Archives

Skep Hive Transferred to a Langstroth Hive

These bees moved in to a “yard art” straw skep about a year ago. The top 2/3 of the skep was capped honey, and the bottom 1/3 was brood comb. The queen was found after all the comb had been removed and was placed in the commercial Langstroth hive. The homeowner wanted to keep the […]

Compost Bin Bees – Removal – Garland, Tx

The first removal of two today. Honeybee removal from a compost bin. They probably have been here around 2 months from the comb condition. Found the queen quickly, and they have a fantastic demeanor.

I leave them until after sundown, and pick them up after they have all clustered into their new home.

 

Bee Tree – Trapout Completion follow-up

This honeybee trapout has been completed after about 3.5 weeks.

The queen DID come out, and has joined her workers in the 5-frame box. She is laying worker eggs, and there are worker eggs, larvae, and capped brood as well as a little drone brood. Looks like a good pattern so far – though it […]

Bee Truck Maintenance – New Fuel Tank, Pump, and Filter DIY

The bee truck needed maintenance – when I bought it – the fuel pumps (both!) had rusted completely – so I put a new pump into the front tank. The tank had rust in it – so I knew it would be sooner or later than I would need a new tank, and another pump […]

Garden to Table – Texas Agrilife Extension

I spent the first half of today with a great team of individuals that are committed to assisting Texas residents with agriculture – whether it be in the form of commercial agriculture, or backyard gardening – and all stages in between.

Today my talk was about backyard beekeeping – covering subjects such as protective gear, […]

Bee Yard Inspection and Class

During today’s bee-class, we went through several established hives as well as a few hives that have been recently brought in from removals from people’s homes.

Wall-to-wall brood! This beautiful queen has been hard at work – laying eggs wall-to-wall in her domain. This is going to be a great queen to be a […]

Leather Crafting

A North Texas leathercrafter contacted me for beeswax earlier in the year. His intention was to use it in a recipe as a leather conditioner and waterproofing (or water-resistant) agent. He used beeswax, and softened the wax with Neatsfoot oil. You can find recipes to fit your needs in many publications or online. Here’s his […]

PVC Pollen Substitute Feeder – Follow Up

Here’s a Christmas day follow up for my pollen feeders that I installed last Saturday. We had a sunny day that was nice (but windy) – and the bees were ALL OVER the pollen sub. (I use Mega-Bee from Mann Lake)

After 5 days, we have a warm day (~55 deg. F) that allows me […]

Honeybee Pollen Substitute Feeder

This week I made two feeders that provide pollen substitute to the bee-yard. Total build time for the feeders was about 5-minutes. Scroll down to view the video that was made for this project.

Pollen Substitute Dispenser on fence – View of opening

Pollen substitute ( or Pollen Sub ) is fed to […]

Swarm Traps Made

(Update 2/15/2013 – Over the last year – the number one search term linked to my site has been “swarm trap plans”. Thusly – I’d like to link over to Rob’s set of downloadable plans for hive products. (Sorry – Rob’s site is no longer accessible) Old Link here: http://robo.bushkillfarms.com/beekeeping/downloads/ )

( and now back […]