BeeKeepClub’s Beekeeping Blog

The adage goes, no pain no gain. And it seems honeybees have taken this to an entirely different level. They will produce the sweet honey, but sometimes you may have to bear with painful bee stings to get it. Humans have been stung by bees more than enough, hence why …

Bee bearding is one those occurrences that might cause panic to a beginner beekeeper. Fortunately, you do not have fret over it. Join us as we explain all about it. This behavior is entirely natural and should not cause worry to the beekeeper.

Queen rearing in beekeeping helps ensure colony continuity and introduces desirable traits in the honeybee colony. In this introduction to queen rearing, we describe this process in detail and guide you on how to rear queen bees for your beekeeping operation. Rearing queen bees is about breeding honeybees and is part of colony management. It is easy to do with the right equipment and techniques. There are many manufactures and sellers of queen rearing equipment. Both beginner and experienced beekeepers can practice queen rearing for their uses and for commercial purposes too. Queen bee sales are a great way to diversify the products you can sell from your beekeeping operation.

Conservation beekeeping is the practices and activities that a beekeeper carries out with an aim to help bees of any type or to help with the solving of an environmental or ecological problem. To qualify as conservation beekeeping, there must be the rearing of bees of one or more types.

The potential for honeybees in your apiary to sting creates a risk for your beekeeping and your neighbors. This makes beekeeping as a commercial or leisure (hobby) different from other activities. The beekeeper has no direct control over where bees from their apiary fly or where they choose to forage for nectar and water. In many cases, this creates no problem for the beekeeper or the neighbors, as bees will get on with their business. Even when many from the colony are out foraging, they often go unnoticed by anyone other than you. Many hobbies and activities can be enjoyed alone or with the participation of a few other like-minded folks. In situations like this, enjoying your passion in isolation or with supportive others is relatively easy without impacting anyone else. However, with beekeeping, this is different. 

Most people are likely familiar with honeybees, but perhaps not so much with leafcutter bees. Wild bees and other bees such as mason bees are also not a household name as their counterparts, the honeybees. And did you know there are about 25,000 different kinds of bees out there, out of which about 4,000 comprises wild bees, with about 400 of them not yet assigned any known names? Well, that is correct and it is apparent only honeybees are enjoying full glory when it comes to the recognition of bees for their pollination services. This is all happening at the expense of all these other kinds of bees. Leafcutter bees are among North America’s top pollinators and there has been an increased use of these pollinators in commercial farms such as blueberry and alfalfa plantations. In this article we dive deep into the world of leafcutter bees and will explain how to raise leafcutter bees.

Getting bees to make more honey is important for beekeepers. Beekeepers that are in it for honey as one of their beehive products need to get the best harvest they possibly can. Proper beekeeping practices must be followed by the beekeeper for a rewarding harvest. While honeybees will do it naturally on their own, they can in fact can be encouraged to make more comb or honey. It is important to know know how to get bees to make more honey to enjoy high yields every harvest time.

Maintaining hygiene in the beehive contributes greatly to having a honeybee colony that is healthy and productive. Hygiene prevents occurrence of diseases that affect honeybees. In a beekeeping operation, there are many aspects of hygiene. They encompass apiary hygiene, beehive hygiene, and the general hygiene of your beekeeping operation. Honeybees clean their beehive or seal up unwanted materials in propolis and resins. Sometimes, however, you need to help the bees maintain the best hygiene levels in the beehive. Beehive hygiene is largely about cleanliness, and the environmental conditions inside the beehive. Here is all the information you need, and useful tips about maintaining hygiene in the beehive.

Honeybees require very specific conditions for them to stay in a beehive. The materials used to make a beehive determine whether it is hospitable to bees or not. Advances in technology have given beekeepers choice in the materials they use for their beehives. Traditionally, wood has been the preferred material in the construction of beehives. Bees take to wood with ease because it is natural and it is great for organic beekeepers who want nothing to do with synthetic materials. On the other hand, plastic has been demonstrated to be applicable in beekeeping including in the making of beehives. This is in addition to the many beehive parts that are today available in plastic. In this article we'll discuss the breakdown of plastic beehives vs wooden beehives.