The practice of using smoke to calm a beehive is probably as old as the idea of robbing a bunch of stinging insects. However, no one really understood how it works until the 20th century and we still don't fully understand. Thanks to science, we do know that smoke covers a pheromone that the bees release when they are squished, or after they've stung something, called an alarm pheromone. This … [Read more...]

If used properly a queen excluder can be quite helpful. When you harvest honey there wouldn't be a need to check each frame for brood first. Just get the bees out of the supers, which is the hard part, and then take the supers. Since the queen and brood are supposed to be in the brood chamber, you could harvest honey almost worry free. However, there are some people who would call it a honey … [Read more...]

I was privileged to attend the NCSBA (North Carolina State Beekeeper's Association) meeting this month. In 3 days I learned more about bees than I have time to write! First of all, that opinions concerning colony management practices are just as diverse as beekeeper's personalities. On a more serious note, I also learned that pesticide residues in wax are crippling our bee's immune systems. Also, … [Read more...]