Ordering the correct depth frame or box When ordering hive boxes and frames, be careful not to assume the word ‘shallow’ as casually used by many bee keepers denotes a specific depth dimension. Western/Illinois/medium box has a depth of 6 and 5/8  inches, and is frequently referred to as a shallow. However, when ordering boxes, you may order a 4 and 3/4 inch for comb honey production kits and a 5 and 5/8 inch is commonly used for short season collection of varietal honeys. Lo

A: Bee—rogatory.

A: The Surgeon General is always reminding beekeepers that “Smoking is dangerous to your health!”

With all the styles of beehives available on the internet, why do the majority of beekeeping instructors still suggest that beginners start with vertically stacking Langstroth? If not the wooden Langstroth, then styrofoam or plastic versions of the same basic design? The Langstroth has been in use for 170 years although during that time period, many hive designs have been tried but most have been discarded in favor of the Langstroth. Why has the Langstroth lasted so long

A: An extraction.

Drones need more time to get so much larger than workers. To attain this growth, they get an extra 3 days to develop as pupae, for a total of 24 days from egg to emergence as an adult, compared to a worker’s mere 21 days of development. Also, they aren’t just larger than workers; some individual drones weigh more than some of the smaller individual queens. Drones can have bodies as wide as or even wider than queens, particularly in the abdomen, even though they are not as lo

A man is driving down the road and runs out of gas. Then, a friendly bee flies in the window. The bee says, 'What seems to be the problem?" The man explains he's out of gas. The bee says "No problem. Be right back." and flies off. Minutes later, the man watches an entire swarm of bees fly up to his car and into his gas tank. After a few minutes, the bees fly back out. The friendly bee says "Try starting it now." The car starts right up and the amazed man asks what the bees p

Maybe, maybe not. Unlike many breeds of livestock (cattle, horses) or pets (cats, dogs), the traits of most importance to the beekeeper are not linked to the color of a queen - - again, unless she was artificially inseminated or mated with only drones of her strain. Queens and drones do NOT select for mating partners of their supposed strains, despite the fact that some beekeepers naively assume that. By the way, the queen above is cordovan coloration.

A: Sting operations.

Italian, Carniolan, Caucasian, Russian, Buckfast, Saskatraz – many beekeepers enjoy experimenting with different strains. However, most every bee supplier claims their strain(s) is (are) docile, unlikely to swarm, mite resistant and high honey producers. That can’t always be true. So, who can a new beekeeper trust? The good news is: succeeding with bees is over 90 % colony management following basic guidelines and procedures. For beginners, until you develop the necessary ski

A: A Greyhound Buzz.

Where can beekeepers in Western WA buy bees? Suppliers of nucs and packages are pushing to get beekeepers to place orders now. They may need to sell the nucs and packages they have ordered from out of state, or small local suppliers may have a limited bees available. The suppliers with the “loudest voice” (best marketing ads) may or may not be the best for your needs. The best way to get an idea of how many sources are available in Western WA is to check the list SnoKi

With a buzz-ooka.

Here’s a picture of the sun as high in sky as it gets at this time of year. We are 2 weeks past the winter solstice. Given the sunbreaks we have seen recently in much of Western WA, this is a good time to  re-evaluate hive locations. Bees need their cleansing flights and sun on hives, particularly on hive entrances, allows those 'relief' missions!

Consider the advice for locating hives as given in The Beekeeper’s Handbook, 5 th ed. Sammataro & Avitabile, illustrated in the diagram above. Frequently, this is the ideal time of the year to reassess wintertime hive locations. For the commercial keeper, it’s a practical decision, profit/loss, availability, etc. For the hobbyist, convenience, safety and enjoyment of the hobby can validate a decision to move. Even as a small scale beekeeper, you are not paid for extra work,

2 compound eyes, 3 simple eyes (ocelli), but each of the compound eyes has 1000s of ommatidia. According to "Honeymaker: How the Honey Bee Worker Does What She Does," by Rosanna Mattingly, a worker has an estimated number of ommatidia between 4,000 and 7,000; a queen fewer, maybe 3,000 or 4,000; but a drone has more, estimated at from 7,000 to over 8,000! And each of the drone ommatidia are larger. No wonder a drone's eyes meet in the front of his head! No wonder he has an al

2 compound eyes, 3 simple eyes (ocelli), but each of the compound eyes has 1000s of ommatidia. According to "Honeymaker: How the Honey Bee Worker Does What She Does," by Rosanna Mattingly, a worker has an estimated number of ommatidia between 4,000 and 7,000; a queen fewer, maybe 3,000 or 4,000; but a drone has more, estimated at from 7,000 to over 8,000! And each of the drone ommatidia are larger. No wonder a drone's eyes meet in the front of his head! No wonder he has an al

A: “To Bee or not to Bee!”

No, when it is too wet or cold (or both!) for the undertaker (mortician) bees to fly the dead bees out of the hive, they sometimes move the corpses up onto the inner cover. After all, that does remove the dead from the colony's living space. Beekeepers may discover this temporary "graveyard" when lifting the outer cover to check feed, perhaps to place it on the inner coverto avoid further disturbing the colony.

A: Bee Bee C!