Honey Bee Obscura Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Dealing With Neighbor's Yellowjacket Problems (037) Sep 02, 2021

Show notes

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".

______________________

We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of 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

______________________

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

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Dealing With Combs After Extracting (036) Aug 26, 2021

Show notes

When you finish extracting your honey crop, you have frames that have sticky, gooey honey in the cells, and on the frame surfaces. There may be some crystalized honey in some of the cells, too. Maybe even some pollen stored there.

So how do you clean up this mess so when you go to store the supers with these frames in them for the winter, they will be safe? Kim and Jim take a look at dealing with these wet combs so they get clean and are easy to store for the winter, no matter where you winter.

The most common way is to put the frames back in the supers just harvested and put the supers back on your hives. Then in a few days, the bees will have cleaned up the mess and you're left with a super full of clean, dry, not sticky frames. Usually.

Some beekeepers just set the just-extracted supers outside and let the bees clean them up. But there are a lot of problems with this you may want to avoid. Robbing, sharing diseases and more can happen.

Once the frames have been cleaned by the bees, they are dry, not sticky and have no more honey in them. But what about that crystalized honey that was there, and how do they clean them, really? And what about wax moth, and small hive beetles?

Storing these now clean supers can be a problem needing solved before you decide where to store them. Unheated storage in the north works because these pests don't do well in the cold, but what about storage in heated buildings or in the south, where it's warm all year?

Some beekeepers just store this equipment on the bees overwinter. Will the bees keep these pests at bay?

Extracting is a messy business and with it comes the afterlife of those wet, sticky frames that need a good cleaning, and then safe winter storage. Check out some of the ways Kim and Jim make sure this happens to your frames.

______________________

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

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Ugly (Mean) Bees (035) Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

What do you do about ugly or mean bees? It can be difficult to determine which colony in a beeyard with several colonies is the one, or maybe one of several, that has scouting guard bees meet you at the gate when you go to a beeyard.

If you can determine which colony is the one with the problems, why is it behaving so aggressively? Several reasons come to mind – something is bothering it at night, maybe a skunk for several nights, then you come along and they've about had it with being disturbed.

Or, you caught a swarm. Where did those bees come from? Did you make a split, keep the mother-queen and let the other half raise their own queen? Who she mated with could result in a mean colony due to genes.

Sometimes, it's just because a big colony has more bees, more guards, more foragers…just more bees. So, a big colony is going to be more of everything…more bees, more honey, more guards. More mean.

What do you do? Worry about the neighbors? Wear heavy duty equipment? Work them at a different time of day? Have a second, isolated beeyard?

Do mean colonies make more honey than gentle colonies? Sometimes.

______________________

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

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

How Are My Bees? (034) Aug 12, 2021

Show notes

Every spring we beekeepers buy packages and set up nucs. Come summer, we start to look at what is going right and what may be going… well… not so right. Or at least, something is going but we're not quite certain just what!

In this episode, Kim and Jim discuss the hives they started this past spring and compare notes. They're only 30 miles apart and you might think weather and time have treated them equally and… you would be surprised.

How was the new queen accepted? How has the honey flow from tree crops such as Tulip, Poplar, and Basswood? Is any clover blooming?

How are the over-wintered colonies doing this summer? Are they kicking it into overdrive and really producing? Or were they super swarmy, and/or busy replacing the queen and/or highly defensive compared to the prior season? Can the Queen be root of all the problems?

Speaking of problems… who's dealing with Hive Beetles? Kim or Jim?

Listen today as Kim and Jim discuss all things honey bees.

______________________

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

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

jwYC9w1thicbKHEdoGaM

Planting for Bees (033) Aug 05, 2021

Show notes

Beekeepers talk a lot about not having enough food or enough good food for their bees due to all manner of development, agriculture spread, and agriculture in general. To help fix that problem beekeepers should be looking at doing some planting for bees, which is what Kim and Jim talk about this week.

But it's not as simple as it might sound. If you are planning on something for your yard, the basic gardening techniques can be an issue – dealing with sod removal, local animals that will enjoy what you plant, and even neighbors that might find what you are doing, ummmm, less than appealing for the neighborhood.

And of course, if you don't have enough good food, you need something, like, right now for starters, like some annuals, then some longer-term plantings of perennials and shrubs, and of course some permanent plantings like blooming trees and fruit trees.

Making this all work certainly takes a lot of work, which, if you're not a spring chicken any more, means a lot of work you may not want to get too involved in. So what then? And that's what Kim and Jim try and figure out.

______________________

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

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Troubling Questions (032) Jul 29, 2021

Show notes

Kim and Jim ask some interesting questions this week, maybe some you've asked yourself, or perhaps you asked a close friend.

For instance, should a colony being used for honey production spend time and energy raising drones? Or should a beekeeper be getting rid of drones? There are some who believe so.

And where do you go to get good information when you have a honey bee question? The web? And if so, which websites do you seek out? What about books and magazines? And for what subjects? Is there a single source?

