Have you ever thought much about the hive stands you use? On today’s episode, Jim and Kim take a long look at the hive stands they use and why they favor them. They also look at a lot of other choices available to beekeepers – all based upon personal preferences, terrain, individual strength and even weather! Are some better than others? Absolutely! Are some expensive, while others free? Absolutely! Do you get what you pay for? Most of the time. Your hive stand can tall a lot about how you keep ...
Aug 11, 2022•19 min•Ep. 86
How much honey do you leave for the bees this winter? Like lots of things in beekeeping, it depends. Since “all beekeeping is local”, it is good to start in your own backyard. Do you live in the south? Midwest? North? Far north? When are you pulling your honey? In August? Or November? Do you typically have a fall nectar flow? Is it strong or just… meh . If you don’t know, check with another beekeeper. They can give you added insight to the local conditions. ( This is yet another time knowing an ...
Aug 04, 2022•18 min•Ep. 85
It’s hot out there and it looks like it isn’t going to cool off for most of us for awhile. Also, since mite treatments should be starting now, getting honey off in the heat is the rule of the day. So how do you stay cool when it’s hot out there? Well, Kim and Jim take a good long look at how to stay cool and what happens if you overdo in the heat. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow or subscribe today and leave a comment. We'd love to hear from you! ___________________ Thanks to B...
Jul 28, 2022•16 min•Ep. 84
If you have a colony of honey bees, chances are, at some point, some year, that colony will become queenless. If you do not realize it and the bees are unsuccessful at re-queening themselves, there is a pretty good chance, your colony will end up with laying workers . In this episode, Jim and visiting cohost, Jeff Ott from Beekeeping Today Podcast , talk about laying workers. How can you tell if you have laying workers? The first sign many beekeepers recognize is the appearance of multiple eggs ...
Jul 21, 2022•20 min•Ep. 83
Swarm season is fun and exhilarating. Much has been written about swarms. They’ve been studied, photographed, pursued and just… watched. But what does the beekeeper do with the parent colony the next day? What do they do with the swarm after they’ve caught it and put it in a box? In today’s episode Jim and Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast ) talk about… what should you do, After The Swarm ? Listen as Jim and Jeff talk about the post swarm queen. Which queen? Both! Either the new queen in t...
Jul 14, 2022•21 min•Ep. 82
On today’s episode, Kim and Jim talks about what it takes to be a mentor to another beekeeper, and therefore what you can look for in a good mentor. As a mentor, you have to develop good communication between you and your mentee. That means communication both ways – them to you, you to them. Establish guidelines for times, locations, and other requirements that you both respect. Go into the relationship knowing that constructive criticism is necessary. Not only for mistakes, but for chances to l...
Jul 07, 2022•19 min•Ep. 81
On today’s episode, Jim and Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast ), discuss the value and use of the ‘love it or hate it” piece of equipment, the Queen Excluder. Queen excluders are included in almost every “Honey Producer Starter Package”, but why and how are they used? Jim and Jeff discuss the multiple uses of a queen excluders (Did you know they will also exclude drones? Or that you can use one to help while uncapping frames of honey? Of course you did!) They discuss the types of queen exc...
Jun 30, 2022•23 min•Ep. 80
After you get through the winter, spring buildup, swarming season and the ever present varroa, you can sit back and smell the flowers, right? You’re a beekeeper! There is no time to rest! Jim has a question for you… “Where are your bees getting the water they need?” On today’s episode, Jim and Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast ) talk about where your bees are likely to find the water they need. If you are miles from your nearest neighbor, then you only need to consider whether or not there...
Jun 23, 2022•19 min•Ep. 79
Pretty much every beekeeper, at one time or another, ends up with a queen that’s not doing what they think she should be doing or - not doing what all the rest of your queens are doing. So, what is happening and can you do anything to get her going? Marginal queens are tough to identify. There is one easy fix: You just replace her. That said, how long do you wait to make a decision? Wait! Perhaps it is not the queen that’s marginal. Maybe something else going on. Once you figure that out, when d...
Jun 16, 2022•18 min•Ep. 78
It doesn’t take long after getting into beekeeping and then repeatedly, as long as you have beekeeping equipment laying around or stacked neatly, until you have to deal with small furry pests. Mice, rats and other critters love the shelter, warmth, relative safety and often food, found in beekeeping equipment. In today’s episode, Jim Tew talks with Jeff Ott, from Beekeeping Today Podcast , about Small Furry Pests. There are ways to deal with mice and rats. What works in a bee yard? The guys talk...
