Honey Bee Obscura Podcast

Harvesting your honey crop isn't about keeping bees , in fact, it is hard work. It's when you start questioning your spring decision to expand your number of colonies. On the other hand, it's a good measure of how well you kept bees during the season. And there are a lot of ways to convince the bees they should share what they have made this season, mostly due to your stewardship. Removing well ca...

So, what's that thing you put between two supers to give additional space between top bars below and bottom bars above so there's room for…something you want to add to the hive. Is it a spacer, a rim, or what? Kim has always called it a 'rim' and thought he had one until this week. Because it's getting time to think about winter feeding, and he always used a rim to make room for the pollen patties...

Post-harvest time is a good time to look for wax moth in your colonies. Believe it or not, wax moths are around pretty much all of the time. On today's episode, Kim and Jim discuss wax moths! Strong colonies keep them pretty much under control, but weak colonies sometimes can't keep up and soon they'll have more wax moth larvae than honey bees. Stored equipment is another challenge. Some beekeeper...

Towards the end of the season, it's a good idea to take a look at the equipment and other management tricks you've been using all summer while it's still fresh in your mind. Today, Jim and Kim talk about how well the veils they use worked this summer, and the bee suits they occasionally wear (did you know a good way to wash a smokey, propolis covered bee suit is to use a pressure sprayer?) and is...

Have you ever thought much about the hive stands you use? On today's episode, Jim and Kim take a long look at the hive stands they use and why they favor them. They also look at a lot of other choices available to beekeepers – all based upon personal preferences, terrain, individual strength and even weather! Are some better than others? Absolutely! Are some expensive, while others free? Absolutel...

How much honey do you leave for the bees this winter? Like lots of things in beekeeping, it depends. Since "all beekeeping is local", it is good to start in your own backyard. Do you live in the south? Midwest? North? Far north? When are you pulling your honey? In August? Or November? Do you typically have a fall nectar flow? Is it strong or just… meh . If you don't know, check with another beekee...

It's hot out there and it looks like it isn't going to cool off for most of us for awhile. Also, since mite treatments should be starting now, getting honey off in the heat is the rule of the day. So how do you stay cool when it's hot out there? Well, Kim and Jim take a good long look at how to stay cool and what happens if you overdo in the heat. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please follow...

If you have a colony of honey bees, chances are, at some point, some year, that colony will become queenless. If you do not realize it and the bees are unsuccessful at re-queening themselves, there is a pretty good chance, your colony will end up with laying workers .   In this episode, Jim and visiting cohost, Jeff Ott from Beekeeping Today Podcast , talk about laying workers. How can you tell if...

Swarm season is fun and exhilarating. Much has been written about swarms. They've been studied, photographed, pursued and just… watched. But what does the beekeeper do with the parent colony the next day? What do they do with the swarm after they've caught it and put it in a box? In today's episode Jim and Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast ) talk about… what should you do, After The Swarm ?...

On today's episode, Kim and Jim talks about what it takes to be a mentor to another beekeeper, and therefore what you can look for in a good mentor. As a mentor, you have to develop good communication between you and your mentee. That means communication both ways – them to you, you to them. Establish guidelines for times, locations, and other requirements that you both respect. Go into the relati...

On today's episode, Jim and Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast ), discuss the value and use of the 'love it or hate it" piece of equipment, the Queen Excluder. Queen excluders are included in almost every "Honey Producer Starter Package", but why and how are they used? Jim and Jeff discuss the multiple uses of a queen excluders (Did you know they will also exclude drones? Or that you can use...

After you get through the winter, spring buildup, swarming season and the ever present varroa, you can sit back and smell the flowers, right? You're a beekeeper! There is no time to rest! Jim has a question for you… "Where are your bees getting the water they need?" On today's episode, Jim and Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast ) talk about where your bees are likely to find the water they ne...

Pretty much every beekeeper, at one time or another, ends up with a queen that's not doing what they think she should be doing or - not doing what all the rest of your queens are doing. So, what is happening and can you do anything to get her going? Marginal queens are tough to identify. There is one easy fix: You just replace her. That said, how long do you wait to make a decision? Wait! Perhaps...