And was there some advice a respected and trusted source gave you long ago that you used for years, but finally figured out it was bad advice? There's probably several things you still do that you shouldn't, right?

And the first question? What's the one thing in your beekeeping life that you are most proud of? And why?

Join Kim and Jim, and try and answer their questions this week. Let them know if you can…..

______________________

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

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

European Foul Brood (031) Jul 22, 2021

Show notes

Have you ever had European Foulbrood (EFB) in one or more of your hives? How do you know if it was EFB? What does it look like? What does it smell like? Does it smell like American Foulbrood (AFB), or look like AFB?

If you're not sure, how do you find out? Who can you call? And what can you do about it if it is EFB? Burn, treat, scorch, feed, let it alone because it will get better? And if you need to treat, do you know a veterinarian who can give you a prescription so you can buy an antibiotic to treat with?

Kim and Jim talk about EFB today. They don't necessarily give you all the answers, because ID and treatment aren't perfectly defined anymore.

Tune in and hear why!

______________________

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

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Hot Summers and Bees (030) Jul 15, 2021

Show notes

It's been hot in Ohio so far this summer (and a lot of other places too) but it's also been wet. Hot and wet can make keeping bees a lot harder than normal. Kim and Jim talk about hot summers and their bees.

Kick the air conditioner down a couple of degrees, pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage and listen in.

Jim is visiting up in Michigan this week, and it's been hot there, too. They share the same loss of enthusiasm and eagerness for working bees when it's hot and it seems the bees are crankier than usual. Is that normal? There are lots of bees bearding on the front of the hives…

The 'personality' changes in the bee yards every summer, hot or not. Up to the middle of June of so, the bees don't even notice a beekeeper, but then that changes and the bees give all manner of trouble each visit visits. What's going on? Dearth, robbing, what ever it is it lasts until at least early October, when they quite down again.

Shade helps. Get them in afternoon shade if you can. It's a lot easier on the bees, and even more so for the beekeeper.

What about water? You have to make sure there's always water available in your yard. Keep your bees out of your neighbor's pools and pet dishes, so they stay out of trouble.

Hot summers and honey bees. Turn that air conditioner down a couple more degrees, will you please?

Watch the Honey Bee Obscura VideoMoment for this episode here: https://youtu.be/IWr7Bj0EUQs

______________________

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

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

A Close Look At The 2020-2021 BIP Annual Loss Survey (029) Jul 08, 2021

Show notes

How many colonies had to be replaced last year? How many in winter, summer, total? How many beekeepers were surveyed? How many commercial operations, how many sideline operations, and how many hobby beekeepers? It used to be called the annual colony loss survey, but even that has changed because one thing they have found is that colony counts aren't decreasing, because they are replaced, and are now considered turnovers, not losses. The Bee Informed Colony Management survey went looking for the answers to these questions, and more in their 15th annual survey and the preliminary results are in.

The value of this survey, and the information that you can get out of it is incredible, if you use it the right way if you are having the same kinds of problems, or successes these beekeepers are having.

This time, Kim and Jim take a look at the some of the data, putting it into everyday beekeeping language that everybody can use. Varroa, of course is a major issue, but not for everybody. Queen issues the same, some replace annually, some never, at least on purpose. Queens, you know, are the second biggest problem Kim and Jim have every year. What about you? Is summer a greater loss period than winter? What can be done about any of these issues? Can you change the way you are doing things to reduce your annual turnover?

Everybody, it seems, is more or less in the same boat. But the data here is good for planning for the coming winter, next spring, next summer, where to get queens. All the info is in the preliminary report, and will be explained in detail when the full report is released. Stay tuned!

Links and websites mentioned in this podcast:

Bee Informed Partnership - https://beeinformed.org
2020-2021 Prelim Survey Online Results - https://beeinformed.org/2021/06/21/united-states-honey-bee-colony-losses-2020-2021-preliminary-results/

______________________

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

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Dealing With Neighbors (028) Jul 01, 2021

Show notes

A question from a book written 107 years ago comes up for discussion.

"How do you keep your bees from bothering your neighbors?" Back then, it was mostly cattle and horses beekeepers were worried about Today? It's the people in the house right next door, their swimming pool, their bird feeders and waterers and the water for their pooch.

First, is it legal to keep bees where you are? Then how do you get along with your neighbors? Where are your bees? Do you have a fence? (It's still true – Good fences make good neighbors.) No question when you have bees. Fence or no fence, robbing is still an issue, all of the time. It was good advice to avoid robbing 107 years ago, and it is good advice today.

When you go to your bee yard, it's hard to be subtle – smoker going, white suit, veil…neighbors are going to notice. Just how do you keep your bees will determine just how well you get along with your neighbors! In this episode, Kim and Jim discuss some finer aspects of dealing with neighbors!

______________________

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

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, Walking in Paris by Studio Le Bus, original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected