Honey Bee Obscura Podcast
Kim Flottum, Jim Tew
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Short, in-depth review of all things honey bees with hosts, Kim Flottum and Jim Tew
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2 days ago
Replacing The Queen (128)
Replacing a seemingly good queen can be a difficult decision to make. If her brood pattern is good, the colony temperment is nice, they've produced a good crop... and the only fault against her is that she is last year's queen... should you replace her with a queen raised this year?!
There are many considerations to factor in. Your goals as a beekeeper, the time of year, is she with an established colony or perhaps from a swarm? It can be difficult to make that call to seek her out, pull her and crush her. Then... if you do replace her... do you buy a new queen or have the colony raise their own? How soon do you introduce a new queen? How do you know if the colony will accept her?!
On today's podcast, Jim invites Jeff Ott from Beekeeping Today Podcast, to talk about the Replacing the Queen.
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
______________________
Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott
Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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May 25, 2023
Vanishing Swarms: Now You See Them, Now You Don't! (127)
If you've been a beekeeper for any length of time and especially, after your first year in your own bee yard, you've seen a swarm, looked away to pick up something - maybe your camera, turn around and they're gone! Just like that.
Swarms are simply amzing and awe inspriring. We marvel at their role as pollinators, essential custodians of the delicate balance that sustains our ecosystems, sometime inspite of our own destruction of that same environment. Passing swarms are a testament to the marvels of nature, and the interconnectedness of our own lives with the natural world.
Sometimes we know where they came from, many times not. Often, all too often, they are gone way to quickly... leaving us to ponder the lives of bees and wishing them well on their journey and their new home.
On today's podcast, Jim invites Jeff Ott from Beekeeping Today Podcast, to talk about the Vanishing Swarm.
How was your swarming season. Let us know!
__________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
______________________
Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott
Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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May 18, 2023
Bee Trailers - The Portable Bee Hive (126)
Anyone who's moved more than one hive, more than once in a season has considered... a simpler way of getting the job done. We've all see photos and videos of beekeepers moving around an orchard of some sort, using BobCats or other type of all terrain forklift, loading and unloading pallets of bees. Cool... but that's not practical for most beekeepers or those who need to move anthing less than... 400 colonies.
On today's episode, Jim invites Jeff Ott, from Beekeeping Today Podcast, to the show to talk about trailers and their use in beekeeping. What works and what doesn't? What do you need to consider when using a trailer. What kind of trailer works best.
Do you use a trailer in your bee operation? If so, what kind of trailer do you have? Have you modified it? Send us your bee trailer and we will add it to the show notes, so other beekeepers can learn see!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
______________________
Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott
Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
Some Bee Trailers we've seen!
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May 11, 2023
Memorable Stings (125)
If you’ve been keeping bees for a bit, you probably already have a couple of stories about that “one time in a beeyard”, or honey house, or somewhere that gave a whole new meaning to the word “sting”.
Teaching a beginner’s class is absolutely the best time to make sure your students know as much as possible when it comes to getting stung: The best protective gear to wear, when to wear it, and including how to act around colonies so you don’t upset them. All of these should probably be repeated time and time again BEFORE the first time your beginners enter a hive.
Jim and Kim have a couple of stories about their memorable stings. Faulty gear, no gear, unexpectedly dealing with a colony or swarm… all can and did, leave them with stinging stories.
Of course, part of this is that a brand-new beekeeper needs to know about bee sting allergies. They need to know the symptoms of a dangerous reaction; What to do if they have an allergic reaction, what NOT to do, and what to do RIGHT NOW to avoid a really bad day in the Emergency Room.
Memorable stings. All of us have one… or five. Listen today so you can learn from Kim and Jim’s mistakes!
__________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
______________________
Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott
Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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May 4, 2023
Well... It Depends - Swarms (124)
A lot of times, when somebody asks us a bee question, the best answer we can give them is, “It Depends.”
In today’s episode, Kim and Jim explore the topic of Swarms. Where did it come from? Where do you put it? What do you do with the queen? Should you feed them?
As they explore how to manage this newly caught swarm, they realize there are no definitive answers, as there are so many answers based upon the circumstances and the beekeeper’s goals. It just depends.
Listen today, and let them know how you’d manage the swarm!
__________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
______________________
Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott
Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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Apr 27, 2023
Marking Queens (123)
On today’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss all the pros and cons about marking queens.
Lots of questions come up when you mention marking queens. For most of us it’s a no brainer. “Look, there’s that yellow spot, there’s the queen!”
MARKING HER MAKES FINDING HER EASY, RIGHT?
Yes, but how does that yellow spot get there? Mostly, or at least often we just buy them marked so we don’t have to do it ourselves. Actually marking a queen can be a stressful moment in her life, and yours. How do you pick her up? How do you hold her? What paint do you use? What kind of brush or pen do you use? What about those contraptions that hold the queen for you? What if you get paint on her eyes? What happens if she escapes and flys away? And isn’t there some law or rule about what color you use this year as opposed to last year or next?
A marked queen makes keeping that colony happy, healthy, wealthy and wise is such a good idea. So this year, learn how. Here’s a trick. Practice on a couple hundred drones before you mark your first queen. You’ll be glad you did.
What do you think? Add your thoughts to the comments below!
__________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
______________________
Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott
Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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Apr 20, 2023
What About Those Springtime Bee Yard Chores (122)
Depending on where you live, spring chores were over a couple of months ago, or you’ll be finishing them up about the time you check this podcast out, so we’ll keep it short, sweet and important.
You can make a quick list with a couple of questions. Is there enough food? When was the last time you checked for mites? Do you need to treat? How old is the comb? Is it time to replace it? Do your bees have enough room to grow? Have you reversed brood boxes? Finally, just how old is that queen. Is it time to replace her before the summer nectar flows.
There’s more of course. Listen today and see what Jim and Kim are up to when it comes to spring chores.
What do you think? Add your thoughts to the comments below!
__________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
______________________
Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott
Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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Apr 13, 2023
Lessons Learned: Memorable Meetings (121)
Are you a club president or in charge of planning meetings for your beekeeping organization? They always go well, don't they? No... of course not. They don't. What do you do when they don't?
In this episode, Kim and Jim discuss their most memoriable meetings where anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. What did they do in that situation? How did they adapt planning for future meetings?
Listen today to hear how they met the challenge. How would you do things differently? How can you change your plans to accommondate a similar situation.
What do you think? Add your thoughts to the comments below!
__________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
______________________
Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott
Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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Apr 6, 2023
What's This About Bees Eating Their Young? (120)
Jim got a call from a listener who had a question. She wrote, “I went out to my bees early this week, and in front of the hive and on the landing board I saw partially eaten larvae, larva skins and a mess, all over. What could cause that to happen?”
Today, Kim and Jim discuss they reason why adult bees eat the larvae. There has been some research on that subject but not much. Is it the lack of protein between pollen flows? Hygienic behavior, including the disposal of infected or varroa infested larva? Robbers eating larva as well as stealing honey?
Listen today and see if there are more reasons our Florida listener found partially eaten and completely eaten larvae in front of her hives in the first week of spring.
What do you think? Add your thoughts to the comments below!
__________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
______________________
Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott
Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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Mar 30, 2023
What About That Pollen Flow (119)
It seems that pollen flows just don’t get the respect that a good honey flow does, do they? And you’ve got to wonder why?
In today’s episode, Kim and Jim take a kind of long look at pollen flows, trying to figure out how to tell there’s a pollen flow going on in the first place. It’s easy to see when a honey flow is going strong, but is a pollen flow?
Bees don’t store much pollen compared to honey, and the way it’s stored it’s kind of hard to tell if it’s pollen, or bee bread, or honey.
Find out what you should know about pollen flows and your bees. Without the pollen flows you have, you won’t have the bees you have.
__________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
______________________
Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott
Copyright © 2023 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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Mar 23, 2023
Dealing with Old Frames (118)
So, you take a quick look at that top box this spring, and it’s pretty much empty and you don’t need the room for a bit, so remove the box. Then you take a look at the frames, to see what can be done with them, or, what should be done with them.
What you do, of course, it depends on the type of frames you have. Wooden frame, beeswax foundation, wooden frame, plastic foundation, all plastic frame and foundation in one piece.
In today’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss changing out old frames: Why you should do it and the decisions you must make along the way.
___________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
__________…
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Mar 16, 2023
Should You Paint Your Hive? (117)
You've spent lots of money on your woodenware and you want it to look good, last many years, and be safe for your the honey bees and the environment. What are your options?
In today's episode, Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast) joins Jim Tew to discuss the topic of what to paint your hive with before your bees arrive. You have many options: latex, enamel, stain, beeswax and resin... or nothing at all. Jim and Jeff discuss these and share their experiences and preferences.
What do you do? How do you protect your investment in woodenware? Listen today and compare your answer to ours!
___________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at w…
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Mar 9, 2023
Preparing for the First Nectar Flow (116)
It’s early March, bees are flying every few days, early maples are blooming. Are you asking yourself, “Are my bees ready for the nectar flow?”
On today’s episode, Kim and Jim look at what’s going on in their hives now that spring is starting to get serious. What should the colony be doing, what should you be seeing, and just for giggles, what should you be doing to stay a half step ahead of the bees?
One thing for sure is that you’ve got to take a look inside the hive. While we’re at it, how is your mite control? Assuming that you have them under control, is there space in the hive for bees to place nectar to dry? Is there space to store capped honey? Where is the brood nest? If you do need room for nectar and honey, where do you put that empty super? Just above the brood box, or way up on top? These are the questions Jim and Kim toss around today.
Are you ready for the spring nectar flow?
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Better…
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Mar 2, 2023
Managing The Small Colony (115)
The more colonies you have, the more you will notice differences between them throughout the year. On today's episode, Kim and Jim talk about what do you do when you open one of your colonies and it seems 'smaller' than the other colonies around it. Is it something that should concern you? What do you look at first? Pests? Pesticides? Failing queen? Inadequate food supplies? Do you try to fix it?
Listen in as Kim and Jim discuss this sometimes perplexing topic that pesters all beekeepers, one time or another!
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
___________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeep…
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Feb 23, 2023
Considering Atypical Bee Yards (114)
There’s lots of places you can keep bees that aren’t the typical backyard. Today Kim and Jim take a look at a couple of these places.
The first is in an unused single car garage. The hive boxes sit on a bench inside the garage for easy access and he doesn’t need a cover, just a board over the top. These bees can be worked any time of day or in any weather and he uses a lot less smoke when working them.
Another placed discussed is up on the roof. There are some special concerns here you need to be aware of.
Listen today as Kim and Jim discuss Atypical Bee Yards.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this…
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Feb 16, 2023
Finding Bee Yards (113)
It happens to most beekeepers are one point, where you have to find someplace else to keep your bees. A new, different beeyard.
Where do you start? Whether you have too many in your backyard and need to put more someplace else, or the world changed and you can’t keep them in your backyard any more, you need to find that place.
First off, what does a beeyard need to have to work for you? Access, definitely - year-round access. Gates, overflowing streams, unplowed roads, vandals, bear, cattle, and more – all pose potential problems.
First, check with your local club members or, drive around. Find a spot that meets all the requirements and find the land owner. Now how many hives can you keep there? Are there limitations on when you can visit them? Can the landowner notify you if they spot a problem with pests or people and let you know?
Having to find a beeyard may never happen, but if it does, know what to look for, what problems can arise and make sure your bees (and you) stay s…
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Feb 9, 2023
Spring Bees: Are Nucs A Good Deal? (112)
There are a lot of good reasons to start a new colony in your beeyard using a nucleus (nuc) colony, consisting of a mated queen, brood and drawn comb rather than buying a package of bees. But there are some issues to pay particular attention to also.
How old is the queen? How much of all kinds of brood are already there? What condition is the beeswax comb in? Does it come in it’s own box, what about frame exchange and how are you going to get it home?
If you’re just starting out it really pays to have an experienced beekeeper with you when you go and get the nuc to ask the right questions and if possible evaluate what’s inside.
Check out how Jim and Kim handle these issues, and point out the how’s and why’s of Starting with a Nucleus Colony this spring.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every…
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Feb 2, 2023
Bee Management on Warm(ish) Winter Days (111)
It’s going to be 50 degrees tomorrow. Kim and Jim are going to have to check their bees for the first time this very early spring. So what do they do, how do they examine a colony this time of year way up north?
The beekeepers in the warmer parts of the country are already adding supers, there’s pollen coming in and the year has begun, but for those of us up north, there’s still a month of winter left. But this 50 degree day is a bonus and we can get in early, check for food, see if the bees are close to food, clean off the bottom board and determine if the weak colonies can be saved.
It’s going to be 50 degrees tomorrow. Time to get to work.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and infor…
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Jan 26, 2023
Dealing with Package Queens (110)
The queens that come with packages today seem to be different that those we could get five or ten years ago and we think that points to some changes need to be made regarding a simple concept – Patience.
It would appear that it’s taking a bit longer for the worker bees in the package to become accustomed to this new queen, and patience in every aspect of introducing them in their new home is a good idea. There are many possible reasons for this… the environment in the colony she was living in has changed, the colony she is being moved to isn’t the same and the presence of the many viruses that bees may have is having an influence. In a word, patience for this is a very good thing.
Listen in as Jim and Kim explore these changes, and what you can do to reduce the chance of failure in getting her up and running.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today…
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Jan 19, 2023
Considering New Honey Bee Queens (109)
This is the time of year to think seriously about the queens you have in your colonies, or the queens you had in your colonies last season. If replacement is on the table, what should you be looking for? The simple and probably best answer is… a good queen.
But what makes a good queen? Population production, mite resistance, gentle, the right color, honey production? All have some level of importance and it depends more on the beekeeper than what the books say, mostly, usually. It’s even more important when bees put food on your table.
Kim and Jim talk about these attributes in queens, how to measure how much of each is present in the colonies. There’s a lot about queens in this session. Listen closely.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued ed…
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Jan 12, 2023
Dealing With American Foulbrood (108)
American Foulbrood is in the news lately… and for a good, positive reason. But what does it mean if you determine or a state apiarist determines you have a case or two or more of AFB in your bee yard? A vaccine is not a cure. It is a means for prevention.
In today’s episode, Jim invites Beekeeping Today Podcast’s Jeff Ott on to talk about American Foulbood, the stigma attached to AFB and the go-to recommendation of burning all contaminated equipment, bees and wax is not one you want associated with your operation.
Not withstanding the recent news, AFB has dropped from the attention of today’s beekeepers - replaced by the devastation and losses caused by Varroa. But before varroa, there was American Foulbrood. It is likely many new beekeepers today have never seen AFB and would not recognize it, attributing a colony’s demise to Varroa. To complicate and obscure things even greater, a colony today with AFB will inevitably have Varroa.
Ignoring American Foulbrood is mistake t…
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Jan 5, 2023
Beekeeping New Years Resolutions (107)
It’s the beginning of a new year and Jim and Kim are thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. Almost everybody makes a few Resolutions every January – even beekeepers, but many times resolutions are made and never achieved.
Kim wants to do better with the bees this season, take better care of the garden, and read a bee book a month this year. Jim also wants to do better with his bees, run fewer colonies, and be better at responding to email he gets from podcast listeners and readers of his journal articles.
On today’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss what you can do to actually hit your New Year’s resolutions and fulfill your beekeeping goals this season.
How are your resolutions for this year?
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education an…
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Dec 29, 2022
Bears in the Bee Yard (106)
What would you do if you received a call from a neighbor saying that your bee equipment was scattered across multiple yards? What would be YOUR first thought?
In today’s episode, Jim invites Beekeeping Today Podcast’s Jeff Ott to the show to talk about bears in the bee yard and how, no matter what… it is always a surprise - especially when your bees are in an area where there are “no bears”.
When encountering bears, this saying may come to mind, as you climb out of your vehicle: “If it’s black, fight back. When it’s brown, lay down, when it’s white, say good night’.
Have you encountered bears in your bee yard? Lost equipment? If so, Jim would like to hear from you!
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equi…
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Dec 22, 2022
Our Genesis Stories in Beekeeping (105)
Not a lot of people start keeping bees without some outside influence. A relative, neighbor, college class, or getting a job in bees. Jim started out with a college class, to fill electives. Kim got a job working for the USDA because he could grow the plants they needed for bees to visit for a pollination study on soybeans.
So how did you get started? A family hobby or business? A neighbor who invited you in? An interest in plants and pollination? Perhaps gardening? Almost every beekeeper has their own story to tell and every one of them is a good story to listen to.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
___________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this po…
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Dec 15, 2022
Beekeeper Record Keeping Considerations (104)
Knowing what you did or saw, added or removed from a colony is useful. Whether that happened earlier in the day or the prior season. Keeping track of what, how why and when you did something in the bee yard, for a specific colony will help keep you from making repeated mistakes.
Historical information will help you fine tune your honey bee management.
On today's episode, Kim and Jim discuss record keeping. No matter what means you employ to keep those records: hive top, inner cover, notebook(s), computers - or the recording tool used, brick position, pencil, magic marker, cell phone, tablet or spreadsheet... there are some basics you need to capture. Then... you must actually refer the information you've captured to make this entire exercise useful!
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every be…
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Dec 8, 2022
Building Your Own Bee Equipment (103)
What beekeeper hasn't nailed together a hive body and thought, "Heck, I can cut these boards myself and it'd be cheaper!" Especially if they already have a wood shop with a table saw and a few other tools.
But is it really? What are the pros and cons of building your own equipment? Why should you even try?
On today's episode, Jim Tew invites Jeff Ott from Beekeeping Today podcast to the show to talk about building your own beekeeping equipment. They both have done it. Are they doing it still?
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
___________________
Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers…
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Dec 1, 2022
Managing Winter Colony Die-Offs (102)
It’s winter time and sure as the sky is blue (or grey – as the case may be), there will be many dead colonies out there next spring. If not in as early as in the few weeks.
Winter kills in the US are running something like 40+% right now. A winter killed colony is a time, financial and frustrating thief of bees and honey and equipment.
In today’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss Winter Die-Offs and how to inspect the colony remains to determine what may have gone wrong. By finding out what went wrong and why, you can make plans on what to do next year so you have live colonies, move money, more honey, lots and lots of bees, and bragging rights for getting all your colonies through next winter.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued edu…
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Nov 24, 2022
Consumer Honey Challenges (101)
On today’s show, Kim and Jim discuss the most common ‘complaint’ a beekeeper who sells honey encounters. This is true whether you are selling from the back of your truck, at a roadside stand or even a local farmer’s market. What do you tell your customer who brings you or asks you about granulated honey in the jar? How you answer this may make the difference between a lifelong customer or someone who never buys honey again.
How one addresses this is as varied as there are people who eat honey. From stove tops, to microwave ovens (don’t do it), to electric blankets and even sawing the plastic bear in half (don’t do this either…). Kim and Jim discuss it all.
They’re not talking about five gallon buckets or barrels of honey, but consumer’s plastic bears, mason and queenlike jars. What is the best message for your customers so they don’t needlessly throw away good honey?
Listen in to the discussion. What do you you tell your customers? Let them know in the comments…
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Nov 17, 2022
5000 Years of Beekeeping in 24 Minutes (100)
Honey Bee Obscura celebrates its 100th episode with this release! Jim Tew and Kim Flottum invite, Beekeeping Today Podcast’s Jeff Ott to join them to take a look at 5,000 years of beekeeping history, sorting out some of the highlights, discoveries, and mistakes, along with some of the people behind it all.
Come along as we go from bees in trees, skeps, boles, boxes, hives, back to boxes and finally, back to trees. There’s lots to learn and lots to entertain.
All in 24 minutes!
We hope you enjoy the trip.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers S…
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Nov 10, 2022
Winter Reading: What's On The List? (099)
Winter tends to have a bit more time inside than outside and one way to spend that time inside is to catch up on your reading. Jim and Kim talk a bit about the books they read, the authors and publishers they like and where they get the books they read all winter.
Along with the new books, they have their preferred “old standby” books they rely on for information on a particular topic to see how management approaches have evolved (or not) over the years. Beekeeping has evolved over the years and they like to compare then with now.
How do you look for a find a new bee book for your winter? Today, you have to consider how you like to read, because just as beekeeping is evolving, book formats are also evolving. Your choice is not only hardcover and all paper, it now includes electronic formats for reading on an iPad/tablet or audible for listening.
Finally, how do you actually evaluate a book before your read it? Start with the author. Are they known or unknown? How about the publi…
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Nov 3, 2022
Colony Winter Water (098)
Why on earth would honey bee foragers go out on a freezing day in winter to collect water? Ice and snow everywhere, but there they are, trying to get a drink and bring some home for their sisters. Why?
Kim and Jim explore some of the reasons why. They explore the uses of water by winter bees and where they collect it. Kim and Jim also explore aspects of ventilation, or lack thereof, in the winter. Should a beehive have lots, some or none? Industry experts continue to research.
Is too much water in winter a bad thing? If there’s no ventilation, what happens to all the moisture laden air in the hive? Lots and lots of questions, maybe some answers. Listen in and see.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment.…
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Oct 27, 2022
Midnight in the Bee Yard - A Halloween Special (097)
Without a doubt, some of the most peaceful places on Earth are bee yards. Tranquil, serene and quiet with only the soft hum of the bees fanning the air through their hives floating on top the silence…
Peaceful, except when it is not.
Have you ever worked in a distant bee yard, late at night, away from home, cell service, friends, and family? What did you hear? See anything… strange? Did anything go “bump” in the night? How’d it all go for you?
On today’s episode Jim and guest co-host, Jeff Ott, sit in the Honey Bee Obscura bee yard and talk about scary moments working bees. Jim has had several… moments, to share. What would you do? What did you do?
They’re not certain if telling scary stories, long after dark in a bee yard is the best idea they’ve ever had, but since it IS the season, they invite you to join them… If you dare.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Oct 20, 2022
Winter Is Coming - Winter Prep (096)
When you’ve been keeping bees for decades, sometimes you do things because that’s the way you’ve always done them, right? But the world continues to change. It has to keep up with whatever is going on wherever it’s happening. And because the world is changing, every minute of every day, doing the "same ole same ole" just because that’s what you’ve always done isn’t for maybe isn’t the best choice.
Beehive insulation is one of those things that maybe bees need, or don’t. And what about insulation for a summer hive? If they need insulation in the winter to keep warmer, why don’t they need insulation in the summer to help stay cool?
If you are going to insulate, what do you use? How much, and when do you apply it? And if you aren’t going to insulate, do you do anything to make winter better for the bees inside? Cool and damp may be the way to go say some honey bee researchers. Warm and dry say others.
If you are losing bees each winter, you’ve got to change what…
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Oct 13, 2022
How Phenology Can Help Your Manage Bees (095)
Does your state Agriculture Department have a bulletin they share with everybody on the phenology, or bloom dates, of the wild flowers, trees and shrubs that grow in your state?
Today Kim and Jim discuss the chart used by Ohio beekeepers. Ohio’s chart shows what is blooming each month, the adult and larvae bee population in a hive, and what beekeepers should be doing relative to space management in their hives.
It’s a great tool to have for beekeepers in your state so they can know ahead of time what they should expect relative to bloom and room in a hive.
A phenology chart is a good guide, but bloom dates are affected by temperature, moisture and photo period. Knowing that, a beekeepers should be keeping track of the microenvironment his or her hives are located to see if the chart is accurate where they are. A phenology chart is a good tool to help guide your management plan.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love…
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Oct 6, 2022
Living With Your Smoker (094)
Beekeepers have a love/hate relationship with their smokers. Beekeeper families don’t have split emotions… they tend HATE smokers and their lingering ‘perfume’. How beekeepers manage their smokers impacts more than their bees. In today’s episode, Kim and Jim talk about smokers.
Arguably more so than a veil, the quintessential identifier of a beekeeper is a smoker. It is in the hand of every trope, every caricature of a beekeeper. In fact it is so emblematic, you can go into many antique shops and pay as much or more for an old, rotten, rusted smoker than you can buy a new one, made of stainless steel!
How do you manage your smoker when you are in the bee yard? Do you just keep it on the top of a hive? Or do you keep it in its own box to prevent accidental fires in the bee yard or while in transport to and from? What is your favorite smoker fuel? Kim and Jim have seen it all. Listen today. They are not just blowing smoke
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Sep 29, 2022
Liquifying Crystalized Honey (093)
Jim has pails of crystalized honey, but only wants enough liquid honey for his oatmeal this morning. How does he get that to work?
Kim has a lot of good ideas. There are pail blankets, band heaters, boxes and more to warm a pail to liquid honey on the market, including our sponsor, Betterbee. Kim’s his friend Buzz, who made a warming box out of foam insulation, a lightbulb and a couple nails to hold it together. Cheap, easy, and it works.
This is the time of year that liquifying honey comes home. And as always, there is the opportunity for too much heat and spoiled honey, or even fire. Listen today for some good ideas on how to get enough liquid honey for your oatmeal tomorrow.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Sep 22, 2022
Bee Suits and Protective Clothing (092)
One of the first pieces of equipment a new beekeeper buys is a bee suit. If they don’t buy a bee suit, they will at least buy a veil. Stings on the face are not only painful (and memorable to all who see it), they can be dangerous if it is directly to one’s eye or around the eyes. In today’s episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott, from Beekeeping Today Podcast, talk about the different types of protective clothing available to beekeepers today.
New beekeepers should at the very least, start with a veil. Even though there may be times in the future when you feel safe opening a colony without a veil, when you are starting out, you will want a veil. Most bee supply companies sell a variety of veils from which you can select.
Often beekeepers like to purchase a veil that is integrated with a light jacket. Not only does this provide an additional layer or protection to your upper body but also keeps the grime, dirt and stickiness from your shirt.
Every beekeeper has at least one full bee su…
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Sep 15, 2022
Extracting Honey (091)
Moving boxes full of honey is usually a lot of work. The bees aren’t happy, the boxes are heavy, it’s hot and you have all your gear on to be safe. The one sure way to make this easier is to use devices that have wheels. Two-wheelers, carts, your truck, all make moving boxes of honey less work.
Once the supers are off and the bees out, you need to get them to your honey house, whether it’s a garage for storage until extraction, your kitchen (for probably the last time) or an specially built honey house. And once they get there, you have to keep the bees out, the mice out and the dust out. Honey is a food, and you have to make sure it stays clean enough to feed to your family.
Kim and Jim have figured out how to do this and share some adventures, some mistakes and some good advice how to keep your honey clean, bee free, extracted and get it ready to sell.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Sep 8, 2022
Removing Honey (090)
Harvesting your honey crop isn’t about keeping bees, in fact, it is hard work. It’s when you start questioning your spring decision to expand your number of colonies. On the other hand, it’s a good measure of how well you kept bees during the season. And there are a lot of ways to convince the bees they should share what they have made this season, mostly due to your stewardship.
Removing well capped, honey filled frames can be complicated but easy, or uncomplicated and a lot of work. The uncomplicated techniques only require a bee brush, hive tool and a container that you can store your now bee-free frames. You start by removing a frame, brush the bees back into the hive body and place the frame in a container that the bees can’t enter.
Or, you can use bee escapes, fume boards or and of the blowers out there to accomplish the same thing. The trick is to take the supers of honey back to your extraction area with as few bees as possible or none, if you’re good. Today Jim and…
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Sep 1, 2022
Rim, Feeding Rim or Spacer (089)
So, what’s that thing you put between two supers to give additional space between top bars below and bottom bars above so there’s room for…something you want to add to the hive. Is it a spacer, a rim, or what?
Kim has always called it a ‘rim’ and thought he had one until this week. Because it’s getting time to think about winter feeding, and he always used a rim to make room for the pollen patties he feeds, couldn’t find it. He looked in a few catalogs, but could not find them listed.
Jim simply calls it a ‘feeding rim’, not just a ‘rim’ and you can find those, he says. In fact, they are easily made!
So what else are rims, or spacers used for in a beehive? Turns out there are lots of uses with just minor tweaks here and there! Listen today to learn what Jim and Kim find out about something as simple as a rim or feeding rim or spacer.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Aug 25, 2022
Dealing With Wax Moths (088)
Post-harvest time is a good time to look for wax moth in your colonies. Believe it or not, wax moths are around pretty much all of the time. On today’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss wax moths!
Strong colonies keep them pretty much under control, but weak colonies sometimes can’t keep up and soon they’ll have more wax moth larvae than honey bees.
Stored equipment is another challenge. Some beekeepers will freeze supers after harvest to kill any moth larvae before storing them away for the winter. If you have unheated winter storage you can pretty much avoid problems – if it gets below freezing before the wax moths take over. But if you have mild winters, you need to stack your supers so they get fresh air and light all the time. Fresh air and light are a moth’s worst enemies, so keep your combs exposed.
There are control products you can consider and use, too.
Moths can be beneficial. They can quickly clean up old comb for you! Plus, the larvae are great fish bait!
Wax mot…
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Aug 18, 2022
End of Season Evaluations (087)
Towards the end of the season, it’s a good idea to take a look at the equipment and other management tricks you’ve been using all summer while it’s still fresh in your mind. Today, Jim and Kim talk about how well the veils they use worked this summer, and the bee suits they occasionally wear (did you know a good way to wash a smokey, propolis covered bee suit is to use a pressure sprayer?) and is that old smoker good for another year, or not?
There’s a lot to consider… How’s your location working out? What about neighbors? Have they complained about your bees? Swimming pools got used a lot this year, and were your bees in the way?
Have you experienced animal pests? Mice, bear, racoons, skunks… are any or all of them giving your bees a problem? Will moving somewhere else help solve that?
Now’s the time to think about all this while it’s still fresh in your mind.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to…
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Aug 11, 2022
Hive Stand Options (086)
Have you ever thought much about the hive stands you use? On today’s episode, Jim and Kim take a long look at the hive stands they use and why they favor them. They also look at a lot of other choices available to beekeepers – all based upon personal preferences, terrain, individual strength and even weather!
Are some better than others? Absolutely! Are some expensive, while others free? Absolutely! Do you get what you pay for? Most of the time.
Your hive stand can tall a lot about how you keep bees, you know. Old, sloppy, ugly, uneven and too crowded is one extreme (We’re talking stands here, not beekeepers). At the other end of the spectrum is, new, painted, just the right height, and perfectly level with enough room to work bees with ease.
How do your hive stands look?
Learn more about hive stands right here, with Kim and Jim.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Aug 4, 2022
How Much Honey Do You Leave On A Colony? (085)
How much honey do you leave for the bees this winter? Like lots of things in beekeeping, it depends. Since “all beekeeping is local”, it is good to start in your own backyard. Do you live in the south? Midwest? North? Far north? When are you pulling your honey? In August? Or November? Do you typically have a fall nectar flow? Is it strong or just… meh. If you don’t know, check with another beekeeper. They can give you added insight to the local conditions. (This is yet another time knowing an experienced local beekeeper comes in handy. Join a local club! – ed.)
Even if you have an idea of HOW many pounds of honey you should leave, you need to determine how much your colony has in surplus of what they will need to get them through fall and winter to spring. How do you do this? If you have your colony sitting on a scale, you have a good idea – regardless of the size of equipment. But if you don’t, you need to get some form of estimate. Can you ‘heft’ the hive like the…
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Jul 28, 2022
Dealing With Heat in the Beeyard (084)
It’s hot out there and it looks like it isn’t going to cool off for most of us for awhile. Also, since mite treatments should be starting now, getting honey off in the heat is the rule of the day. So how do you stay cool when it’s hot out there? Well, Kim and Jim take a good long look at how to stay cool and what happens if you overdo in the heat.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
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Jul 21, 2022
Laying Workers (083)
If you have a colony of honey bees, chances are, at some point, some year, that colony will become queenless. If you do not realize it and the bees are unsuccessful at re-queening themselves, there is a pretty good chance, your colony will end up with laying workers.
In this episode, Jim and visiting cohost, Jeff Ott from Beekeeping Today Podcast, talk about laying workers. How can you tell if you have laying workers? The first sign many beekeepers recognize is the appearance of multiple eggs in a single cell. Not only are there multiple eggs, but they are not centered in the bottom of the cell, and haphazardly laid. There are other signs too, that are discussed in this episode.
Also discussed are the options you can take as a beekeeper and what you can expect for the future of that colony.
Laying workers is a tough management challenge for a beekeeper with no easy solution. Listen today as we discuss the problem and the management approaches you can consider.
Watch a special Honey…
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Jul 14, 2022
After The Swarm (082)
Swarm season is fun and exhilarating. Much has been written about swarms. They’ve been studied, photographed, pursued and just… watched. But what does the beekeeper do with the parent colony the next day? What do they do with the swarm after they’ve caught it and put it in a box? In today’s episode Jim and Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast) talk about… what should you do, After The Swarm?
Listen as Jim and Jeff talk about the post swarm queen. Which queen? Both! Either the new queen in the parent hive or the old queen in the new swarm. If you are wanting the colony to make honey or even make it through the next winter, those considerations must start now. You have some time to think about it, but not weeks or months.
It’s an interesting discussion and one you don’t often hear.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you!
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Jul 7, 2022
The Importance of Mentors (081)
On today’s episode, Kim and Jim talks about what it takes to be a mentor to another beekeeper, and therefore what you can look for in a good mentor.
As a mentor, you have to develop good communication between you and your mentee. That means communication both ways – them to you, you to them. Establish guidelines for times, locations, and other requirements that you both respect.
Go into the relationship knowing that constructive criticism is necessary. Not only for mistakes, but for chances to learn something new they didn’t see, or know about.
Understand that not all students learn at the same speed. Some will get it right the first time, some – will take a few more tries. Be prepared to let your mentee make decisions, and then, follow through on those decisions to see if they were good, bad or ugly. Discuss afterwards what worked and what did not. Then… why. Use that experience, good and bad to help them grow as beekeepers.
Everyone has mentors or should!
We hope you e…
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Jun 30, 2022
Queen Excluders - Love Them or Hate Them (080)
On today’s episode, Jim and Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast), discuss the value and use of the ‘love it or hate it” piece of equipment, the Queen Excluder. Queen excluders are included in almost every “Honey Producer Starter Package”, but why and how are they used?
Jim and Jeff discuss the multiple uses of a queen excluders (Did you know they will also exclude drones? Or that you can use one to help while uncapping frames of honey? Of course you did!) They discuss the types of queen excluders and why wood bound excluders are likely preferred by the bees.
When it is time pull honey, excluders make the process much faster, as the beekeeper can simply pull the honey supers above the excluder, blow out the bees and take them home to extract.
Some beekeepers don’t like them and call them “honey excluders”. Is this name justified? Or is it a management issue that can be addressed? But yes, many beekeepers produce honey successfully without ever touching a queen exc…
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Jun 23, 2022
Water For Your Bees (079)
After you get through the winter, spring buildup, swarming season and the ever present varroa, you can sit back and smell the flowers, right? You’re a beekeeper! There is no time to rest! Jim has a question for you… “Where are your bees getting the water they need?”
On today’s episode, Jim and Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast) talk about where your bees are likely to find the water they need. If you are miles from your nearest neighbor, then you only need to consider whether or not there is water available for your bees in the driest time of the year. If you are located in a suburban, urban area, then you may not need to worry whether or not your bees have enough water. Your concern should shift to where your bees are finding their water.
Jim’s bees are usually at his neighbor’s bird bath.
It doesn’t take much water for a honey bee to find it. Even a single drip from a hose bib can attract a bee or two. How do they find that?!
Have you ever seen a collection…
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Jun 16, 2022
Dealing with Marginal Queens (078)
Pretty much every beekeeper, at one time or another, ends up with a queen that’s not doing what they think she should be doing or - not doing what all the rest of your queens are doing. So, what is happening and can you do anything to get her going?
Marginal queens are tough to identify. There is one easy fix: You just replace her. That said, how long do you wait to make a decision?
Wait!
Perhaps it is not the queen that’s marginal. Maybe something else going on. Once you figure that out, when do you fix it? Or just let it go until you can combine it with a better colony? Maybe that will just spread a problem.
Marginal queens are a conundrum and the answer lies somewhere between your goals, the time of year and ultimately, Mother Nature and what she thinks should happen.
