Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Beekeeping Guides

Honey bee colonies sometimes experience periods of resource shortage. It is alright to feed honey bees when they do not have enough food resources to keep the colony going. Feeding the colony requires you to have one or more types of feeders. There are also many different types of feed that can be given to honey bees and the main ones are sugar syrup and pollen. Pollen is usually fed in powder form, or in the form of pollen patties. Sugar syrup fed to bees is of 1:1 ratio of sugar and water, or 2:1. This article delves into the feeding of honey bees and how to build a homemade bee feeder for your apiary.

Beehive moving screens are needed when transporting honey bee colonies. You can purchase one from beekeeping equipment sellers or make one yourself. Buying an already made beehive moving screen or making one is a decision that is up to the individual beekeeper to make. Of course, if you are good at woodworking, then building your own beekeeping equipment when you can, gives you the best assurance of quality and durability. You can also customize the beehive moving screen to suit your unique needs better. Customizing any pre-made beekeeping equipment that you buy, requires making modifications that could result in voiding warranties and affecting the life of the equipment. Here is a guide on how to build a beehive moving screen and how to use it.

The honey extractor is perhaps one of the beekeeping equipment that comes last in any beekeeper’s plan when getting started in beekeeping. Nonetheless, you can never do without it once the bees begin to generate the fruits of your hard labor - the honey. There are ways to make your own homemade honey extractor using locally available resources. This not only saves money but it takes the least effort and will work just like a commercial honey extractor.

The making of a homemade mason bee house is an exciting project that involves simple woodworking that will take just a few minutes to get through with. This is a project that the kids will love to take part in; watching the bees as they construct their nest will definitely give yourself and the kids a sense of fulfillment.

An entrance reducer is used in beekeeping to vary the size of the beehive entrance. It is usually a piece of wood that goes between the bottom board in a Langstroth beehive and the lower edge of the bottom-most beehive box. This article looks at how to make an entrance reducer, and the uses it has in beekeeping.