Before we started beekeeping, the extent of our knowledge of beekeeping was seeing white boxes stacked tall on the edges of almond, orange, and avocado orchards in the San Joaquin valley. We grew up watching these boxes come and go year after year, season after season. When we started beekeeping we bought those same type […]
Winter is knocking at the door here in Middle Tennessee, and in your neck of the woods it may already be in the next few days. This past week has been dedicated to winterizing the hives (you can read the post about Winterizing Bee Hives). For the honey bees, the cooler temperatures mean clustering up
On the eve of the online “Natural Beekeeping class (with Adam as the Instructor) being released with the School of Traditional Skills, we are super excited for this next season! We will be continuing to expand our online store, and we are already planning and preparing for next spring with Bootcamps, Homeschool classes and more
Here in a Middle Tennessee, September is bringing in slightly cooler weather and the Fall Flow. Right now the bees are wide open, bringing in as much nectar and pollen as they can with an urgency! By and large they have calmed down from being protective of their stores during the nectar dearth and we can visit with
Once you get into bees and people start to find out you are a beekeeper, you immediately start getting calls about bees. Bees in house walls, bees in bushes, bees in the ground, and bees in a tree. When I get a call like this I immediately start asking questions to find out if these
This post is a continuation in a series on the “Central Commandments to Natural Beekeeping.” You can read all eight commandments in the post titled Sustainable Beekeeping, and you can read more about the first four commandments in Swarm Traps and Horizontal Hives and Let The Bees Eat Honey. Number 5…“Only propagate your bees naturally, through
This post is a continuation in a series on the “Central Commandments to Natural Beekeeping.” You can read about the first two commandments in the blog post Swarm Traps and Horizontal Hives. Number Three…“Never feed your bees sugar.” This one is very simple and easy to explain. Honey IS the best and most healthy food
On our homestead we take a hands off approach to our animals (cats and dogs), livestock, and insects. This hands-off approach (except if there is an emergency) started after many years of taking care of animals and bad experiences. Cats with urinary tract infections, a vet that continued giving our dog steroids that masked an
If you didn’t read the previous post, Sustainable Beekeeping, take a minute to peruse that post. This post will attempt to simply explain the first and second “commandments,” which is presented by the World’s Greatest Amateur Novice Beekeeper ????????…Adam. Number One…“Only keep bees of the local race…” This means swarm trapping around the area you
Bee Kept with a more natural and sustainable way in your own apiary. I have been reading and rereading, Keeping Bees With A Smile written by Fedor Lazutin. Having a go-to book that aligns with your ideas on beekeeping is essential, and until I write my book, this is the book I recommend. In this