You should have already gotten your wooden ware ready for the swarm season. When you did that, you got ready to split also. Your boxes are cleaned, painted, and have frames of wax, plastic, small lines of wax on the bottom of the top bars, or frames of drawn wax alternated with empty frames. You [...]

We have taken care of our honeybees to the point that they depend on us, the beekeepers, to keep them healthy and pest free. We are not doing such a good job at that. The bees have lost the ability to fight off parasites, viruses, pathogens, and the common cold like their forefathers did and [...]

Alas, I am still the reporter for the NEBA workshop (unofficially). The speakers were: Audrey Berry, Research Tech from the Mississippi State University Entomology Dept. speaking on the Small Hive Beetle and how to cope; Mark Dykes, Research Tech from the University of Florida Entomology Dept. speaking on the African Honey Bee; Robert (Rob) Housburgh, [...]

I was contacted today to help get the information out to beekeepers who might be interested in getting all or part of a thriving bee business in the Tupelo country. Due to health, the beekeeper has to get out of the business. The following was sent to me to post. Thank you for your time. [...]

This post is different than most of the other ones I have written. This one is about my observations and abstract thinking. Florida has had a lot of new beekeepers joining the ranks. There have been over 8 new beekeeping associations formed in the last 4 years in this state alone. Alabama and Georgia have [...]

Let me tell you, there are some people that just refuse to change. Two years ago, we changed our Workshop to Chautauqua just to bee different from all the rest of the workshops nationwide. Chautauqua means gathering for the purpose of exchanging information, ideas, and to trade goods. That is what a workshop is.. basically. [...]

To break even or maybe make a little profit, you should make some financial plans. First you need to know how much money you can spend at the beginning of the venture. If you have enough money on hand that you do not need to borrow from the household, then you are well on your [...]

Last year I was at the Santa Rosa County Fair selling honey and talking about bees and showing my Honeybee Observation Hive. While I was there, I was fortunate enough to be able to walk around the exhibit building. There were many exhibits that could have been classified as hobbies and businesses. Example, there was [...]

Just so you will know, my Thanksgiving was wonderful. I had my youngest son and his family up from Orlando here for a whole week. Didn’t get anything done on my bee equipment, but I had a fun-filled relaxing week of just playing around. I did have several days of stomach virus, but I am [...]

The FFA teacher/adviser, Perry, called me last month to go up to Northview High School in the northern part of the county to show the FFA students how to decap and extract honey. I do this every year (six or seven years now), but usually one or two months earlier. He said that he hoped [...]