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 [...]

Since my last post, I have had the privilege of talking 16 times to: 4 H groups at seven different schools, three different festivals, and 2 different garden clubs that spanned six weeks. I am getting ready to do some more promotion on bees at several more festivals in the near future. I just went [...]

Right now, we have only two mites in the United States that we are concerned with. Trachea Mites and Varroa Mites. Trachea Mites are minute eight legged critters that I think are arachnoid in shape. They live in the trachea tubes (breathing or air tubes of the honeybee). They attach themselves to the inside walls [...]

There are three ways to test for mites. Actually two, one kills the bees using one of two approved solutions, and one where the bees continue to live. Using a half pint jar with a canning top and ring, gather about an inch or two of bees and using ether spray liberally into jar and [...]

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 [...]

A young beekeeper called me today and told me he had been out of the country for a while and when he got back, he found all his bees dead. Head in and tails out. They had starved. Why? was his question. The answer is simple: bees need protein and carbohydrates. Pollen is the protein [...]

I was going to really work my 6 hives and one swarm this Spring and really start to expand my bee business and maybe get my bees to make me a little honey. “BEST LAID PLANS OF MEN AND MICE………”. Other than completing my bee talk obligations to the different school’s kindergarten and first & [...]

Do you know the reason for marking your queen  and/or clipping one of her wings? Do you think that mutilating the queen is a sign of Satanism? You are not mutilating the queen to practice for later using larger animals. You are only branding them, not for identification, but to know when one has been [...]

Some of you might have read something about chemicals in the wax of bee hives. What about the wax we send in to the Supply houses? Do they take the chemicals out before making foundation to sell back to the beekeepers? Unfortunately the answer is no. The wax is like a sponge. It sucks in [...]

Thanksgiving and Christmas are over and I just sent my wife to Texas to visit her mother for two weeks. My middle son and his family, who are staying with us, just left to go up to the New England area to preach at one of his sponsoring churches, and maybe several other churches. I [...]