If you like the episode, share it with a fellow beekeepers and/or let us know by leaving a comment in the show notes. We'd love to hear from you!
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Jun 9, 2022
Small Furry Pests (077)
It doesn’t take long after getting into beekeeping and then repeatedly, as long as you have beekeeping equipment laying around or stacked neatly, until you have to deal with small furry pests. Mice, rats and other critters love the shelter, warmth, relative safety and often food, found in beekeeping equipment. In today’s episode, Jim Tew talks with Jeff Ott, from Beekeeping Today Podcast, about Small Furry Pests.
There are ways to deal with mice and rats. What works in a bee yard? The guys talk about the use of poisons and traps and non-lethal approaches minimizing the damage these little critters can quickly do.
The “why’s” of wanting to manage or avoid small furry pests are almost instinctually known. They chew through wood (and plastics) as if it is not even a barrier. They destroy frames and foundation (and car wiring harnesses), they urinate and defecate where they live. They can make a real mess of stored equipment. They love to get into hives late in the fall and win…
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Jun 2, 2022
Exploring Honey Prices (076)
During a recent trip to a big-name US drug store, Kim saw honey on the shelf for $4.99 per pound. It was a blend of honeys from Argentina and India. A US commercial beekeeper shoots for a price of honey (in the 55-gallon barrel to a packer) for about the going price of diesel fuel, which, at the end of May was pushing $7 per gallon.
In today’s Honey Bee Obscura episode, Kim and Jim dissect this problem a bit.
This quickly leads to the question we should all ask ourselves before we casually hand out honey to friends, family and the cable repair guy - how much does it cost you to make a pound of honey? Commercial beekeepers know and know what they have to get to stay in business.
And to compete with cheap imports, US beekeepers must either lower their prices, which isn’t possible, or force foreign exporters to sell for more, through applied tariffs on imported honey.
To compete, US Beekeeping associations and other groups requested such a tariff on honey coming into the US from B…
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May 26, 2022
Dealing With Feisty Bees (075)
Jim’s beeyard is the center of attention this week, because his bees were bothering his wife and a very patient, longtime neighbor. That’s not a good thing. So, exasperated, Jim asks Kim for his ideas about all that was going on and to help figure out why.
Two of his colonies were swarming or at least it looked that way. Plus, he is experiencing a nectar dearth at the moment. Is robbing part of the problem? Regardless, his bees are feisty and others are paying the price.
It was a mixed bag of bee behavior going on in that beeyard that day and it can happen in your yard, too. Just when you think you got bees figured out, they will show you that you don’t. It happens to the most experienced and practiced beekeepers!
Listen in and see how it turns out, and how to try and handle feisty bees.
If you like the episode, share it with a fellow beekeepers and/or let us know by leaving a comment in the show notes. We'd love to hear from you!
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May 19, 2022
How To Plan Raised Pollinator Beds (074)
If a pollinator garden is in your future this summer, constructing a raised bed is one way to keep it under control and is a much easier approach to providing food for your bees, beauty for your yard and not an aching back for you.
There are all varieties of raised bed gardens. The one pictured below is made of metal, purchased from a gardening company that specializes in these and will last years with little maintenance.
Simpler models have only metal corner posts, the gardener supplies the wooden boards. They are simpler, less expensive and over time can be enlarged or reduced to fit the needs of the garden.
Or you can simply bury some 4”x4” beams at the corners and nail the sideboards to them. They’re probably the most simple and least expensive, but will have a shorter life span than the others.
No matter which style you use, a raised bed makes your pollinator garden easier to manage and will be a grand addition to your yard. Be like Jim and try one this season!
If you l…
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May 12, 2022
Final Thoughts on Package Bee Season (073)
So you have already put in your two packages (you did get two, right?) and a few days, or maybe a week later you checked them and…..something’s wrong!
What can go wrong with a new package? Kim and Jim chat a bit about the things that can and for some, will go wrong with new packages.
First check, the queen’s dead in her cage. Get a new one, find some brood from another colony, join with another colony? All work, but which is best?
After a week you check and…..no bees! They all left! Where did they go and why did they go? Maybe they just moved over to that colony next door that has brood, food and a queen. Or maybe they just left. What now?
Sometimes about half of them will drift to that colony next door, so you have a colony that’s really strong and one that’s really weak. How do you fix that?
What about a queen that’s released and isn’t laying? Do you replace her? If not, how long do you wait and see if she’ll start, or not start?
Kim and Jim take a quick look…
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May 5, 2022
Installing Package Bees in Inclement Weather (072)
Package season is about over for 2022. Perhaps thankfully too, depending on where in the country you live. Installing packages does not always go well or as depicted in bee books or Internet videos. Sometimes, the weather just does not cooperate. In this week’s episode, Jim talks with Jeff Ott from Beekeeping Today Podcast about installing packages in bad weather.
When you order and pay your deposit in January and February for your packages later in the spring, you envision they will show up on a sunny, warm Saturday. The birds will be singing and the flowers all in bloom. The reality can be way different when the call or email arrives saying the bees are “arriving two weeks early,” and to, “please come pick them up between 6-8:00a this Saturday…”
A quick glance at the weather app calls for rain, sleet, and a high of 38-degrees (Fahrenheit) on Package Day! What do you do?!
Jim and Jeff discuss two different ways of approaching the issue of installing packages in bad, in…
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Apr 28, 2022
Planning A Successful Bee Association Meeting (071)
Have you ever been involved in planning and carrying out a beekeeping meeting? If not, there are a host of things to consider that you may have missed when you simply ‘attend’ a meeting.
Kim and Jim have attended probably thousands of meetings, and over the last 30 plus years, have seen everything that can go wrong, go wrong, and what those who make good plans did to fix it. They’ve seen lots of meetings run as smooth as glass. Plus, Kim has served as President of both the Connecticut and Ohio State Beekeepers, Chairman of EAS, and President of the Medina Beekeepers. He has the experience of dealing with literally hundreds of planners, speakers, room organizers and all the rest. If planning meetings is, or might be in your future, listen in to this wealth of information.
Take notes from the transcript below, as you will want to make sure your meeting runs smoothly, by taking into consideration their suggestions!
If you like the episode, share it with a fellow beekeepers and/or…
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Apr 21, 2022
Finding Bee Yards (070)
What are the important considerations for finding a new bee yard? There are a whole lot of right answers to this question and Kim and Jim explore almost all of them. For starters, year-round access, locked gates, dangerous animals, safety, and liability (yours and the property owner)?
There are many questions you should ask.
The answers, of course, are going to be all over the map (sorry) and you will need to know (and probably have in writing) the answers to all of them. Plus, talk to as many beekeepers as you can find that have outyards and find out what, if any troubles they had, so you can be prepared before you move your bees. Be careful, be safe and behave when it comes to moving bees, setting bees on other property, and getting to and from your new beeyard.
If you like the episode, share it with a fellow beekeepers and/or let us know by leaving a comment in the show notes. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Be…
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Apr 14, 2022
Supplemental Spring Feeding of Honey Bees (069)
If your colonies make it through the winter, or if you simply purchased more bees as a package or nuc, their next challenge is making it through the changeable spring weather. (Especially this year, it seems.) Your management challenge is deciding what and how to feed them. In this episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott discuss supplemental spring feeding.
Specifically, they discuss the feeding of carbohydrates or sugar water. (The supplemental feeding of protein (pollen) will be covered in a future episode.) So how do you feed a sugar syrup? Use a Boardman entrance feeder? A hive top feeder? Division board feeder? Jim and Jeff (who is sitting in this week for Kim) discuss their experiences and pro's and con's of multiple types of feeders.
Is there a preferred ratio for mixing water to sugar? Is tap water OK? What about additives?
What about ditching sugar solutions and going with fondant?
Decisions, decisions...
What is your preferred way of feeding in the springtime before the flowers ar…
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Apr 7, 2022
Adding Package Bees to Deadout Equipment (068)
This time of year, experienced and new beekeepers are receiving their packaged bees and nucs. Only a few of these packages and nucs are going home to new equipment. Many will go home to equipment left over from last year's failed colonies. Is it safe to use this equipment?
In this episode, Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast) fills in for Kim Flottum and asks Jim, can he use his old equipment. What about the old honey? Will it hurt if the honey is fermenting or crystallized? What about mold? Dead bee carcasses - are they a problem? Can you reuse old brood comb? What about diseases or pesticides or old pupae casings?
Jim's answers may surprise you.
Did you buy packages or nucs this year? How many? How did you hive them? Did you use new or old equipment? Let us know in the comments section of this episode! Start a discussion.
If you like the episode, share it with a fellow beekeepers and/or let us know by leaving a comment in the show notes. We'd love to hear from you!
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Mar 31, 2022
Capturing and Hiving Swarms (067)
A beekeeper's most exciting moment is undoubtedly, capturing and hiving a swarm... especially when it is someone else's bees! In today episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott - who is filling in for Kim Flottum this week - discuss capturing swarms and how you can be prepared this year.
How can you be prepared? Get some basic equipment pulled together. A container of some type (preferably bee-tight), such as a hive body with a frame or two of brood comb foundation, pruning shears, a tarp - white is best for spotting the queen, a bee suite and veil, a large piece of cardboard, a bee-vacuum, a bucket on the end of a long pole, and maybe a ladder. Some beekeepers keep this equipment or subset, loaded up in their car or truck during swarming season.
Once you find the swarm and figure out your approach, you can typically shake them into your collector or even vacuum them. Each situation is unique so be prepared for just about anything. If you can, ask bystanders or the caller, how long the bees have…
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Mar 24, 2022
Swarm Traps aka Bait Hives (066)
In today's episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott (who's stepping in this week for Kim Flottum) discuss their experiences using swarm traps - sometimes called "bait hives". Swarm traps are used by beekeepers to lure the scout bees looking for a new home.
There are multiple types of swarm traps from the commercially available 'flower pot' type traps, to home-made traps to simply setting out old hive bodies with a frame or two of brood comb or foundation. Jim and Jeff talk about what they've used, what'd worked and what hasn't.
Lures are a second topic discussed. These are also commercially available, can be home made or even use store bought lemon grass oil. Some would consider the use of old brood comb as a lure!
Perhaps one of today's most noted authorities on the natural lives of honey bees is Dr. Tom Seeley. His pamphlet on setting up swarm traps can be on the Cornell website here: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/2653
Do you set up swarm traps? If so, what do you use? How do you…
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Mar 17, 2022
More Listener Questions (065)
This week, Beekeeping Today Podcast's co-host, Jeff Ott sits in for Kim Flottum and joins podcast regular, Jim Tew to answer listener questions.
Kim and Jim have often discussed the pros and cons of using all medium equipment. Today, Jim and Jeff answer the listener question about how to move from deeps to mediums (or 'western') boxes for the brood boxes. What do you use? What do you like? What don't you like?
What is your favorite beekeeping tool not found in a beekeeping catalog or your local bee supply shop? Do you use anything? What is possible?
Finally, what use is flour in a bee yard? We'll give you a moment to ponder... Jim and Jeff answer a question involving flour, bees and apiaries. Have you used flour in a bee yard?
Listen today and let us know your answer on all these question and submit yours!
If you like the episode, share it with a fellow beekeepers and/or let us know by leaving a comment in the show notes. We'd love to hear from you!
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Thanks to…
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Mar 10, 2022
Mind Your Bees Wax (064)
So, what do you do with your old wax? For some of us, as little as possible, but for others, there’s money to be made.
There are different kinds of wax based on a couple of factors, including how long it was in the hive and how it was used by the bees. Bees wax from the brood area tends to get dark fast, in a couple of years, it’s nearly black from old cocoons, pollen, uneaten honey and the like.
In fact, after a couple of years those old combs will have enough dirt, grime, propolis and especially ag pesticides soaked up that they should be removed from the hive. But then what? Solar wax melters work, a hot plate and a double-boiler work too. Melt it down, get rid of it.
Cappings wax, that beautiful wax removed from honey frames however, is usually beautiful, light, bright and glowing yellow. That should be saved. There’s high demand, high value and good money to be made from this wax.
What’s beeswax worth these days? You can check the journals, and other beekeepers. There…
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Mar 3, 2022
Dealing With Old Equipment (063)
What can you do with all that old beekeeping equipment you don’t need, don’t want and is in the way most of the time? There are several ways to look at this, and the first way, of course, is to simply trash it, burn it, bury it. That works, but there’s maybe a better way.
