I feel that I have been away from my computer for more than a year and there are no excuses that could explain that. There are no reasonable reasons either. I have been the Procrastinator’s procrastinator of the century. In my absence, I have been researching a Langsford hive made of styrofoam sandwiched between two […]

By now the main honey flow is over in NW Florida. Oh there are still some flowers left, but the main heavy flow is over or at least slowing down. That means that you should have your honey pulled and extracted or at least getting ready to extract. Reason being, the drought is coming and […]

Howdy all, I have been working with a friend and his wife, getting my back yard ready for the spring roundup. We have made several racks on the fence to put my plastic frames in, to get them off the ground. Once I have time, I will melt some wax and, by using a very short napped […]

There are at least 30 different classes of mites that have been found living in a honeybee hive and at least three of those are considered vampire-like parasites. They live off the haemolymph which is the life blood of the honeybee. One is the Trachea Mite that lives in the breathing tubes of the bee. These are […]

The honey bee is the most versatile insect in the world. It pollinates, makes medicinal products, food, and shows us how the insect world works (in a way). This is a post on how they operate from conception to death, (my own opinion). First of all, the virgin queen goes on a maiden flight to the Drone […]

I have no excuse at this time for my years’ absence since my last post. So I’ll just jump right into my new post….: I have had my two swarms from last Spring over-winter and now I am looking to do some splits from my survivors. I have made some improvements on some of my wooden-ware as […]

I was at the Escarosa Beekeepers Assn meeting and one of the new beekeepers made mention that she could not find her queen.  She said that the bees swarmed while she was out of town and she decided to check her hive. The lady said that she went through the brood box and still couldn’t […]

The last 2 posts are about swarms and splits. This one is for absconds. My definition for absconding is: Every last bee leaves the hive leaving anything they have put in the cells. No adult bees are left, only brood, pollen, and honey. Why do they abscond? That is a very good question and only […]

Splits are artificial swarms. You are making the bees think that they swarmed already. Actually, you are causing the congestion to disappear and makes the bees to have to develop another queen.  By splitting, you cause the bees to swarm at your convenience and not lose any of them. You save the bees and grow you apiary at the same time. […]

Why do bees swarm? Why do beekeepers split their colonies? Why do bees abscond (leave in total) a new or used box? Bees die for various reasons due to old? age (naw! they work themselves to death), Frogs (amphibians), birds (fowls), other insects (insectoids), spiders (arachnids), and beekeepers (homo sapiens) . In order for the bees to remain […]