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Fall Management for Beekeepers
When the weather starts to get colder and daylight gets shorter, you know fall is approaching. For beekeepers, there are certain tasks that must be done in fall in order to prepare their hives for winter. Why Fall Management is Important Fall management is important for your hives because you want to make sure that your bees can survive the winter and then build up quickly in the spring. You want your colonies to stay healthy, well fed, and disease free. While the bees do most of the hard work to prepare for fall and winter, there are a few things that the beekeeper can do to help them out. …
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Garlic Infused Honey Benefits: A Natural Remedy for Your Health
As cold season approaches, many people hope to find ways to avoid getting sick. This is usually done by strengthening your immune system. A good way to do this is by eating foods that naturally support and boost our health. Raw honey has long been known to be a healthy superfood because of it’s antibacterial and antiviral properties. Combine that with garlic, which has anti-inflammatory and immunity benefits, and you’ve created your very own natural (and tasty) medicine. Food as Medicine Food as medicine is a concept that recognizes the connection food has to our health and well being. It is believed that food, instead of medicine, is able to…
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Is Beekeeping Legal in my City?
There are many reasons to start beekeeping. You may want to harvest your own honey and beeswax, add pollinators to your garden, or you may just find bees fascinating. And with urban beekeeping on the rise and beekeeping supplies easy to obtain, there’s no better time to become a beekeeper. But, before you start you must ask this question – is beekeeping legal in my city? If you live in the US, beekeeping is probably legal in your city. However, your city will have ordinances in place that must be followed. Scroll down to see beekeeping ordinances by state. The absolute first thing you should do before becoming a beekeeper…
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Best Beekeeping Books for Beginners
It’s a question many experienced beekeepers are asked – What advice do you have for someone interested in beekeeping? The answers may vary, but most will say, “Do your research!” What they mean by that is that you should take time to read about your new hobby. In particular, learn as much as you can about how bees function. Learn about their life cycle and why they do the things they do. It’s all very fascinating, so even non-beekeepers would enjoy learning these things. Luckily, nowadays there are tons of free information on the internet. Tons of resources about beekeeping are at your fingertips. However, some people may enjoy having…
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5 Reasons Why You Should Involve Your Kids in Beekeeping
Beekeeping has many benefits. It’s good for your garden and environment, you get fresh, sweet, honey, and you can even profit from it. But one of my favorite things about beekeeping is that it’s a family hobby. Beekeeping is something that the whole family can enjoy – including kids! Here are 5 reasons why you should involve your kids in beekeeping. Benefits of Beekeeping With Kids Get Kids Out in Nature Nowadays with kids being in front of screens more often than not, beekeeping offers a good excuse to get kids out in nature. As a parent, there’s nothing quite like being out in the natural world, sharing precious time…
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Health and Beauty Benefits of Beeswax
When you think of beekeeping you may think about harvesting honey, but there are other resources that can be collected from beehives too. Beeswax is a wax made by bees which is then formed into cells. Bees use the cells to store honey and pollen, but did you know there are also beeswax uses for skin and hair? Beeswax has long been used by people for it’s natural health and beauty benefits. This article will discuss beeswax uses for skin, beeswax benefits for lips, how to use beeswax for hair, and the benefits of eating beeswax. What is Beeswax? Worker bees produce beeswax from special glands on their bodies. Brand…
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When to Harvest Honey From Beehives
It’s the most exciting part of beekeeping – the honey harvest. After all those months of caring for your bee colony you finally get to reap the rewards of your hard work. If you are new to beekeeping you may not know much about harvesting honey, but that’s okay. This article will go over how and when to harvest honey from beehives. How Bees Make Honey First, let’s have a quick review of how bees make honey. First of all, not all bees make honey. Some bees collect and store pollen. The honey bee however, collects pollen and nectar to create honey. They store the honey to be eaten during…
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How to Use a Robber Bees Screen
It’s something all beekeepers have to deal with at one time or another – robber bees. Left unattended, robbing can be a big problem for colonies. Using a robber bees screen is a great way to prevent robbing from starting in the first place. What Are Robber Bees? Robber bees are bees that enter a different colony with the intention to steal their honey. These are forager bees that simply want to collect food to bring back to their own colony. Since robbing isn’t an easy task, robbers will target a weaker colony to steal from. To enter the hive she must first fight the guard bees at the entrance. …
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Do Ants Harm Beehives?
“There are ants in my beehive!” is a common complaint among beekeepers. It’s not surprising because ants are often attracted to sugary foods. So finding a beehive full of sweet honey must be like hitting the jackpot for them. But for beekeepers, while ants are a nuisance, at what point do you step in and get rid of the ants? Do ants harm beehives? Why Ants Like Beehives Like most creatures that try to invade a beehive, ants are attracted to the smell of honey. Just like ant traps use a sweet smelling bait to lure ants, honey is the reason ants will enter a hive. Furthermore, if you are…
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Maintaining Strong Bee Colonies: A Step-by-Step Beehive Inspection Checklist
Beehive inspections are an important part of beekeeping. It is the only way to determine the colony’s health and wellbeing. Beehive inspections can be intimidating to new beekeepers because it is so hands on, but they quickly get the hang of it and find it enjoyable. This post will talk about the importance of hive inspections, as well as discuss how and when to do hive inspections. Beehive inspection lists are very useful to keep track of your hives. For your convenience, there is a beehive inspection list pdf included at the end of this post. Why Do Beehive Inspections? Beehive inspections tell the beekeeper what is going on inside…
