In the third and final article in our series on populating new hives, we discuss purchasing fully-established hives. While novice beekeepers can greatly benefit from starting off with a colony that is already up-and-running, there are things to watch out for. Experienced beekeepers will usually buy package bees or nucleus colonies to populate their hives as the weather warms. For new …
In Part II of our series, we continue our discussion of ways to add honey bees to a new hive. Capturing feral swarms of bees is certainly an exciting and economic method, but requires the right timing and careful planning. Whatever method you use, be sure to keep your safety — and the well-being of the bees — a top priority. There’s …
There are many ways to add bees to a newly purchased hive. After choosing a good location, assembling your hive and gathering the necessary tools, it’s time to decide how you will obtain your bees. In this first of three Learning Center articles on these options, we cover the positive and negative aspects of using a nucleus, or nucs, to establish …
One of the most frequent questions we hear new beekeepers ask is how to tell supersedure cells from swarm cells. While at first it may seem difficult to tell these two types of queen cells apart, with a little help you’ll find you can identify which one is which. What is a Cell? To understand the difference between a supersedure cell and …
Varroa mites can quickly become a very serious problem for bees and bee keepers. To keep your colony safe from the effects of this parasite, be sure to perform periodic inspections. Using the EasyCheck system from Véto-pharma makes the process simple and provides an accurate assessment of the infestation in a hive. What are Varroa Mites? Varroa mites are external parasites of …
A week after installing your package bees, it’s time to perform your first hive inspection and see if the bees have accepted the queen and started to draw out the foundation. Getting Ready for the First Hive Inspection For this first inspection, we suggest wearing some level of protective clothing. Depending on your experience with beekeeping, you may be comfortable with minimal …
1. Q: What is Apiguard? A: Apiguard is thymol in a slow-release gel used to control varroa mites in honeybee colonies. Apiguard is a product suitable for use in organic farming in the European Union. 2. Q: How do I apply Apiguard? A: See Vita’s instructions on or with the product. If you are using Apiguard in 50g (1.76 ounces) trays: peel back the …
When Is the Right Time to Harvest Honey? For first-year beekeepers, there is usually not a significant amount of honey produced because a majority of nectar is used to build up the wax production in the hive to create a base. One of the main reasons for this is that bees need a lot of nectar to produce wax, around 6 …