JC's Bee Blog

If you decide to build your own equipment Pine is commonly used. Just make sure you paint them with a good exterior paint. Or you can stain them and use a exterior polyurethane. Just keep in mind exterior paints hold up better than exterior polyurethanes.    Cypress and Cedar lumber are great exterior lumbers but you pay a little more for them. Avoid using heavy dense lumber like Oak. They may seem like a good idea until you have to carry/ lift them very much. Let the bees add the weight to the boxes.. (To print right click on image and select PRINT)

If you have kept bees for very long than you know about the Varroa mite. This pest returns to the hive on foraging bees that are working the flowers. To give you an idea of the size comparison if we were the bee the mite would be the size of a rabbit. Now think some bees have several mites on them. After it gets it's free ride into the hive it's goal is to enter into the cell with a young egg of a honeybee preferably a drone egg. This is where it will feed and lay eggs over the next few days. So by it feeding on the bees it weakens them infesting them with pathogens and viruses. Which completely destroys the colony especially during winter months. To better understand the Varroa Mites life cycle click here The best option if I were to choose is to raise bees that have good hygienic behavior. These bees would manage the mites themselves by keeping each other clean and removing infected brood. But this is not always an option.  No one likes to use strong chemicals in their hive o...

        TO PRINT RIGHT CLICK ON DOCUMENT IMAGE THEN SELECT PRINT Have you used this treatment before? I have used it a few times now and have been very happy with the results. Did you know it's been approved as organic?

Do you keep honeybees? If so you may have notice this stripe on your returning foraging bees. This is from the Jewel weed plant. The part of the plant that produces pollen is called the Anther. When the bee enters Jewel weed to collect nectar the Anther rubs the top of the bee. Leaving this white stripe. As the bee goes from flower to flower the pollen from one plant is mixed with the next which pollinates the plants. As a beekeeper I have learned to watch the entrance of the hives for clues to what the bees are working at that time. This is usually judged by watching for pollen on the bees legs. The color of the pollen can indicate what species of plant. There are some plants that just seem not to produce pollen but the bees still get nectar. One thing is for sure I can always tell when the girls (bees) are working the Jewel weed when they come back with a stripe. The Jewel weed is a very important plant. It has several uses. All of the uses are from the juice that is within the stem ...

Queen Rearing Cell Punch Kit Are you tired of purchasing queen bees because you can't graft them yourself? With this easy to use kit you will be raising frames full of queens in no time flat. For less than the price of one queen bee you can purchase this kit. So what are you waiting on? Order now! This Kit Includes: *1 Cell Punch Tool (w/ angled shaft) *8 Wooden Cell Blocks *Full Color Step By Step Instructions *1 Small paint brush Things you'll need not included in kit: *Queen Rearing Frame *Way to heat wax and water  Since you never touch the larva and transfer the complete cell, the l arva benefits by getting 100% of the royal jelly it was feed vs grafting when food can be left behind. The more royal jelly equals fatter, healthier queens. *With the contents of this kit you will raise well over $250 in queens. Free Cell Punch Tutorial here:   http://youtu.be/vu8EqyXzkYw Buy yours kit today for only No longer available =...

   In this E-Book you will learn:                                                                                                                                    *Langstroth Hive Equipment                * Basic Duties Of A Bee                                *Basic Protective Clothing          *Hive Equipment *How to install a package of bees *Making Splits *Feeding and When to *20 Full Color Pages with Images       *Full Beekeepers Glossary * Helpful Video Links On Topics *And Much More..... ...

With the over whelming response to my cell punch video. I decided to put a kit together for those of you who wish to try it. With this kit you'll be raising your own queen bees very easily. We all know that the queen bee is the heart of the colony. Without her the colony will fail. We also know that in order in start a new colony of bee you'll need an additional queen. Their are several ways to raise queens but not all of these methods raise high quality queens. What is a high quality queen? This would be a queen that lays thousands of eggs a day without failing. She should have large brood patterns to produce that monstrous colony to make large honey yields. To get high quality queens you need to pick the correct rearing procedure. Many beekeeper choose to graft. This process can rear great queens if all the steps are followed perfectly. To do this correctly you must have good eye sight and a very steady hand. You also must pick the correct age larva and transfer it with...