For the backyard beekeeper/hobbyist, particularly for novices, one of the things that may seem counterintuitive is the idea of rearing a new queen for your colonies. I remember when I first started beekeeping, I was terribly protective of my queen – which is not a bad thing. But there are some really good reasons why […]
Honeybees (and other pollinators) are facing new, manmade threats. In the past year, commercial beekeepers in California – personal friends of mine – lost more than 50 percent of their overwintered hives because of exposure to pesticides IN THE GROVES AND ORCHARDS THEY WERE CONTRACTED TO POLLINATE! In other words, farmers would contract with commercial […]
2017 will be our first full season at our Kenai Mountains Beeyard. We built the beeyard so that we could bring surviving colonies together to breed queens that have a track record of survival. This requires that we find a place far away from other beekeepers, so that we can insure that only queens and […]
A couple pictures of one of our queens, taken July 18 and August 5. The top picture is the day we released her, and the bottom was at a hive check. She has been laying a beautiful pattern of brood.
The series of Michael Bush videos from the Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association is excellent. The programs are between 45 and 90 minutes long, and are very informative. This video is called Lazy Beekeeping, and while it certainly focuses on reducing work, it also addresses a lot of important issues that all beekeepers can appreciate. Check […]
It is… In the spirit of helping to cheer you up at the prospect of winter, I wanted to share this video with you. Michael Bush did a series of presentations at the Shenandoah Valley Beekeepers Association in Virginia, and they are available online. They are excellent videos, and well worth the time. This particular […]
… and its only July! I’ve been keeping bees for five or six years now (I don’t remember exactly, it is all a blur), and this summer is the first time that I actually tried to make my own queens. I have made some “by accident” in the past, but this is the first time […]
There has been quite a bit of bee news in the last day or so, and I thought I would give you a set of links to some articles I read yesterday: Quest for a Superbee – This article from National Geographic discusses the efforts to create strains of bees that are able to fend […]
I found this video online where Michael Bush talks about raising queens. It is a very nice tutorial for the beginner who wants to raise queens, and talks about the advantages of making your own. Michael doesn’t really address the situation we have here. We don’t have feral, acclimated bees. In order to improve the […]
There has been some discussion recently about requeening your hive in July with a surviving queen daughter from Alaska Bee Initiative. There are some good reasons to do it. Many beekeepers will allow their hives to requeen (remove the old queen) right as the nectar flow starts. The reason to do this is to allow […]