Rain keeps a beekeeper away from his bees. In some cases, that is bad. But in other cases, that gives him time to stop and recoup. It also gives the essence of life to the flowers so there will be some fall honey for the bees. Now is the time to read, plan, and do [...]

The good part is: My wife was in the hospital for only 2 1/2 days this time and the hernia was repaired with no complications. The bad part is: I have not done any studying  for my Master Beekeepers certificate in October. Go ahead and laugh, but you have to be at the school and [...]

Several things needs to be completed before the Florida State Beekeepers Association Fall Convention, October 26-29, 2011. First I have to get my pickup truck loaded with bottled honey and meet an exercise class to deliver some honey and sell to new customers this morning. Then I have to go get an empty observation hive [...]

Well, we Floridians now have a chance to bottle and sell our honey…LEGALLY!! The House and Senate have passed the bill and it remains with the Governor to sign the Bill to make it law. It says that we little beekeepers do not have to spend big bucks to build a bottling room/building and buy [...]

Since my last post: I have lost my observation hive bees because they didn’t have a queen; had a bee inspection by the State Apiary Bee Inspector and passed; watched and encouraged my son, just returned to the States from Argentina, in replacing the intake manifold on my ’99 Grand Marquis and rejoicing when it [...]

I have about two and a half months to get ready for the Bee College and Fall Florida State Beekeepers Association Convention in Orlando. I have to sell enough honey to pay for fuel down and back, food and snacks, registration fees. I will not have to have room as I will be staying with [...]

I pulled my  supers of honey 11 days ago and got them extracted the same day. I decided to go in the house and rest. I did cover the honey. Well, to make a long story short, I didn’t go back until today to pull the frames out of the extractor. Guess what I found? [...]

Without the benefit of research books and charts, I will tell you what I know about the Varroa Mite. It came to the USA about 1990 give or take a couple of years. It hitched a ride from Asia and came with some honeybees, either as a swarm stowaway or as a boxed hive. The [...]

Sunday afternoon, I had my young beekeeper friends over to pull and extract my honey from the colonies in the back yard. We ended up with a shallow, a medium, and a deep. After extraction, there was about eight and a half gallons of honey ready to be strained and bottled. Now you are wondering [...]

Here is an article that I found on another forum and thought you might like to read it just because. It is about some pre-teenagers from the southern part of Maryland that have started keeping bees as a school project. Now to give an update on the observation hive. I really think the queen is [...]