When siting your apiary, you are trying to achieve maximum sunshine and wind protection, entrances that face east or southeast, convenient access for the beekeeper, etc. and it's just not always possible to achieve all of these in the same location. Luckily, sometimes problem summer shade disappears in the critical winter and spring breaks because the offending vegetation is deciduous! The leaves fall off the trees in winter, allowing your bees to take advantage of those prec

The solutio This solution requires setup and the materials are expensive but once this type of hive stand is installed, the adjustment with a pipe wrench is easy. The 4x4 timbers rest on elevated post brackets. The screw of the 2-piece bracket inserted into each deck pier block turns easily (surprisingly!) with the pipe wrench in either direction to raise or lower each corner of the hive stand as needed. The pipe wrench is in turning position under the hive in the second pict

While you are lighting the smoker and flaming the fuel to create embers that will last, burn the propolis, etc. off your hive tool, while using it to tamp down fuel.

The easiest system I have found, which also cleans hive tools so that they can't transfer diseases to the next hive inspected is a tupperware spaghetti pasta container with rubbing alcohol. Place hive tool inside and lay the container on its side so the alcohol covers the tool. It doesn't take much alcohol to clean tool after tool this way and the tupperware top seals super well. Oh, the daffodils are just in the picture to hide the clutter in my house. And the J hook is my f

Not just hive tools, but the queen catchers, scissors, tape rolls (duct, painters, etc.), carpenter shims for leveling hives, pens & markers and markers, fuel lighter, etc. The cordura fabric bucket caddy lasts much longer than plastic and the inside pockets protect bendable and breakable items from abuse they might experience in outside pockets.

2nd. edition, Macolm Sanford & Richard Bonney by listing the historical discoveries by date below. Look how far we have come! 1586 queen is female! 1609 drones are male! 1750 pollen is male part of flowers! 1792 drones mate with queens! 1845 drones are parthenogenic offspring! BTW, this is my recommendation for a beekeeping beginner's book.

The first use of beeswax that comes to mind for most people is candlemaking and sculpting in wax. Next, one might think of the batik dyeing ("resist dye") method of introducing patterns into fabrics. A sculptor or art enthusiast may think of the more complicated "lost wax" method to fashion the molds used for the casting of materials more durable than wax. Another valued art product relying on wax was the encaustic portrait, popular in ancient Egypt. Here's such a port

We mention this as being of historical significance but are not recommending this method of removing ear wax. It is still practiced enough that the FDA explains why it is not effective and is dangerous in this video: https://youtu.be/9ZwkZUrtJmg

The demand for beeswax in personal care and pharmaceutics will remain high due to consumer demand for natural additives, organic ingredients and use of eco-friendly resources while those customers are turning away from chemicals and the side effects they are believed to cause. Another reason is just the naturally protective covering, soothing nature of wax itself.

Apitherapy is the medicinal use of products from bees includi ng venom , propolis, honey, pollen , and royal jelly. The last 3 are well-known for their use as nutritional supplements or in reducing allergic reactions. The first, venom, is used in research and in rheumatism and allergy therapeutics. For skin and wound care, honey is used in treatment of burns. Also, propolis in tinctures is used on wounds and to reduce irritation. Both propolis and honey are used with wax in

It's not surprising that bees would be attracted by a static electric charge, given their sensitive antennae and the hairs covering their bodies. The static charge causes deflection of the plumose hairs and is sensed by antennal mechanosensors. This article explains the mechanisms of this electrical attraction in detail: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607426113

If a forager goes very far from the hive, she must carry enough nectar in her crop for her to consume to make the trip out. If collecting pollen, she may need to use some of that nectar to help form and mold that pollen onto her corbiculae, and maybe even fuel her trip back.

The fat bees (bees with larger fat bodies) produced by the colony last fall are old now, putting the last of their life’s energy into raising the brood that replaces them. This changeover has already happened for many beekeepers in Western Washington. A hive has truly overwintered when that first brood successfully emerges as young, fuzzy new adults ready to take over from the aging, dying winter bees. Congratulations to all the beekeepers who had the patience to NOT open hiv

Honey bees are examples of super efficiency in the insect world in just about everything they do. Take flight for example. A fly (Order Diptera) has a wing beat of 62,000 per minute but a bee has greater maneuverability and range at less than 1/5 that number of beats or strokes per minute, about 11,500, or almost 200 wing strokes per second. For how a bee does it, see How Bees Fly demonstrated by Simon Rees at the National Honey Show - https://youtu.be/9UKo3NKuLkk . He show

As beekeepers know, every hive is different and some are more intent on one task or another: raising brood, making honey or collecting pollen. Although a colony may only eat about 44 to 65 lbs per year, they have been detected collecting up to 125 pounds per year. Some strains of bees have been selected and experimentally developed by researchers to collect pollen to the exclusion of the amount of honey needed to sustain the hive through winter.

Many native bees species or other pollinator species depend on one or a few species of flowers for their diet. The monarch butterfly is famous for its dependence on milkweed. Without milkweed, it would cease to exist. In contrast, the honey bee can utilize an extremely large range of pollen and nectar sources. However, when a forager is collecting nectar or pollen, she will stick to one type of flower to collect her load, even returning to the same branch of the same plant to

Most of the foragers collect either honey or pollen, with a few specializing in water or propolis. Only about 15% of foragers have been observed in research to collect both honey and pollen on the same foraging trip. And people think all bees look the same!

One reason given for varietal size difference of the pollen baskets on returning foragers is the stickiness of the pollen. Some flowering plants rely on insects such as our beloved bees or other animal vectors while others rely on wind to transfer pollen from flower to flower. Wind transfers small, non-sticky pollen best but plants relying on insect vectors may be more successful with production of sticky pollen. Of course, honey bee foragers can improve the stickiness of the

Pollen is not all yellow or orange; bees find and collect quite a range of colors. This is particularly noticeable late in the summer in Western Washington State, when beekeepers see many colors of pollen as the bees pack away pollen stores for winter. When there is no major nectar flow to collect, a hive often turns more toward collecting pollen. The bees fill entire frames with pollens, often of many colors. At this time of the year, some pollen baskets are very visible on

Honey bees are not the fastest flying insects. In contrast, it appears to be generally agreed that dragonflies are among the fastest insects known at over 30mph being repeatedly measured. Honey bees are considered to fly at a maximum speed of around 15 mph, but in defense of the honey bee, look at all the duties of a worker bee – scouting and gathering nectar and pollen, hive defense, etc. Setting speed records is not part of her life’s work. However, that difference