When people find out I’m a beekeeper, usually the first question is, “Do you ever get stung?” I usually reply, “Only when I do something stupid”, which is pretty much the truth. Honey bees are judicious with their stings because to sting you is to die. Every now and then, Read more…
One of the downsides to top bar hives is that new comb is very fragile since it’s only attached to the top bar. In a Langstroth frame, the comb is attached to the foundation that provides stability, or if you are not using foundation, it gets supported on the 4 Read more…
We’ve been having a lot of hot weather the past 2 weeks (hit 102ºF on June 21st), which has made hive inspections problematic. When it’s really warm, new comb can easily collapse, especially if it’s loaded with nectar or honey. A collapsed comb full of nectar is a sticky mess Read more…
I started out this year with one hive and one queen. Through splits and swarms and packages, I’m now up to seven queens for seven hives (brides for brothers?). Of the seven, two queens are home grown (raised from eggs of BnB1’s queen). All of them seem to be doing Read more…
One year ago today, I had my last CyberKnife treatment for prostate cancer (PCa) and was about to begin a 6 month androgen deprivation therapy (ADT – aka “chemical castration”). The idea was that the ADT would kill whatever cancer was not zapped by the radiation by eliminating the testosterone Read more…
Shortly after catching my first ever swarm, I received a call from one of the tenders of the swarm hotline that there was a swarm in someone’s backyard and it was mine if I wanted it. I had just come home from work and was planning on looking in on Read more…
It’s been over a month since my last post which I know has had some of you wondering if I’m still blogging or beekeeping. There’s a saying in beekeeping – you can either make bees or make honey, meaning that if you spend a lot of your beekeeping efforts raising Read more…