Don’t Plant Those “Bee-Friendly” Wildflowers Cheerios Is Giving Away

I can hear you right now: “What? Why not? Cheerios is doing a good thing! What’s wrong with their wildflower seeds?” Well, mostly nothing, but it’s the invasive ones that would be better off staying inside the packet: Forget-me-not is banned as a noxious weed in Massachusetts and Connecticut, for example. The California poppy is nice in California, but listed as …

Honeybees thieves hit Eastern Ontario

Humans have a tendency to presume that everyone like yourself, who likes the same sports team or has the same interests, is good or should be trusted. Beekeepers, doubly so. Unfortunately, some beekeepers proved just how unworthy they are of that trust this week when they cleaned out an apiary of a dear friend of ours: It was a professional heist. The culprits …

Inside a swarm

What comes to mind when someone says the word “swarm”? Instant death, right? Bees attack and don’t stop stinging, right? What if I told you that a swarm is generally the least aggressive that you’ll ever seen honeybees? No, seriously. A swarm is the colony’s way of creating a new hive: about half of the workers and the queen leave the …

The splits are doing very well

This was the scene inside hive #1 today when I added a second box.  I split it into two singles and two nucs less than three weeks ago. I think they’ve recovered, don’t you? 😉

Another day, another hive setup

Way back in March, when I suggested the hive rental idea to Greg, he was skeptical. But, I’d spoken with Marianne Gee with Gees Bees Honey Company and they were quite happy and I figured it was worth a shot. I was flabbergasted by the interest. We actually have a waiting list of folks wanting to place a hive. It’s …

How honeybees do without males

Speaking as a male, I’m not sure I approve of this, but nobody asked. 😉 An isolated population of honeybees, the Cape bees, living in South Africa has evolved a strategy to reproduce without males. A research team has sequenced the entire genomes of a sample of Cape bees and compared them with other populations of honeybees to find out …