It doesn't take long after getting into beekeeping and then repeatedly, as long as you have beekeeping equipment laying around or stacked neatly, until you have to deal with small furry pests. Mice, rats and other critters love the shelter, warmth, relative safety and often food, found in beekeeping equipment. In today's episode, Jim Tew talks with Jeff Ott, from Beekeeping Today Podcast , about S...

During a recent trip to a big-name US drug store, Kim saw honey on the shelf for $4.99 per pound. It was a blend of honeys from Argentina and India. A US commercial beekeeper shoots for a price of honey (in the 55-gallon barrel to a packer) for about the going price of diesel fuel, which, at the end of May was pushing $7 per gallon. In today's Honey Bee Obscura episode, Kim and Jim dissect this pr...

Jim's beeyard is the center of attention this week, because his bees were bothering his wife and a very patient, longtime neighbor. That's not a good thing. So, exasperated, Jim asks Kim for his ideas about all that was going on and to help figure out why. Two of his colonies were swarming or at least it looked that way. Plus, he is experiencing a nectar dearth at the moment. Is robbing part of th...

If a pollinator garden is in your future this summer, constructing a raised bed is one way to keep it under control and is a much easier approach to providing food for your bees, beauty for your yard and not an aching back for you. There are all varieties of raised bed gardens. The one pictured below is made of metal, purchased from a gardening company that specializes in these and will last years...

So you have already put in your two packages (you did get two, right?) and a few days, or maybe a week later you checked them and…..something's wrong! What can go wrong with a new package? Kim and Jim chat a bit about the things that can and for some, will go wrong with new packages. First check, the queen's dead in her cage. Get a new one, find some brood from another colony, join with another co...

Package season is about over for 2022. Perhaps thankfully too, depending on where in the country you live. Installing packages does not always go well or as depicted in bee books or Internet videos. Sometimes, the weather just does not cooperate. In this week's episode, Jim talks with Jeff Ott from Beekeeping Today Podcast about installing packages in bad weather. When you order and pay your depos...

Have you ever been involved in planning and carrying out a beekeeping meeting? If not, there are a host of things to consider that you may have missed when you simply 'attend' a meeting. Kim and Jim have attended probably thousands of meetings, and over the last 30 plus years, have seen everything that can go wrong, go wrong, and what those who make good plans did to fix it. They've seen lots of m...

What are the important considerations for finding a new bee yard? There are a whole lot of right answers to this question and Kim and Jim explore almost all of them. For starters, year-round access, locked gates, dangerous animals, safety, and liability (yours and the property owner)? There are many questions you should ask. The answers, of course, are going to be all over the map (sorry) and you...

If your colonies make it through the winter, or if you simply purchased more bees as a package or nuc, their next challenge is making it through the changeable spring weather. (Especially this year, it seems.) Your management challenge is deciding what and how to feed them. In this episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott discuss supplemental spring feeding . Specifically, they discuss the feeding of carbohy...

This time of year, experienced and new beekeepers are receiving their packaged bees and nucs. Only a few of these packages and nucs are going home to new equipment. Many will go home to equipment left over from last year's failed colonies. Is it safe to use this equipment? In this episode, Jeff Ott (from Beekeeping Today Podcast ) fills in for Kim Flottum and asks Jim, can he use his old equipment...

A beekeeper's most exciting moment is undoubtedly, capturing and hiving a swarm... especially when it is someone else's bees! In today episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott - who is filling in for Kim Flottum this week - discuss capturing swarms and how you can be prepared this year. How can you be prepared? Get some basic equipment pulled together. A container of some type (preferably bee-tight), such as...

In today's episode, Jim Tew and Jeff Ott (who's stepping in this week for Kim Flottum) discuss their experiences using swarm traps - sometimes called "bait hives". Swarm traps are used by beekeepers to lure the scout bees looking for a new home. There are multiple types of swarm traps from the commercially available 'flower pot' type traps, to home-made traps to simply setting out old hive bodies...