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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
