Honey, Bear in Mind: Mid-September Things to Do.

 After presenting to a group over the weekend about getting their colonies ready for winter, I realized how far behind I was. So, on Sunday I rolled off the couch and went through our four power hives. I started with them because we knew we had many hives with...

Honey, Bear in Mind: Labor Day Things to Do

Things to Bear in Mind for this Time of Year Happy Labor Day. Your bees have been laboring for us all season. Now is an especially good time to evaluate how we can help with that. August and September are critical months for setting them up to succeed over the winter....

Honey, Bear in Mind: Early August

Flying, stinging insects: Got two swarm calls last week. The first guy told me the “honeybees” were flying out of a gray-brown conical shape attached to his eves. I told him that sounded like wasps, but he claimed he knew honeybees and they definitely were honeybees....

Honey, Bear in Mind: Beards – $100 Bills – Swarms – Etc.

Great time of year to be a beekeeper. Honey is starting to come on (for those of you with power hives), and there’s generally plenty out there for bees to enjoy. Here are some ramblings, and things to Honey, Bear in Mind this time of year. Colony Progress In about a...

Honey, Bear in Mind: Bee-utiful Mid-July

One of our newbees embarrassingly said he “made a mistake” by not getting into his hive for about a month.  He found the second box almost fully drawn, with lots of capped brood and capped honey.  (He also saw bees emerging, always amazing to catch that.) I don’t...

Honey, Bear in Mind: Early-July Update

Hello Beekeepers! I use this blog to update folks with some timely considerations, if you have a new colony in a climate comparable to SW Michigan’s. These considerations may / not apply to you, depending upon your apiary management approach, colony progress, etc....