In this week’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss how they deal with old equipment!
First question to consider: Is it clean? In some states, you’ll need an inspector’s seal of approval if you’re giving it to someone so you don’t spread AFB that you didn’t know you had. Know if there are regulations to consider.
Sell it if it’s in good condition and clean, is an option. Maybe not to new beekeepers, but certainly to experienced that know the value of what they are getting. A deep super, in good shape, without frames for $5? I’ll take 5!
Old frames….2 choices. Sell as is and let the buyer take care of the mess of old wax. Or, melt it down…or, no, get rid of them and the wax, or sell them and the w…
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Feb 24, 2022
Make Money with Honey Bees! (062)
In today’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss making money with honey bees.
Almost every beekeeper has had someone (usually a spouse…) say, “I thought you were going to make money as a beekeeper.” Well, it is possible to make money with bees, but you have to put some thought into it.
Do you have the time for the extra work required and can you afford to spend less time with your family?
Do you have the equipment you’ll need to do the things you can do to make money? Do you have the energy?
Well, start with the easy stuff – Honey.
Almost every beekeeper makes some honey most every year. Not always and actually the bees do the work, but honey is something you can sell. You can extract it yourself or pay somebody else to do it for you? No work, no mess and they get paid in the honey they extracted. Check that out.
What about taking bees out of other people’s houses? IT can be profitable if you’ve got the tools, the skills, the insurance, and the time?
Beeswax has a thousa…
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Feb 17, 2022
Raising Non-Graft Queens (061)
A good rule when raising a few queens is to keep it simple. And not having to graft larvae from one cell to another is as simple as could be. So, how can that be done?
The Hopkins method is one way, where you simply put a frame with eggs and larvae in a queenless colony and let them do their thing. You even have some controls of the genetics that way, depending on where that frame comes from.
Or you can simply do a split, remove the queen from one or both and get out of the way and let them raise a queen in one or both.
Commercial queens are expensive, but it costs to control all the variable costs of a big operation, the drones, the labor and all that. Those costs are passed onto you… plus overnight shipping, usually making it a $60 queen.
Using non-graft queens, such as in the Hopkins method, you can depend on the bees knowing what they want, probably better than you do. One thing you do have to control is the timing. You want that new queen producing full tilt before winter, s…
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Feb 10, 2022
Late Winter Colony Management (060)
It’s early February and it’s winter. But winter in northern Ohio is a lot different than winter in the south, where bees are flying, foraging and raising brood. And where it’s cold, you can’t be doing things with your bees, but you can be doing things for your bees: Getting ready for spring.
Food can be a problem right now. How much did you leave last fall? It’s tough to look, but if you can get a glimpse inside, how would you feed them if you had to? Fondant works, usually, by cracking a super and sliding it in right next to the cluster. Candy boards might work, but they can be too far away.
What about protein? Same way. If you’re in the south and you open a colony up, robbing may get started. Not a lot of food out there maybe, but bees will be hungry.
What about your varroa load? Do you know? How were they going into winter? You can’t even sample up north, but you can in the south.
Finally - do the pests in a beehive die when the bees die?
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Than…
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Feb 3, 2022
Going Big Time - Large Observation Hives (059)
Managing large observation hives is very different than working with those small observation hives that you can take to a school or county fair. Very different indeed. Especially if you are going to keep this hive in your home or classroom.
To begin, there’s really no standard design. They can be a single frame wide or 2 or more frames wide. And how tall? Two, three frames tall? More than one frame wide and you’ll probably never see the queen, if only a single frame, the bees never get to cluster. So, do you cover them to help keep warm?
How do the bees get outside? Jim has a pretty good way figured out with a window for part of the year, but it’s not perfect. And how do you feed them? Syrup is pretty easy, protein not so much. And what about ventilation? Gotta have some, but not too much.
And of course, varroa and small hive beetles will come visit, and probably decide to stay. Dealing with those pests can be a challenge no matter what hive, but here? And last, but not least,…
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Jan 27, 2022
Let's Discuss Small Observation Hives (058)
Small, portable, usually single frame observation hives are ideal for meetings, demonstrations, lectures and even for study. They can be homemade or produced by bee supply companies, but there are a few things to keep in mind when using them…. especially when children are your audience.
Kids are full of energy and accidents happen. Make sure you observation hive is rough and tumble ready, securely held in place for when kids are pointing, showing and asking questions.
How many bees should you have, what kind of comb should you use, how much ventilation is needed and what about showing this to a room full of kids when some of them might be allergic to honey bees? We explore all of this and more.
Jim Tew has years of experience using these will all kinds of classes and demonstrations and locations… and all kinds of things have happened to him. Tune in and find out what works and what doesn’t, when using single frame observation hives.
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We welcome Betterbee a…
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Jan 20, 2022
Bee Beards - Part 2 (057)
In today’s episode, Kim and Jim continue their exploration of Bee Beards… though this time… they go big… really big bee beards you see in the movies, where they use 20 maybe 30 pounds of bees, and the person is covered from the top of his head to his shoe laces? How can they do that?
You have to start with that many bees that have been queenless for up to a couple three days. Queenless packages work well here.
Then, you put them all in one big box, and using a piece of screen, with Vaseline smeared on it and artificial queen substance at the top, you dip that screen into the box, and the bees crawl up onto the screen.
Of course, you need a person willing to do this. They daub queen pheromone on his body, and the screen is moved next to him and the bees crawl onto that person. Simple as 1, 2, 3. Right?
Well, not quite that simple. There's a fourth step...You have to get them off when this is over and you have to figure out what to do with them then.
Listen in and learn how…
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Jan 13, 2022
Bee Beards - Part 1 (056)
Really? You want to do a bee beard?
OK, let’s think this through. How much do you know about bees and bee beards, and why do you want to make a bee beard anyway? Some people will think you are as crazy as a loon to try this and that you will die. But others think bee beards are a great way to demonstrate that bees are gentle, safe and actually fun to work with, if you know what you are doing. In today’s episode, Kim and Jim start a discussion on… Bee Beards.
First, if your club is doing this for a county fair or some demonstration, is everybody in your club OK with this? Is the demonstration location owner OK to do this? There may be liability questions. Be prepared.
Will this be an open demonstration in a field or within an enclosed and screened tent? You need to consider where will the bees come from – package, hive, nuc, etc. Regardless, make sure they are well fed!
Jim and Kim discuss making a small-scale bee beard for a public demonstration this week.
It’s OK, you c…
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Jan 6, 2022
Flower Garden Site Prep (055)
Jim has finally figured out where he wants his flowers to be next spring, so what’s next is getting those sites ready to plant, so that what he plants does the best it can for Jim, the bees and anybody who walks by.
In this episode, Kim and Jim discuss the next steps in planning his garden including the time and amount of light the spot receives, soil tests, sod removal options, and… what to plant!
Listen and learn as Kim & Jim discuss the ins and outs of flower garden site preparation, so Jim can sit on his deck and enjoy his bees!
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We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com
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Dec 30, 2021
New Year - New Equipment... Assembly Required? (054)
You can buy all of your beekeeping equipment already assembled and if wooden boxes, already painted. They cost more than if you do it yourself, but you don’t invest any time in assembly. Or, you can buy everything unassembled; nail and glue all the parts and pieces together, then paint it. You’ll need the right tools of course, the room and occasionally have to get something that didn’t get packed.
Buying assembled boxes can be a good idea, as long as they are put together correctly at the factory, and as long as the wooden pieces are the correct size and not warped. Check out those boxes when you get them to make sure they’re square, and while you’re at it, take a look at the paint job. Is it good paint, enough paint, paint where it should be?
Frames can arrive in many pieces. There are the wooden parts and possibly the wire to hold the foundation in place, eyelets to pass the wire through the end bars and all the nails you’ll need to put all this together. Or, as simple…
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Dec 23, 2021
Planning your Gardens for Bees (053)
Jim has finally taken to heart the old saying, “Plant a flower - Feed a bee” and wants to add some plants to his yard that will not only feed bees, but add beauty to his landscape. But Jim’s a hard-core entomologist and hasn’t spent a lot of time studying the how’s and why’s and where’s of creating his semi-urban plain old lawn into a Garden of Earthly Delights.
Lucky for Jim, Kim went to college to learn those exact skills and has offered to give him a hand. He guides Jim in finding out what resources are at hand, what city rules and regulations he may have to follow, and what to do, and especially what not to do relative to his neighbors – both next door and across the street.
This is the first of a three part series on getting all of this done, starting out with what can and can’t you do, followed by what and how and where exactly is it that you want to do all this, exactly, and finishing up with what will you plant, and why and when and will it bloom when I want…
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Dec 16, 2021
Considering the Bee Culture December Issue (052)
The December, 2021 issue of Bee Culture magazine arrived this month. In this episode, Kim and Jim look at this special issue and discuss why it’s special every December.
Starting right off, it’s the Interview issue, where the regular writers, and some others, introduce the readers to industry people, friends in bees and beekeeping, or just someone they think their readers would like to get to know.
The issue includes the annual honey price report too, which shows honey prices for a couple dozen honey products (bulk, 1-lb., 2, 5-lb., comb and the rest), plus prices for beeswax and pollination for each or their seven regions across the country. Of course, that happens every month, but the December report shows those average prices for prior years so you can see what’s changing, and by how much. How much do you charge for a one-pound jar, retail? We’ll bet not enough. You can compare your prices with others in your region in this issue
Finally, for the last 30 some years, Kathy…
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Dec 9, 2021
Considering Packages or Nucs for the Spring (051)
Will it be packages of nucs next spring?
It’s only December, how do I know what I’ll want, and, if any, how many I’ll want? Getting nucs or packages in the spring has changed a lot in the last several years. The quality of queens has changed. Everybody has varroa, well almost everybody, so how and when do I treat these new entries into my apiary?
How many of what I have now will still be here next spring? What if they all are? Or what if none are? And where can I get packages now? The post office used to deliver. That’s gone. Used to be a bee supply outfit up the road, but they don’t do nucs, only packages. And how much will they cost? If I can find some?
An overwintered nuc with an overwintered queen is probably the best bet for making it to next fall, and I might make some honey, too. But is that queen overwintered, or brand new? And how much time and money will it cost me to get a package established next summer if it doesn’t rain until August, or it doesn’t quit ra…
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Dec 2, 2021
New Swarms On Deadout Comb? (050)
Can You Put New Swarms on Old Comb?
You’ve caught your first swarm. Where should it go? You don’t have any new equipment to put it on, but you have an overwintered colony that didn’t make it. Can you use the combs from that colony? Always the best answer – It Depends!
First, ask yourself, why did that colony die? Was it maybe American Foulbrood? European Foulbrood? If you don’t know you need to find out BEFORE you put more bees in those boxes. Have them tested.
If the colony went queenless overwinter, there will probably be some dead bees and lots or at least some honey. But if there’s no bees, none, and lots and lots of honey, maybe varroa and virus.
Did you count mites last fall? Did you treat when you should have?
Drawn comb is an incredible resource for your bees and for you, but how old is that comb? Do you date frames, is that wax clean enough to use another season?
Listen today as Kim & Jim discuss the ins-and-outs of using that dead colony’s comb with a new…
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Nov 25, 2021
Artificial Honeycomb (049)
Back about 100 years ago, there was so much adulterated honey for sale that people were reluctant to buy it at all. Comb honey was seen as being different because that couldn’t be adulterated, right? Well, A. I. Root put up an award looking for fake comb honey because he was sure it couldn’t be done.
Fast forward 100 years or so and that may not be the case anymore. People can digitally print fully drawn comb for bees to use, from either beeswax, or other edible waxes. Bees seem to like it and it works just fine in a beehive, giving bees a boost when they need it the most.
So, can you make fake comb honey? Well, perhaps. Tune in and listen to Kim and Jim examine these old and new rules about comb honey, and see what the world is up to with these newfangled inventions.
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We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their co…
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Nov 18, 2021
What's That Smell - Part 2: The Good (048)
Bees, honey, smoker smoke, and lots more all have their own aroma. Beekeeping is rich in its own smells. Most are fragrant, rich and a delight to work with. Some, not so much. This is a two-part series, started in the last episode, #47.