Jun 09, 2022•21 min•Ep. 77
During a recent trip to a big-name US drug store, Kim saw honey on the shelf for $4.99 per pound. It was a blend of honeys from Argentina and India. A US commercial beekeeper shoots for a price of honey (in the 55-gallon barrel to a packer) for about the going price of diesel fuel, which, at the end of May was pushing $7 per gallon. In today’s Honey Bee Obscura episode, Kim and Jim dissect this problem a bit. This quickly leads to the question we should all ask ourselves before we casually hand ...
Jun 02, 2022•18 min•Ep. 76
Jim’s beeyard is the center of attention this week, because his bees were bothering his wife and a very patient, longtime neighbor. That’s not a good thing. So, exasperated, Jim asks Kim for his ideas about all that was going on and to help figure out why. Two of his colonies were swarming or at least it looked that way. Plus, he is experiencing a nectar dearth at the moment. Is robbing part of the problem? Regardless, his bees are feisty and others are paying the price. It was a mixed bag of be...
May 26, 2022•19 min•Ep. 75
If a pollinator garden is in your future this summer, constructing a raised bed is one way to keep it under control and is a much easier approach to providing food for your bees, beauty for your yard and not an aching back for you. There are all varieties of raised bed gardens. The one pictured below is made of metal, purchased from a gardening company that specializes in these and will last years with little maintenance. Simpler models have only metal corner posts, the gardener supplies the woo...
May 19, 2022•19 min•Ep. 74
So you have already put in your two packages (you did get two, right?) and a few days, or maybe a week later you checked them and…..something’s wrong! What can go wrong with a new package? Kim and Jim chat a bit about the things that can and for some, will go wrong with new packages. First check, the queen’s dead in her cage. Get a new one, find some brood from another colony, join with another colony? All work, but which is best? After a week you check and…..no bees! They all left! Where did th...
May 12, 2022•16 min•Ep. 73
Package season is about over for 2022. Perhaps thankfully too, depending on where in the country you live. Installing packages does not always go well or as depicted in bee books or Internet videos. Sometimes, the weather just does not cooperate. In this week’s episode, Jim talks with Jeff Ott from Beekeeping Today Podcast about installing packages in bad weather. When you order and pay your deposit in January and February for your packages later in the spring, you envision they will show up on ...
May 05, 2022•21 min•Ep. 72
Have you ever been involved in planning and carrying out a beekeeping meeting? If not, there are a host of things to consider that you may have missed when you simply ‘attend’ a meeting. Kim and Jim have attended probably thousands of meetings, and over the last 30 plus years, have seen everything that can go wrong, go wrong, and what those who make good plans did to fix it. They’ve seen lots of meetings run as smooth as glass. Plus, Kim has served as President of both the Connecticut and Ohio S...
Apr 28, 2022•22 min•Ep. 71
What are the important considerations for finding a new bee yard? There are a whole lot of right answers to this question and Kim and Jim explore almost all of them. For starters, year-round access, locked gates, dangerous animals, safety, and liability (yours and the property owner)? There are many questions you should ask. The answers, of course, are going to be all over the map (sorry) and you will need to know (and probably have in writing) the answers to all of them. Plus, talk to as many b...
Apr 21, 2022•19 min•Ep. 70
If your colonies make it through the winter, or if you simply purchased more bees as a package or nuc, their next challenge is making it through the changeable spring weather. (Especially this year, it seems.) Your management challenge is deciding what and how to feed them. In this episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott discuss supplemental spring feeding . Specifically, they discuss the feeding of carbohydrates or sugar water. (The supplemental feeding of protein (pollen) will be covered in a future epi...
Apr 14, 2022•20 min•Ep. 69
This time of year, experienced and new beekeepers are receiving their packaged bees and nucs. Only a few of these packages and nucs are going home to new equipment. Many will go home to equipment left over from last year's failed colonies. Is it safe to use this equipment? In this episode, Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast ) fills in for Kim Flottum and asks Jim, can he use his old equipment. What about the old honey? Will it hurt if the honey is fermenting or crystallized? What about mold...
Apr 07, 2022•19 min•Ep. 68
A beekeeper's most exciting moment is undoubtedly, capturing and hiving a swarm... especially when it is someone else's bees! In today episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott - who is filling in for Kim Flottum this week - discuss capturing swarms and how you can be prepared this year. How can you be prepared? Get some basic equipment pulled together. A container of some type (preferably bee-tight), such as a hive body with a frame or two of brood comb foundation, pruning shears, a tarp - white is best fo...
