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...
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...
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,...
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...