In today’s Part 2, we spent some time smelling honeys, the types and seasons and sources and times. Then we looked the wonderful aromas the come from beekeeping products. Beeswax being rendered, honey being uncapped, the smell of brand-new wax foundation, burning wax candles, the smell of your workshop as you put together new equipment.
Come on along and learn what you can expect when dealing with honey, honey bees and all that comes with them, and what you already may have experienced and not thought much about. One aroma is worth a thousand words.
What are YOUR favorite smells of beekeeping? Let us know!
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We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent cus…
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Nov 11, 2021
What's That Smell? - Part 1: The Bad (047)
Bees, honey, smoker smoke, and lots more all have their own aroma. Beekeeping is rich in its own smells. Most are fragrant, rich and a delight to work with. Some, not so much. This is a two-part series.
In today’s Part 1, we looked at smells from the smoker, which are many and varied, rich and awful, all at the same time. Then we discussed the smells of bees, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Come on along and learn what you can expect when dealing with honey, honey bees and all that comes with them, and what you already may have experienced and not thought much about. One aroma is worth a thousand words.
Watch for Part 2 - The Good, next week!
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We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee tru…
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Nov 4, 2021
Small-Scale Pollination Contracts (046)
At some point, whether by design or accident, many beekeepers consider expanding into pollination for hire with their bees. What does that mean and what does it take? What should be considered before undertaking a small-scale pollination job?
In this episode, Kim and Jim discuss their experiences and offer their observations.
First, start thinking about what you’ll need next spring NOW, so you’re ready next spring! If you wait until the first dandelion, you will be late to the game!
If you are starting from scratch, talk to other beekeepers, talk to growers, talk to anybody who has done this before. Make your contacts now and remember, when exploring pollination opportunities, you are probably competing with another beekeeper.
The most important two things to research? Know what your costs will be, and know what your time is worth. Start there.
Remember this is mostly night work, do you have a day job? Do you have a good friend you can convince to help you? And what about insu…
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Oct 28, 2021
Bottom Boards (045)
Every kind of hive has some kind of bottom board. Typically, Langstroth type hives have a bottom board that is removable. Many are reversible, too. That is one side has a ridge going around three sides that is only 3/8th of an inch tall, leaving an opening so small in the front that a mouse should not be able to get into the hive. These are used this way in the winter. The other side of this bottom board has a ridge that is 3/4th of an inch tall, to be used in the summer for better ventilation and traffic control out front.
For awhile, bottom boards with a screen were common, developed to help control varroa that would fall through if they fell off a bee above. Some people would put cardboard sticky boards under the screen to catch the varroa and give an idea of how many a hive had. These had to be covered in winter, which was sometimes a problem because of lost covers, warped covers or bent screens. They are still around, but mostly for ventilation, not varroa control.
Mostly, we us…
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Oct 21, 2021
Preparing for Winter (044)
If you are comfortable outside on Christmas Day, you probably don’t have to worry about wrapping your colonies for winter protection. Otherwise, this episode is for you!
At least put up a windbreak. It’s easy, cheap and it helps. But what other insulation is available? There’s history of what has been used, and what’s available now isn’t much different, but it’s better.
Tar paper was common, roofing insulation is often used, already packaged units like a Bee Cozy, or those made by BetterBee are available and work well.
New insulated tops are available and should be considered for both keeping warm in during winter, and heat out during summer.
Winter ventilation is still an issue with some kinds of wintering techniques and you have to deal with that, too. Styrofoam boxes, and sheets are used with good success.
Winter protection, wrapping, and all the different kinds of hives….now is the time to figure it out.
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Oct 14, 2021
Beekeeper Waxing & Waning (043)
Do you remember what it was like when you first started keeping bees? Beekeeping was easier years ago, and most of us wanted more bees, more hives, more skills, more of everything beekeeping.
But there’s a next chapter. Beekeepers today are better educated because there’s more to do now. So, it’s not wrong to want to take a day, a week, a whole season off. And there will be good times and bad times. And yes, some won’t come back.
Sometimes, learning something new will keep you going. Learn queen rearing, or pollen collection, or…. something you haven’t done before to get you going again.
But it’s OK to do something else for a while. Beekeeping will come back, or it won’t. And no matter what, it is alright!
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We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of…
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Oct 7, 2021
Invasive Plants (042)
There are, in most places, a mix of native and invasive plants that our bees will visit because they don’t distinguish good from bad, noxious from native. They are looking for food, regardless of the source.
This week Kim and Jim touch on a few of these, and try and come up with some recommendations and perhaps some plans on dealing with invasive plants and your honey bees.
They start with the Chinese Tallow lawsuit going on in the south, with USDA wanting rid of it by introducing a natural pest. And purple loosestrife is now starting to diminish because they already have introduced a natural pest for that handsome weed and very predictable honey crop.
But Black Locust, Norway Maple, Japanese Knotweed, Kudzu vine, English Ivy and Autumn Olive are looked at too. There are pages of introduced species of plants, many of which are terrific honey plants.
The message is….if you and your bees are dependent on introduced or noxious weeds as food sources and a honey crop, you may want t…
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Sep 30, 2021
Fall Feeding (041)
If you have to feed your bees this fall, something probably went wrong this summer. Spring feeding, or feeding packages or splits is maybe more common, but there are some things to think about if you have to feed your bees in the fall.
Is what went wrong the fault of your bees, your management, or the environment your bees have to live in. Too many row crops, pesticides, too much lawn…is there really any food out there at all?
How much food does a colony actually need to get through the winter?
You also have to think about what kind of feeders will you use, what will you feed, how much should you feed, and when do you stop feeding.
All of these questions have to have answers, before you start.
Fall feeding may not be as simple as you thought it was.
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We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informat…
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Sep 23, 2021
Winter Packing (040)
Think about honey bees overwintering in a tree. There’s 4 to 6 inches of insulation, pretty good ventilation, and it’s lined with propolis. Now think of our bees living in a box with less than an inch of wood for protection. We pretty much don’t think of wintering anymore. There’s lots of bees, swarms, we can replace what we lose easily…. well, it was easy, but it’s not so much anymore. Varroa changed that.
We can protect them if we want. Insulated covers, insulated wraps, roofing paper, all manner of things we can get, and all require some level of labor to make work.
Expanded styrene boxes seem to be pretty good. Lots of insulation for both winter cold and summer heat and they use both sides of every frame. They don’t recognize warm winter days though, so there’s that.
In the old days beekeepers went to a lot of trouble to keep their bees alive overwinter and with the new controlled environment buildings, that sort of care is coming back.
Winter protection can mea…
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Sep 16, 2021
"Winter Is Coming" aka Planning For Winter (039)
There’s a saying – Winter Begins in August and it’s already September. It’s time to start thinking about getting ready for winter.
What can and what should you be thinking about? Well, if winter is cold where you are, can you move your bees to somewhere that’s warm? If moving bees is at all possible.
What about indoor wintering? It used to be popular and it’s coming back, but the indoors are a lot more sophisticated than they used to be. Is that possible?
And are your bees winter hardy, or are they softies? And can you fix that yet this year with a tougher queen? And absolutely get varroa under control. Yesterday.
What about food? How was/is/will be the fall flow this fall? Enough, not enough, need more? And if not, how much will you have to find for them?
And what equipment will you need when you really get ready for winter? Get it now, or it may be gone. It’s time to start thinking about winter, isn’t it.
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Sep 9, 2021
Combining (Joining) Weak Colonies (038)
Right now, you have to make some decisions about how to overwinter your colonies. If you live in the deep south, there probably isn’t much to think about. But if you live north of warm winter weather, there’s a lot that has to be done. One of these tasks is what to do with a couple of small, weak colonies, because they are just not big enough to make it on their own.
Several options are available. In this week’s episode, Kim and Jim look at the strengths and weaknesses of each to help you better decide what you can do with your weak colonies.
Combine the two and keep the best queen? That’s one way, but which queen is the best queen, and why? And why were both colonies small and weak? And what do you do with the queen that you decide to remove?
Or, perhaps you can combine the two and add some bees and comb and make one stronger colony or nuc to overwinter, so you will have a nuc in your beeyard next spring, which is always a good thing.
Or, what about putting those small col…
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Sep 2, 2021
Dealing With Neighbor's Yellowjacket Problems (037)
Beekeepers are very often asked to help friends or neighbors that have “bee” problems…. honey bees, carpenter bees, yellow jackets, hornets, bumblebees and the like. But most of us aren’t exterminators. We don’t have the tools, the experience, or the time to help. But “can’t you just get rid of them for me?” lets you know they think you know how to do this… and are ‘glad to help.’
Sometimes they are your bees. A colony swarms and if you are lucky lands in a tree or bush and are easy to retrieve. Sometimes though, they head for that hole in the siding and take up residence in the wall of your neighbor’s house. What then?
What about liability? What happens if you do decide to help, climb a ladder and fall off. What then? Or you tell your neighbor what to do and they fall off the ladder?
Do you lend them your gear? Suit, smoker, hive tool? If you do it, are you serving as an exterminator then? Practicing without a license?
But what about a dangerous situation,…
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Aug 26, 2021
Dealing With 'Wet Combs' After Extracting (036)
When you finish extracting your honey crop, you have frames that have sticky, gooey honey in the cells, and on the frame surfaces. There may be some crystalized honey in some of the cells, too. Maybe even some pollen stored there.
So how do you clean up this mess so when you go to store the supers with these frames in them for the winter, they will be safe? Kim and Jim take a look at dealing with these wet combs so they get clean and are easy to store for the winter, no matter where you winter.
The most common way is to put the frames back in the supers just harvested and put the supers back on your hives. Then in a few days, the bees will have cleaned up the mess and you’re left with a super full of clean, dry, not sticky frames. Usually.
Some beekeepers just set the just-extracted supers outside and let the bees clean them up. But there are a lot of problems with this you may want to avoid. Robbing, sharing diseases and more can happen.
Once the frames have been cleaned by the…
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Aug 19, 2021
Ugly (Mean) Bees (035)
What do you do about ugly or mean bees? It can be difficult to determine which colony in a beeyard with several colonies is the one, or maybe one of several, that has scouting guard bees meet you at the gate when you go to a beeyard.
If you can determine which colony is the one with the problems, why is it behaving so aggressively? Several reasons come to mind – something is bothering it at night, maybe a skunk for several nights, then you come along and they’ve about had it with being disturbed.
Or, you caught a swarm. Where did those bees come from? Did you make a split, keep the mother-queen and let the other half raise their own queen? Who she mated with could result in a mean colony due to genes.
Sometimes, it’s just because a big colony has more bees, more guards, more foragers…just more bees. So, a big colony is going to be more of everything…more bees, more honey, more guards. More mean.
What do you do? Worry about the neighbors? Wear heavy duty equipment? Work th…
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Aug 12, 2021
How Are My Bees? (034)
Every spring we beekeepers buy packages and set up nucs. Come summer, we start to look at what is going right and what may be going… well… not so right. Or at least, something is going but we’re not quite certain just what!
In this episode, Kim and Jim discuss the hives they started this past spring and compare notes. They’re only 30 miles apart and you might think weather and time have treated them equally and… you would be surprised.
How was the new queen accepted? How has the honey flow from tree crops such as Tulip, Poplar, and Basswood? Is any clover blooming?
How are the over-wintered colonies doing this summer? Are they kicking it into overdrive and really producing? Or were they super swarmy, and/or busy replacing the queen and/or highly defensive compared to the prior season? Can the Queen be root of all the problems?
Speaking of problems… who’s dealing with Hive Beetles? Kim or Jim?
Listen today as Kim and Jim discuss all things honey bees.
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Aug 5, 2021
Planting for Bees (033)
Beekeepers talk a lot about not having enough food or enough good food for their bees due to all manner of development, agriculture spread, and agriculture in general. To help fix that problem beekeepers should be looking at doing some planting for bees, which is what Kim and Jim talk about this week.
But it’s not as simple as it might sound. If you are planning on something for your yard, the basic gardening techniques can be an issue – dealing with sod removal, local animals that will enjoy what you plant, and even neighbors that might find what you are doing, ummmm, less than appealing for the neighborhood.