Mar 31, 2022•23 min•Ep. 67
In today's episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott (who's stepping in this week for Kim Flottum) discuss their experiences using swarm traps - sometimes called "bait hives". Swarm traps are used by beekeepers to lure the scout bees looking for a new home. There are multiple types of swarm traps from the commercially available 'flower pot' type traps, to home-made traps to simply setting out old hive bodies with a frame or two of brood comb or foundation. Jim and Jeff talk about what they've used, what'd w...
Mar 24, 2022•17 min•Ep. 66
This week, Beekeeping Today Podcast's co-host, Jeff Ott sits in for Kim Flottum and joins podcast regular, Jim Tew to answer listener questions. Kim and Jim have often discussed the pros and cons of using all medium equipment. Today, Jim and Jeff answer the listener question about how to move from deeps to mediums (or 'western') boxes for the brood boxes. What do you use? What do you like? What don't you like? What is your favorite beekeeping tool not found in a beekeeping catalog or your local ...
Mar 17, 2022•22 min•Ep. 65
So, what do you do with your old wax? For some of us, as little as possible, but for others, there’s money to be made. There are different kinds of wax based on a couple of factors, including how long it was in the hive and how it was used by the bees. Bees wax from the brood area tends to get dark fast, in a couple of years, it’s nearly black from old cocoons, pollen, uneaten honey and the like. In fact, after a couple of years those old combs will have enough dirt, grime, propolis and especial...
Mar 10, 2022•16 min•Ep. 64
What can you do with all that old beekeeping equipment you don’t need, don’t want and is in the way most of the time? There are several ways to look at this, and the first way, of course, is to simply trash it, burn it, bury it. That works, but there’s maybe a better way. In this week’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss how they deal with old equipment! First question to consider: Is it clean? In some states, you’ll need an inspector’s seal of approval if you’re giving it to someone so you don’t spre...
Mar 03, 2022•15 min•Ep. 63
In today’s episode, Kim and Jim discuss making money with honey bees. Almost every beekeeper has had someone (usually a spouse…) say, “I thought you were going to make money as a beekeeper.” Well, it is possible to make money with bees, but you have to put some thought into it. Do you have the time for the extra work required and can you afford to spend less time with your family? Do you have the equipment you’ll need to do the things you can do to make money? Do you have the energy? Well, start...
Feb 24, 2022•18 min•Ep. 62
A good rule when raising a few queens is to keep it simple. And not having to graft larvae from one cell to another is as simple as could be. So, how can that be done? The Hopkins method is one way, where you simply put a frame with eggs and larvae in a queenless colony and let them do their thing. You even have some controls of the genetics that way, depending on where that frame comes from. Or you can simply do a split, remove the queen from one or both and get out of the way and let them rais...
Feb 17, 2022•16 min•Ep. 61
It’s early February and it’s winter. But winter in northern Ohio is a lot different than winter in the south, where bees are flying, foraging and raising brood. And where it’s cold, you can’t be doing things with your bees, but you can be doing things for your bees: Getting ready for spring. Food can be a problem right now. How much did you leave last fall? It’s tough to look, but if you can get a glimpse inside, how would you feed them if you had to? Fondant works, usually, by cracking a super ...
Feb 10, 2022•18 min•Ep. 60
Managing large observation hives is very different than working with those small observation hives that you can take to a school or county fair. Very different indeed. Especially if you are going to keep this hive in your home or classroom. To begin, there’s really no standard design. They can be a single frame wide or 2 or more frames wide. And how tall? Two, three frames tall? More than one frame wide and you’ll probably never see the queen, if only a single frame, the bees never get to cluste...
Feb 03, 2022•19 min•Ep. 59
Small, portable, usually single frame observation hives are ideal for meetings, demonstrations, lectures and even for study. They can be homemade or produced by bee supply companies, but there are a few things to keep in mind when using them…. especially when children are your audience. Kids are full of energy and accidents happen. Make sure you observation hive is rough and tumble ready, securely held in place for when kids are pointing, showing and asking questions. How many bees should you ha...
Jan 27, 2022•20 min•Ep. 58
In today’s episode, Kim and Jim continue their exploration of Bee Beards… though this time… they go big… really big bee beards you see in the movies, where they use 20 maybe 30 pounds of bees, and the person is covered from the top of his head to his shoe laces? How can they do that? You have to start with that many bees that have been queenless for up to a couple three days. Queenless packages work well here. Then, you put them all in one big box, and using a piece of screen, with Vaseline smea...
Jan 20, 2022•18 min•Ep. 57
