Hobby Beekeeping

With the bees flying at 12 C, it was a good time to assess who had made it. We are at 14 out of 15 hives making it through the winter so far, and here's what I think happened.

I discuss the importance of knowing the type of hive you are getting to start your beekeeping career and some beginning steps for setting your goal of sustainability.

It was time for a name change to bring us all together to share regardless of how we keep bees. Here's the short explanation of why the name change.

Commercial beekeepers report this number of losses as they attempt to pollinate almonds in California. What is happening with those of us keeping bees for non-commercial reasons and how we can help better understand this problem.

Reports have circulated that 80% to 95% of bees have died. What could be causing this? What are the first two strategies for beginning beekeepers?

If I were starting today, here are the 10 things I would do to help my bees survive. I made all these mistakes, hoping you can avoid those as you get started.

It took 100 years or more for healthcare providers to wash their hands between seeing each patient routinely. When there are new findings in our beekeeping world, how long does it take us to try it seriously? I discuss this and why I think our new AI Hive Tool as we call it may help.

Pleased to announce that the app available at aibeehealth.ca is now available for use with Iphone and cell phone pictures or video.

The science is precise. If we stop opening our hives down to 4 times a year, we can increase honey production by 9 kgs. How can we start to do that?

We launch tomorrow, Monday January 20 at 8:00 a.m. EST. It is your last chance to sign up to be on the wait list and have access tomorrow. Join the close to 100 beekeepers that will be giving our application a ride tomorrow.

How I monitor my beehive survival without leaving the house.

Winter flights can teach us a lot. Here's a strategy for learning about your hive health without a winter opening.

While bees teach us many things about their hives and nature, they also provide many life lessons. Here's is what I'm reflecting on that the bees have taught me.

A look at everything we try to do to help our bees. But are we spoiling them? Are we contributing to their failure?

I'm hearing up to 65% of hives have been lost in North America by October of this year. What are some thoughts and why am I so optimistic for 2025.

My dad fed bees sugar syrup, and I did the same for my first few years of beekeeping. Now, with the new science on how that can harm bees and humans, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's time to stop this practice.

Drones being purged, bees with pollen and much more. I don't really understand this.

It's cold outside and not that warm in the hive so why are these bees fanning? This new strategy to fight mites might be the answer.

We are weeks away from our launch and are opening a wait list for those wishing to use it. At launch it will count bees in pictures or a video you download of up to 15 seconds in length for bees, bees with pollen and drones. It takes a lot of server power to do this, so we need to understand the demand, and it will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. Go to our website, wildflowerbeefarm.com, an...

Got on the tractor a bit today and also continuing to work on the AI platform. Some thoughts as we hunker down for winter.

I discuss why we count bees, bees with pollen, drones, and wasps at the hive's entrance. I also briefly discuss the challenges of using AI to evaluate varroa mites.

Going into the fourth year with this genetics treatment free, here are some of the characteristics starting to make sense.

We are a week or so away from launching and here is the update.

A surprise find turned out to be another lesson in the brutal ways of nature. What happened and how this may be helpful to our other hives.

I have no idea. Perhaps you have an explanation. We expect deep freezes in a few weeks at night so not sure if there is a reason to need more foragers. Here are some ideas.