And of course, if you don’t have enough good food, you need something, like, right now for starters, like some annuals, then some longer-term plantings of perennials and shrubs, and of course some permanent plantings like blooming trees and fruit trees.
Making this all work certainly takes a lot of work, which, if you’re not a spring chicken any more, means a lot of wo…
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Jul 29, 2021
Troubling Questions (032)
Kim and Jim ask some interesting questions this week, maybe some you’ve asked yourself, or perhaps you asked a close friend.
For instance, should a colony being used for honey production spend time and energy raising drones? Or should a beekeeper be getting rid of drones? There are some who believe so.
And where do you go to get good information when you have a honey bee question? The web? And if so, which websites do you seek out? What about books and magazines? And for what subjects? Is there a single source?
And was there some advice a respected and trusted source gave you long ago that you used for years, but finally figured out it was bad advice? There’s probably several things you still do that you shouldn’t, right?
And the first question? What’s the one thing in your beekeeping life that you are most proud of? And why?
Join Kim and Jim, and try and answer their questions this week. Let them know if you can…..
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Jul 22, 2021
European Foul Brood (031)
Have you ever had European Foulbrood (EFB) in one or more of your hives? How do you know if it was EFB? What does it look like? What does it smell like? Does it smell like American Foulbrood (AFB), or look like AFB?
If you’re not sure, how do you find out? Who can you call? And what can you do about it if it is EFB? Burn, treat, scorch, feed, let it alone because it will get better? And if you need to treat, do you know a veterinarian who can give you a prescription so you can buy an antibiotic to treat with?
Kim and Jim talk about EFB today. They don’t necessarily give you all the answers, because ID and treatment aren’t perfectly defined anymore.
Tune in and hear why!
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We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including…
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Jul 15, 2021
Hot Summers and Bees (030)
It’s been hot in Ohio so far this summer (and a lot of other places too) but it’s also been wet. Hot and wet can make keeping bees a lot harder than normal. Kim and Jim talk about hot summers and their bees.
Kick the air conditioner down a couple of degrees, pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage and listen in.
Jim is visiting up in Michigan this week, and it’s been hot there, too. They share the same loss of enthusiasm and eagerness for working bees when it’s hot and it seems the bees are crankier than usual. Is that normal? There are lots of bees bearding on the front of the hives…
The ‘personality’ changes in the bee yards every summer, hot or not. Up to the middle of June of so, the bees don’t even notice a beekeeper, but then that changes and the bees give all manner of trouble each visit visits. What’s going on? Dearth, robbing, what ever it is it lasts until at least early October, when they quite down again.
Shade helps. Get them in afternoon shad…
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Jul 8, 2021
A Close Look At The 2020-2021 BIP Annual Loss Survey (029)
How many colonies had to be replaced last year? How many in winter, summer, total? How many beekeepers were surveyed? How many commercial operations, how many sideline operations, and how many hobby beekeepers? It used to be called the annual colony loss survey, but even that has changed because one thing they have found is that colony counts aren’t decreasing, because they are replaced, and are now considered turnovers, not losses. The Bee Informed Colony Management survey went looking for the answers to these questions, and more in their 15th annual survey and the preliminary results are in.
The value of this survey, and the information that you can get out of it is incredible, if you use it the right way if you are having the same kinds of problems, or successes these beekeepers are having.
This time, Kim and Jim take a look at the some of the data, putting it into everyday beekeeping language that everybody can use. Varroa, of course is a major issue, but not for everybody. Que…
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Jul 1, 2021
Dealing With Neighbors (028)
A question from a book written 107 years ago comes up for discussion.
“How do you keep your bees from bothering your neighbors?” Back then, it was mostly cattle and horses beekeepers were worried about Today? It’s the people in the house right next door, their swimming pool, their bird feeders and waterers and the water for their pooch.
First, is it legal to keep bees where you are? Then how do you get along with your neighbors? Where are your bees? Do you have a fence? (It’s still true – Good fences make good neighbors.) No question when you have bees. Fence or no fence, robbing is still an issue, all of the time. It was good advice to avoid robbing 107 years ago, and it is good advice today.
When you go to your bee yard, it’s hard to be subtle – smoker going, white suit, veil…neighbors are going to notice. Just how do you keep your bees will determine just how well you get along with your neighbors! In this episode, Kim and Jim discuss some finer aspects of dealing…
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Jun 24, 2021
Euthanizing Honey Bees (027)
It’s rare, very rare, but sometimes beekeepers have to kill all the bees in a colony. It can be a tragic, emotional and usually it’s an expensive experience. Or it can be a life saving act to save the lives of friends, neighbors and family. At the very least, it will render a box of dangerous or sick bees no longer dangerous or reduce the chance of spreading disease across the county. At any rate, it is painful to have to do this.
There are usually only 2 reasons this has to be done. The presence of American Foulbrood in a colony that has been identified by a governing body, with state laws in place that essentially force this is probably the most common reason, but still, this isn’t very common anymore. The second reason is that the genetics of the bees in the colony are such that aggression is extreme, and the presence of the colony causes danger for the beekeeper and/or nearby people.
The why is often clear. The how can sometimes be less clear. If possible, late night so all…
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Jun 17, 2021
Beekeeping Good Neighbor Golden Rules (026)
Let’s face it. Unless you live in an isolated part of the world, if you keep bees, you will need to eventually deal with encounters between your bees and your neighbors. Encounters don’t have to be negative. There are strategies you can use to minimize ‘bad publicity’ and ‘hard feelings.’ Some beekeeping clubs have written down these strategies and developed rules, Golden Rules, for beekeepers to help guide them to keep friendly relations with their neighbors.
In this episode, our fearless hosts, Kim and Jim take up eight rules used by a UK beekeeping club and explore their experiences with neighbors, bees, and Golden Rules.
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We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is B…
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Jun 10, 2021
Package Queens (025)
Packages arrive with a queen and together are installed in a hive of some kind. In a few days to a week the queen is released from her travel cage by either the bees or the beekeeper. Then the evaluation of that queen, and the bees, too, begins. How good is this queen? And when should I be able to decide if she needs replacing. A week? 2 weeks? A month? And how do you decide?
There are some basic parameters you can use to evaluate her performance. You can look at the egg laying pattern she is producing, measure how many eggs she is laying each day, and note if most are workers and only a very few, if any, are drones.
Experienced beekeepers can, because of lots of practice, estimate the amount of brood in the colony after a quick inspection, and can determine if she is producing what she should be producing depending the time she has had. Returning in a week, there should be a week’s increase in the amount of brood noted. And how much is enough?
But what if she isn’t producing we…
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Jun 3, 2021
Questions from 1910 (024)
Today, Kim & Jim review questions and answers asked in an ancient A. I. Root Co. publication, published in 1910. What’s changed, and what hasn’t? Kim and Jim tackle questions asked 121 years ago. You’ll be surprised at what they find.
Do gentle bees make as much honey as mean bees? A question you still hear because sometimes it seems mean bees are more productive, right? Maybe, maybe not.
What’s the best smoker fuel? Oily rags? You’re kidding, right? Pine needles, sawdust and the like too, but a petroleum-based product? Will it blow up in your smoker?
What can you do when another beekeeper brings in a truckload of colonies and sets them down next door? Will everybody starve? Can you make them move? Can you stop them in the first place?
And how much does a painted 10-frame hive with wired foundation full of bees cost? Then adjust that for inflation. Be sitting down when you read the answer to this one.
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May 27, 2021
Tanging - What's All That Banging? (023)
What is tanging? Basically, beekeepers use some sort of device, an old cooking pot for instance, to make a loud noise by beating it with a spoon or stick, while chasing an escaping swarm. It is thought this may convince the bees that a storm with thunder is approaching and they need to find a place to land, now, and then the beekeeper can capture them and return them to their home.
When a beekeeper sees a swarm leave one of their hives, they will chase the swarm to recapture and return it to the apiary. While chasing it, the beekeeper typically crosses the property of several people, and by beating on a pan while chasing the swarm, will let property owners know that 1) the swarm of bees is theirs, and 2) the beekeeper is not there to trespass and offers no danger to the land owner.
Or…Perhaps both, but isn't tanging and drumming the same? Not quite.
When beekeepers want to move bees out of, say, a section of a hollow tree, they cut the tree, remove the section the colony is in and…
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May 20, 2021
Plastic & Wooden Packages (022)
Honey bees are purchased from commercial operations in business to sell bees to beekeepers. They can be sold as complete eight or ten frame hives with a queen, frames with comb, bees and brood and some stored food. Or, they may be sold as a 5-frame small colony, traditionally called a nucleus colony, or more commonly a Nuc, with a queen, comb, food and bees. Bees can also be bought in bulk – by the pound, traditionally in a container of some sort, without frames or comb. A queen accompanies the bees, protected in a wooden or plastic queen cage.
For over 150 years the containers used to ship the bees from the seller to the purchaser was a box with the top, two sides and the bottom made of wood, with the remaining two sides covered with wire screen so the bees inside had adequate ventilation. A feeder can of sugar syrup is fastened in the box to provide food for the bees for the several days. Once received, the beekeeper removes the feeder from the opening in the top and the bees dump…
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May 13, 2021
Old Comb (021)
Old comb. What is old comb? Old comb is that which is darkened through generations of tiny bee's feet (ok, for the technically minded, tarsus and tarsal claws...) running across its surface. Is it good for years or should beekeepers pull and replace it? At what point should it be pulled?
In this episode of Honey Bee Obscura, Kim and Jim discuss all things Old Comb.
After listening to the episode, make sure you check out this Honey Bee Obscura video moment on the OneTewBee YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/s7GD29Z8zD4
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This episode of Honey Bee Obscura is supported by the three generations of beekeepers at Leibengood Family Apiaries, providing Georgia certified, southern raised bee packages and queens to central Ohio each Spring!
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We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative…
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May 6, 2021
Spring Inspections (020)
Spring inspections, especially early spring, need a balance of not too often, but often enough to avoid problems. The first thing you see is…what’s left from last fall. In the south, these inspections took place some time ago, and in the north, they are just wrapping up, but what you find early on will help determine what needs to be done now.
Mite testing is certainly on the agenda, but for today, we’re going to pass on that and look at food, the queen, where the bees are in the hive and what all this will tell us. Of course, if you see lots of bees with twisted wings, a mite test isn’t much of a question, but location of the bees, and is swarming or feeding going to be next?
If the bees are in the bottom boxes, you’re probably OK for a bit, but if they are in the top boxes, they are probably out of food, so check for honey right now. Too, if they are in the top, it may be crowded and swarming is on their agenda sooner rather than later…check to population’s location.…
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Apr 29, 2021
Honey Bees Sting! (019)
Why do you keep a box full of bugs that you just know will sting? It should be an easy answer, but there’s more here that you might think, especially if you’re just getting started. Even if you’ve been doing this for years and you’re doing everything right, someday, you will get stung, no matter what.
But what about the beekeeper dressed in only shorts and a T-Shirt, who will take a colony apart, remove the queen, put it back together, and walk away with a smile – and no stings. You have to admire that skill or is it luck?
Basic advice – always wear a veil, always. If you’re going to be opening and moving things, wear at least a veil and a jacket. If you’re going to be moving bees in the middle of the night or harvesting honey, wear a full suit with gloves and elastic around your cuffs and wrists.
Even more basic advice – Respect stings, wear protective gear, take care of the people around you to reduce chances they will get stung, but just know, it’s going to ha…
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Apr 22, 2021
Eating Comb Honey (018)
So, how do you eat comb honey? It isn’t a mystery, but until you have tried eating comb honey, it can be a tad daunting.
At first, it’s a beautiful product. Snow white cappings, beautiful honey, the perfect sweetener. But then, you take a sample and that chunk of comb honey begins to leak, and the honey runs out and covers the bottom of the dish you have it on, along with tiny chunks of the wax from the cells and the cappings and the foundation. Suddenly it’s messy. Very messy. And the beauty of the honey only remains in the eye of the beholder.
The plastic honey bear has made eating honey easy, neat, clean, and not messy. It has taken comb honey mostly off the tables of several generations of beekeepers and the people who like eating honey. Beekeepers make far less of it than when your grandparents were keeping bees and people now don’t know what it is, how to handle it, nor how to eat it.
