And one who will save you in a pinch. During beekeeping class the instructors went over several important items to keep in your bee tool kit. They mentioned things like a bee brush, or a feather, to move the bees out of the way when needed; a hive tool, an […]
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Inspecting The Two Queen Hive System
And the flight of the bumble bee. Inspecting the hive in a two queen system is a bit complicated. It is similar to opening two beehives at the same time and leaving them both open while you work. It takes up more space then a normal hive inspection and makes […]
Bees Are Not Claustrophobic
In some ways they are even Claustrophilics. And when that space is the coveted 5/16 of an inch they are in heaven. Honeybees are very particular about spacing inside their hive. If you give a bee a space larger than 3/8 of an inch they will fill it up with […]
I Once Saw a Bee Walking Around Without Her Body
All she had was a head, small midsection with wings and four legs. Her striped rear section was completely missing. I watched for at least 10 minutes as she just crawled along the ground going about her business in a determined sort of way. She kept on going even after […]
Processing Beeswax From Honeycomb
Cutting Comb Is A Sticky Gooey Mess, But Processing It Is Fun! After I cut the burr comb out of my hive, I was left with a sticky gooey mess. There was honey leaking from my hive (which the bees fixed the next day) and a cookie sheet full of […]
First Inspection Of The Two Queen Hive System
I’m officially in the bee murder’s club now and it doesn’t feel good at all. Today was my first real inspection of my two queen hive. Yesterday, I lifted the cover briefly to see if they had chewed through the paper, which they had, and then slid the top hive […]