Management Episodes

What would you do if you received a call from a neighbor saying that your bee equipment was scattered across multiple yards? What would be YOUR first thought? In today’s episode, Jim invites Beekeeping Today Podcast’s Jeff Ott to the …

Knowing what you did or saw, added or removed from a colony is useful. Whether that happened earlier in the day or the prior season. Keeping track of what, how why and when you did something in the bee yard, …

Why on earth would honey bee foragers go out on a freezing day in winter to collect water? Ice and snow everywhere, but there they are, trying to get a drink and bring some home for their sisters. Why? Kim …

When you’ve been keeping bees for decades, sometimes you do things because that’s the way you’ve always done them, right? But the world continues to change. It has to keep up with whatever is going on wherever it’s happening. And …

Does your state Agriculture Department have a bulletin they share with everybody on the phenology, or bloom dates, of the wild flowers, trees and shrubs that grow in your state? Today Kim and Jim discuss the chart used by Ohio …

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 …

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 …

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? …

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. …

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, …

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 …

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...

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 …

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 …

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, …