Every year I get an email from the Bee Informed Partnership. They’re asking for beekeepers to fill out a 20- to 30-minute survey on our practices and results in our bee yards. As far as I know, this is the most comprehensive and popular survey of beekeeping in the US, netting an estimated 11 percent … More Bee Informed Partnership Releases Study Results
I recently received a call from Patrick Stutz of Stutz Photography, asking if I would help him with an upcoming show. Yahara Bay Distillery in Madison is putting on a Preserve Festival to celebrate food and its preservation. You can see an article covering the festival from the Wisconsin State Journal and find more details … More The Honey Thief — Recent Work with Stutz Photography on Display at Yahara Bay Distillery
I’ve been splitting hives since I started keeping bees 4 years ago and I’m still on my original line of bees (meaning I bought one nuc four years ago and am still going). This Saturday afternoon at 3:00 P.M. I’m going to start splitting my hives. The weather is cool, but I don’t want to … More Come Learn to Split Beehives This Weekend: 3 p.m. Saturday
In the last report, we found that the institute bees survived the “polar vortex” -30°F (plus windchill) temperatures but the research hives, which were split heavily and smaller in size, did not. It is now reaching flying temperatures most days (>50°F) and the bees in all four institute hives have been out. Institute Hives … More Bee Report — Early Spring is Here
After the polar vortex visited us with -30°F temperatures, we warmed up to the mid 40ºFs, and I took the opportunity to check on our bees. At this time of year, the bees are not hibernating, as many people think. They form a cluster around the center of the hive and shiver themselves together to … More Bee Report — Midwinter Check
The bees are preparing for winter. Last week I went into the hives to consolidate winter stores and check on the health of the colonies. We have four hives on the institute property and four hives around the village as part of our mite-tolerant breeding program. The four hives on the institute property were split … More Bee Report — Tucking the Bees in for Winter
Things are going well for the bees. The institute currently has four hives as part of its mite-tolerant breeding program. To increase the number of hives going into the winter, about a month ago, I split our two original hives into four: I pulled the queen, two frames of brood, and two frames of honey, … More Bee Report — Study Hive Splits and Bee Vacuum
A healthy bee colony will outgrow its hive most years. When this happens, a swarm is sent out, dividing the colony into two or more: the original queen leaves with half the hive and those left behind raise new queens from left-over eggs. The swarm parks itself in a convenient location as a large mass … More Bee Report — “Cutout” becomes a “Trapout” in Brodhead
It is now July and Varroa destructor mite populations are likely on the rise, so it is time to start testing the hives regularly. Of all the testing methods, some of which require the beekeeper to kill off drone brood or euthanize a sample of bees, the “powdered sugar roll” (PSR) seems to be the … More Bee Report — Mite Testing
Last month I split out my hives and used on-the-spot queen rearing to raise new queens for three young colonies (read about this process in Part I and Part II). It takes about 23–30 days for a queen to grow from an egg (3 days) to larva (5 1/2 days) to pupa in capped brood … More Bee Report — Update on Splits