Episodes

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

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? W…

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 be…

How many colonies had to be replaced last year? How many in winter, summer, total? How many beekeepers were surveyed? How many co…

A question from a book written 107 years ago comes up for discussion. “How do you keep your bees from bothering your neighbors?” …

It’s rare, very rare, but sometimes beekeepers have to kill all the bees in a colony. It can be a tragic, emotional and usually i…

Let’s face it. Unless you live in an isolated part of the world, if you keep bees, you will need to eventually deal with encounte…

Packages arrive with a queen and together are installed in a hive of some kind. In a few days to a week the queen is released fro…

Today, Kim & Jim review questions and answers asked in an ancient A. I. Root Co. publication, published in 1910. What’s changed, …

What is tanging? Basically, beekeepers use some sort of device, an old cooking pot for instance, to make a loud noise by beating …

Honey bees are purchased from commercial operations in business to sell bees to beekeepers. They can be sold as complete eight or…

Old comb. What is old comb? Old comb is that which is darkened through generations of tiny bee's feet (ok, for the technically mi…

Spring inspections, especially early spring, need a balance of not too often, but often enough to avoid problems. The first thing…

Why do you keep a box full of bugs that you just know will sting? It should be an easy answer, but there’s more here that you mig…

So, how do you eat comb honey? It isn’t a mystery, but until you have tried eating comb honey, it can be a tad daunting. At first…

Trapping pollen will give you a source of good food for your bees, and it’s for free. And why more beekeepers don’t do it is inte…

If you keep good records every year, you’ll know about when to expect the various nectar flows your areas has almost every year a…

Imagine this… you walk out to your beeyard. There is a lot of activity. No problem. That’s good right? Probably a nectar flow, yo…

Have you ever tried to capture a swarm while hanging on to the top of a 10-foot ladder that’s standing in the back of a pickup? N…

How much space do bees need inside a beehive? Well, it’s between 3/16” and 5/16”, so you can figure just about a quarter inch sho…

When you have more bees at home than you want, or your family wants, or your neighbors want, it’s time to find an outyard. There’…

Everybody who has bees at some time will have to requeen a colony. You killed her when moving frames, she quit laying, a colony t…

A smoker is that extra hand you always need when working bees. It’s the right tool for the job. But how smokers get used is mostl…

If you need or want to get some honey bees this spring, the two traditional means are to get a 3-pound package or a (usually) 5 f…