And consider - comb honey is the least processed, best tasting honey you can eat. And…
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Apr 15, 2021
Pollen Traps (017)
Trapping pollen will give you a source of good food for your bees, and it’s for free. And why more beekeepers don’t do it is interesting, but understandable. There are a host of pollen substitutes on the market that a beekeeper can simply buy and feed to the bees. Pollen traps add a layer of work and cost to their beekeeping efforts that many don’t want to undertake….and that’s too bad.
Of course trapping pollen changes what’s going on in the hive. Removing some amount of the only protein source bees are aware of changes their foraging behavior is several ways – especially, if you leave the trap on too long. Suddenly there’s not enough pollen coming in, so we need to recruit more pollen foragers, taking some of the nectar foragers off that task. And, having a pollen trap on a colony strongly selects for pollen foragers bringing home smaller pollen pellets that will get through the screen, which will take even more nectar foragers out of the equation.
Drones often get…
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Apr 8, 2021
Nectar Flows (016)
If you keep good records every year, you’ll know about when to expect the various nectar flows your areas has almost every year and that your bees need to make a honey crop.
Of course, your bees will tell you when a nectar flow starts, and when it’s over. Tell you they will. Open a colony before a flow and the bees are busy looking for food. Open one during a good flow and you will find the happiest bees in the world. Open a colony just as a flow stops and you better have a good beesuit and veil, because they get real testy when the food stops coming in.
Nectar flows overlap, which is great for the bees and your honey crop, but how can you tell when one stops and the next one starts? Not even the bees can tell you that. So, you end up without a defined floral crop, like locust or clover, but with a more generalized “wildflower” blend.
Even after years of taking good notes, some years it’s too dry, too wet, there’s a storm…it’s always something to what should have bee…
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Apr 1, 2021
Robbing! (015)
Imagine this… you walk out to your beeyard. There is a lot of activity. No problem. That’s good right? Probably a nectar flow, you think. But as you get closer, there is something else going on… more frantic, more commotion, more… frenetic; All directed at one or two hives. There are hundreds of bees trying to get into those hives, through any available crack and crevice.
Bees are all over in the air and it is definitely not a swarm. About the time you notice a faint smell of something like almonds, bees greet you face to face and you can tell, they are not happy. You deftly slip on your veil.
What the heck is going on?
Robbing. If you have hives you will eventually experience this natural(?) act, typically between one or more colonies against a weaker colony. Usually, but not always, during periods of dearth and a bored field force. What do you do? What can you do?
In this episode of Honey Bee Obscura, Kim and Jim discuss robbing, their experiences and what you can expect!…
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Mar 25, 2021
Swarms (014)
Have you ever tried to capture a swarm while hanging on to the top of a 10-foot ladder that’s standing in the back of a pickup? No? Well, Jim Tew has and he’ll tell you all about retrieving swarms this week. Kim Flottum has a story about Richard Taylor walking into the middle of a swarm issuing from a hive, reaching up and catching the queen! No, really! It happened!
If you are a beekeeper, swarms are a fact of life. Keeping bees from swarming is a challenge and capturing them when they leave is even more of a challenge, most of the time anyway. (You could even consider them fun when they are someone else’s bees).
The economics of managing your bees so they don’t swarm or capturing the bunch after they swarm is worth the time and effort, at least sometimes. Falling off a 10-foot ladder is going to be much more expensive than simply buying a package to replace the one that got away.
Swarms are a biological wonder. Enjoy the experience.
* Check out this Honey Bee Obscura sp…
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Mar 18, 2021
Dealing with Bee Space (013)
How much space do bees need inside a beehive? Well, it’s between 3/16” and 5/16”, so you can figure just about a quarter inch should do. But what happens when bees don’t have bee space in a beehive? Propolis is what happens: Tighter than a drum if it’s too small and full of burr and brace comb if it’s too big.
Make it just right for the bees and they’ll make it right for you!
Are there differences between equipment manufacturers? (Yes) Where is the bee space? Above the frames or below the frames when they sit in the box? It’s different for different manufacturers. So, look and even measure before you buy. Brand X may not work with Brand Y, depending on just where they provide the bee space between boxes. This applies to hive bodies, honey supers and even inner covers!
Ever used a hammer to get frames out? No? Well, you’ve been lucky. Add one to your tool box before you head out to the beeyard. It just might be the only way to save a frame from certain destruction.…
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Mar 11, 2021
Outyards (012)
When you have more bees at home than you want, or your family wants, or your neighbors want, it’s time to find an outyard. There’s a lot to consider when choosing an outyard.
There are many things to consider, such as: Are you able to get there in all seasons? Does your family knows where it is so they can find you if your truck or car won’t start? What about access? Are there gates? Combinations to locks? Here’s a consideration… What about cattle or horses or bear? Will you need some kind of fence? Do you leave tools and equipment there? What’s the weed situation like? Can you get cell phone reception? What about yard rent? How much honey do you need for that and did you remember to close that gate when you left?
At some point outyards will be a part of your beekeeping life. Know what, where, how and when to consider getting one, or more.
Listen today as Kim and Jim discuss outyards: the good, the bad and the ugly.
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This episode of Honey Bee Obscura is suppo…
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Mar 4, 2021
Requeening (011)
Everybody who has bees at some time will have to requeen a colony. You killed her when moving frames, she quit laying, a colony that swarmed didn’t make a queen, you stepped on her when she fell off the frame. It happens… and now you have to requeen that colony. If she’s gone it’s easier than if she’s there. If she’s there, you got to find and replace her. Right, find her first. Good luck with that.
Then, it’s where do you put that new queen in the colony and how long should she stay in that cage? Used to be, when the bees in that colony quit trying to kill her in that cage. Anymore, maybe not. Used to be, you’d get a queen in the wooden cage with candy, punch a hole in the candy and she’s out in 3 days, or less. Now, 7, maybe 10 days in that plastic cage and maybe she’ll be ok, but check twice. Maybe three times.
Not to add any stress to the exercise, but queens aren’t cheap. Even if you raise your own, you did invest time and energy to get her to age. On the o…
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Feb 25, 2021
Smokers and Smoker Fuel (010)
A smoker is that extra hand you always need when working bees. It’s the right tool for the job. But how smokers get used is mostly influenced by what the beekeeper is doing whether you are working hard, fast and in a hurry, or easy going, slow and gentle. Each approach demands different behaviors and different amounts of smoke.
What about smoker fuels? Certainly, what’s available helps decide what gets burned. Pine straw, wood shavings, punk wood, rolled burlap, sumac pods, even dried cow dung are some of the fuels of choice.
How long should a smoker stay lit? Once you get it going, set it down and don’t puff again. If it doesn’t stay lit for at least a half hour you need more practice. Or better fuel. Or a newer smoker.
Like everything in beekeeping….it just depends. Listen today as Kim and Jim discuss all things… Smokers!
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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
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Feb 18, 2021
Packages and Nucs (009)
If you need or want to get some honey bees this spring, the two traditional means are to get a 3-pound package or a (usually) 5 frame nucleus colony. There are advantages and disadvantages to both and like so many things in beekeeping – it depends on the situation of which might be a better choice.
Packages aren’t cheap, and they are slower to develop, which is good for a less experienced beekeeper, but for somebody who wants a fast buildup, not so good. That first winter for a package is usually critical, especially if they were put on new equipment, because their time to get ready has been short, and they’ve been playing catchup all summer.
Nucs generally offer comb, eggs, brood of all ages, honey and pollen, and a laying queen, but there can be a lot of variables for all of these attributes that can throw any beekeeper a curve. They hit the ground running, so to speak, so from a beginner’s perspective it can be a steep learning curve. If it’s strong and a good season, a…
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Feb 11, 2021
Hive Finishes (008)
So, you just built brand new wooden hive boxes, tops and bottoms. It all sure looks nice, doesn’t it? How do you keep it from rotting, falling apart or just wearing out?
For many beekeepers using white latex paint on their equipment is the go-to. But for some, painting isn’t on the agenda this season. Painting takes time and colors can vary. Is it OK to use different colors different sized supers? Should you use oil base, or latex, or some other kind of water base material? How long will those boxes last, anyway?
What if you don’t want to use paint? What about natural materials? What works? Some find that a hot rosin dip may work, or dipped in hot bees wax or paraffin. Is that OK? Stains work, too, so your hives don’t stand out as much as a white box out in the backyard, in town. What about painting the inside? Is it safe? Is it good protection?
Of course, there is always the choice of just doing nothing. Is that acceptable?
In this episode, Kim and Jim explore all things H…
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Feb 4, 2021
Protective Gear (007)
What beekeepers choose to wear for protection is determined by many factors. Kim and Jim explore several of the most influential choices today when talking about Protective Gear.
Choices are mostly determined by what you have and what you will be doing during any particular visit. Or is it? Do you need to wear the same gear for a quick inspection as you do for moving hives? What about gloves? What kind of veil? There are so many different types to choose from. The catalogs are full of things to look at, dream about and order!
Of course, as you learn more, you’ll want more. That’s what Christmas and birthdays are all about.
Listen to Kim and Jim talk about their experiences with protective gear and you may save some money and look good at the same time!
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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom
Honey Bee Obscura is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC
Copyright ©…
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Jan 28, 2021
The Good Things About Beekeeping (006)
Kim and Jim trade notes of the things about bees and beekeeping that are fun, enjoyable, educational and generous. It’s about honey, gardens, a spring day, being an expert, capturing swarms and the things that work well when you work hard.
The pluses outweigh the minuses, every time.
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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom
Honey Bee Obscura is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC
Copyright © 2021 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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Jan 21, 2021
Bee Equipment We Use (005)
When you look at a hive, you will see many different variations in hive equipment, components, tools and things to “make the beekeeper’s job easier”. So, what kind of equipment do you use?
In this episode, Kim and Jim talk about covers and the rocks we put on them, inner covers, queen excluders, slatted racks and all kinds of bottom boards. It’s amazing how much stuff beekeepers use.
Listen today!
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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom
Honey Bee Obscura is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC
Copyright © 2021 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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Jan 14, 2021
Mid-Winter Inspections (004)
Checking your colonies on a cold, snowy, winter day isn’t something you probably want to do, but colonies in our care need to be looked after – no matter the season. How and what you can and cannot check depend on where your bees are. A cold and blustery northeast Ohio is where Kim and Jim are today, but what about warmer places, like far southern Alabama, where Jim used to live?
Kim and Jim explore what a beekeeper should be looking after and what to do when something is amiss, such as:
* Missing hive tops
* Plugged entrances
* Do they buzz when you come aknocking?
* What about “hefting” or “tipping” to determine stores?
* Can you open them in the Winter?
Kim and Jim explore all these questions this time. Sit back and listen in on this short, informative discussion on checking your bees in mid-winter, no matter where your bees are sitting out the winter!
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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today…
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Jan 10, 2021
Off Season Storage and Chores (003)
Once you look at it, managing your space is probably the biggest challenge most beekeepers have. You have more bee equipment inside in the winter than the summer. What do you do with all of it? And once processing honey gets started, and done… what do you do with it all? Figure this out and keeping bees gets a lot less challenging.
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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom
Copyright © 2021 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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Jan 10, 2021
Emergency Winter Feeding (002)
Of course, it’s best to leave enough food on going into winter so the bees don’t get stressed or starve, but sometimes that isn’t in the equation. You take too much honey or they simply didn’t make enough during the summer. Then what? Several possibilities – fondant can work, sometimes or simply putting dry sugar on the inner cover or sugar blocks or what’s probably best, sharing honey from colonies that have more than enough with those that don’t.
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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom
Copyright © 2021 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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Jan 10, 2021
Honey Bee Obscura - An Introduction (001)
Honey Bee Obscura is a brand new podcast focusing solely on honey bees and honey bee management. In fact... all things honey bees. Join each week as former Bee Culture editor and current cohost of Beekeeping Today Podcast, Kim Flottum and long time Bee Culture contributor and former OSU Extension Specialist, Dr. Jim Tew meet to explore and discuss important topics important to beekeepers everywhere in short, concise episodes.
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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.
Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom
Copyright © 2021 by Growing Planet Media, LLC
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