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Excellent posts fellow beeks! I have a few suggestions that may be helpful. 1. If you live in the northern states the best honeybee I have found for strong over-wintering is the Carniolan honey bee. No joke! I have pulled frames in January that were 85% full of sealed brood and this is...

Beekissed, Thank you for the super informative post. I was beginning to think I was the only person that was struggling with trimming the hooves! Katahdin...wow, that is the exact breed we were gonna experiment with next. My neighbor offered to sell me some 8 week old lambs...but our ranch...

Wow, haven't checked this thread out in many, many moons! Here's some of my thoughts after trying many, many different methods: 1. I believe there are various successful ways to use sheep chairs...yet, for us, they never really worked. 2. We also built a really, really nice sheep squeeze, but...

We only use queen excluders when utilizing the Cloakeboard queen raising method. I prefer plastic.

No problem! It is super simple. We purchased one of the 10 gallon stainless steel boiling pots off of Ebay. Next, we purchased one of those large propane burners as well. The 10 gallon stainless steel boiling pot fits perfectly on top of the burner. I fill the pot about 6 inches full of...

I sure admire your desire to raise honeybees! I advise you to contact your nearest honeybee association/club. Usually they have several members that enjoy taking people "under their wing." For me personally, I learned more from a few days working with a professional beekeeper than I did...

Nao,, Vinegar helps. We add 3 tablespoons of clorox per 10 gallons of sugar syrup...totally takes care of the yeast, and more importantly the black algae. We learned this from one of the most well known beekeepers/scientist around: Randy Oliver.

There are pros/cons of maintaining large colonies. Some of drawbacks of large colonies we have found: 1. They tend to be MUCH MORE AGGRESSIVE [for me personally, this is the greatest drawback]. 2. Much, much heavier if you need to move them. 3. After nectar flow ceases, they tend to attack/rob...

Purchasing package bees and nucs are not a problem in 2021. I would advise you purchase your bees locally...greater possibility they will be able resist the diseases in your local area... Package bees available all over the nation this year...

Hello Seamac! I am happy to do my best to help you with good advice. Yes, those were custom made anti-robber screens that we designed and created. I actually used computer screen parts for the construction! They were very effective during robbing season, but we no longer use that version...

Hi everyone! I thought I would post some pics of the 2020 swarms we caught! Enjoy!

Anna, So sorry again about you losing all your honeybees. I never would have guessed it becomes that cold in TN! We learned early on that the sugar bricks must be placed above the brood, otherwise the honeybees often will not be able to access it. Two years ago, our honeybees did not bring...

Anna, if this occurred in the spring time when there was a nectar flow, those honeybees should not have even needed sugar syrup. They should have been bringing in lots of nectar and pollen. One more quick question: Do you have any skunks around? Skunks can eat up to 1,000 honeybees a night...

Hi Ridgetop! Yes, I promised myself to NEVER again be careless with the smokers...so... We automatically place the smoker EVERY TIME into a steel bucket with a sealed lid. And my wife gets on my case if I forget or let up on the watchfulness. No mask...and as for Newsom...sometimes I wish...

Well, to be honest with you, I was only joking about a commercial with Ridgid! I was trying to make light of the situation, but, in all honesty, I believe that Ridgid Lithium battery was merely seconds away from becoming a lethal bomb if the fire had reached the battery! So no commercial for...

Anna, It is possible you had some yellow jackets or wasps that killed your queens, then the colony cannot survive through the winter. We had this problem this last winter. I hope you find success in your beekeeping endeavors! Soar

Crush the new queen cells? For us, we NEVER crush the new queen cells! Crushing new queen cells severely interrupts the nature cycle of the honeybee survival laws of multiplication. Why go against nature? Once a colony starts creating swarm cells, it is nearly impossible to stop them from...

Update: Feeling a lot better. Most of the pain in the fingers is gone. Weird...it went from like 500 over 10 pain level down to almost nothing at all and the pain subsided within a one hour period. I certainly do not understand that at all. Wanna know what it felt like? No joke, for two...

Well, I am dwelling on the brighter side of things.... Still have all my body parts although some are a bit toasted Doctor said I should be fine, but must watch for infections during the healing process Still have my truck I got off without a ticket or moving violation I got a free swim in the...

It all started so beautiful! Got a call last night to pick up a swarm in a nearby big city. Also had a swarm go into one of our traps only a couple of miles away from where the phone in request to collect the new swarm. The picture they sent me last night was sooooo beautiful...in fact, for...