Bees – Page 4 – Low Technology Institute

Das Bienenhaus (The Bee House) at the Swiss Historical Village– Part I

August 29, 2017

In Switzerland and other German-speaking Alpine regions, bees were traditionally kept in large, purpose-built sheds. Since the 1970s, their popularity has declined as they were overtaken by Langstroth and other cheaper beehive configurations. I’ve been interested in this type of beehive because they are aesthetically pleasing and may provide better winter survival as the colonies … More Das Bienenhaus (The Bee House) at the Swiss Historical Village– Part I

Bee Report — Horizontal Langstroth Update

August 15, 2017

This spring I built a few horizontal Langstroth hives. These are more user friendly than the stacked boxes of Langstroth-style hives (these are the typical ones you see around the countryside), and I have new ones for sale. In June I installed three colonies in two hive bodies. These hives have space for winter insulation … More Bee Report — Horizontal Langstroth Update

Bee Report — 2017 Honey Extraction

August 10, 2017

It’s time to harvest honey from the hives. We had two hives making honey for us this year. Bees store honey in the top of their space. We use this tendency to our advantage and put hive boxes full of short honey frames on top of the hive. You can see the shorter boxes on … More Bee Report — 2017 Honey Extraction

Audio Clip — Releasing Bees

June 7, 2017

Enjoy this short clip of audio from the release of the bees a few days ago. They had been sequestered in their hives for 48 hours to help them reorient to their new hive locations. You’ll hear a low rumble and clicking for the first half of the clip. This is the bees trying to … More Audio Clip — Releasing Bees

Video — Looking for Queen Cells

May 10, 2017

I am back in the hive looking for queen cells in the hive I split a few days ago. I brought the camera in closer for a better look. In short, the bees have raised queen cells.

Meet Phil the Groundhog

April 25, 2017

We’re in the process of moving into our permanent location and we’ll be limiting our posts to short entries. Please bear with us.

On the first day moving into the Longborne property, we spied a Groundhog (AKA Woodchuck), which we have dubbed “Phil” after the famous groundhog in Pennsylvania. As he is not posing a problem to our grounds or livestock, we’re going to let him continue to occupy his burrow. He was here before us, after all. … More Meet Phil the Groundhog

Bee Report — Moving Hives

April 24, 2017

We’re in the process of moving into our permanent location and we’ll be limiting our posts to short entries. Please bear with us. We picked up our hives last week and moved them to our new location. As bees are diurnal, we move hives at night by plugging the entry when all the bees are … More Bee Report — Moving Hives

Low Tech Design — Beehive Stand

April 17, 2017

Here is a simple construction project to build a stand to hold beehives. It is another in the Low Tech Design series. You can find the library of Low Tech Designs under the “Publications” tab. … More Low Tech Design — Beehive Stand

Bee Report — Down a Hive

April 6, 2017

On Sunday we did our first hive inspection of the year and were surprised to find one of our two hives was dead. This was a disappointment because both hives had been going strong a few weeks ago when we checked. We had originally planned to check the amount of honey stores left over in … More Bee Report — Down a Hive

Beehives Three Ways: Long Lanstroth, Layens, and Trågkupa (for sale, too!)

March 26, 2017

We’ll be building three types of beehives this year for the institute’s bee yard. We’ll be chronicling the builds here on the blog and posting full plans and updates throughout their uselife. The goal is to compare overwintering and other observations on their use. We will also build extra beehives for sale if you are in the Madison, Wisconsin, area. Please get in touch if you are interested in purchasing a hive. … More Beehives Three Ways: Long Lanstroth, Layens, and Trågkupa (for sale, too!)

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