week Mieke and I made our annual trek to Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI to attend the Michigan Beekeeper Association's Spring Conference. Once again we had an enjoyable time at the conference, meeting and chatting with fellow beekeepers, and...
The Survivors!
We recently experienced that February thaw we were waiting for here in Michigan. I couldn't wait to get over to our apiary to see how my girls fared over the cold winter months. We were quite happy to discover that at the moment all of our colonies that went into...
Dennis vanEngelsdorp’s plea for bees
There are a lot of very good TED talk videos available online, and a few not so good ones as well. Whether you are interested in honeybees or not, this is a TED talk that everybody should watch! If you have any other "must watch" videos on the plight of the honeybee,...
Mite Warfare!
The honey has been harvested, but there is still plenty of work to do in the bee yard. A large part of that work in these waning days of summer involve us helping the bees get ready for the long Michigan winter. In addition to making sure the bees have enough honey...