Freezing your “honey bank” frames is the easiest and best protection against insects, rodents, excess humidity and even crystallization. It also gives a beekeeper control of harvest timing: A frozen harvest can be thawed at a time of the year less busy for a beekeeper, maybe even during the winter holidays. At that time of year, perhaps some of winter extraction can even be directly packaged for gifts. Picture shows a couple 10-frame westerns and a 10-frame deep box fitting

If moving bees at night, use red light. If you don't have a red flashlight, red cellophane (look in the gift wrap section of a store) over a regular flashlight works. Bees seek body heat of beekeepers and land on their suits. If working with bees at night, these flying heat detectors are attracted to your body warmth and stay on your suit. After you finish with the hives, Standing under a bright light such as a porch light is one way to get them to fly off.

If a beekeeper sees anything odd about brood or the bees in a hive, s/he may leave the hive tool used to inspect that hive on the inner cover before putting the outer cover back on. The next time opening that hive, the beekeeper is reminded that this is the hive under suspicion and is reminded not to use any other hive tool in that hive. Dedicated hive tools are an important strategy to avoid cross contamination of hives if a disease , particularly of the broodnest, might be

A properly strapped hive with a 2-person hive carrier is a backsaver. On uneven ground, in the dark, on muddy ground, strapping and using a carrier avoids many potential problems and injuries. The hive pictured is ready for pickup by 2 people with each beekeeper taking the handle on a side.

When moving a couple hives, securing the boxes of a stack together with cam lock buckle straps can be the fastest way to move them. Run at least one strap over the inner cover but under the telescoping lid; then place the telescoping lid on and another strap over the lid. The inner strap can lie flat against the sides of the inner cover, the hive boxes and the bottom board and keep them all in line. This prevents the slippage of ratchet style straps that can allow bees to esc

Do not forget your disposable gloves and leave your tools in the car or at home unless otherwise requested. Use the tools and equipment of the host so as to avoid bringing any contamination, particularly brood disease, into the apiary. A clean bee suit or jacket is also recommended, although transfer of pathogens or pests by glove or hive tool is much more likely.

Not if it’s installed in the bee shed or on your porch . It's a great way to see how many bees you need to remove from the back of your suit before you start to take it off.

When persistent defenders of the hive stay with a beekeeper after walking away from the hive, sometimes walking around a tree or building to the north side to enter deep shade will cause the bees to return to their home. This avoidance of deep shade is also used when robbing is discouraged or stopped by leaning a large piece of plywood or other opaque panel to completely shade the entrance of a vulnerable hive.

In order to keep bees calm, avoid stepping on them by never placing frames or boxes of bees directly on the ground. Beekeepers often take the outer lid off, turn it over and place it on the ground as a base for the hive boxes they take off.Injured bees release alarm pheromone to alert the rest of the colony. In order to keep all the bees calm, avoid stepping on them by never placing frames or boxes of bees directly on the ground. Beekeepers often take the outer lid off, turn

During hive inspections, reduce light stress on bees by covering boxes with an inner cover or even a piece of plywood House bees don’t often see the light of day until they progress to the foraging state. They are happiest being kept in the dark. When removing boxes from the hive stack, cover those boxes with extra inner covers or pieces of cardboard, etc. to calm the bees.

Buckets are easy totes but bucket lids can fit too tightly. A bucket lid that doubles as a seat can be the perfect solution and can ensure the lid does get put back on, keeping fuel dry even if the bucket is rained on. For use of newspaper, egg carton & rolled burlap strips as fuel, see Joe Dunsmire's demo for lighting a smoker at https://youtu.be/tbzBOLVJNpw .

Having a lit smoker at hand is always a good idea; Murphy’s Law tells us that if we have it, we won’t need it. However, if we fail to have it on hand, we may need it. The unexpected is normal in beekeeping; the bees don’t read the manuals that we beekeepers do. Bees in the spring, particularly in small hives or nucs are so focused on spring buildup that they often hardly seem to notice the beekeeper’s invasion of their home. They may need minimal distraction, if any. Thi

Hive tools should be sharpened. Sharpening is easy maintenance but easy to skip doing as often as beekeepers should be doing it. Sharp hive tools make hive manipulations easier and more enjoyable.

Is a hive tool just a prybar? Different hive tools have different uses. Purchasing and trying an assortment is an inexpensive way to find ways to make hive maintenance and management easier. Use as a pry bar should be the least important way a hive tool is used. Cutting through propolis instead of fighting the colony’s use of it as an adhesive reduces stress on the hive equipment as well as on the beekeeper. The cheapest hive tools tend to have a shape that suggests

If a beekeeper sees anything odd about brood or the bees in a hive, s/he may leave the hive tool used to inspect that hive on the inner cover before putting the outer cover back on. The next time opening that hive, the beekeeper is reminded that this is the hive under suspicion and is reminded not to use any other hive tool in that hive. Dedicated hive tools are an important strategy to avoid cross contamination of hives if a disease issue, particularly of the broodnest, migh

Beekeepers keep feed close to the spring broodnest, so that the bees are encouraged to use it. Broodnest temperature must be maintained at 92-94 F. Although feeders are at the top or sides of the broodnest and at therefore at lower temperatures, the temperature is still raised enough to speed fermentation. 2:1 ferments slowly if at all, but 1:1 doesn’t seem to last a week at hivetop temperatures. If the bees are consuming 1:1 fast enough, fermentation is not an issue. Ho

Rain dearth exists also in other areas but is often ignored in beekeeping manuals, whereas drought dearth is usually discussed. In Western Washington, bees experience far more days of rain dearth than drought dearth. In fact, in Western Washington, drought dearth is often broken up by opportune rain showers reinvigorating the nectar-producing summer blooms. Rain dearth has the greatest impact on honey bee management when it slows hive population buildup before a major flow. R

A nuc should contain a queen and at least 2 frames brood, about 2 frames honey and pollen stores, and the 5th frame is supplier’s choice, possibly empty, even blank without drawn comb. There should be enough bees to cover or work all frames. If you have received a substandard nuc, one containing fewer bees or resources, boost and protect that colony to prevent its failure. If you have other healthy hives or another well-stocked nuc that can spare even a little brood and

If the queen is caged, you must return in about 4 days to verify the queen was released from the cage by the workers. If not released by then, you can make a very small hole in the candy plug to encourage release if necessary. She must be released by a week, no later, by lifting the edge of the screen held close as possible to the frames.

When purchasing a package, you can not see the queen until you are actually installing the bees into their hive box. So, check the queen inside the cage upon installation. If she is dead, you must install the bees into the hive, feed them and finish the installation in all other ways. Then call the supplier immediately and ask for another queen. If you have the dead queen in the cage, there should be no hesitation to replace her. Some suppliers also replace or discount the pr