It’s always exciting to see the queen when inspecting a hive. It’s particularly exciting to see a new queen emerge from her queen cell for the first time! The birth of a new queen! I was fortunate to witness this recently. I opened one of my hives for a usual inspection and found multiple queen […]
Beekeepers this time of year are excited to dive in for a first inspection of the spring. It’s common to find that some hives in your apiary didn’t survive the winter. Don’t be too discouraged by this because it’s statistically normal to lose some hives, even with the best of beekeeping practices. But, it’s helpful […]
Spring has sprung! We got lucky here in Boise, Idaho this past week with a few sunny days in the 60s – perfect for the first inspection of the spring. I was happy to find that two of my three hives are alive and well! Those odds are pretty good. 1. The first one I […]
Hives that survived through the new year were likely low on Varroa mites going into the cold season. On the contrary, I’ve noticed that hives with high Varroa levels going into winter often die before the new year. So, pat yourself on the back if your hives are still alive right now! You can tell […]
Autumn is here! This signals a drastic change for beekeepers, as we are less able to effectively inspect our hives. Cooler temperatures are the culprit of this and I am often asked “what temperature is too cold to inspect a hive?” The short answer is – somewhere around 60 degrees or warmer. But there’s a […]
Honey bees are known to be quite hygienic. They take care to ensure that their hive is clean. Nearly all hives are experts at removing foreign substances from their home – debris, non-welcomed insects, etc. Some hives even go as far as to remove problematic substances that could cause disease to take hold of their […]
The Boise State Bee Team continued their work alongside Dr. Brandon Hopkins and his amazing research team at Washington State University. We were first tasked with finding queens in colonies and marking them. This step was very important because it allowed us to the take frames of worker “nurse bees” and remove them from the […]
The Boise State Bee Team is at it again. School is out and it’s now vacation time – “edu-vacation” time, that is. The Bee Team took an educational vacation up to the Palouse region of Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington to visit Washington State University’s amazing beekeeping research program. We were so impressed and appreciative […]
New beekeepers are often eager (or terrified) to dive into their beehives during their first year. It’s so exciting to open the lid and see what’s going on in that complex society now living in your backyard. I frequently get asked questions such as: how often should I inspect my hive? Is checking weekly too […]
One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is – “Is beekeeping easy?” The short answer is NO. Sorry to crush some dreams here. But stay tuned, because it gets better! The long answer involves much more than one word. When I have time to answer this question more thoroughly I will explain to […]
I love working with new beekeepers – they are eager to learn, they ask honest questions, and dive right in! This is truly the best way to learn the art and science of beekeeping. It’s a mix of prepared research with good ol’ hands-on trial and error. You can read every book on beekeeping and […]
Our edu-vacation to Oregon State University’s Honey Bee Research Lab eventually lead us to the actual science labs where graduate assistants are diligently working to collect useful data for unique projects, lead by a very intelligent man, Ramesh Sagili. One of the fascinating projects involved a set of observation hives. These are indoor hives with […]
