Honey Bee Obscura Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Dealing With Fall Equipment (148) Oct 12, 2023

Show notes

After all of the nectar has flowed, the honey spun and you're just waiting to put the bees to bed for the winter, you might look around at the clutter of equipment in your bee yard, bouncing in the back of your bee truck or shoved aside in the bee hut. Is there a better way to store that equipment so it is ready to use come Spring?

In this week's episode, Jim invites Beekeeping Today Podcast's Jeff Ott to sit in for Kim to talk about dealing with equipment in the fall. How do you protect your woodenware and frames full of wax from mice, wax moths and other critters seeing it as a food-rich warm place to ride out the winter?

In this episode, Jim and his guest talk about dealing with equipment in the fall.

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Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee's mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com

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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Cartoons by: John Martin (Beezwax Comics)

Barrel Hives with Jerry Hayes (147) Oct 05, 2023

Show notes

This week, Jerry Hayes sits in with Jim while Kim is out. In this episode, Jerry talks about one of the most unusual hive designs he's ever built and worked with... a hive made out of a old 55-gallon drum.

We know honey bees will build their nests just about anywhere... but is this practical? Useable? Find out by listening today!

What is your most unusual hive?

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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Cartoons by: John Martin (Beezwax Comics)

Archive Special: Dealing with Yellowjackets (146) Sep 28, 2023

Show notes

(This Archive Special first released, September 2, 2021.) Beekeepers are very often asked to help friends or neighbors that have "bee" problems…. honey bees, carpenter bees, yellow jackets, hornets, bumblebees and the like. But most of us aren't exterminators. We don't have the tools, the experience, or the time to help. But "can't you just get rid of them for me?" lets you know they think you know how to do this… and are 'glad to help.'

Sometimes they are your bees. A colony swarms and if you are lucky lands in a tree or bush and are easy to retrieve. Sometimes though, they head for that hole in the siding and take up residence in the wall of your neighbor's house. What then?

What about liability? What happens if you do decide to help, climb a ladder and fall off. What then? Or you tell your neighbor what to do and they fall off the ladder?

Do you lend them your gear? Suit, smoker, hive tool? If you do it, are you serving as an exterminator then? Practicing without a license?

But what about a dangerous situation, like a kid coming home from school and seeing for the first time that huge bald faced hornet nest? Shouldn't you have been out there long before, just to help?

Listen today! You'll find that it may not be as easy as just saying, "call an exterminator".

Thank you for listening!

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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Cartoons by: John Martin (Beezwax Comics)

Listener Emails: Cutting Down Supers and Dealing with Propolis (145) Sep 21, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Jim invites Beekeeping Today Podcast's Jeff Ott, to sit in for Kim to help answer a couple of recent listener emails.

In response to a recent episode where Jim talks about dealing with heavy 10-frame, deep supers, a listener sends in a suggestion and a question. Jim gives this recommendation thoughtful consideration and discusses the pros and cons.

In a second letter, a listener states that they have a jar full of propolis and wasn't quite sure what he could do with it. Jim and Jeff discuss their experiences (good and bad) with propolis.

Do you collect propolis? What do you do with it? They'd like to hear from you!

Thank you for listening!

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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Moving Honey Supers in the Fall (144) Sep 14, 2023

Show notes

This week, we continue with the theme of Fall management. Kim is out so, Jim invites Jeff Ott, from Beekeeping Today Podcast to join him to talk about dealing with heavy honey supers that remain and prepping the colonies for the coming Winter.

Jim uses all 10-frame deep equipment, including his honey supers. It is just the way he's always done it. But now, moving all that weight is a challenge to get to the brood boxes below to check on the queen and do proper mite level checks. What are your options when you have to move pounds of honey - any time of year, just to do an inspection?

In the past, Jim has also had to deal with Fall swarms. Why do they swarm in the Fall? What can you do when this happens? Will these swarms have any chance of surviving the winter?

Listen today as Jim and his guest talk about the challenges of Fall management.

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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Prepping for Fall and Winter (143) Sep 07, 2023

Show notes

What do you do when the honey is all harvested, but it is still warm and not quite time to button up the colonies for Winter? On today's episode of Honey Bee Obscura, Jim has invited Beekeeping Today Podcast's Jeff Ott, in to discuss what he does to prepare the bees for Fall.

There are many different things a beekeeper could do, such as extracting the honey they've harvested, maybe clean some old equipment, check on feed levels, and feed if necessary, are just a few.

Is there any one thing a beekeeper consider this time of year? Listen in as Jim and his guest discuss this time of year that is often overlooked!

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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

How to Deal With Broken Frames (142) Aug 31, 2023

Show notes

This is honey harvest time of the year, for the majority of the beekeepers in the Northern Hemisphere. Undoubtedly, you will end your uncapping and extracting time with frames with broken end bars, bottoms or even the foundation punched through or out. Do you save it? Replace it? Or... something different.

In today's episode, Kim and Jim discuss what a beekeeper can do to keep these old and/or broken frames going. Bees can fix many mistakes the beekeeper makes with the uncapping knife or machine. But should they? Can you repair frames with plastic foundation inserts or even rewiring a frame and using pure wax foundation. But what is your time worth?

Listen in as Kim and Jim discuss the pros and cons about trying to save frames that have served well but are now done.

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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Uncapping Honey (140) Aug 24, 2023

Show notes

After building your colonies up in the spring, managing them through the early summer, collecting them out of the trees and out of the bushes after they swarm and all the effort maintaining their health… your goal as a beekeeper is to harvest honey. You've lifted the supers of honey from the hives, get it to your garage, shed or even kitchen and you pull a frame of pure honey out… and now what?!! This is the meaning of all that time, effort and money.

So, how do you get the honey out from under that wax cappings?

In today's episode Kim and Jim discuss the different means available to a backyard beekeeper to remove the cappings and get that frame set to extract.

How do you uncap? Let them know!

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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

The Evolution of Beekeeping (141) Aug 17, 2023

Show notes

What's changed in the past 150 years or so? For some of us who have been around awhile, it seems like a lot. Most honey is still produced in the boxes Langstroth put together. Size and shape maybe different now, but it is all still, moveable frames in a box. Hive tools, smokers, veils and the rest of our tools remain nearly unchanged. Now designs, new material to make them with, but basically the same.

Who keeps bees now as to then? It used to be a man's world, but the population of who is keeping bees is nearly even.

The electronic gizmos we use now would have been considered science fiction 100 years ago.

Listen in while Kim and Jim talk about the evolution of beekeeping, and who's keeping bees. Where are you in the evolution?

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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

What To Do With Cappings (139) Aug 10, 2023

Show notes

It seems that everyone talks about managing bees and selling honey. There's also a lot of discussion about extracting honey - such as: removing bees from the supers, what kind of extractor works best, uncapping and even bottling. But what about all those wet wax cappings laying around? Hopefully, they're mostly in some sort of pan, tray or tank. But just what do you do with those cappings?

In this episode, Kim and Jim talk about the cappings and how a hobbyest can process and melt them down to use them in candles or even to sell as blocks of pure beeswax. How have they handled them (you may be surprised) and is it work your time to even bother?

Listen in as Kim and Jim talk through their different approaches to dealing with this little discussed topic of bee hive products.

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Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

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