Inspecting Your Hive

The time when you learn the most as a beekeeper is during a hive inspection.

Inspecting a frame
Helping Bees Through a Nectar or Pollen Dearth

Being a beekeeper often requires you to pay attention to what’s happening in the environment…

Another View of the Brood Pattern
Effectively Managing Space in the Brood Nest 

As we touched on in our previous Snippet, “Pollen and Nectar Stores in the Brood…

Beatrice and Brood
Pollen and Nectar Stores in the Brood Nest

Especially in the spring and summer months, paying close attention to what’s happening inside your…

Bee Inspection
Practical Hive Inspection Tips & Tricks

Completing hive inspections can be one of the most important tasks you’ll complete in your…

Queen bee
Tips for Queen Spotting

When completing a hive inspection, it’s always beneficial to take note of what you see…

Honey harvesting
Nectar Storage & the Honey Ceiling 

In most places throughout the U.S., by early June the spring nectar flow has begun,…

Recognizing and Avoiding Swarms

A swarm is one of the most dramatic and amazing shows of nature that anyone,…

A FAQ for the Committed New Beekeeper

Introduction We’ve covered a great deal of ground so far. As you have noticed, beekeeping…

Managing Hive Capacity

As beekeepers, we offer our bees a place to live. Whether they choose to stay…

An Introduction to Cross Comb

In the perfect world, bees create neat layers of parallel comb, with a nice even…

The Big Issues to Check at the Hive Inspection

The hive inspection is a chance for the beekeeper to dig deeper beyond the external…

Keiths Garden
Tips & Tricks for Providing Pollinator-Friendly Plants

“Beekeeping Season” is often thought of as the time of year when the world and…

During & After a Honeybee Swarm

Though it’s a rare and truly beautiful sight, most beekeepers would prefer not to see…

Why Honeybees Swarm

The sight of a honeybee swarm is truly an incredible one. Thousands of honeybees, heavy…

Wasp attack
A Beehive Autopsy

Though beekeeping is an incredibly fun, interesting and often exhilarating hobby, it certainly does have…

Preparing for a Deep and Long Winter

This is an Academy Hands-On Lesson. Such lessons feature the individual recollections, ideas, and thoughts…

What is Bearding in Honeybees?

From foraging to reproduction to making honey, beekeepers find joy in watching bees exhibit all…

Beehives in winter
Checking Your Beehive Has Signs of Life

Beekeepers spend their winters inside hoping their bees are strong enough to survive the harsh…

Honey Bee Eggs And Brood
Tips for Spotting Eggs

It’s valuable to spot eggs, but can often be a challenge When inspecting your hives,…

Beekeeping classes
The Value in Reviewing Losses

Awful News, But an Opportunity No beekeeper wants to go out to feed a hive…

Beekeeper with honeycomb in hand
Inspect Often When You Start Beekeeping

New beekeepers can justify more frequent inspections When you start beekeeping, you will likely have…

Pollen Patties
Winter or Pollen Patties

What to Use in the Fall and Winter In the spring our bees will start…

Bee stinging
A Beekeeper’s Guide to Bee Stings

There aren’t many guarantees when it comes to keeping bees, but eventually getting stung is…

Bee on comb
The Beekeeper’s Role in Avoiding Colony Starvation

Bees are remarkably resilient. From hot to cold and through the seasons, bees are adaptable…

BetterComb Inspection
A BetterComb Hive Inspection

There has been strong growth in interest recently for synthetic comb, as an effective way…

Brood Closeup
The Basics Of Requeening A Hive

Does the idea of requeening a hive scare you? Don’t let it. It is great for your…

Beekeeper using smoker
Swarm Management in Spring

Spring is the busiest time of year for both the bees and the beekeeper.  A…

Beekeeper using smoker
Calming your bees

How can we assess our bees response during a hive inspection? And what can we…

Beehives in garden
Moving a Beehive

“Less than 2 feet or more than 2 miles” “No, it’s less than 3 feet…

Beehives in winter
An Introduction to Overwintering Honeybees

Of all the challenges faced by bees – and beekeepers – the topic of “overwintering” is…

Bee Larvae
An Introduction to Queen Rearing: Part 2

In our previous lesson, we looked at why queen rearing can be a fascinating, fun,…

Queen cup
An Introduction to Queen Rearing: Part 1

Many beekeepers enjoy and expand their hobby by buying more bees and maybe carrying out…

Beekeepers
Splitting a Hive of Bees

Free bees! Who doesn’t like the sound of that? If you are a beekeeper -…

Pollen in hive
Inspecting and Understanding the Brood Pattern

We have looked at the different ways in which frames in your beehive will be…

Queen Bee
Queenlessness in Your Hive

Introduction Colonies have a single queen. And when they don’t, they are queenless. This state…

Marked Queen bee
When to Consider Requeening

Bees have it tough and have to contend with a wide range of potential challenges.…

Hive inspection
Learning From Deadout Inspections

Beekeeping brings so much joy to so many, but also has its challenges. We have…

Beekeeper checking hives
Tracking Honeybee Hive Progress And Keeping Records

Why Keep Records? A colony is a complex organism of tens of thousands of bees.…

Bee stinger
Understanding, Avoiding and Coping with Bee Stings

Run! It’s a Bee… We’ve all been there. Maybe you still are. For some, bees…

Step3-Header
The Challenges of Cross Comb

The bane of the beekeeper – but not the bee What exactly is cross comb?…

Bee stinging
The Buzz about Bee Stings

Love the Ouch If you’re like most people, the idea of being stung by a…

Closed feeding bees
Open Or Closed Feeding: Which Is Best?

Well, many people might have only seen bees being fed one way or the other.…

Queen bee
5 Methods To Help You Raise Your Own Queens

Would you like to be able to raise your own queens? The idea of raising…

Bee swarm on a tree
What To Know About Performing A Split

Have you ever performed a swarm split? If not, it can actually be rather intimidating…

HM5 Hive Scale
When Advanced Monitoring Meets Beekeeping

Bees and Technology? Having good information is vital for making good decisions and today monitoring…

HM5 Hive Scale
Weighing your beehive: Why and how

Why is weighing your beehive important? Simple – it is a great unobtrusive way to monitor…

Beekeeper in Spring
First Hive Check in the Spring

It’s finally here! That joyous warm weather. The sun is shining, it’s 50°F and you’re…

Bees at Hive
Maintaining the integrity of the beehive

One of the nice things about beekeeping is that it involves a certain amount of…

A Frame of Bees
When bees go bad

Sarah has a disappointment with her hive – and that’s just the start. But time…

Winter Langstroth Beehives
Over-wintering humans: Getting through the long wait

Beekeepers talk about overwintering – the art of getting bees through the cold winter months.…

Red Beehive
Winterizing beehives

Bees and their winter challenge Our vision of the bee is one built on dreamy…