Workshop

I’ve added a page in the “what we do” section of the website about the workshop in April. Registration will start before the end of the month, as soon as we work out a couple of details.Thanks for being patient! the link for the info page is here
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Late-winter workshop

This winter is shaping up to be an excellent one for a beekeeper: cold and snowy. I was out to Simcoe and checked on the ladies there and my worries have been allayed. Despite the near-constant wind and temperatures that have been down in the -15C region, I was able to hear the bees buzzing at all fours hives (three full-size and one nuc). It’s also been a busy winter for folks looking for...
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More on that CCD article

So, I made a bit of a crack aboutb the state of science reporting in Thursday’s post. To recap, a team of bee scientists and some Army entymologists published a paper pointing to yet another theory as to the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder. It was even worse than it looked. NY Times reporter Kirk Johnson failed to inquire about the source of funding for the study. Why should he have, you...
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CCD cause found?

It looks like we can all relax and rejoice: The NYTimes is reporting that a joint US Army – Univsiry of Montana research team has found the culprit that’s killing off the bees. Maybe. A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in the online science journal PLoS...
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Closing out the summer

Where did the summer go? I swear we were just doing Springtime splits only a week or two ago. As I’ve said before, this has been an incredible season for the bees. The warm weather started early in the year and has pretty much held until last week. Summer’s been hot, but there’s been enough rain and at the right times to keep everything growing. Gardeners around here are...
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Busy, busy season

What a difference a year makes. 2009, with all the rain and cool temperatures, made for a terrible beekeeping year. The foragers had a terrible time collecting the nectar that they needed, there were reports of odd queen issues all over (we had one hive re-queen three times) and the damp air made it difficult for the workers to dry down the nectar to the point where they could cap the...
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